A closer look at Saint-Germain-des-Prés
This is blog post #6 from our tour of Europe. Our final full day in Paris, Friday, June 27th, was a relatively slow day, with a walking tour of the area around our hotel and then a concert in the grandest local church.
Saint-Germain-des-Prés is one of the four administrative quarters of the 6th arrondissement of Paris. Its history goes back over 1,500 years. This is a very special part of Paris, and we haven’t tried to fool ourselves into thinking that we’ve “seen Paris” – this is not what the average Parisian experiences.
Our walking tour began at the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which was founded in the 6th century. It was a short walk from our hotel, during which there were scenes of interest all around.
A teeny shop selling tourist trinkets.
The church.
The intersection in front of the church.
Five photos of the interior.
Les Deux Magots is one of many famous restaurants in the district. Back in its heyday, a lengthy list of the literary and intellectual elite hung out here, but now you’ll see tourists.
Montparnasse Tower offers a unique view of the city from the observation deck located on the 56th floor. We had tickets, but ran out of energy so didn’t get there.
A motorcycle created with about $25,000 worth of Louis Vuitton luggage. Yes, it’s that sort of neighbourhood 🙂
One of the few remaining medieval streets, now lined with restaurants and art shops.
The Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe is one of France’s six national theatres. This building, the third on the site, opened in 1819.
A couple of interesting buildings.
Maria took us down another medieval street to talk about a typical home, including how each floor would have a specific purpose, with the owners, or at least the rich people, living on upper floors with vegetation on the balconies, with their servants living on the top floor with small rooms. The architect was identified in a cutting on the wall – “J. Sottas, Arch., 1908.”
She had a graphic that showed the building’s layout well.
ABC – Another Bloody Church 🙂 The Church of Saint-Sulpice is the third-largest church in Paris, only slightly smaller than Notre-Dame and Saint-Eustache.
Three photos of the interior of Saint-Sulpice.
We saw a few tiny grocery stores like this.
With the walking tour over, it was time for lunch. We stopped at La Crêperie du Clown, where I ordered a croque-madame, a dish I know in Whitehorse, but it doesn’t look or taste much like the Parisian version.
Then we stopped at a very busy little bakery for some treats – but they turned out to be dinner 🙂
That evening, we were back at the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés for a classical concert.
This turned out to be a superb way to end our visit to Paris. As well as these two photos, I shot a 1-minute video to give you a feel for it.
Our neighbourhood is a happening place at night, and I went out for a bit on our final night to try to get a few photos that show that. This one is a block from our hotel. But here’s no noise – just the low hum of people talking. How bloody civilized.
The next morning, we would take a taxi to the train station for a high-speed ride to Rotterdam.
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