Saint-Étienne-des-Grès, Paris

The church of Saint-Étienne-des-Grès sits tucked away on the Rue Saint-Jacques with a facade that stops abruptly at the sidewalk. Its primary feature is the heavy, rounded wooden door framed by stone carvings that have weathered over four centuries. Once a parish church for the university crowd, it holds a relic of Saint Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris. During the French Revolution, the building served as a storage house for saltpeter, a key ingredient for gunpowder, before returning to its original purpose.