Scallops with Parisien or Coquille Saint-Jacques sauce. Tower Saint-Jacques: detailed description Tower Saint-Jacques in Paris description

In the heart of Paris, near the Ile de la Cité, is the famous Tower Saint-Jacques. The landmark - an example of flaming Gothic architecture, standing alone in the middle of the city - is difficult not to notice from the Ile de la Cité bridge and the street of the same name.

History of the Saint-Jacques Tower

Even under Francis I in the 16th century, in the settlement of butchers, who donated money for the construction, the Church of St. James was erected, and the tower in Paris was the bell tower of this church.

Pilgrims on their way to Spain constantly gathered at the walls of the Church of Saint-Jacques de la Boucherie - one of the links on the pilgrimage route. One of the pilgrims, Nicola Flamel, is considered the only alchemist who managed to comprehend the secret of the legendary philosopher's stone and learn how to obtain gold from lead. He was buried in this church.

In 1648, French physicist Blaise Pascal chose the 52-meter building to conduct his experiments related to measuring atmospheric pressure. When the entire church was destroyed during the revolution in 1793, the Parisian bell tower was left unharmed precisely as a symbol of respect for the scientist. The landmark was later sold to an industrial enterprise producing hunting shot. It was made by pouring molten lead from the height of the tower. During the flight, the stream of lead broke up into small parts, which were cooled below in barrels of water.

In the 19th century, two fires occurred at the Saint-Jacques Tower in Paris, after which the city bought the landmark back and began its restoration. In fact, it was rebuilt, and later the construction of the first public garden began at the foot of the building. In 1850, it was planned that the Paris Tower would serve as a large lantern illuminating the entire area. In 1891, a meteorological station was founded here, which until the end of the 20th century occupied a terrace and several rooms.

Tower Saint-Jacques today

Today the Saint-Jacques Tower in Paris is open to tourists. However, due to the narrow staircase, a restriction on the number of visitors has been introduced - no more than 17 people per hour. Guests of Paris can see with their own eyes 19 sculptures of saints erected on the walls. Also, the corners of the tower are decorated with figures of a lion, eagle, calf and angel, which became symbols of the four evangelists (Mark, John, Luke and Matthew). The statue of Saint James was created by Paul Chenillon during a period of extensive restoration. It replaced the statue destroyed during the revolution.

Near the Tower of Paris you can find such famous sights of the city as the Theater de la Ville, the Chatelet Theater and the square of the same name, the Notre Dame and Moneychangers bridges, the Innocents and Stravinsky fountains.

In 1998, the Saint-Jacques Tower, among 70 other buildings and places in France located on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Here is one of the classic, ancient, but by no means lost popularity recipes of French cuisine - scallops browned in butter with cheese and Parisien sauce or, as the French call this dish, “Coquilles St. Jacques”. It is traditionally prepared with fresh scallops, a thick creamy sauce and grated soft cheese. Coquille Saint Jacques is far from an everyday dish (even in countries where seafood is not a novelty), it is served on weekends or on special, special occasions.

The name of this dish is literally translated from French as “Saint James”. It was no coincidence that they were named in honor of Saint James, one of the twelve apostles of Christ, the son of Zebedee and Salome, the brother of the Apostle John. According to biblical legend, the Apostle James once saved a knight by hiding him in a comb shell. In another version of this story, a knight transporting the remains of the apostle from Jerusalem to Spain fell into the water with his horse, but was saved by the shell of the mentioned mollusk. In the early Middle Ages, Christians from all over Europe made pilgrimages to the sanctuary of St. James, which was located in Santiago de Compostela (Spain). One could often see an embroidered image of a shell on their clothes.

This is, in fact, why scallops with a creamy sauce flavored with wine are traditionally served right on the shell (after all, according to legend, this is one of the Christian symbols!)

In France, the unsurpassed gastronomic merits of scallops are celebrated at two annual holidays - on Baked Scallop Day (March 12) and directly on Saint-Jacques Coquille Day (May 16).

Our scallop recipe is borrowed from the famous Julia Child from her best-selling cookery book, The Art of French Cooking.

Coquille Saint-Jacques is less ceremoniously called “scallops with Parisienne sauce.” This sauce is not much different from allemande sauce and is prepared on the basis of one of the basic French sauces.

(for two)

Ingredients:

• 150 grams of scallops
• 1 glass dry white wine
• Half a teaspoon of sea salt
• A couple of pinches of ground hot black pepper
• 130 grams of champignons (cut into four parts)
• 60 grams butter
• 30 grams of wheat flour
• A quarter glass of homemade whole milk
• 2 egg yolks
• A quarter cup of heavy cream
• Salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/4 cup grated Gruyère or Swiss cheese (grated)
• For a bouquet Garni - 4-5 sprigs of parsley, 2 sprigs of thyme, bay leaf

Preparation:

1. Bring to a boil in a saucepan, and then simmer the dry wine over medium heat for 5 minutes, adding salt and pepper. Add scallops, mushrooms and enough water to barely cover the latter.
2. Bring to a boil again, reduce heat to low and cook covered for about 5 minutes. Remove the bouquet garni and place the scallops and mushrooms on a plate using a slotted spoon. Let cool slightly, place on a cutting board and roughly chop with a knife.
3. Increase the heat to medium and reduce the liquid in the saucepan to 250 ml.
4. In a bowl, beat egg yolks and cream.
5. In a separate saucepan, fry the flour in melted butter over low heat (preparing a roux) for two minutes, stirring constantly so that no lumps form.
6. Remove from heat, pour in the wine mixture from the first saucepan and mix using a mixer. Then add milk and beat until it becomes a smooth sauce. Return to heat and boil for one minute. Turn off the fire.
7. Whisk the sauce together with the yolk mixture, adding the latter drop by drop. Boil again for 1 minute, stirring. Salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with lemon juice.
8. Mix 2/3 of the sauce with scallops and.
9. Grease 2/3 cup molds with butter. Place the scallops in them and the rest of the sauce on top. Then sprinkle with cheese and add a couple of small pieces of butter.
10. In a saucepan or frying pan, bring water to a boil and heat the molds with scallops in it so that they do not touch the bottom (we put a towel on the bottom of the frying pan). The dish is formally ready.
11. Just before serving, heat the oven to 220 degrees. Place our molds on a baking sheet (directly in a saucepan or frying pan) and brown them in the oven.
12. Serve immediately.

Note:

Typically, the Saint-Jacques chilli is served with Chardonnay or white Burgundy. Side dishes include rice with herbs and fresh green peas.

	Nearest hotels:	180 meters	Novotel Paris Les Halles	from	185 € *
		200 meters	Hotel Saint Merry	from	160 € *
		350 meters	Hotel Flor Rivoli	from	95 € *
			* minimum room rate for two in low season
	Nearest metro:	120 meters	Châtelet		lines

A stone's throw from the glorious Place du Châtelet, there stands in the middle of the square a late Gothic tower, recently cleared of soot, which still makes it a little artificial.

A strange, unusual sight - a lonely Gothic tower... Here you need to dive into history to understand how this architectural wonder could have come into being.

In the early Middle Ages, butchers and clerks lived and worked in this area - the fate of both trade unions is closely woven into the history of the tower. It was the butchers who in the 12th century chipped in to build a large Romanesque church on this site, calling it Saint-Jacques de la Boucherie (Boucherie in French means butcher's shop), to distinguish it from the Saint-Jacques Hospitaller church built at the same time from the Tuscan town of Altopascio, which is located on Rue Saint-Jacques in the V arrondissement of Paris. Why are there so many Saint-Jacques, you ask, because all these streets and buildings are connected with the medieval pilgrimage road to the Galician city of Santiago de Compostela

Here it is necessary to say a few words about the Apostle James, because of whom it all began. Saint James (aka Saint-Jacques, aka Santiago, aka Saint James) after the ascension of Jesus was active in the Holy Land until he fell from the sword of King Herod Agrippa in the year 44.

The body of the apostle was placed in a boat and launched into the Mediterranean Sea. Then a completely detective story begins: the boat, having crossed the entire sea to the west, passing Gibraltar and rounding Portugal, landed on the shores of Galicia, where 800 years later the relics were discovered by a hermit monk.

At the end of the ninth century, a church was built on the site of the discovery, and after that a city grew, now called Santiago de Compostela and, over time, became the third most important city of Catholicism after Jerusalem and Rome. Santiago became the patron saint of Spain and helped the Spaniards a lot in the Reconquista, appearing at important moments of the battles. In the 11th and 12th centuries there was a peak in the popularity of pilgrimages to the tomb of the apostle: Christians flocked in streams from all over Europe and somewhere near Pamplona on the current Franco-Spanish border they merged into a human river flowing to the west, guided by the Milky Way (in Spain it is also called Camino de Santiago - Way of St. James). Pilgrims from BeNeLux, Britain and northern France walked through Paris, passing many churches and monasteries along the Rue Saint-Jacques (you can read how St. James took part in the founding of the Sorbonne). Over the years, interest in the Way began to fade due to the plague, the Reformation, etc., and only at the end of the 20th century it awakened again, rather due to the explosion of interest in tourism in a united Europe. Since 1993, the entire Route to Santiago de Compostela has been included in the UNESCO Heritage List. Paulo Coelho described this road in his book “The Diary of a Magician”; if you are interested in this type of literature, you can read it.

Let's return to our Parisian tower. It was built at the beginning of the 16th century as a bell tower for the very church of the butchers, rebuilt in the Flamboyant Gothic style. In the revolutionary year of 1793, the temple was nationalized, immediately privatized and within 4 years dismantled down to the foundation for building materials - such a sad fate. The bell tower was saved by physicist Blaise Pascal, who used it in his experiments on measuring atmospheric pressure. For this, a monument was erected to him at the base of the tower. Later it was used to produce shot: barrels of water were placed below, into which molten lead was poured on top. And finally, in 1836, the tower was bought by Paris. Since then, it has been restored four times, the last time in 2008, so thoroughly that it’s like nothing has happened in the past five hundred years - it stands sparkling, pasteurized. Lovers of antiquities will now have to wait 50 years until it turns black again.

The story about this wonderful place would be incomplete if we omitted the story of Mr. Nicolas Flamel, probably the most famous alchemist of all time.

He lived in the second half of the 14th - early 15th centuries and was a clerk who worked for Saint-Jacques de la Boucherie. At that time, all the places near this church were built up with clerks' offices, and the adjacent part of the Rue de Rivoli, laid by Napoleon, was called the Rue des Scribes. The entire semi-mythical life story of this man seems to be woven from stereotypes. He worked quietly as a clerk, until suddenly one day he acquired by chance the book of the Jew Abraham and, having translated it, made the philosopher's stone. In order to understand the text of the book written in Aramaic, he undertakes a pilgrimage to Spain, but not to the tomb of Jacob, but to the Jews there. And now, after 20 years of work, the manuscript is finally translated, the philosopher’s stone is mined, and Nicholas undertakes several sessions of transforming something into gold + receives the elixir of eternal life. Until his “death” he was a philanthropist and helped everyone. He is buried in Saint-Jacques de la Boucherie, but when the grave is subsequently opened, the body is not found. Pa-ba-a-m! A curtain:)

This story shows the extreme primitiveness of the thinking of a medieval Frenchman: you want gold to be made from lead - please, but if there is a lot of gold, then it would be nice to live forever - again, be kind, the same stone, only crushed, will help you. And most importantly: who can possess this, so desired, knowledge... well, of course, Jews :)))

In general, Nicholas Flamel is repeatedly seen alive with his dear wife, either 200 years after his death in Turkey, then 300 years in India, then at the Paris opera... the last time he came to life was in JK Rowling’s book “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.”

One thing is certain, a man named Nicholas Flamel existed and did a lot of useful things. Like all the stones of the Church of Saint-Jacques, his tombstone was sold and found 50 years later in the shop of a greengrocer, cheerfully chopping his goods on the stove. Now this small tombstone is on display in

The Saint-Jacques Tower (Tour Saint Jaques) is a unique monument of medieval architecture, located in the very center of Paris, in a small park, near the intersection of Rivoli Street and Sevastopol Boulevard. The real miracle is that the tower has reached us in all the splendor of flaming Gothic.

The Saint-Jacques Tower was once part of the ancient church of Saint-Jacques De La Bouchrie, the foundation of which dates back to either the 9th or 12th century. The name of the church is translated as Church of St. James the Butchers. Saint James, one of the most revered apostles of the Christian Church, according to legend, was buried somewhere nearby, and his remains were kept in the church, attracting many pilgrims to it. Coming from the north of Paris, they visited the Church of Saint-Jacques, and then went on a long journey south to the Catholic shrine, the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostella.

The church owes not only its name to the Butchers' Guild, but also the construction of the tower, which was erected from 1506 to 1523. The beginning of the 16th century was the time when Italian masters set the tone in art. The Renaissance, which began in Italy in the 14th century, began to spread throughout Europe in the early 16th century. Against this background, the Saint-Jacques Tower appears to be a medieval phenomenon. It was as if the architect did not want to follow fashion, but tried to create a work in the spirit of the past. Saint-Jacques is an example of flaming Gothic with its elevated form, pointed arches, and medieval sculpture.

The Church of Saint-Jacques De La Bouchrie was glorified by the medieval alchemist and scientist Nicolas Flamel, who was its rector at the end of the 14th century. Flamel's name is often found on the pages of works of fiction, from Victor Hugo's novel Notre-Dame de Paris to Dan Brown's The Davinci Code. Flamel is a mysterious figure; many rumors and legends are associated with him. For example, he had the fame of a scientist who discovered the philosopher's stone, which allowed him to maintain immortality. Although Flamel's supposed death date is 1418, there are reports that Flamel was seen alive in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Another character immortalized his name thanks to discoveries in the field of physics and mathematics, his name was Blaise Pascal, and he lived in Paris in the 17th century. Pascal often came to the Saint-Jacques Tower to conduct experiments with its help. Climbing the tower, he measured atmospheric pressure and the speed of falling bodies. Now there is a statue of him in the lower tier of the Saint-Jacques Tower.
At the end of the 18th century, there were very few parishioners in the church, because the people were carried away by much more important matters. There was a Great Revolution, which made us look at many ancient things in a new way. So in 1797 it was decided to dismantle the church; the stones of which it consisted were used to build houses for the people. The tower was saved because a new use was found for it. With the help of the Saint-Jacques Tower, lead bullets began to be cast: lead was melted at the top of the tower, it was let down from a height directly into barrels of water, where the pigs froze in the form of balls.

It is unclear how a serious fire was avoided. However, in 1862 the Saint-Jacques Tower was declared a historical monument. For a long time the tower stood without proper maintenance and gradually fell into disrepair. At the beginning of this century, the Paris mayor's office decided to begin work on restoring the monument. The tower was covered with scaffolding and hidden from view behind an impenetrable screen.

And only in 2008 the Saint-Jacques Tower appeared before the public in an updated form. She still amazes everyone who comes to see her. The tower reaches 50 meters in height. The creamy white walls look majestic against the blue sky. At night the tower is even more beautiful, because directed upward, among the trees, it creates an atmosphere of mystery and magic.

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Anyone can freely come to the park near the Saint-Jacques Tower. Unfortunately, you can’t climb the tower, but you can admire its beauty while lying on the lawn nearby or sitting on a bench in the shade of the trees growing around the building. The park doors open from 8 a.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. on weekends and holidays, and close at 8:30 p.m. from May 1 to August 1. After this, the entrance is closed later, probably when it starts to get dark.

Sources:

www.pretemoiparis.com

wikipedia.org

peter-pho2.blogspot.com

Not far from the Cité there is the famous Saint-Jacques Tower - it is clearly visible from the bridge on the Ile de Cité or from the Rue Saint-Jacques. Built in the Flamboyant Gothic style, this tower is a true embodiment of the controversial history of Paris.

Now the tower stands alone in the middle of the city, which looks a little strange. However, at one time it was the bell tower of the Parisian Church of Saint-Jacques de la Boucherie (Church of Saint James), built at the beginning of the 16th century under King Francis I. It was erected in the settlement of butchers, who generously donated for the construction. That is why the name contained the word “boucherie” (French boucherie - meat trade, butcher shop).

It was here that the main road to the south passed through Paris, leading to the famous shrine in Spain - Santiago de Compostela (in French - Saint-Jacques de Compostela). This circumstance will play a role in the fate of the tower three and a half centuries later.

The height of the bell tower is 52 meters. Blaise Pascal chose it in 1648 to conduct experiments on measuring atmospheric pressure. In 1793, during the French Revolution, the Church of Saint-Jacques de la Boucherie was destroyed, but the bell tower, as a sign of respect to the great physicist, was left untouched.

The new revolutionary authorities of France curiously disposed of the fate of the tower - they sold it to a hunting shot manufacturer. The shot production technology looked like this: molten lead poured in a thin stream from a 50-meter height. During the flight, the stream broke up into balls, which were finally cooled below in a barrel of water.

In 1836, the city of Paris bought the tower back. In the middle of the 19th century, the tower was restored: in fact, it was rebuilt. Paul Chenillon made a new statue of St. James for her to replace the one destroyed during the revolution. In 1856, the first square in Paris was laid out at the foot of Saint-Jacques. In 1891, a small meteorological station appeared on the tower.

In 1998, the Tower of Saint-Jacques, among seventy other pilgrimage sites located in France on the way to Santiago de Compostela, was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The last time the tower was restored was in 2008. Today it is open to tourists.