Paris is young by European standards. Much of the city dates from the 19th century and there are large areas developed more recently than that. But Napoleon III’s plan for urban renewal left plenty standing for the 21st century history buff — the medieval Louvre, the 17th century Place des Vosges built by Henri IV, the vestiges of a Roman amphitheater, and remnants of the city’s walls erected by Philippe-Auguste as he headed off for the third Crusade at the end of the 12th century, just to name a few.

But what’s particularly intriguing to me is seeing how these periods layer on top of each other. Sometimes it’s quite physical as in the photo here, of the Hôtel de de Sens, one of just three medieval buildings erected as private residences that are still standing in Paris. Located in the Marais, between rue Saint-Antoine and the Seine, it dates from the earliest years of the 16th century and was the Parisian residence of a provincial archbishop. 

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