And in 1796, Edmund Burke pronounced, "No European can be a complete exile in any part of Europe."
From Clovis to Charlemagne to Napoleon, anything approaching a united Europe was based on Christianity. Eighteen saints appear on the Paris subway map, not counting the odd cardinal.
But a short stroll in any direction from the Tolbiac station shows how the face of Europe has changed.
Past the corner McDonald's, an Islamic butcher offers hallal meat. A smattering of noodle shops leads into an Asian quarter thick with Buddhists, Shintoists and Confucians.
Paris has 14 metro lines, and each reflects a society that does not seem eager to dilute its flavor in any European melting pot. There is, for instance, the No. 1 line.
The No. 3 line stops in the heart of Paris, at a square built in 1826 to honor France's greater neighborhood. That station is Place de l'Europe.
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