Architecture, part deux

When you think of Parisian architecture, you probably think of something like this:


Well, OK, not the Gap store at street level, but you know what I mean: the grand stone buildings with the wrought-iron railings overlooking wide boulevards.

This is a relatively recent development in the city's history. In the Middle Ages, Paris looked more like this:


These buildings in my neighborhood -- which you'd imagine come from England or Germany -- date from the 1500s. A historical plaque on one of them says this style of building was outlawed shortly after 1600 by one of the King Louises because of the fear of fire (a real fear; a half-century later London, still full of these buildings, burned to the ground).

Even older is this building, in one of Paris's mini-Chinatowns, which dates to the late 1200s:


If you want your very own part of history, that green sign on the building advertises an apartment for sale. I went by the realtor and there it was in the window, a three-room apartment with separate kitchen, fireplace, half-timbered walls: yours for just 320,000 euros.

The posting notes one flaw to the building. There is no elevator.