Click to expand

Now there dwelt in that same city of Paris a certain young girl named Heloise, the niece of a canon who was called Fulbert.

(Peter Abelard, The Story of My Misfortunes, ch.6)

The tour starts at the the Musée Carnavalet which is devoted to the history of Paris. We will then explore the old quarter of the Marais, and the Hôtel de Sens, a very rare survival of Parisian medieval civic architecture. An afternoon will be devoted to exploring the Louvre.

The Louvre has some outstanding works of art from the Middle Ages including the treasury of St Denis. A remarkable bi-product to the completion of the Grand Louvre project, was to expose the foundations of the medieval castle on which the later palace was built. These foundations are clearly visible along with models showing the medieval layout. The birth and flowering of Gothic art in Paris is perhaps nowhere better exemplified than in the collections of the Hôtel de Cluny, including the world famous Lady and the Unicorn tapestries.

We also explore Notre Dame and the Sainte Chapelle, several of the early medieval churches in the St Germain area, and spend an afternoon at the great abbey church of St Denis, just to the North of Paris. This is where the Gothic style in architecture was born. Throughout the tour we will penetrate the modern city Paris to discover the medieval city. We will discover the reason why the Gothic style was invented in Paris.