Place des Cardeurs

Place des Cardeurs features a sprawling, tiered stone plaza lined with restaurant terraces and overshadowed by the tall, ochre-colored facade of the Hotel de Ville. Before the nineteen sixties, this was a dense, congested warren of medieval houses known as the neighborhood of the carders, where artisans cleaned and teased wool for textile production. City planners razed the entire block to create this open space, uncovering ancient Roman foundations beneath the rubble that remain buried under the modern paving stones today.