Jour: 7 juillet 2025

A small bronze cannon was installed at Palais Royal in 1786 at the initiative of Mr. Rousseau, a watchmaker who had a shop in the gallery. It was installed on the Paris meridian. A wick, burned by the sun through a magnifying glass, set off the charge of gunpowder on sunny days at noon. The small explosion was used to set timepieces all over Paris, today we Google the «current local time». In 1799, it was moved off the meridian and positioned in the middle of the garden where it worked steadily until 1914. A Latin motto was engraved on the pedestal: Horas non numero Nibi Serenas, liberally meaning  «The only hours counted are the sunny ones». In 1990, the cannon was restored and began to thunder again at high noon, but the «Plan Vigipirate» silenced the cannon once more. In 1998 it was stolen. A replica was made in 2002. This year it will go off at noon (À « midi pétante ») on special occasions: July 14, August 25 (Liberation of Paris), September 20-21 (journées du patri…