“A ferry for stones?” you might ask, perplexed. Yes, right here, where the grand Rue du Bac stretches before us, once ran a humble ferry. This street, you see, owes its very name, ‘Rue du Bac,’ to this ancient ferry or ‘bac’ in French. Now, imagine Paris in the 1550s, a time of grand construction. King Henry II had begun work on the magnificent Tuileries Palace, and stone, tons of it, was needed. This ferry served that very purpose. It carted the heavy stone blocks across the Seine, right about where the Pont Royal now stands, a bridge built much later under the reign of King Louis XIV. Over time, the ferry for stones vanished, but the street it birthed, the Rue du Bac, blossomed. Imagine, a street named not for kings or conquests, but for a humble ferry that played a crucial role in shaping Paris. This, my friends, is the charm of the Rue du Bac, where the echoes of history whisper in every stone and every turn reveals a story waiting to be discovered.
Église Notre-Dame de l’Air
Beneath what appears to be a simple stone and wood structure lies a history interwoven with faith aviation and community.