Latin Quarter Paris

The Latin Quarter Paris (5th/6th arrondissements) earns its name because at one time the university in this district customarily taught in Latin. Robert de Sorbon founded the Collège Sorbonne in 1257. It was a theological college of the University of Paris. The name Sorbonne has, in recent times, become synonymous with the University of Paris. Regardless of the name, the University and its students has been the heart of the Latin Quarter for hundreds of years.

Old Paris and Her Ècrivans (writers)

Rue Saint Jacques was the backbone of the Latin Quarter Paris although today people will tell you it is Boulevard Saint Michel. At the northern end of the Latin Quarter, between rue Saint Jacques and rue Saint Michel you will find a warren of little streets that still reflect the “flavor” of old Paris before the Haussmannian building era of the late 19th century. Rue de la Parcheminerie (Parchemin is the French word for parchment. ) was at one time a street for scribes and manuscript copyists. This short little street runs between Rue de la Harpe and Rue Saint Jacques.

Rue de la Parcheminerie intersects Rue Saint Séverin you will find the Church of Saint Séverin.  Church of Saint Séverin can also be accessed from either from Boulevard Saint-Germain (across from Cluny Square) or from Rue Saint Jacques. This is one of the oldest standing churches in Paris.

Eglise Saint Séverin

Historic Warren of Streets

Within this warren of streets in the Latin Quarter Paris is rue de la Huchette. The book Narrow Street, by Elliot Paul an American journalist, gives a semi-fictional account of the street. Paul lived on rue de la Huchette after World War I. His book Narrow Street is a semi-fictional account of the years he spent living on rue de la Huchette. His delightful description of the street in the 1920s is captivating as he talks of the pushcarts of vendors, knife-grinders, and of the local residents using the street as a communal front yard. Paul also wrote The Last Time I Saw Paris which is of no relation to the movie by the same name.

For an in-depth description of the houses of this era, I would suggest reading Father Goriot(Le pèrè Goriot ) by Honoré Balzac. Balzac describes  the houses as “gloomy with walls like a prison” and the old people as “sinking into the grave”. He goes on to describe the young as “doomed to the treadmill”. The house at 30 rue Tournefor is the location of Maison Vauquer which he describes in his novel.

Other Americans such as Ernest Hemmingway, George Orwell, James Joyce and Sylvia Beach among a few found their way to the Latin Quarter to live and create.

Universities of the Latin Quarter Paris

Three hundred years after the establishment of the Sorbonne (the oldest university in Paris), François I  founded the Collège of France. It was originally named the Collège des trois langues (College of Three Languages).  Unlike the Sorbonne that taught strictly in Latin, the Collège des trois langues also taught in Hebrew and Greek. Referred to as a “showcase of research excellence… [it] enjoys an unrivaled reputation”.

The University of Pierre and Marie Curie is the leading “French scientific and medical university”. Founded in 1109 on the site of Saint Victor Abbey, the university has for nine centuries been a part of the intellectual community of Paris. In 1959 it became part of the University of Paris (Sorbonne) system.

Place St-Michel

Place Saint Michel has a wonderful fountain of Saint Michel slaying the devil. On both sides of the street are some of my favorite French bookstores as well as others very nearby:  Gibert Jeune at 5 Place St Michel (The bookstore is actually behind me as I was taking the photo below. If you don’t read French, there are lovely wall and desk calendars as well as beautiful photo books), The Abbey Bookstore at 29 rue de la Parchminerie (a Canadian bookstore), and Shakespeare and Company.

Place Saint Michel

Shakespeare and Company Bookstore is close by on 37 rue de la Bûcherie and is a well-known English-language bookstore. The original Shakespeare and Co owned by Sylvia Beach was located on 12 rue de l’Odéon between 1921 and the end of World War II.

Shakespeare and Company English language bookstore

The Panthéon

The Panthéon is built on the site where King Clovis in 507 AD constructed a basilica which he planned would eventually hold his remains. In 1791 the basilica became a temple to house the ashes of the great men of France.

Panthéon

Across the street from the Panthéon in the Latin Quarter Paris you will find the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont. This church houses the tomb of St Geneviève who is the patron saint of Paris. Saint Genevive  converted King Clovis to Christianity in the 5th century. Geneviève receives credit for saving the city from attack by Attila the Hun and his army of 700 000. The Church boasts the only surviving rood screen, an ornate 17th century organ, and stained glass from the 16th and 17th centuries. Both Pascal and Racine buried here.

Close-up of Rood Screen

Another interesting church in the Latin Quarter Paris is the Church of Saint-Sulpice. Yes, this is the very church mentioned in the DaVinci Code. Read about the church to find out the real facts.

Museums and Gardens

The Museum of the Middle Ages is located at the corner of boulevards Saint Germain and Saint Michel. It is sometimes called the Cluny Museum. Formerly the Hotel de Cluny, it is beside and above the ruins of an ancient Roman bath. Completed in 1480, the building is only one of two 15th century private mansions still surviving. At one time it was the pied-a-terre of the Cluny Abbey in Burgundy. Now it houses relics from the middles ages, including 15th and 16th century tapestries of the Lady and the Unicorn.

The Jardin des Plantes is Paris’ Botanical Garden – a place of beauty but also of research. Some of the collections found here are from wild plants/tree populations, some possibly even rare and endangered. These serve as a means of protection and propagation of the species.

Also found here are the Museum of Natural History and a zoo (La Menagerie). The zoo houses some 1800 animals representing 1/3 of the species threatened by extinction. It dates from 1794. The park lies between Metro Jussieu (lines 7 and 10) and Metro Gare d’Austerlitz (lines 5 and 10, RER C).

Roman Arena

Arène de Lutèce

The Arènes de Lutèce are the remains of a Roman amphitheater. At one time it could hold 15 000 people. It was discovered in the late 1800s when a train depot was planned for that location.

The amphitheater was constructed between the first and second century. At one time the dimensions measured 150m (492 feet) by 100 m (328 feet).

Self-guided Walking Tours

Do you want to see more of the Latin Quarter Paris? Discover where  Balzac, Joyce, Hemingway and others lived and/or worked? Follow my Latin Quarter self-guided tours. The first tour explores sights to the east of Boulevard Saint Michel. The second self-guided tour explores sights to the west of Boulevard Saint Michel.

Click here for the East Tour

Click here for the West Tour

Both tours have interactive maps as well as printable PDF maps.

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