Pont Neuf

This guide to the Pont Neuf in Paris traces the bridge's slow construction from 1578 through the Wars of Religion to Henri IV's completion in 1607, and the sculptor Lemot who cast a new bronze king for it in 1818 under circumstances the guide unpacks. It follows Henri IV's break from Paris tradition in banning houses from the bridge, giving Parisians their first open view of the Seine and the Louvre, and the tooth-pullers and booksellers who later filled its stone alcoves. Stand in one of those alcoves and take in the same river view Henri IV wanted Paris to have.