Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois Church

Is there a church on each side of this belfry? And why would there be two churches on one location?

The Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois built in the 1200’s is a great proof of the love of symmetry of French architects and rulers!

There is really only one church, and it is on the right. The building to the left is the city hall of the first arrondissement of Paris, built 600 years later by the Baron Haussman, who was in charge of modernizing the city in the middle of the 1800’s.

The city hall façade was designed to echo that of the Church and interestingly, the gothic belfry tower is not from the 1200’s but was built at the same time as the city hall to emphasize the symmetry effect! French architecture is not always what it seems to be!