Pont au Change

Pont au Change crosses the Seine in Paris, linking the Île de la Cité with the Right Bank at Place du Châtelet. Its three arches span thirty-one metres each, creating views towards the Conciergerie and the busy square. The bridge connects the Palais de Justice and the Conciergerie with the Right Bank, while remaining wheelchair accessible. From here, you can picture medieval commerce beside one of Paris’s central river crossings.

Money changers, jewellers and goldsmiths worked on an earlier bridge after an ordinance issued by Louis VII in 1141. Floods, ice and fires repeatedly damaged earlier structures, including a stone bridge rebuilt after the fire of 1621. The present structure rose between 1858 and 1860 under Napoleon III, and his imperial insignia remains visible. Victor Hugo placed Inspector Javert’s final leap into the Seine here in Les Misérables. Patrick Süskind also brings the bridge into Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, with Baldini’s shop on the crossing. Thirty metres wide, it leaves a broad span between historic Paris and the river.