Take for example, the Quai des Grands-Augustins, located on the Left Bank, between the Pont Neuf and the Pont au Change. It was named for the abbey of the Order of the Grands-Augustins, which replaced the Brothers of the Penitence of Christ, installed here by Saint Louis in 1261. The Grands-Augustins abbey was well established by 1313, when the quai beside it was constructed, the first paved quai of Paris. The abbey was very important, because it’s here that future professors of the University of Paris studied theology and philosophy. Nevertheless, the abbey was closed at the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, and destroyed soon after.

On the north side of the Île de la Cité, between the Pont Neuf and the Pont au Change, the Quai de l’Horloge (“Quai of the Clock”) tells of another important landmark in medieval Paris. The Tour de l’Horloge (“Clocktower”) can still be seen on the side of the Conciergerie today. Commissioned by Charles V in 1352, it was Paris’ first public clock. Constructed nearly three centuries later, the Quai de l’Horloge pays homage to this useful tool.

Around the same time as the Tour de l’Horloge, the Célestins abbey was founded on the Right Bank, at the edge of the Marais. Most of Louis XII’s ancestors were interred in the complex’s chapel, but after the French Revolution (1789), it was used as a military depository, then eventually demolished. Today, only the “Célestins” name remains. This area was also the birthplace of medieval poet, scholar, and criminal François Villon.

From the 12th century, until the late 17th, mégissiers, workers who prepared animal skins for making gloves, worked along the present-day Quai de la Mégisserie. The quai was referred to by this name even in the 1370’s. Today, the mégissiers are long gone, but this Quai, located on the Right Bank between the Pont Neuf and the Pont au Change, is a popular place for Parisians of all ages to buy plants, and, a bit ironically, pets.

The Quai des Orfèvres is synonymous with Parisian Police Headquarters. But it’s named for the goldsmiths (“Orfèvres”) who worked here and built a church to their patron saint, Saint Eloi, in 1550. Located on the southern side of the Île de la Cité, between the Pont Neuf and the Pont au Change, the Quai was officially named in the early 17th century.

Just beside it on the Île de la Cité, is the Quai du Marché Neuf (“New Market”), named for the fish and fruit market that was moved here from Les Halles, in the late 16th century. Today, the Quai is a street outside the foreboding Prefecture de Police, and the market remains a long-gone memory.

The Quai de Tournelle, on the Left Bank between the Pont de l’Archevêché and the Pont de Sully, has a history that goes back to around 1190, when King Philippe-Auguste had a wall constructed around what was then the city of Paris. One of the watchtowers in the wall was located near the present-day Pont de la Tournelle (the word “Tournelle” suggests a round tower). This tower was used a few centuries later as part of a chateau. Reconstructed in 1554, it became best known as the place where criminals bound for the galleys, would be housed until the time came for their deportation. This had been done at the suggestion of none other than Saint Vincent de Paul, and remained a temporary spiritual refuge for these men condemned to hard labour, until 1790, when the chateau was demolished.

The royal palace in the Jardin des Tuileries was constructed in the mid-16th century, and destroyed during the Paris Commune in 1871. But the palace’s beautiful garden, its tennis court, and orangerie, (both now museums) remain today, enjoyed by Parisians and visitors alike. The garden, as well as the Quai beside it, have a name that dates from before that period, though. Long ago, a factory that made tiles (“tuileries”) stood here.

Paris has been one of the world’s largest cities for more than a thousand years. And yet, as the Quai de Gesvres attests, important developments in its landscape were taking place even fairly late in its history. In the early 17th century, Louis XIII gave René Poitier, the Duke de Gesvres, a plot of land that included the Pont au Change and the Pont Notre-Dame. In exchange, the Duke had to make a Quai along the riverbank. He did so, in the early 1640’s.

Paris’ Quais are wonderful for a walk, a picnic, a romantic evening. But as you stroll along them, maybe their names will help you imagine a different Paris, a Paris on its way to becoming the beautiful, history-packed city we know today.