Index

Introduction Notre Dame Barber and the Baker Templars and Flamel Conceirgery prison Conclusion

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Introduction

Last month I went with @lezra to Paris for a few days.
This was my second time in the French capital, and I was very happy to return as the first time, being a business trip, I hadn't been able to stay longer and had only taken a quick tour around some of the most famous monuments.

This time, however, I was able to appreciate the city much better and among the various things we did, one, in particular, left me with a very good memory.
We found a Free Walking Tour online themed 'Mysteries and Legends' which was very intriguing.

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Notre Dame

Before starting, I would like to apologize in advance for the poor quality of the pictures and also for their scarcity, but I was trying to pay attention to what our tour guide was saying than to take pictures... so I hope you will enjoy the stories more than my pictures

The free walking tour started from one of the most famous monuments, the Cathedral of "Notre Dame", as the name indicates is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Notre Dame was partially destroyed by a structural fire in April of 2018 which has left clear signs even now after 5 years.

On the main facade, there are 28 kings from the Kingdom of Judah symbolizing the 28 days of the lunar cycle.
In 1793, thinking they were statues of kings of France, revolutionaries climb up the façade and beheaded all the statues! It required over two centuries so that most of the heads – that were thought to have disappeared – were found by chance in 1977 in a hotel courtyard in Paris.

Another incredible story regards the Devil's Door. The story behind the door and his creator, Biscornet is still nowadays shrouded in mystery.
It is said that Biscornet, in order to make his work unrepeatable, decided to make a pact with the devil himself, who, in exchange for his soul, allowed him to obtain abilities beyond the human. In this way, the devil's door was born and, ironically enough, it was located at the entrance to the house of God.
Biscornet died shortly after making the door as if to further affirm his devilish pact.
Another truly interesting detail is that the door was impossible to open, thus preventing access to the cathedral. Until one day (at least according to the legend) when a priest poured water over the door, which then opened by itself, finally allowing entry.

Always regarding the Cathedral, another important detail of his design is the Gargoyles. Legend says they are leaving creatures that act against injustices, by becoming alive and going to defend whoever was a victim of something bad. When Johanne the Arc on the 30 of May 1431 was killed, they found dead bodies in the entrance of Notre Dame the next day.
The Gargoyles are also protecting the Cathedral itself since their purpose architecturally is to protect the walls from rainwater runoff which erodes the stone

Victor Hugo was inspired by the story Quasimodo, i.e. fictional character and the main protagonist of the novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831), by an ugly man that he saw passing by the Cathedral. Quasimodo is said to be living in the highest tower of Notre Dame and protecting it. When the fire started it stopped close to the point where he is supposedly staying.

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Barber and the Baker

In one of the streets of Paris in the 14th Century, there was a Baker who was famous for his delicious meat pies.
Unluckily for him, the 100 years war started and there were no more men left to farm and breed animals, so the meat for his pies was not available anymore. Along the same street as the baker, there was also a Barber, who had as clients a lot of young students from La Sorbonne University, from the Latin Quarter (called this because they studied in Latin). The two decided to make a diabolical pact. The Barber would kill his young clients while cutting their heir and then transport their bodies to the baker, through a hidden tunnel that they decided to dig for the occasion. Things for them were going very well until one day one of the students came accompanied by his dog. The dog was so loyal to his owner that he stayed outside of the barbershop waiting for him, and after seeing that he was not coming back, he followed his nose and went in front of the baker's shop and started barking. The baker was super rude to the dog catching the neighbor's attention… the next day the dog was found dead.
So, the neighbors, suspicious of the behavior of the backer decided to call the police, and so the tunnel was found and the two serial killers were stopped.

By the way in the place of the bakery shop, now there is a restaurant, which makes a delicious meat pie... no the second part I just made it up, but the restaurant is really there, so if you feel brave enough go and tried it and let me know how it is...

the Barber shop was the one on the corner, where now there is the brown window and door, while the bakery was in place of the blue restaurant

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Templars and Flamel

Another interesting story was that of the Knights Templar, who were helping the Christian pilgrims on their trip to the holy land. The trip was very land and dangerous, so the Templars were offering the travelers keep their personal belonging and money to keep them safe up to their return.
But the problem (not for them of course) was that most of the pilgrims were killed or died during the trip, so the Templars started accumulating a lot of resources from these people and in a short time they become very powerful. So powerful that the Pope was scared by them and decided together with the king to dismantle the order, declaring all of their members as heretics and extermining them.
And here history becomes legend, cause it is said the leader of the Templars before dying cast a malediction on the King and Pope, by saying that they'd be dead before long. And as a matter of fact, they both died the following year.

Our guide told us this building was secretly dedicated to the order of Knights Templar, but I didn't find anything on the internet so I don't know if is true or not

Another famous and mysterious character in Paris history is Nicolas Flamel, who you probably know for having invented the philosopher stone in Harry Potter... apart from the joke, this is not so far from the truth (or well better to say legend), since Flamel found a book written in Hebrew on how to make the philosopher's stone. So he went to Spain to translate it (it took him 25 years) and he came back. The rest of course is a legend as I said, since Flamel had a surprisingly long life, dying at the incredible age of 88 years at a time when the average man arrived at 30-40 years... So from here a lot of stories surrounding it came out, making him a legendary and mysterious character.
Another interesting detail is that houses in Paris were almost all demolished and rebuilt in the 19th century by Napoleon, and Nicolas Flamel’s house was one of the few to survive.

When they opened his tomb to put him in the pantheon with other great personalities (like Marie Curie) they discovered that his body was not there. He was spotted going out of the opera.
Finally, Flamel’s partner was Pernel, which if you take out the P sounds like Eternel (this is really too forced ahahaha).

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Conceirgery prison

During a hunting session, one of the Kings of Paris (I don't recall which one, sorry) was hit in his head by an arrow that remained stuck there, passing from one of his eyes. In order to try to save the king, it was decided to use the prisoners of the Conceirgery prison (famous for keeping prisoner Mary Antoinette, the wife of Napoleon) to make tests to save the king. They first put an arrow through the eye of every prisoner and then tried to take it out without killing them 😱. But this of course was not easy to do, and so every prisoner died. The King too died after three days.

Since we are talking about Kings and tortures, another interesting story is the one of Robert-François Damiens, a French domestic servant whose attempted assassination of King Louis XV in 1757 culminated in his public execution.
Among the long list of things that they did to him, his hand (the one that tried to kill the King) was put in boiling oil and he was slowly by slowly made to pieces without killing him... Moreover, his limbs were attached to 4 horses and he was torn apart. French don't forgive or take very seriously assassination attempts 😅

two pictures of the Hôtel de Ville, in the plaza in front of this building Robert-François Damiens was tortured and killed

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Conclusion

This was a very interesting tour, and an alternative way to look at Paris, getting to know more hidden and mysterious aspects of the wonderful French Capital.
My suggestion is that when you go to visit a new city, look if there are free walking tours available cause that can be a very interesting way to start your trip. Byyyyee

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_{All photos were taken with our phones and the drones.
Farewell image and text separators, created by me with Canva}