Following the Rose Line to the Paris observatory
The Earful Tower: Paris
Oliver Gee
4.8 • 794 Ratings
🗓️ 8 May 2026
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Let's take a deep dive into the Paris Rose Line. This is an updated re-release of the time I did another A to Z season, where A was for Arago, the name of the scientist who helped map out the Paris meridian line (François Arago (1786-1853)).
In this episode, I explored the "Rose Line" (as it was called in the Da Vinci Code), sought out the bronze medallions along the streets of Paris, through the Louvre, and into the Paris Observatory.
Featured is the voice of Nicolas Lesté-Lasserre, a science historian and the community manager of the Observatoire de Paris. He showed me around this incredible 17th century institution, which is usually closed to the public.
Find more, including beautiful pictures of the observatory, on The Earful Tower's website.
The episode in this music is from Pres Maxson, featuring an original song called Le Meridien de Paris.
This episode brought to you by The Earful Tower Tours. Come join us in the Marais, Montmartre, or the Latin Quarter. Our Walking Tours are exceptionally highly rated online and are the best way to experience this podcast in real life.
The Earful Tower exists thanks to support from its members. For just $10 a month you can unlock almost endless extras including bonus podcast episodes, live video replays, special event invites, and our annually updated PDF guide to Paris.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everyone all over here from the earful tower. This episode is about what some people have called the rose line, which is the Paris Meridian. |
| 0:12.1 | It also includes an interview with someone from the Paris Observatory. I got to visit it when it was empty. |
| 0:18.9 | And this is just a great episode from the archives when I first |
| 0:23.2 | did the A to Z season. So this is, this was A is for Arago. And you'll meet him or at least |
| 0:29.8 | learn about who he was very shortly. And once again, this episode brought to you by Earful Tower |
| 0:35.8 | Tours. Let us show you the city of light. |
| 0:39.3 | Come meet me in the Marais, perhaps. Theaerfultower.com slash tours has all the information. |
| 0:46.0 | Now let's get into this episode. Every day, tens of thousands of feet walk over bronze discs that are set out all over Paris seemingly haphazardly. |
| 1:00.7 | Perhaps you personally have stepped over some of these discs without even realizing it. |
| 1:06.7 | You can find them under chairs in cafes. |
| 1:09.9 | You can find them in the middle of popular tourist destinations like the Palais Royal, the Luxembourg Gardens, and even the Louvre. |
| 1:17.6 | On each of these bronze discs, a five-letter word, A-R-A-G-O. |
| 1:25.8 | Above it, a small N, and below a small S. |
| 1:31.5 | But what are these discs? |
| 1:34.2 | What do they mean and why are they there? |
| 1:37.8 | This is the Earful Tower. |
| 1:39.9 | My name is Oliver G. |
| 1:41.9 | And welcome to the first episode of the A-B season, where A stands for A-Rago. |
| 2:17.4 | Music Now that was some original music from Press Max and written specifically for this episode, I want to talk about it, but in a second. First, |
| 2:18.2 | a bit of background. I want to try and give you the idiot's guide to Arago and Meridian lines. |
| 2:23.5 | You'll hear more about it later from experts, but just so we're all on the same page. |
| 2:28.3 | Imagine the equator, the big line that runs around the center of the earth. It was really |
... |
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