Until the 17th century, Île Saint Louis was not part of the city. In the late 9th century, the island of our Lady (Île Notre-Dame), as it was then called, was offered by Charles the Bald to Aeneas of Paris, the bishop of the city. The latter transformed it into a grazeland and a place to store wood for the construction of ships. In fact, the construction of a fortified wall by Philip Augustus, which is now almost lost, led to the division of the island into two units. Due to the fact that the area was a pastureland, one of the islets was nicknamed “the island of cows”. Many centuries later, during the reign of Louis XIII, Christophe Marie was commissioned to reunite the two islets and integrate the island into the new city plan. The first houses were built in 1664 and within almost 30 years it had been transformed into one of the most affluent parts of the city. It was renamed Île Saint Louis as a tribute to the King that put the area on the map. Literally!