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Introduction

Let's start at the Pantheon-Sorbonne

Arenes de Lutece Contrescarpe-rue Mouffetard

Rue de la Huchette-Eglise Saint-Severin-Julien le Pauvre-Musee de Cluny

A walk through the old quartier Latin-Cour de Rohan-Commerce
Cafe Procope

Booksellers along the Seine-Institut du Monde Arabe

Paris-5th arrondissement-Rue de la Huchette-Eglise Saint Severin-Saint Julien le Pauvre-Musee de Cluny

Paris dining world!!!!

If the area of the Halles is called “Le Ventre de Paris” (belly of Paris), we must admit that the southeast is the head. This is the Paris of Abelard and Heloise, Thomas of Aquino, Erasmus and Ignatius di Loyola, Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.

Abelard, for those who ignore it, was a 12th century dissident theologian who left the Ile de le Cite to reflect with his students on the Montagne Sainte-Genevieve (still named like that around the metro Maubert-Mutualite). This started a development that brought a university, high school, faculty, college and laboratory in every street and every alley where Latin was the spoken language until the French revolution, even between the students meeting in the cafes and street, hence the name “quartier Latin”. The area was more less delimited by the boulevard Saint-Michel, boulevard Saint-Germain and place de la Montagne Sainte-Genevieve, difficult to define their frontiers, but it will not be the least of your fun to grab somewhere an unexpected place.
In the 13th century, a certain Robert de Sorbon opened a college for poor students in the area. This turned soon into the later world famous university of the SORBONNE. But other prestigious institutions settled down here: College de France, Ecole Normale Superieure, Ecole de Medecine, and the Faculte de Droit, Lycee Louis le Grand and Henri IV,  to name only a few of them. Where the French elite is crammed for a career in the high spheres of the French republic.
It’s in the students cafes that stormy discussions led to the May 1968 students revolt. The Sorbonne was again the centre of all the turmoil and heavy clashes with the police forces that spread all over France and in other cities in Europe. I can even remember that it triggered the campus protests all over some the U.S.  

Today the quartier Latin managed to keep its charm despite all these years of changments.  Small, picturesque and lively streets bordered by old houses are still watching us. But despite it is probably the area of Paris  with the most traveling images, a lot of streets are lined today with tourist restaurants, fast foods and cafes more well known from the escalation of prices than the warmth of their reception. Mostly between the Seine and the boulevard Saint-Germain a genuine swindle and fake area grew where the inhabitants and other tourist catchers try to make some money out of the credulity of the naive tourists. Bistros, snack bars, grills and Chinese restaurants……name them, you have them, but all of a VERY INFERIOR quality. They even hire “runners” to grab you by the arm and drag you into their crummy place.  

so relaxing on a terrace!!

But something indefinable still fascinates:the atmosphere and the nightlife, a spectacle and permanent agitation good to satisfy all visitors, attract young people from the whole world. Finally, a stroll through this quarter can bring you a great satisfaction as long as you stay away from the tourist traps. A walk to the place de la Contrescarpe, descending the rue Mouffetard, a visit to the Jardin des Plantes or a pilgrimage to the Pantheon to see the last resting place of France’s many celebrities, these are the ways to visit this area. I will make you some suggestions for a nice walk, but it is impossible to name all worthy sites to see. Keep your eyes open and you will discover in Paris much more then I can describe.  

Bibliography: Vie et histoire des arrondissments de Paris, ed.Hervas, 1985-1988, 20 volumes—Nouvelle Histoire de Paris, ed.Hachette (20 vol.since 1971), Le piéton de Paris, by L.P. Fargue, ed.Gallimard 1997—Guide du Routard 1998-99.