At the heart of the Latin Quarter in Paris is the Sainte-Genevieve Hill, and you can't experience everything this charming district has to offer without climbing it and discovering everything that's hidden up there.Previous itinerary in the Latin Quarter We climbed the southern side of the hill and discovered quite a few culinary and historical attractions. Today, let me offer you another route in which we will discover the northern part of the hill.
This area was home to the various colleges of the University of Paris, which was established during the Middle Ages and which I wrote about in an article dealing withHistory of the Latin QuarterHowever, Sainte-Genevieve Hill is not only a collection of colleges but also beautiful churches, Roman baths and quite a few other interesting places, which you should really discover (including the building where the main heroine of the series “lives”). Emily in Paris).
Since time is short and the journey is long, let's get going right away.
Map of the itinerary and starting point
We will start our trip outside the Cluny – La Sorbonne metro station, which is served by metro line 10 (you can also get there with RER B and RER C, but that will require you to walk quite a bit underground, which is a shame). When you are about to exit the metro, look for the Boulevard Saint-Germain – Musée du Moyen-Âge exit.
Here is the route map that contains the points of interest (it is recommended to zoom out to see everything). I marked the starting point with a flag, each point of interest is marked with a star and a recommended restaurant is marked as a covered tray. I also added nearby hotels here, in case you want to stay in this lovely area.
The itinerary in the northern part of the Latin Quarter
Roman Baths and Renaissance Palace
When you exit the metro station, you will find yourself on the famous Boulevard Saint-Germain, which starts in the 5th arrondissement and ends in the 7th arrondissement. If you look southwest, you will see the remains of Roman baths, from the days when Paris was still Lutsia, and a cute garden where you can go and rest (but why rest if the trip has just begun? 🙂 ).
Go to Rue Cluny and turn right into Place Paul Painlevé, built in 1855. This is one of my favorite gardens in Paris, and once you're there you'll probably understand why. I think the first thing you'll notice (apart from the Hôtel de Cluny, which I'll talk about in a moment) is the statue of Montaigne, which is outside the garden and faces south.
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) is considered one of France's greatest essayists and humanists, and I invite you all to read his Written by Yigal Libernet Which deals with his life and the important essays he wrote.
If you look closely at the bronze statue of Montaigne, you will see that his shoe is gilded while the rest of the statue retains its greenish patina. This is because students at the Sorbonne believe that rubbing one's shoe is a proven virtue for success in exams. It reminds me of the tomb of Victor Noir, which also has virtues, but there is a need to rub something completely different there…
Inside the garden you will find another interesting statue, namely the replica of the famous statue from Rome of the she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus.
The statue was donated by the city of Rome, in memory of the Gallo-Roman city of Lutetia that stood there. I wonder how Paris would react if Germany sent them a copy of some famous statue that stands in Berlin.
After visiting the garden, it was time for the “main course,” which is the Medieval Museum, located in the Hôtel de Cluny.
This magnificent palace was built for the Abbot of Cluny in the late 15th century, and as such is the second residential building in Paris (after Nicolas Flamel's house). The person responsible for the building's Renaissance beauty is Bishop Jacques d'Amboise (1440-1516), who, as you will see, had an exceptional aesthetic sense.
The palace underwent a major renovation and reopened to the public in 2021, with the entrance moved from the red gate on the square to a modern entrance hall on Somerard Street. Inside the palace you will find a museum dedicated to the Middle Ages, where you will find the original statues of the Kings of Judah from Notre Dame Cathedral and of course the famous tapestry “The Lady and the Unicorn.”
I visited this museum about six months after it reopened, and I was very impressed with both the exhibits and the aesthetically pleasing way in which they are presented. In my opinion, this is a must-see museum for those visiting Paris for the first time and interested in better understanding the city’s history, but also for “advanced Francophiles” who have visited here in the past and will now be able to enjoy this museum even more.
Since we have just begun our trip and there are still quite a few interesting places ahead of us, I will stop here, but if you would like to get to know the museum better and visit it, I recommend you read Avital Inbar's article. Cluny Museum: Discover the Medieval Treasures of Paris.
Mythological cinemas and the final resting place of Richelieu
After visiting the Cluny Museum, return to Paul Painlevé Square and turn right onto Rue des Écoles, which was built by Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann, and is named after the institutions of higher education located not far away, which we will talk about later.
Immediately afterwards, you are invited to take a look to the left at Champolion Street. This is a street that was known during the 19th century for its cabarets, but during the 20th century, the cabarets were transformed into cinemas, and today it has a unique cluster of independent cinemas, some of which have become a kind of mythology, because they are still able to “give a fight” to the cinema chains.
As I mentioned, the cinemas and this street have a really interesting story, and if you want to expand on the subject, I recommend you read Liran Hotmacher's wonderful article. Discover the real Paris through the cinemas of Champollion StreetAfter you've finished checking out what's on display there, you're welcome to return to Rue des Écoles, turn left, and go up Boulevard Saint-Michel, which was also built during the reign of Napoleon III.
Continue up until you reach Place de la Sorbonne where you will see the famous church designed by architect Jacques Lemercier (1585-1654) at the request of Richelieu, who initiated extensive construction of large parts of the Sorbonne.
The construction of the church was completed in 1635, and about 7 years later it was honored to “host” the body of the cardinal, who ordered him to be buried there (unfortunately for Richelieu, his body did not remain there forever and in time French Revolution The revolutionaries beheaded him and kidnapped his body, and only in 1866 were both returned to the church, where they remain to this day.) Unfortunately, today it is not possible to visit there (unless you have a French student ID), but you are welcome to watch this video I created in the past, which can, at the very least, show you what the place looked like during the 18th century.
One peak and two churches not to be missed
Return to Boulevard Saint-Michel, turn left and continue up until you see Rue Soufflot and the Pantheon on your left. Walk towards the Pantheon until you reach the square in front of it.
This building has a fascinating story that begins with Louis XV's vow to build a church in honor of Saint Genevieve (who was Saint Genevieve? You are invited to read about her in the article on The history of the Latin Quarter). Later, after the French Revolution, the place became a burial hall for the great men of the French nation, returned to being a church, and finally returned to being a burial hall for VIPs, and so it remains today. If you would like to read about the history of the Pantheon and its vicissitudes of fate, you are welcome to visitArticle about the Pantheon On my site.
Entrance to the Pantheon is free and tickets can be purchased via This linkIn my opinion, it is definitely worth spending a little time in this church, not only because of its beauty, but mainly because of the tombs of important people buried in the basement. A visit there is a kind of trip through the time tunnel of French history of the last 250 years.
After you leave the Pantheon and stand with your back to it, you will see two neoclassical buildings and you will surely think that they were built by the same architect and at the same time. So let me surprise you and tell you that about 80 years separate these two buildings.
If you look to the right, you will see the Faculty of Law building, built in 1771 by Jacques-Germain Soufflot (1713-1780), the architect of the Pantheon.
To your left you can see the 5th arrondissement town hall, completed in 1849. This building was built by Jacques Hittorff (1792-1867), one of the great architects of the reigns of King Louis Philippe (reigned 1830-1848) and Napoleon III (reigned 1852-1870).
I happened to visit there one day during Heritage Days And I was really impressed that even a completely functional place like a city hall can be so beautiful both outside and inside. Here, for example, is their staircase:
And if you think only cities and churches can be magnificent, what do you think of libraries?
Go to Place du Panthéon 10, where the Sainte-Genevieve Library is located, containing tens of thousands of books that were saved when the Sainte-Genevieve Abbey was demolished during the French Revolution. The building you see was built during the reign of King Louis Philippe (reigned 1830-1848) and stands on the ruins of the Collège de Montaigu, which was built in 1314.
Let's put it this way: you probably wouldn't want to study there, as the place was known for its appalling sanitary conditions and harsh discipline, which included the use of violence against students, to the point that, according to the famous writer François Rabelais (1483-1553), the conditions there were worse than those of the Tatar or Maori slaves.
On the other hand, despite all this, some very educated people came out of there, including the famous philosopher Erasmus of Rotterdam (Érasme de Rotterdam 1466-1538), Jean Calvin (Jean Calvin 1509-1564), the founder of Calvinism, and of course the writer Rabelais himself. So maybe they did something good after all…
Today, you can visit the Sainte-Genevieve Library, but it's not easy because you need a reader's card (which you can get for free on site). If you manage to get inside, you can see the main reading room, and if you go there during heritage days, you can see several other rooms, which are usually closed to the general public.
Whether you visited the library or not, continue straight to the Église Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, one of my favorite churches in Paris. Those who, like me, love Woody Allen’s immortal film “Midnight in Paris,” are invited to sit on the steps of the church and, while waiting for the car to take them to meet Hemingway and Gertrude Stein, hear a little about the history of this church.
The first church was built on the site during the 13th century, but the current church was built in the 15th century, in Gothic style. To all this, a beautiful Baroque facade was added during the 17th century.
I recommend you enter this church for several reasons, including the fact that it is the burial place of playwright Jean Racine and philosopher Blaise Pascal, and also because of the wonderful organ that is located there (if you are lucky and someone happens to be playing it when you enter). However, the most important reason, for me, to visit this church is the beautiful stone screen that forms a divider between the two parts of the church.
This is the only surviving stone screen (inNotre Dame Church There was such a screen, but in the 17th century it was decided that it was too primitive and was destroyed) and it is simply beautiful. To me it is a kind of embroidery in marble, and I can look at it for minutes without getting bored.
The high school of the French elite and the house where the duke who studied Hebrew lived
Exit the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont through the side entrance, straight onto Rue Clovis. Directly opposite you will find the secondary school of King Henry IV (reigned 4-1589). This school is located on the site of the abbey of Sainte-Genevieve and is where King Clovis I (reigned 1610-1) and his wife were buried.
During the French Revolution, the convent was closed, and its building became one of the first public schools in Paris. During the 19th century, the school changed a series of names until its current name was established in 1873. This school became famous for two things.
The first is the “Clovis Tower”, the bell tower of the old church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont that you visited a moment ago. The second thing that made the place famous is the list of famous people who studied here.
Here is a very partial list of those celebs:
- The sons of King Louis Philippe I
- Victor Baltard (1805-1874), who became famous for the iron and glass structures of the wholesale market inLa God.
- Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805-1894), the engineer behind the Suez Canal
- Léon Blum (1872-1950), Jewish Prime Minister of France, who during his reign introduced into the law book for the first time a week's vacation for every worker (which has since grown to a month, and in other places even more).
- And speaking of Jews, famous singers Patrick Bruel and Guy Béart also studied here.
Unfortunately, this school cannot be visited outside of Heritage Days, and if there is one thing I regret, it is that on one of the Heritage Days I stood in line at the entrance but broke down before it was my turn to enter. I hope to atone for this sin the next time I come to Paris in September.
And now let me recommend a great place to have lunch (if you get here in time). Go back down Rue Clovis to the main entrance of the Saint-Etienne du Mont church, go down Rue Montagne Sainte Genevieve and turn left onto Rue Laplace.
The restaurant is at number 17. Colette's table, a restaurant with sophisticated French cuisine that serves only tasting menus (all you can choose is the number of courses). At lunchtime you will receive a 3-course meal here for 45 euros per person, which in my opinion is an excellent price for this level of meal and the service you will receive.
After you've finished eating, retrace their steps to Rue Montagne Sainte-Geneviève and continue until you reach a small square named after Jacqueline de Romilly (1913-2010), an important philologist and the second woman to be elected to the ranks of the French Academy.
Opposite the fountain you will find the building that once housed the École polytechnique, until it moved to the suburb of Plaiseau in the year I was born (1977). The school was created in 1794 to educate the scientific elite of the French army and among its famous graduates is Marshal Foch (Ferdinand Foch 1851-1929), a hero of World War I, 1 Nobel Prize winners and much more.
Continue up Rue Descartes, and notice a small, narrow street called Rue Descartes. There, at number 30, Louis “the Just” Duke of Orléans (Louis I d’Orléans 1703-1752) lived. In contrast Masbu chases men And his father is a womanizer (whose adventures you can read about in the article about Palais Royal) , Louis was a man of one wife and her name was Augusta, Princess of Baden-Baden.
Unlike almost any other couple at the time, the Duke and Duchess loved each other very much and when the Duchess died during the birth of their daughter in 1726, the grief-stricken Duke decided to retire from the royal court and…go study Hebrew at the Sorbonne. In order to be close to the Sorbonne, the Duke decided to live in this house, where he died in 1752.
Verlaine's house that became Hemingway's office
Continue on Rue Descartes until you reach number 39. That's where the poet lived. Paul Verlaine His final years. Verlaine's life was very turbulent and included not only writing wonderful poetry but also a homosexual relationship with another gifted poet (Arthur Rimbaud), a trip to Europe that ended with Verlaine shooting Rimbaud, serving time in prison, trying to repent, deteriorating into drinking, and finally dying in 1896 almost penniless in an apartment in this house that he shared with a retired prostitute.
Nearly 30 years later, the famous American writer Ernest Hemingway This apartment and turned it into a kind of “study,” because his apartment on Cardinal Lemoine Street was too small.
The pastoral street named after the torture device
Continue south on Rue Descartes and turn right on Rue Thouin. Walk until you reach a small square named after Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995), a philosopher and educator, who ran the school he attended. Avital InbarFrom this small garden there is a beautiful view of the dome of the Pantheon, which I was happy to photograph in the fall of 2023.
Now look across to 3 Rue de l'Estrapade, where you will find an 18th-century building. This is where the philosopher Denis Diderot (1713-1784) lived for several years and where he began working on his encyclopedia, until he was arrested by the authorities in 1749. The reason for his arrest was the "Letter to the Blind", a scathing critique of the authorities, which "arranged" him an "all-inclusive vacation" inVincennes Castle.
Continue along Rue l'Estrapade and you'll feel as if time has stopped here somewhere in the late 18th or early 19th century. What's interesting is that despite the pastoral atmosphere, the street itself is named after a torture device, which was very popular in the 16th and 17th centuries, which allowed a person to be hung by their hands, which would cause broken bones and torn muscles.
Continue to number 9 and you will come to a lovely orange building, with a metal gate. There is a sign on the building that says brûlerie Saint-Jacques. Don't worry, people weren't burned here, like on Rue l'Estrapade, they weren't hung by the hands, but they used to roast coffee here (and it's now a private residence).
Continue on until you reach Place de l'Estrapade. Emily from the series "Emily in Paris" lives in building number 1, and you'll most likely find fans of the series taking pictures near the building's gate, like this fan I got to photograph.
By the way, if you like the series and are interested in getting to know more places in Paris related to it, you are welcome to visitArticle about her On my site.
The beautiful church that many tourists miss
After you have finished taking pictures, you are welcome to exit the square and turn left onto Lhomonde Street. Continue on the street and turn right onto Ulm Street.
Continue to number 23, where you will see a mural of the famous chemist Marie Curie and if you wish, you are welcome to visit the museum named after her, which is located not far away, at 1 Rue Pierre et Marie Curie (open Wednesday-Saturday from 13:00 PM to 17:00 PM and features exhibitions dealing with radioactivity). If you would like to learn more about Marie Curie's story, I recommend you read Dr. Orna Lieberman's article Marie Curie and Paul Langevin – a secret forbidden love.
Whether you have visited the Madame Curie Museum or not, you are welcome to continue walking along Ulm Street until you reach number 45, where the Ecole Normale Supérieure is located. This is the most prestigious higher education institution in France (much more prestigious than the Sorbonne), and it is where the French political elite is trained. For example, among the institution's alumni list you can find French President Georges Pompidou, Jean-Paul Sartre, Louis Pasteur, and many more. The facade of this school is simply beautiful, and you can sometimes go inside, into the very beautiful courtyard of the institution.
Continue to the end of the street and turn right onto Rue de Feullantines. Walk to number 8 and there you will discover the house where the famous writer lived. Victor Hugo, during his childhood and there he took his first steps in the world of poetry.
Continue straight and turn left on Rue Saint Jacques, which leads south but outside the borders of Paris and is named after Santiago de la Compostela, because this is where the pilgrims went (they began their journey inSaint-Jacques Tower Located in the 4th arrondissement.) Continue straight until you reach the Val-de-Grâce Church.
The story of the church begins with a royal vow. To Queen Anne of Austria, who was married toLouis XIV (reigned 1610-1643) had no children, despite many years of marriage to the king (apparently because he was a closet homosexual).
The queen swore that if God would grant her a child, she would build a magnificent church in his honor, and indeed a miracle happened and a year later the queen became pregnant and gave birth to the future son. Louis XIVIn 1654, Queen Anne of Austria laid the cornerstone for this church, which was built by the two famous architects François Mansart (1598-1666) and Jacques Le Marcia (whom we already mentioned when we talked about the Sorbonne).
The result is truly spectacular both inside and out. Particularly striking is the beautiful dome they built, decorated on the inside with a fresco by Pierre Mignard (1612-1695), depicting more than 200 figures in Paradise, including that of Queen Anne of Austria's patroness.
To visit this church, you must visit the Val de Grasse Museum, which is mostly devoted to military medicine. Although the subject itself may not sound particularly interesting, a visit to what was once a royal monastery is definitely worth your time.
If you would like to visit the museum, know that it is open every day, except Mondays and Fridays, between 12:00 and 18:00.
Our trip ends at this charming church. If you are not tired yet, you are welcome to go toLuxembourg Gardens, which are about a ten-minute walk away. In my opinion, there is no better way to end a trip to the Latin Quarter (although the gardens are already in the 6th arrondissement 🙂 ).
Want to read more about the Latin Quarter?
If you liked this itinerary and are looking for more itineraries in the Latin Quarter, you are welcome to visitLatin Quarter page On the site you can find not only travel routes but also recommendations for restaurants, hotels and more.
Not traveling now
But I enjoy reading about the charming city over and over again. The first time I was there was 53 years ago. And since then I have been in love with it and with my Israeli partner, whom I met there.
Thanks for the articles ♥️
Thank you very much 🙂
You write so interestingly and don't miss any detail.
You allow us to travel through words.
Thank you very much 🙂