Sunday, December 13, 2009

A Day of Superlatives

It Ain't What You Might Expect
First up, the narrowest house in Paris - 39 rue du Chateau d'Eau. This place is a 10 minute walk north of my apartment. It's that one door with the single window above it in the middle of the picture. It's just 3.5 feet wide. The history of this "house" is interesting - it was built to block the small alley that used to lead back to the street behind it. Why? The kids who inherited the adjoining property, including the alley, couldn't agree on how to split up their inheritance so the eldest built a house on it and ended the "discussion."


It's for rent at the moment. 92 square meters is around 1,000 square feet. By my math, that's two floors that are 3.5 feet wide by 143 feet long.

Next up, a correction from an earlier post. In fact, the oldest house is not across the street from me. Rather, it's a 5 minute walk south and it was built by Nicholas Flamel, yes THE famous alchemist. This is a shot from ground level.

Trying to get a head on shot is difficult - the street is so narrow.
The plaque says " For conserving the memory of their charitable foundation, in 1900, the city of Paris restored the original inscription dating back to 1407." Yes, this house was built over 600 years ago.
Finally, a shot from one of the bridges above Canal St. Martin, looking south at the downhill locks. Why? This is the place I've felt the coldest in Paris - today. It's around 35 degress with a 20 mile per hour wind. Time to go home and hide inside.

6 comments:

Dan said...

How can you piss and moan about Paris when you have access to such great sites and food? Most of us would give our right arms to be there.

FN said...

It's quite simple - I'm a crotchety SOB....

Sal said...

Wow... crotchety at your young age? Doesn't bode well for the future when you might have real stuff to pee & moan about. :-)

FN said...

Hmmm, I wonder which of you I inherited this from??

What say you?

Sal said...

It's not from MY side of the family!
(Isn't that what we all say?) I will say that crotchetiness gets old real fast.

FN said...

Maybe I am in my young crotchety SOB phase, which I will slowly grow out of and blossom into my old, mellow, nice-guy phase?