House of Nicolas Flamel

You are looking at the oldest dated house in Paris. We know its age precisely because the inscription on the façade tells us: it was built in 1407. Its founder was Nicolas Flamel, a scrivener and bookseller who had grown rich buying and letting property, and who used it to house poor people free of charge.

1A deal with strings attached

Read the band of Gothic letters running along the ground floor. In essence, it asks the ‘ploughmen and women’ living under the porch of this house to say an Our Father and a Hail Mary every day for departed sinners. That was the rent: prayers for the souls of the benefactors. The ground floor was let to shops to pay for the project.

2The birth of a myth

Flamel died in 1418 and was buried in the nearby church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie. So far, everything is on record. But how could a mere scrivener be so rich? Two centuries later, in 1612, a book attributed to him appeared, presenting him as an alchemist who had discovered the philosopher's stone.

According to legend, Flamel and his wife Pernelle turned lead into gold and even achieved immortality. No document from their time supports it.

The myth travelled all the way to Harry Potter, where Flamel appears as the maker of the Philosopher's Stone.

3What to look out for

• The Gothic inscription above the ground-floor openings.
• The angel musicians and carved figures on the pillars.
• The initials N and F, carved on two of the pillars.