Medieval Paris: A Fortress Uncovered

The remnants of the Medieval Louvre uncovered during a structrual 

excavation.  Now, this section is the start to the "highlights" tour.

I’ve been to the Louvre twice, so I didn’t feel a pressing need to stare with hundreds of people at the admittedly beautiful artwork there.  Still, I went to the Louvre this visit with a very specific task in mind.  In the Sully wing of the Louvre, an exhibit on the history of the museum culminates with displays from the architectural dig that the museum carried out in order to determine how much more support was needed for construction they planned to undertake. (That construction is a ridiculous mall, by the way, but that’s for another post.)

Included at the end of the exhibit are items that were found

during the excavation.  

The Louvre was important in King Charles time because even when he moved to St. Pol, he kept his library and his treasure at the Louvre in the old Falconry.  King Charles’ library housed over 971 volumes at his death, many of those volumes finely illuminated manuscripts and translations of Greek and Roman philosophers and thinkers.

When the Louvre opened as a museum in 1793, it was not Charles Louvre, but the lavish 15^th century building built by Francis I on the destroyed foundation of the Medieval palace.

The current exhibit highlights the Medieval Louvre, uncovering its secrets and providing a glimpse into the king’s fortress.  To make it more appealing a contemporary installation of neon words projected onto the ancient walls breaks up the looming walls and towers.  But the neon wasn’t necessary for me.  I found walking by the towers that Christine walked past inspiration enough.  Here’s the beginning of a poem, “Coming Home,” that I wrote after my visit.

Coming Home

Tourists bustle by. Children sit

impatiently before their teachers.

One asks if there were alligators in the moat.

Around me, a dozen languages

hurry through this dull start

to their highlights’ tour. They’ll rush

from here to the Mona Lisa,

the Vitruvian man,

the winged victory of Salamachus.

I’ll stay here and walk the ramparts,

immersed in (her)story.

The exhibit was crowded with children when I was there. Yes, one really

did ask if there were alligators in the moat.

Medieval France: the Donjon (Dungeon) at Chateau Vincennes

The central structure is the donjon at Vincennes.  You can see the students looking into the now dry moat that stands behind the low front wall.  

Just as Charles had a clock in what was once his palace in Paris, he also built one in his fortress at Vincennes.  In her biography, Christine writes about the importance Charles V placed on his daily schedule. Charles was a thoughtful and practical man.

In Vincennes, he created a fortress with layers of protection.  He included, behind the fortified walls in the donjon, a floor in the inner tower that would provide for all his needs--physical, spiritural, material, and intellectual.  His private floor contains a small chapel, a lavatory, his treasures room, a public meeting space, and private meeting spaces including a small office for his secretary and a private study. This in a tower that’s built to withstand a siege. 

The donjon at Vincennes is the tallest remaining fortified tower in Europe.  Much has changed at Vincennes over the years--including the addition of a lovely chapel and modernized facilities for the French army that occupies a part of the compound--still, an ancient air remains. 

The coumpound provides an interesting study in the water supply for an enclosed compound without a source of running water. On the site of the old royal quarters where the queen, the royal children, and the servants lived is an old well with an aqueduct system to supply water to different parts of the building.  Advanced plumbing for a fourteenth century structure.

I hadn't planned to visit Vincennes, but what I found there, including a lovely bookshop, was well worth the trip out of town. The Marquis de Sade and the Man in the Iron Mask are some of the famous prisoners held in the cell at the base of the dungeon. 

Medieval Paris: the Clocks of Charles V, the Wise

Charles V was passionate about time. Christine mentions the very strict schedule he kept in her biography of him The Book of the Deeds and Good Character of King Charles V, the Wise. The clocks he had built in Paris are a testament to that passion.

The clock at the corner of the Concierge on the Ile de la Cite in Paris was the first public clock in Paris.  Built at Charles V's direction, it was installed around 1370.   The clock that remains doesn't maintain the exterior or the workings of the original clock. Still, its presence makes it notable for those looking for remnants of Paris in the Middle Ages.  The clock was designed by Micheal de Vick, who introduced a mechaninsm to slow the chain as the weights that ran the clock lowered.  It was the first mechanical clock. 

Charles V also had a clock installed at the donjon at Vincennes and in the Louvre.  And many historians have reported that he decreed that the churches regulate the tolling of their bells by the clocks.  

Even so the watch on your wrist, the clock in your home, even the little alarm clock that you wind each night beside your bed have de Vick’s clock and Charles V's vision to thank.