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Saint
Germain is located on the Left Bank, across the Seine from the Tuileries.
It runs along the southern shore of the Seine, in the 7th and 6th
arrondissements.
From a visitor perspective St Germain is in arrondissement 6 between
the Luxembourg Gardens in the south and the Seine, the Sorbonne
in the East and St Germain Church and Musée d’Orsay
in the West.
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Luxembourg Palace |
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Some
of the hotels in the St Michel area around the Sorbonne also have
St Germain in their names.
The centre of St Germain is around the The oldest church in Paris
is the St-Germain-des-Prés church, a quarter of bistros, bookshops,
coffee-houses, galleries, nightclubs and publishing housess at the
intersection of Rue Bonaparte and Boulevard St-Germain. This is the
location of the Café Les Deux Magots [frequented by the writers
of the "Lost Generation" of the 20s and 30s, and by the
post World War II Existentialists], the Café de Flore and the
Brasserie Lipp.
The oldest church in Paris is the St-Germain-des-Prés, a favourite
place to find fellow visitors. North of the church is an interesting
area of narrow lanes and alleys with antique shops and other independent
outlets of interest.
By keeping to the back lanes it is a pleasant stroll north to the
Seine, either to the Musée d’Orsay or Notre Dame.
The great cafés of the area are either on, or near, the Boulevard
Saint Germain. The rue de l’Odéon runs from the Carrefour
de l’Odéon to the Place de l’Odéon It was
the first street in Paris to have pavements with gutters, and was
a center for intellectual book stores. The Odeon theatre has been
recently renovated and now in use again. |
The
Jardin du Luxembourg (nicknamed Luco) is the largest public park in
the city Luxembourg is the garden of the French Senate, which is itself
housed in the Luxembourg Palace at the northen end of the park. Its
a great place for visitors to take a quiet break from the noise and
bustle of the city centre.
The French Senat sits in the Luxembourg Palace and is out of bounds
but there are often exhibitions and similar in some of the outhouses.
For the visitor to Paris, St Germain is an excellent choice to choose
as your base. The RER railway has frequent direct services to both
CDG and Orly Airports as well as to the Gare du Nord. Another RER
railway runs along the left bank with trains going to Versailes affording
an easy independent day trip.
In the evening you can wander the streets where there is a good atmosphere
and restauarants abound, perhaps rounded off by a romantic stroll
over to the Louvre Palace or Notre Dame.
Accommodation
tends not to be of the budget variety, but there are simple
accommodations available offering great value in such an attractive
area.
We have a dedicated page for Saint
Germain hotels, complete with a detailed hotel map. For
the visitor, the area merges into the neighbouring Latin Quarter
which has similar attractions to St Germain. This particular
area as an accommodation district covered on our page Latin
Quarter hotels.
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Hotel
Map
Arrondissement 6 |
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