e Montmartre, whose
site is marked by a tablet on No. 30 Rue Montmartre. Turning eastward
by the Painters' Gate (135 Rue St. Denis) and the Porte St. Martin,
near the Rue Grenier St. Lazare, the fortification described a curve
in a south-easterly direction by the Rue des Francs Bourgeois, where
traces of the wall have been found at No. 55, and where part of a
tower may be seen at No. 57. The line of the wall continued in the
same direction by the Lycee Charlemagne, No. 101 Rue St. Antoine,
where stood another gate, to the north-east water-tower, known as the
Tour Barbeau, which stood near No. 32 Quai des Celestins. The opposite
or southern division began at the south-east water-tower, La
Tournelle, and the Gate of St. Bernard on the present Quai de la
Tournelle, and went southward just within the Rues des Fosses St.
Bernard and Cardinal Lemoine, to the Porte St. Victor, near No. 2 Rue
des Ecoles. The wall then turned westward above the Rue Clovis, where
at No. 7 one of the largest and best-preserved remains may be seen. It
enclosed the abbey of St. Genevieve, continued within the Rue des
Fosses St. Jacques, and, between the Porte St. Jacques and the Porte
St. Michel doubled outwards to enclose the Parloir aux Bourgeois near
the south end of the Rue Victor Cousin. The south-western angle was
turned near the end of the Rue Soufflot and the beginning of the Rue
Monsieur le Prince. Crossing the Boulevard St. Germain, it then
followed within the line of the latter street, and continued within
the Rue de l'Ancienne Comedie. In the Cour de Rouen, entered through
the Passage du Commerce, No. 61 Rue St. Andre des Arts, an important
remnant may be seen with the base of a tower, and where the Rue Mazet
cuts the last-named street stood the Porte du Buci. We may now trace
the march of the wall and towers within the Rue Mazarine and across
the Rue Guenegaud, where in a court behind No. 29 other fragments
exist, to the south-west water-tower, the notorious Tour de Nesle[49]
whose site is occupied by the east wing of the Institut. The west
passage of the Seine was blocked by chains, which were drawn at night
from tower to tower and fixed on boats and piles just above the line
of the present Pont des Arts. A similar chain blocked the east passage
of the river, drawn from the Tour Barbeau to La Tournelle, crossing
the islands now known as the Isle St. Louis. The wall was twenty years
building and was completed in 1211. It was eight feet t