
Notre Dame Batobus scheduled Stop
Rue de la Boucherie or "Lumber Street", is a reminder that the firewood used to heat
Paris was once
unloaded there. Today, this lively neighbourhood
between the Sorbonne and the Seine, gets a little less "heated up"
than it did during the student uprising in May, 1968, but the Latin Quarter, as
it is commonly called, attracts students from all over the world, speaking all
languages, except Latin, once spoken by professors and students, and which gave
the quarter its name. By crossing the bridge onto the
City
Island, put us in the heart of Paris, since it
was here, on the Ile de la Cité,
that Paris was born. Lutèce, Paris' original
name, is Celtic for "residence in the middle of the water". The
island was home to French kings until the fourteenth century. They built two
Gothic jewels, Notre-Dame and Sainte-Chapelle, in
addition to their palace (now the Palace of
Justice), a hospital (Hôtel-Dieu), and a
barracks, which is now the Prefecture de Police.