If you want to climb...

If you want to climb to the top of the “Tour-Saint-Jacques”, it’s now or - perhaps - never.

The tower is normally closed to visitors, but exceptionally it’s now open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays until September 15 – only 8  visits per day, max 17 persons = 136 visitors per day. You must queue up the very day of the visit and if you wish to be sure to get a place, I recommend being there before 8 in the morning. You can then book for a visit at an hour of the day which suits you, as long as there is place.

I already wrote about the rather recently renovated tower – all that remains of the church Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie - in this post, so I’m not repeating its five centuries history. I could possibly add that it actually was used as a meteorological station until as late as 2000 and that the little square that surrounds it was the first official green space that was created in Paris – during the 19^th century… and that although you can find the statue of Blasie Pascal under the arches, it’s not sure that he actually did some experiments here.  

The stairs are narrow, there are some 300 steps…

There is not much to see inside, the restoration has obviously been concentrated to the outside. Do the stained glass windows show the signature of Nicolas Flamel and his wife Pernelle (see previous post), who had their tomb in the disappeared church?

Once on the top you are on a altitude which is similar to the top of the Notre Dame towers and this was for centuries as high as you could get to get some good views of Paris. You can of course look down, notice some very ancient “tags”…

… but I guess you will especially admire what you can see of Paris.