Severus did not go to Vendôme Square.
The column there had already been pulled down by enraged Parisians in 1871. Everyone knew what secrets lay beneath it, so he went to Place de Grève.
The square had vanished from maps, but its location lay near the center of an ellipse focused on Les Invalides and Père Lachaise Cemetery.
He put down the map and surveyed the terrain around him.
Since 2002, Paris had held Paris Plages every year, allowing those unable to go on holiday to enjoy "sunshine, beaches, and ice cream." The city government spread vast amounts of sand over the open spaces along the Seine. One could imagine that many Muggle girls in bikinis would be sunbathing there.
He smiled and shook his head, then turned to look at Île de la Cité across the river. This square was directly opposite The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. He wondered how the monks in the cathedral would react to such a sight.
Nineteenth-century people in France did not sunbathe. In those days, "blue blood" was considered beautiful, and the paler one's skin, the better. Only in modern times had bronze and wheat-colored skin become fashionable.
"Why did you build this square?" Severus asked as if speaking to himself, his eyes unconsciously drifting toward Paris City Hall. That was where Napoleon and Josephine had held their civil wedding, and where he had been promoted to commander-in-chief of the Italian army. It must have been one of the proudest moments of his life.
As for The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, he had been crowned there. That had been another defining moment in his life.
Then Severus looked toward Tour Saint-Jacques and walked along the tree-lined riverbank toward it.
Viewed abstractly, the tower resembled a column, steeped in Gothic charm. It was the tallest building