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hidden spot in paris

May 13, 2009

The small fear of John the Fearless

When you booked Paris apartments and are planning to stay in the city for a couple of days you have probably thought of visiting all the familiar places. The Eiffel tower, the arc de triomph, the Louvre museum etcetera. Would it not be even better if you could also visit this rare spot? A spot that not many tourists know about and that has a funny story behind it? Well, here is one of them!

In the 2nd district, close to forum des halles you will find the street ? Rue Etienne Marcel? which on first sight is just a street on its own. But go in there and take a closer look, somewhere behind number 20. That?s right, there is a small Middle Age tower standing there! At first sight this tower it is not much special but in a city centre that only developed in the 19th century this must have been a very outstanding building. Nowadays it is one of the few Middle Age buildings still standing in Paris.

The owner of this tower was Jean sans Paur, or John the fearless.
He got his name when fighting a brave war and proceeded his father as the Duke of Burgundy upon return. Not much later he got in an unfortunate conflict with one of his father?s brothers, Louis d?Orleans, and killed him. Hence the tower, he needed a place to be protected. Ironically, in the end he was assassinated by the son of Louis d?Orleans during a meeting to reconciliate.

Nowadays the tower is still visible. You can enter to see the nice architecture and there are different small museum rooms, one of the floors is dedicated to John. So book your paris holiday apartments in this area and take a short moment to pass by this little jewel.

So, the funny story I mentioned in the beginning? No matter how fearless John might have been he was appartently too scared to ?do his thing? in public like the rest. He was one of the first to build a small room with a private toilet, and actually one you can sit on! Pretty amazing in country where still many toilets are just a luxerious hole in de ground.

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