That's it; you've arrived at the Pont Neuf. Stand on the bridge slightly back from the street. Admire the view again ...Despite its name, the Pont Neuf is the oldest bridge in Paris. It was built in the late 16th century to allow the king to move more easily from one bank to another and to facilitate relations between the Louvre and the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. This was a true innovation for the time: it was the first stone bridge built without houses -- because previously, bridges were made of wood and covered with houses.Have you noticed a large equestrian statue at the back, on the left? It is the statue of King Henry IV -- it overlooks the "Square du Vert-Galant", a nickname given to the king for his many female conquests.Do you know that this equestrian statue holds many secrets? In the 2000s, during some restoration work to the monument, the belly of the horse and rider were searched. Inside they found seven sealed lead boxes. The presence of four of them were known to specialists and thus predictable, they contained precious texts on the history of the statue and the king Henri IV himself, but the other three, smaller and cylindrical in shape, created a great surprise. They contained wrapped scrolls, in fact anti-royalist pamphlets. It is thought that this might be a 'political signature' by the engraver Mesnel, a fervent Bonapartist who wanted to leave behind a secret report of his political views. One of the cylindrical cans discovered indeed bears his name.Now look to the left, you see the former La Samaritaine department store. Originally, there was a pump at this place, destined to supply water to Parisians and to the Royal Court. Then on the Pont Neuf, a street vendor settled there, selling his goods under his large red umbrella: That was Ernest Cognacq, who made a fortune, and later established the Shops of La Samaritaine. For a long time, La Samaritaine was the largest Parisian department store, followed by the Galeries Lafayette and the Printemps. It closed its doors in the 2000s for security reasons related to the building's structure. We still are wondering what the Samaritaine will look like in a few years: luxury hotel, shopping mall or low-income housing ...