DK Travel : Paris : St-Germain, Latin and Luxembourg Quarters

St-Germain, Latin and Luxembourg Quarters : Overview & Top 10

This area of the left bank is possibly the most stimulating in Paris. St-Germain-des-Prés, centred around the city’s oldest church, is a synonym for Paris’s café society, made famous by the writers and intellectuals who held court here in the first half of the 20th century. Although it’s more touristy today, a stroll around the back streets reveals lovely old houses plastered with plaques noting famous residents. The Latin Quarter takes its name from the Latin spoken by students of the Sorbonne until the Revolution. The scholastic centre of Paris for more than 700 years, it continues to buzz with student bookshops, cafés and jazz clubs. It was also the site of a Roman settlement and remains from that era can be seen in the Musée du Moyen-Age. The area’s western boundary is the bustling boulevard Saint-Michel and to the south is the tranquil greenery of the Luxembourg Quarter.