L’Ile Saint Louis

Saint-Louis

French schoolchildren are taught that the 13th-century King Louis IX, canonized Saint-Louis, was a just monarch who modernized the country. Less prominent in the school's curriculum, however, is the anti-Jewish persecutions Saint-Louis led. Jews who refused to convert to Catholicism were banished from France, unless they made a financial gift to the crown. If they stayed, they had to live in ghettos and wear marks on their clothing to set them apart from Christians.

Christophe Marie

The Pont Marie is named after a cunning property developer called Christophe Marie. In the 17th-century, he banked that the Ile Saint-Louis, one of Paris's two islands, would become a property hot spot. Then, it was only a wasteland known as Cow Island (L'Ile aux Vaches). Nowadays, the only way to live there is to marry a resident.

TIP: Visit M. Berthillon at 31, rue St Louis en l'ile, maker of mouth watering fruit sorbets and try as many as you can.

Charlotte en L'Isle (24 Rue St-Louis-en-L'Ile): Warning—this place serve the richest hot chocolate in Paris and unlike many cafes in Paris, doesn't provide an extra pitcher of milk.

For centuries, Ile St-Louis was nothing but swampy pastureland. The island was first called L'Ile Notre Dame, and was uninhabited until 1614, when the seventeenth century version of a real estate developer, Christophe Marie, got the bright idea of filling it with elegant mansions. The new bridges connected were built to connect it with the mainland and the Ile de la Cité.

Saint Louis, or Louis IX gave his name to this island.