Yesterday we went to the Carnavalet Museum of the history of Paris. It had pleasantly short lines and an interesting collection of Parisian history, beginning with archaeological finds from Lutèce and medieval Paris.

Writing about St. Germain des Près, I discussed the difficulties of measuring the ages of churches built over hundreds of years. Still, the consensus is that St. Germain is the oldest still standing church in Paris. However, I now present the true oldest church in Paris, la cathédrale Saint-Étienne, built at the beginning of the fifth century, and represented today by this portion of a marble column.

Column from Saint Etienne

The museum also had paintings, furniture, and historical information from the last four or so centuries as well as a section devoted to old Paris signs. That section included an early chocolate fountain, though this fountain dispensed the drink, not the melted chocolate used for dipping bread and fruit of today’s fountains.

Antique chocolate fountain

There was lots of other great stuff. But up at the top, where this post says “yesterday,” it would now more accurately be “about a week ago,” so maybe I should just post this.