OVERVIEW - CultureShock! A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette - page 10

By now, Parisians were solidly identifying themselves with
the side of the river on which they resided. From the Middle
Ages, the Right Bank ( rive droite ) became the mercantile focus
of the city, because boats could moor easily, servicing the
aristocrats who had settled near the palace of the Louvre.
The Left Bank ( rive gauche ), home to the Sorbonne and
other institutions of learning, was inhabited by artists and
intellectuals. Till today, the modern city continues to divide
itself thus, with headquarters of banks, the largest department
stores and much of the city's major commerce clustered on
the Right Bank, while the Left Bank holds the universities
and artists' galleries in a vibrant atmosphere of creativity and
ideas. And so the Paris of today is still somewhat reminiscent
of the city under the Valois.
But it was also a city of persecutions and strife. In response
to the harshness of Catholicism, the Huguenots (followers
of the French reformer John Calvin), who spoke out against
the Pope in Rome, began converting part of the French
population, including Parisians. After fluctuating degrees of
tolerance, Parisians witnessed the massacre of about 3,000
Protestant 'heretics' in Paris on Saint Bartholomew's Day in
1572. (All told, some 70,000 Huguenots were later slain.)
Eventually—after intrigues and the assassination of King
Henri III—Henri IV of Navarre was crowned king. Henri IV
set out to build a more efficient town. In 1605, he began
the construction of what is now called La Place des Vosges,
near Place de la Bastille, which some say is the most beloved
square in all of France. He also built the exclusive Place
Dauphine and, to better connect the two banks, finished
the Pont Neuf, which 400 years later, is still called the
New Bridge.
Henri IV began the Bourbon dynasty, and the Catholic
Bourbons—periodic uprisings and unrest aside—ruled for
the next 200 years, until they
were overthrown by the French
Revolution. Wars were waged to
extend the monarchy's realm,
while the arts flourished in Paris,
literacy increased for both men

“Paris is well worth
a mass.”
These were the famous words of
the Huguenot Henri IV of Navarre
who was crowned king only upon
his conversion to Catholicism.