The Oldest House in Paris

One of my favorite places I've seen in Paris since Sara left is this house which is the oldest house still in use in the city. Look how cool it looks, like it is just about to topple right over. The house was built in 1407 and has gone through a few changes. This means that next year the house will be celebrating its 600th birthday. Currently it is used as a restraunt that likely has outrageous prices due to its clientele being mostly tourists. That's all fine and great on its own, but once I heard the name of the man who originally owned it, and did a bit more research on him, I started to wonder if there was a bit more to it than just some old mortar. The first inhabitants of this house were none other than Nicholas and Pernella Flamel. The moment I heard that name, the Harry Potter fan in my recognized it as the inventor of the Sorcerer's Stone. Call me a nerd if you want, I can take it with pride. Oddly enought, J. K. Rowling isn't far off in her biography of the Flamels. Historic evidence shows that Nicholas was a nobody, just another loony guy at the time trying to find a way to turn any metal into gold, alchemy. Then he got a hold of some book with ancient Greek, Hebrew and Kabbalistic text in it. He traveled for miles into the Iberic penninsula in search of an interpretation of the book, and while away met some master fellow who claimed to have been taught by the Three Kings from the nativity. Just after Nicholas left his teacher, the master died. No one believed Nicholas when he came back, but it wasn't very much later that the poor Mr. Flamel started donating all sorts of money to causes and living a very comfortable life. He and his wife built fourteen hospitals and three churches, and no one seems to know how they got the money. It has been said that Flamel actually made a material called the Philosopher's stone which enables the holder to turn lead into gold and grants immortality. There is no record of the death of Nicholas and Pernella Flamel. Hmmm... Perhaps the reason the master died after Flamel left is that he no longer had his Philosopher's stone given him by the Three Kings. Hmmm... According to our leading Paris historian, Dan Brown, Nicholas Flamel was the eighth Grand Master of the Priory of Sion. Interesting stuff says I.