Paris in the Middle Ages Paris in the Middle Ages In the 10th century, Paris was a provincial cathedral city of little political or economic significance, but under the kings of the Capetian dynasty who ruled France between 987 and 1328, it developed into an important commercial and religious center and the seat of the royal administration of the country. The Île de la Cité became the site of the royal palace and the new cathedral of Notre-Dame, begun in 1163. The Left Bank was occupied by important monasteries, including the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the Abbey of St Genevieve. In the late 1100s, the
Pierre Le Blond de La Tour of them "were old and provisionally built, and not a single one was in the alignment of the new city and thus would have had to be demolished." In 1723, he designed the young city's first hospital. Apart from Pauger, two notable subordinates of De la Tour were the memoirist Dumont de Montigny and the engineer Ignace Francois Broutin. Montigny (who had also quarreled with Bienville) and De la Tour both wrote letters to Minister of War Claude le Blanc, each denouncing the other, much to the minister's annoyance. De la Tour had apparently intercepted Pauger's initial letter and set