“Lost your way, have you?” chuckled a voice behind me. I turned to find a woman selling flowers, her face a roadmap of Paris’s history. “Looking for Rue du Puisard? Ah, it’s gone now, swallowed by the city’s ambition.” She pointed a gnarled finger towards a wide avenue. “The grand Rue des Écoles stands where it once was. A bustling street full of students and scholars. But before their classrooms, stood the Rue du Puisard. It took its name from a well, you see, a ‘bon puits’, that quenched the thirst of this neighborhood. Imagine, in those days, water was life, and this street, a lifeline.” She tossed a sprig of lavender into my basket. “The city may forget its small streets, but their stories linger like the scent of these flowers. Don’t you forget that.”
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.