Saint-Germain-des-Prés: chic and elegance. Nothing but classics and a trendy area.
Heart of Saint Germain des Prés, Paris
Location
Saint Germain des Prés is located mainly in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, on the left bank of the river Seine and run on from the western part of the Latin Quarter (the Latin Quarter is located in the 5th arrondissement of Paris).
On the right: a map of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, divided into 4 administrative districts. Although one of them is called “Saint Germain des Prés, Saint Germain des Prés is often thought by Parisians as a much larger area, even including a part of the 7th arrondissement.
Peaceful as well as lively
You will like Saint Germain des Prés, if you enjoy peaceful and cosy areas, that mixes busy streets (rue de Buci, boulevard Saint Germain…) and very quiet ones (rue Cardinale, rue de l’Abbaye, rue Saint Benoit, rue rue Séguier, rue de Poitevin…),
if you like cafés (including literary ones), antique dealers, elegant architecture, art galleries, home decoration shops, pastries and chocolate
And Saint Germain des Prés offers an easy access to the river Seine, to Le Louvre, the bookstalls, the Latin Quarter, the Musée d’Orsay…
Iconic cafés
Saint Germain des Prés is renowned for Its cafés including the iconic ones (Le Flore, Les Deux Magots, le Bonaparte, la Palette…). Saint Germain des Prés is also an historic area for book publishers, for writers and artists (Picasso, Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre, Hemingway…),
This is the Paris neighborhood which first welcomed Jazz Music after WW2. One says that Bebop was born there.
Saint Germain des Prés church
gathering place and/or home of many artists and writers
Since the 17th c., Saint Germain des Prés has been the hangoutof many artists and writers and was attached to major artistic movement : existentialism, surrealism, Jazz music.
Below: a few of the artists and writers who frequented Saint Germain des Prés
17th c.: Racine
18th c.: Voltaire (1694-1779). Saint Germain des Prés was the meeting place of the philosophers of the enlightement.
19th c.: Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863), George Sand (1804-1876) Wagner (1813-1883), Anatole France, Saint Saens
20th c.: Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Jean Paul Sartre, Pablo Picasso, Marguerite Duras, Jorge Luis Borges, Dora Maar, Beauvoir, Joyce Morrison, Romain Gary, Allen Ginsberg, Anna Karina, Susan Sontag, Apollinaire, Jacques Prévert, camus, Roland Barthes, Giacometti, Lacan, Gainsbourg, Charlie Parker, S. Bechett, Miles Davis, Ellington, Grappelli, Martial Solal, James Joyce, Henry Miller…
And this goes on forever.
Nice streets and spots to wander around
The Heyday of Saint Germain des Prés in the 50s
My recommendations:
Saint Germain des Prés, is a neighbourhood where you might feel well, like at home ! And a place where you’ll feel confortable walking at night. A great area to feel what Paris’ life can be..
Don’t miss :
- Saint Germain des Prés church, so beautifully renovated
- Le Flore or Les Deux Mots, located nearby the church, two real institutions, with so much history (although not the most affordable places… But you can choose to have a coffee or a drink and maybe a pastry).
- From the church you can walk either win the Northern direction towards the river Seine or in the Southern direction towards Saint Sulpice church and its neighbourhood or towards Le Bon Marché and La Grande Epicerie, or towards the Luxembourg garden. Each or these walks will take about 1/4 hour on foot.
Some addresses
- Le Flore, Les Deux Magots, Le Bonaparte cafés and Saint Germain des Prés church : boulevard Saint Germain. Metro stop : Saint Germain des Prés
- Ladurée (pastry shop and tea room) : corner rue Jacob/rue Bonaparte, about 150 meters from Les Deux Magots.
- Pierre Hermé (pastry shop, quite expensive but renowned), rue Bonaparte, nearby Saint Sulpice church.
- You may also enjoy visiting the Musée Delacroix : interesting to see the mansion where he lived, the nice garden and his studio (only a very few Delacroix works of art); Located Place de Furstemberg.
- The charming Place de Furstemberg and the lively rue de Buci and its numerous cafés. The picturesque Cour du Commerce Saint André
