I'm taking my first solo trip to Paris and have the following questions for my fellow travelers about The Latin Quarter please:

1)What are the main characteristics/look/feel of The Latin Quarter?

2) How far of a walk is it to Notre Dame and Ile St. Louis? It looks very close.

3) What is the rue des Ecoles like? Noisy? Quiet?

4)What are some reasonably priced places to eat there?

5) Is there a grocery store, post office and laundrymat there?

6) How safe is it to walk around there at night for a solo female traveler?

7) Do travelers in their 30s and 40s stay there or primarily students in their 20s.

Thanks!

2) Latin Quarter is a fairly big district, so the answer may vary. Our hotel was quite close to Notre Dame.

6) I felt safe in the Latin Quarter in the evenings. There's lots of people around.

7) I know it is traditionally perhaps a student area but I didn't notice a particular age group. I think tourists of ALL ages choose the 5th because of it's central location.

Get out a Paris map - see the Arc de Triomphe? See the Louvre? that's about 2 miles' walk between them. Now you can use that as a rough point of reference.

You can use the Paris yellow pages site to find all the businesses you care about that are near your hotel address.
www.pagesjaunes.fr

<i>4)What are some reasonably priced places to eat there? </i>

There are tons of cafes in the LQ. You'll find a favorite. Ours is at the intersection of Blvd Raspail, Rue de Sevres and Rue de Babylon. (It has the names of the streets on its awning.) Typical supper will be German sausages, potatoes and salad. About 10 euros.

The Latin Quarter is home to the Sorbonne and has traditionally been considered the student/intellectual venue in Paris.

That said, there are probably as many tourists there these days a there are students, though the area has a decidedly Bohemian feel to it that separates it a bit from the rest of Paris.

Depending on where you are in the 5th, its close or very close to Notre Dame and the Ile Saint-Louis.

Can't speak to the rue des Ecoles, though I walk its length almost every time i'm in Paris. Depends on where you are on that street.

Unfortunately, the 5th is the one arrondissement in Paris IMO that has more bad cheap restaurants than anywhere else, particularly around the rue de la Harpe, rue de la Huchette, etc. Avoid all those Greek places with the waiters standing outside with the plates with plastic replicas of food trying to lure you in. Look for places with menus not translated to English (though that's not a hard and fast rule).

Don't know specifics about grocery store, PO, and laundromat, but every district of Paris has those, so assume you'll find them.

Paris is safe anywhere at night as long as you take normal precautions. The 5th is a busy neighborhood so expect it to be lively well into the night.

4) ditto above about rue de la Harpe... very touristy street, we had lunch there one afternoon. not horrible but there are about a thousand better choices!

5) sorry, i can't direct you to exact locations but I was staying near the Sorbonne and shopped at a Monoprix (looks like a department store upstairs, groceries downstairs) and found a post office easy enough out walking around one day.

I actually LOVE a restaurant on rue de l'harpe called Creperie de la Cluny. They have a great salad (called l'harpe) for 5.80 Euros.

A lot of people have broad definitions of Latin Quarter, and some people call areas in Paris the Latin Quarter that are not, such as the west part of the 5th arr. On the other hand, I call the entire 5th arrondisement the Latin Qtr pretty much except maybe the area to the SE, and so a lot of these characteristics aren't true of the area as a whole, such as terrible restaurants. But if you only call a few blocks around the Seine and bd St Michel the Latin Qtr, as many do, there are a lot of bad restaurants on those streets that tourists frequent, but some people like them anyway.

I don't know where Suze was staying as there isn't any MOnoprix near the Sorbonne. There isn't any Monoprix in the entire 5th arrondisement that has groceries in the basement (the only one in the entire quartier is near ave des Gobelins, and it doesn't have groceries). I suspect she was in St Germain and near the one on rue de Rennes and the St Germain metro stop.

There aren't any large supermarkets in it that I know of. That is one unusual thing about that quarter compared to most others, but there are some smaller ones in various places, and there are always smaller vendors of specific products, like a bakery or fruits/vegetables, etc. There are quite a few good smaller food markets on rue St Jacques leading south of the Pantheon for one area. There are tons on rue Mouffetard and Monge, for another.

I don't like rue des Ecoles that well as it's a pretty big street and I don't find it that interesting or convenient in the parts where some wellknown budget hotels are.

All kinds of tourists stay in the hotels in that part of the Latin Qtr, definitely not just 20 somethings. It's fairly safe, of course, but I wouldn't suggest you wander around anywhere in Paris late at night in the dark alone. There are some muggings and rowdy behavior in the Latin Qtr in certain areas, maybe more than some others.

Thank you everyone! The information provided is most helpful!

Author: lovetoseetheworld
Date: 01/18/2007, 07:43 pm
I'm taking my first solo trip to Paris and have the following questions for my fellow travelers about The Latin Quarter please:

1)What are the main characteristics/look/feel of The Latin Quarter?

2) How far of a walk is it to Notre Dame and Ile St. Louis? It looks very close.

3) What is the rue des Ecoles like? Noisy? Quiet?

4)What are some reasonably priced places to eat there?

5) Is there a grocery store, post office and laundrymat there?

6) How safe is it to walk around there at night for a solo female traveler?

7) Do travelers in their 30s and 40s stay there or primarily students in their 20s.

Thanks!



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Author: suze
Date: 01/18/2007, 08:11 pm
2) Latin Quarter is a fairly big district, so the answer may vary. Our hotel was quite close to Notre Dame.

6) I felt safe in the Latin Quarter in the evenings. There's lots of people around.

7) I know it is traditionally perhaps a student area but I didn't notice a particular age group. I think tourists of ALL ages choose the 5th because of it's central location.



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Author: Travelnut
Date: 01/18/2007, 10:10 pm
Get out a Paris map - see the Arc de Triomphe? See the Louvre? that's about 2 miles' walk between them.


2 miles? maybe 2 minutes

Sorry for that messed up post.

I was referring to travelnut's post only.

Christina thank you for bringing up the point about geography. I agree with your description of the area is encompasses. But Jeanne's post above confuses me..is the intersection of Rues de Babylon and Sevres and Blvd. Raspail considered the Latyin Quarter? I thought that would be in the 6eme... IS there is exact demarcation line for this area? Or is it more in people's memories?