As long as I had been in Paris, the Tour Saint Jaques had been under scaffolding, hidden by the screens that cover them. I had no idea what was underneath all that white. A complete mystery to me, I heard that it had been under scaffolding since 2001 waiting for the argument over who was to pay for the restauration to come to a conclusion. Finally in 2007 the tower started to shed its heavy coat and reveal its gorgeous gothic head. I was particularly looking forward to seeing what it looked like, having never seen it. And when it was finally uncovered I was thrilled to see such a gem from the middle ages. It’s been cleaned and has a lovely creamy white color, and sticks out gloriously against the blue sky. The tower is what remains of a church called Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie which was founded in the 12th century, apparantly ordered by Charlemagne, but this has never been confirmed. The tower was added in the 16th century (flamboyant gothic style, which I find a little odd for that century which was suddenly preoccupied with Italian-style architecture and the Renaissance was about to happen, but perhaps the got a discount from an architect who was having a promotion on anything retro-styled). It was designed by these three guys : Jean de Felin, Julien Ménart and Jean de Revier.
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