The Paris wall: How to find remnants of the 1190 Philippe Auguste Wall

This week, I’m going to take you on a journey around my newest obsession in Paris – The Philippe Auguste Wall.

This wall circled the city 800 years ago, and was gradually torn down, built over, and swallowed up by Paris as the city expanded upwards and outwards – with the wall never to be seen again.

Or was it…

Unbelievably, some relics, some vestiges of this ancient wall have remained intact, many of them hidden for centuries and only revealed in fairly recent renovations.

And you can still find these traces of it in the most unlikely places in the city.

This episode is my journey to find those remnants – plus my search for what one historian said were the potentially unfound parts of the wall. Listen below and subscribe wherever you get podcasts.

Meanwhile, if you want to find the pieces yourself, here’s what I mentioned in the podcast episode above.

How to find the remnants of the wall

1. The wall on the basketball courts on Rue des Jardins Saint-Paul. It’s the longest stretch of the city wall. You can even see a tower and a city entrance point on the north side.

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2. The Jardin des Rosiers on rue de Rosiers, its own tower, and its gardens. (Click all images to see them enlarged).

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3. The courtyard of the Crédit Municipal de Paris at 55 Rue des Francs Bourgeois. Note the ancient tower at the base, and the cobbles leading up to it.

More from this courtyard, including the different coloured cobblestones and the door knocker.

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4. The markings further along on Rue des Francs Bourgeois. Note how the sidewalk changes too. This is where the wall once ran.

5. The Museum of Art and History of Judaism with the fake facade. The facade is built on the old city wall. There’s nothing behind those windows.

6. The Anne Frank garden, a hidden Paris garden, through which the wall also ran.

7. La Tour Jean Sans Peur and the office in the lobby’s tower.

8. Rue du Louvre and the inside of the city gate (click the images to make them bigger).

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Some extra bits that I found.

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And as a bonus, here’s the lovely lady from Paris Historique in the Marais.

That’s it, good luck hunting the wall down, and get in touch with me if you want me to show it to you personally. And yes, I know there is more on the Left Bank. That’s for another episode, perhaps.

Meanwhile, this episode took a lot of work, so if you like it, consider becoming a supporter on Patreon to allow me to continue with similar episodes!

And if you just came to this page and looked at the pics, you’re truly missing out. Click play to hear the episode and how I found all these things. Enjoy!

That’s it! If you like these tips, be sure to check out The Earful Tower’s Guide to Paris.