Edit: Made a 30MB png with linear interpolation (because I don't have all day): http://move.rupy.se/file/turgot.png

Here's another map of Paris (this time with interpolation): http://move.rupy.se/file/eau_paris_3.png

For sure, there is no connection with "rive-gauche" / "rive-droite", this expression is based on the flow of the Seine, here it would have been the opposite of the map.

Medieval West-East maps on wiki (West on the top, North to the left): - 1530 Braun and Hogenberg engraved map [1] - 1550 Truschet and Hoyau engraved map [2] - 1615 Merian map [3] - also the 1370 Gough Map of Britain [4]

[1] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_de_Braun_et_Hogenberg [2] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_de_Truschet_et_Hoyau [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merian_map_of_Paris [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gough_Map

My guess is it's because at this point the population of cities was growing quickly, but the large scale migration of farm laborers into them hadn't begun in earnest yet. So most of the housing being built at the edges was intended for the expanding merchant classes, who wanted something a bit more impressive, and who also had live in servants. The Georgian terraces of London are typically three or four storeys, with the top storey being rooms with low-ceilings where the servants lived.

Ancient Rome already had lots of tall buildings. https://imperiumromanum.pl/en/curiosities/roman-skyscrapers/

“But where the population is increasing rapidly and the city area is not, this traditional Roman house is disappearing. Due to lack of space, insula grows not outwards but upwards.

Already in the 3rd century BCE, most of these buildings have three floors - and will soon cross this barrier. Insula was supposed to generate profit for the owners- hence they were built very quickly, cheaply and very messily. Collapses or fires in insulae occurred more often than often. Hence the attempt to limit the height of Roman buildings by subsequent emperors, for example, Octavian Augustus (maximum height 70 pes, Roman feet, just over 20 meters; 1 pes = ca 44.5 cm) or Trajan.

After a great fire in Rome, Nero limited its height to 60 pes. These restrictions did not apply in other cities of the empire, hence the surprise of the famous Strabo, that in the mentioned Tire the insulae are almost as impressive as in the capital.”