Rough outline of a day long exploration of the Latin quarter is found below. Please review and make suggestions on additional places to see, cafes and shops and streets/ squares/buildings to add. Always looking for photo opportunities and unusual or off-the-beaten-track things to see and do.

I'll make it a two day event if I get good additional inputs. I'm saving St. Germain and the Jardin du Luxumbourg for another day.


Latin Quarter Exploration

Gameplan: start around 8AM and work northward, taking all day

Start at Metro Censier-Daubenton or Place Monge

St. Medard Church

Rue Mouffetard Market

Place de la Contresecarpe

Coffe break at Café. Which one?

Quick walk by: Hemingway's Apartment at 73 rue du Cardinal Lemoine.

St. Etienne-du-Mont: Gothic structure with renaissance decoration

Pantheon

Possible quick stop: Musee Marie Currie: 11 Rue Pierre & Marie Currie

La Sorbonne: quick walk through to view courtyard and galleries

Possible quick stop: College of France to view statues in courtyard

Lunch break in this area at ???

Musee du Moyan Age
Jardin Medieval
Themes de Cluny

St. Julien-le-Pauvre

Square Rene Vivianni (garden next to church ) oldest tree in Paris and classic views of Notre Dame

St. Severin

Stop at outdoor café for a glass of wine and to people watch. Where?

Ancient Streets: Rue Galande Rue de la Huchette, Rue Xavier-Privas, Rue du Chat-qui-Peche

Place St-Michel

Shakespeare & Co Bookstore

Finish in front of Notre Dame

Great itinerary, Degas! Are you sure you have the right street number for Hemingway's apartment on rue du Cardinal Lemoine. We were told that Hemingway's apartment was diagonally across the street from the Hotel des Grandes Ecole, whose number is 75 rue du Cardinal Lemoine. (Stop for a quick peek at the hotel and its charming inner courtyard while passing by.)

PS: If you want an excellent restaurant for dinner in the area, try Perraudin at 157 rue St. Jacques (around the corner from rue Soufflot). Delightful little restaurant populated mostly by locals. They don't take credit cards...and make sure you get there when it opens at 7:30. It was already filled by 8 p.m. both times we went there.

You may want to check into whether there is a concert at the Cluny Museum, since you will be there around lunchtime. I attended one of these and heard an early music ensemble which was fabulous, with an amazing variety of instruments. They are called Ultreia, and I have two of their CDs. I believe their concerts are on certain Fridays at noon, but the Cluny website should have a schedule.

HowardR, thanks for the inputs. I'll revise the plan accordingly.

I'm confused now about where he did live. I read a couple of articles which say it was either 73 or 74 rue du Cardinal Lemoine. but I also remember reading that he took an apartment in which to write, so maybe he lived in one and wrote in another?

Hi Degas,

I thought I was a careful planner. Thanks for the itinerary.

We stopped by the Pantheon last year to find out about the new access to the top for an overview of Paris... seems there is a small fee (I don't remember, maybe 7 Euro or so) and you can only go up with a guide at certain times. The wait for the next opportunity didn't fit in with our itinerary so we moved on. But for you, it might be a nice thing to do for a panorama of the city.

St Etienne has the crypt of Ste Genevieve, whom I believe is the patron saint of Paris.

Your itinerary will be a most enjoyable walk.

Nikki & Travelnut, thanks for the inputs. Thet were exactly what I was looking for to add more "spice' to the plan.

ira, I bet you also have some good ones tucked away in your "secret" travel file!

Perhaps not very "French", but unmissable (in my mind) is the Moorish style tea-room by the Paris mosque. (Corner of rue Daubenton and rue Geoffroy st Hilaire, opposite the entrance to the Jardin des Plantes). Make a detour from place Monge (it's a five-minute walk from there) and enjoy a glass of mint tea and a pastry in the pretty covered courtyard at the back. Watch out for the sparrows darting around.

On your way down rue Galande, stop off at the Caveau des Oubliettes, at number 5 (I think). Apart from being the only bar I've ever seen with real turf rather than carpets or wooden floors, it also has a real guillotine and some rather spooky underground dungeons that were in use in late medieval times. They have great free-for-all jazz jam sessions in the cellar bar a couple of nights a week, too (tues-wed, I think)

hanl, thanks - great info. I knew this post would draw out some real experts.

Hi Degas,

I'm by no means a Paris expert, but I wanted to chime in and second HowardR's suggestion of Perraudin for dinner. If you do end up waiting for a table, don't worry. You can stand at the little bar for a drink while you wait. The bartender and waiter at this place must be the friendliest in all of Paris. Note it is open Monday-Friday, and closes on the weekends.

Have a great trip!

Degas, the building I am talking about has a sign noting the Hemingway connection. There is a store on the first floor.
One other place of note: We were told that James Joyce lived just down the hill (about one or two buildings downward) from the Hotel des Grandes Ecoles on the same side of the street. It's a building with a gated entrance and a small courtyard/entranceway just beyond the gate.
One additional word of caution: Most of the restaurants in the upper rue Mouffetard area are very touristy and very mediocre!

Kay, I'm glad to read about another fan of Perraudin. I think the friendly bartender is the owner. As I mentioned before, we liked it so much we dined there twice.

Hi
No Rodin Museum?

Hemngway apartment seems to be #74

see
http://members.aol.com/steinway1/lemoine.html

http://www.lostgeneration.com/paris.htm

His writing studio was on rue Descartes

Thanks for the additional info. I've got to have dinner at that place now.

I'm working now on a seperate walk for
St. Germain: Invalides, Rodin, Musee Delacriox, Musee D'Orsay, St. Sulpice, Luxumbourg Gardens ... . I'll post it in a day or so.

Degas, if it is open, be sure to check out the crypt of the Pantheon. Buried there are some of the most important people in French history, including Malraux, Dumas (not *our* Dumas!), Marat, Rousseau, the Curies, etc. etc. It is gigantic and fascinating!

Hi Howard, I truly do love that little restaurant. We enjoyed it so much we went back a second time too! The waiter recognized us and after dinner, as we were leaving, he came over and shook our hands and patted our backs for about 5 minutes, chatting happily in French. Someone forgot to tell these guys that Parisiens are supposed to be rude and indifferent!

And Degas: Howard is right about those restaurants on the upper Mouffetard. Beware! In a moment of hunger-induced weakness we ate the worst dinner ever with horrible service at some touristy place whose name I've blocked from my memory. Don't even give those restaurants a second glace!

Just wanted to chime in again with one food place on rue Mouffetard that *is* worth stopping at, and that's the Italian ice cream shop (on the right near the top of the street, if walking up from the market end). They serve the most delicious ice creams shaped into a flower - using a palette knife they gradually build up ice cream "petals" around the cone, with one colour/flavour in the centre, and a contrasting one round the outside! Almost too pretty to eat (but luckily the ice cream and sorbets are excellent!!)

I have just come back from a trip to Paris where my husband did not feel like wandering too far from our first hotel (eye infection, miserable) for dinner so we did actually eat at a couple of restaurants around the rue Mouffetard area that weren't bad. The first was a sushi place whose name I can't remember about half way down the street itself that offered acceptable sushi at a reasonable price. The second was really quite decent. It was in a side street - rue du Pot de Fer - off the rue Mouffetard itself, quite near the end. It was called Le Vigneron and it served simple country French food that I enjoyed with some very good wines. So while many of the restaurants are not good value, don't write off the whole street if you are in the area and looking for a simple, cheap(ish) meal without walking too far.

Near the Place de la Contrescarpe that is a public bath and day care center that are surprising, especially for the former, because it is a recent building. For that reason I felt that it was worth a photograph.