One documentary about the Pont Neuf in Paris just learned me some great things about architecture and challenged me and my thoughts about everyday things we use such as running water, sidewalk and bridges construction methods. ## The Pont Neuf in Paris The Pont Neuf in Paris is a majestic bridge that cross the river Seine at the tip of the Île de la Cité \(the island where is situated the cathedral Notre Dame de Paris\). It appears that it is the biggest bridge in Paris and the only one that is consisted of two different bridges. The work has begun in 1578, and took 29 years \(!!\). At the time, the king was Henry III. The works took so much time, in part because Henri III was murdered because of political problems and the works stopped for almost 10 years. It was finish by the time of Henry IV who took it as one of his imperial project and erect a statue of his effigy. **Links :** * [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont\_Neuf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_Neuf) * [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry\_IV\_of\_France](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_IV_of_France) ## How sidewalks were born in Paris At that moment, it was one of the most advanced bridges in the world, because of the engineering methods used to create this bridge and some innovation such as a raised area for pedestrians on both side of the bridge : the sidewalk ! After some research, I see that the first sidewalk ever was around 2000 BCE, but was very rare. Paris and the Haussman baron started to make it the norm when he started his plans the Paris we know now. **Links :** * [https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/75514/who-invented-sidewalk](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/75514/who-invented-sidewalk) * Remind me about this book \(not read yet\) : [The Design of Everyday Things - Don Norman](https://www.amazon.fr/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expanded/dp/0465050654) ## Cofferdams Cofferdam \(batardeau in French, very funny word :-\)\), is an engineering technique use to create the bridge foot that retain water in the center and allow workers to dry up and start constructing the posts. When the posts are created, cofferdam are withdrawn, and they start to construct the bridge deck. * [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cofferdam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cofferdam) ## Running water in the Louvres Henri IV was living in the Louvres at that time. A thing that challenges me so hard is to learn that almost no one had access to running water in Paris, even in the Louvres. People were going to public fountains or bought water to water carrying persons to use it. The documentary said that a Flemish hydraulic engineer named [Jean Lintlaër](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Lintla%C3%ABr) propose Louis XIII \(Henri IV son, now king in 1610\) to build on an arch of the bridge a large water pump powered by the hydraulic force induce by the river Seine to pump its water while no one had ever propose to use the river Seine's water for everyday water use. This innovation permit the Louvres, the Tuileries and a big part of the housings in the Ile de la Cité island to access running water. It was said that the pump were able to pump about 70 000 litters per day. The pump were called the Samaritaine. It was destroyed ~100 years later. This permit me to learn the origin of the building's name Samaritaine, which is now a majestic shopping mall. It was supposed to reopen this year after 15 years of works, but COVID-19 changed everything. I'll never see this building the same again. **Links** : * Shopping : [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La\_Samaritaine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Samaritaine) * The pump : [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont\_Neuf\#La\_Samaritaine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_Neuf#La_Samaritaine) ## Mascarons This is the name of the stone masks with funny facial expressions in architectural bas-reliefs. It is said that it represent forest divinities. **Links :** * [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mascaron](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mascaron) * Beautiful and funny ones : [https://www.pinterest.fr/nathalieabbes/mascarons/](https://www.pinterest.fr/nathalieabbes/mascarons/)