stone houses and these houses gradually extended on both banks of the river.
Long after the Romans had left Gaul, the two islands still remained the centre of Paris, and indeed the town scarcely extended far beyond these islands. The Merovingian kings and the Carlovingian kings resided in these islands, and when Rollo the Ganger and other Norman chiefs sailed up the Seine and invaded Paris, the timid citizens vainly attempted to defend themselves within the walls of these fortified islands. The hardy Normans repeatedly sacked the islands although unable to keep possession of them. At last Hugh Capet the founder of the third dynasty in France restored order in the kingdom, and built a new palace in one of the islands, and his successors continued to live in it for centuries after. It was not till the twelfth century that Louis the Big left these historical islands and built the first palace on the north side of the Seine, on the site of the modern Louvre, and the great Philip Augustus, the companion of Richard Cœur de Lion of England in the third crusade, erected a circle of fortifications round it. An account of Paris therefore should naturally begin with an account of these two historical islands in the Seine.
And these islands have a very different appearance now from what they had at the time of the wandering Parisii or even at the time of the Romans. Conspicuous among the many edifices that are crowded upon these islands stands the noble Cathedral of Notre Dame the finest Church in Paris, if not in France. It was built in the 12th century, and is 417 ft. long and 158 ft. broad
