The medieval city - the royal arches that replaced the rampart gates...

are almost never visited

For they loom over the ungentrified Grands Boulevards. Site of the 15th-century ramparts, then epicenter of Continental elegance, now they are part of an ethnically diverse neighborhood that attracts little notice.

Most people see the arches simply as bizarre.

•Examples & costs

•Tourism that questions

: "Royal arch" (Porte Saint-Denis) ("Porte" means "gate")

To show that his victories had made the ramparts obsolete, King Louis XIV tore them down (in 1672). The arches, which mark gates' sites, show where the great trade routes to England and Flanders entered the city.

: "Traders' arch" (Porte Saint-Martin)

An inscription on the "merchants' arch" proclaims that moneyed interests have financed both structures.

Hm...

We begin under the "Royal Arch"...

: Behind the arch, the trade route to Saint-Denis and England

... and show this map of trade routes and ramparts

It reveals how modern arteries and métro lines are built on the sites of medieval trade routes and ramparts. The broken red lines show our walk.

Royal tombs and "Royal Way"

•The tombs: All French kings (except three) are buried in the Saint-Denis Basilica. The Spain-England trade route, which passed next to it, crossed through Paris, until a maze of alleys obliged stopping close to the palace.

So the street became a link between living kings and their ancestors, the "Royal Way", a site whose symbolic significance was immense.

: The Royal Way, one of the great trade routes, in 1485 is a winding path.

•The Way: The scene takes place just within the 15th-century ramparts (the painter has his back to the later "Royal Arch"). The path is the great trade route, or "Royal Way", with the 13th-century walls in the distance.

The Court will accompany the prince in an official entry into town. Crowds will mass along the Way, cheering and drinking wine that flows from fountains...