midnight
No two run consecutively with the walks , and all together present a sky-line that paralyzes calculation . The historic street at this point is a lively market during the business day . Its sidewalks being only wide enough for the dogs to sun themselves without danger from passing vehicles , it is necessary for the passers to take that risk by walking in the roadway . Those who do not care to assume any risks go around by way of Rue Gay-Lussac , -- especially after midnight , when the street enjoys its personal reputation . The Panthéon is just around the corner , and the ancient Sorbonne , Louis le Grand , and the College of France line the same street on the next block , and have stood there for some hundreds of years ; but , all the same , timid people certainly prefer to reach them by a roundabout way rather than by this section of Rue St. Jacques . Mlle. Fouchette had accepted a home in the Rue St. Jacques and in this particular building because other people did not wish to live there , which made rooms cheap . If you had cared to see what Mlle. Fouchette proudly called `` home '' you might have raised and let fall an old-fashioned iron knocker that sent a long reverberating roar down the tunnel-like entrance , to be lost in some hidden court beyond .