Immensely rich and powerful, the Knights invented modern banking and owned the respect and usually the property of royalty all over Europe. After the fall of Palestine in 1291, they definitely established their seat in the area now bordered by the Rue du Temple, Rue de Bretagne, Rue de Picardie and Rue Béranger, installed their Grand Master, and created a fortress town outside the walls of Paris.

King Philippe le Bel put an end to it all however with the help of Pope Clement V by having the Knights tried and eventually executed on trumped up charges. In 1314, Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Order, was burned on the Île de la Cité, a few steps from Notre-Dame, and the Order was abolished. The temple city still existed long after the revolution: in fact Louis XVI and his family were imprisoned there (Louis XVII died walled up in one of the towers). In 1808 Napoleon had it demolished in case the population had any nostalgia for things royal.

Where once the proud towers and intricate streets were, are now the lush garden of the Square du Temple, the “Carreau”, a covered market specializing in leather goods, and the Mairie (Town Hall) of the 3rd arrondissement.

At night, the Rue de Bretagne becomes a gathering point for celebrities from the movie and fashion worlds. The area’s restaurateurs, who previously had only served students of the Conservatory (Arts et Métiers) or garment workers and delivery people, now have a much more varied and infinitely richer clientele. Small late night “in” clubs and cyber-cafés have sprung up, turning a former rustic neighborhood into one bursting at the seams with small high-tech advertising agencies, talent scouts, and the glitterati of major cosmetic and design houses.

Farther east along the street is the Marché des Enfants Rouges, a tiny cloistered market that has become very sought after as the quartier has become more gentrified. Many streets in this part of town still have the heavy shuttered fronts they were built with in the 17th and 18th centuries and, rumor has it, two of the buildings still inhabited can be traced back to the early 13th century. Some streets are named after French provinces: Picardie, Saintonge, Beauce, Franche Comté, Bretagne... Robespierre lived on the rue Saintonge at number 64, but his house was torn down in 1834.