This bridge, which leads from the north bank of the Seine to the _Ile
du Palais_, is one of the most ancient in Paris. Though, like all
those of which I have now to speak, it crosses but one channel of the
river, it was called the _Grand Pont_, till the year 1141, when it
acquired its present name on Lewis VII establishing here all the
money-changers of Paris.
It was also called _Pont aux Oiseaux_, because bird-sellers were
permitted to carry on their business here, on condition of letting
loose two hundred dozen of birds, at the moment when kings and queens
passed, in their way to the cathedral, on the day of their public
entry. By this custom, it was intended to signify that, if the people
had been oppressed in the preceding reign, their rights, privileges,
and liberties would be fully re-established under the new monarch.
On the public entry of Isabeau de Bavière, wife of Charles VI, a
Genoese stretched a rope from the top of the towers of _Notre-Dame_
to one of the houses on this bridge: he thence descended, dancing on
this rope, with a lighted torch in each hand. Habited as an angel, he
placed a crown on the head of the new queen, and reascending his
rope, he appeared again in the air. The chronicle adds that, as it
was already dark, he was seen by all Paris and the environs.
This bridge was then of wood, and covered with houses also of wood.
Two fires, one of which happened in 1621, and the other in 1639,
occasioned it to be rebuilt of stone in 1647.
The _Pont au Change_ consists of seven arches. Previously to the
demolition of the houses, which, till 1786, stood on each side of
this bridge, the passage was sufficiently wide for three carriages.
Traversing the _Ile du Palais_ from north to south, in order to
proceed from the _Pont au Change_ to the _Pont St. Michel_, we pass
in front of the