The Quai de Louvre is a union of several stretches of quay known of old by different names, the most ancient stretch, that between the Pont-Neuf and Rue du Louvre, dating from the thirteenth century. In the jardin de l’Infante, bordering the palace, here the old palace of the time of Catherine de’ Medici, we see statues of Velasquez, Raffet, Meissonnier, Boucher. Reaching the houses along the quay we see at No. 10 the ancient Café de Parnasse, now the Bouillon du Pont-Neuf, where Danton was wont to pass many hours of the day and ended by wedding Gabrielle Charpentier, its landlord’s daughter. At No. 8, built by Louis XVI’s dentist, we see a fine wrought-iron balcony. And now we come to the ancient Quai de la Mégisserie, dating from the time of Charles V, first as Quai de la Sannierie, “tools for saltmaking” quay, then as Quai de la Ferraille, “iron-instrument” quay. Its present name, too, denotes a Paris industry, the preparation of sheepskins. The cross-roads where it meets Quai du Louvre and the Pont-Neuf went in olden days by the name Carrefour des Trois-Maries, also by that of Place du Four. The “Belle Jardinière” covers the site of the Forum Episcopi, the episcopal prison of the Middle Ages, later a royal prison rebuilt in 1656 by de Gondi, the first archbishop of Paris. Its prisoners were for the most part actors and actresses. Interesting old streets open on this ancient quay. At No. 12, we turn into Rue Bertin-Poirée, a thoroughfare in the earlier years of the thirteenth century, where at No. 5 we see a quaint, time-worn sign of the Tour d’Argent, and several black-walled houses. The thirteenth-century Rue Jean-Lantier, memorizing a Parisian of that long-gone age, lies, in its upper part, across what was the Place du Chevalier du Guet, from the _hôtel_ built there for a Knight of the Guet (the Watch) of Louis IX’s time. Rue des Lavandières, of the same period, recalls the days when lavender growers and lavender dealers lived and plied their thriving trade here. At No. 13 we see a fine heraldic shield devoid of signs; at No. 6, old bas-reliefs. Rue des Deux-Boules dates under other names from the twelfth century. At No. 2 of this quay the great painter David was born in 1748. Quai des Gesvres was built by the Marquis de Gesvres in 1641. The ancient arcades upon which it rests, hidden away with their vaulted roofing, still support this old quay. The shops they once sheltered were knocked to pieces in 1789. The Café at No. 10, built in 1855, was named “A la Pompe Notre-Dame,” to record the existence till then on the bridge, Pont Notre-Dame, of the twin pumps from which the inhabitants of the neighbourhood drew their water. Rue de la Tâcherie (_tâche_, task, work) was known in thirteenth-century days as Rue de la Juiverie. This is still the Jews’ quarter of the city.