The "Royal Way" (rue Saint-Denis)

• Rue Saint-Denis is divided into sharply delineated segments

Their vocations date back to the Middle Ages. Even the red-light district is exactly where Saint Louis put it (in about 1250).

"I don't want to see you from my palace. Go outside the walls!" legend has him say. But why would the prostitutes settle on the Royal Way? Wouldn't the neighboring trade route, with no special aura, have been more appropriate?

• Saints peer down...

Some parts of the street remain very beautiful, but most of the time, it looks banal and sometimes sordid.

If one looks up, however, the contrast between commerce and vestiges such as this puts our times in perspective.

•  We evoke people who played by other rules...

• Beggars, prostitutes and brigands with their organizations and codes; the "Court of Miracles" (underclass lair, where apparently-blind or crippled beggars would suddenly appear in good shape).

•One of France's greatest poets, a 15th-century thief (François Villon).