Quartier Latin
Eight hundred years of universities stacked on a Roman town: the Panthéon on the hill, a medieval abbey full of unicorn tapestries, a Roman arena in a back street, a Moorish mosque with a tea room, and student canteens next to tourist traps. Dense, sloping, and best walked without a plan.
Who it's for: History-minded travelers — this is the oldest continuously inhabited part of the city. Bookish people. Budget travelers, because the student economy keeps some genuinely cheap eating alive. Walkers happy to climb the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève.
Things to know
- Avoid the restaurant streets immediately behind Place Saint-Michel — rue de la Huchette and its neighbours are the densest concentration of tourist traps in Paris. Walk five minutes uphill or east to rue Mouffetard instead.
- The Musée de Cluny stays open until 9pm on the first and third Thursday of each month, which is the best time to see the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries without a crowd.
- The Panthéon's rooftop colonnade is only open April to October and depends on the weather. Add 30 minutes and a separate fee if you want it — the view over the Left Bank is the best in the arrondissement.
- The Grande Mosquée closes to non-worshippers on Fridays. Its tea room and hammam operate on their own hours, and the mint tea in the tiled courtyard is one of the cheapest good hours in Paris.
- The Institut du Monde Arabe's ninth-floor terrace is free to go up to and gives you the best close view of Notre-Dame's east end that exists. Almost nobody who is not visiting the museum knows this.
- The Arènes de Lutèce is free, unsigned from most directions, and entered through an unmarked passage off rue Monge. Locals play boules and football in a first-century Roman amphitheatre; it is the strangest free thing in central Paris.
- This is the steepest part of the Left Bank. Rue Mouffetard, the Panthéon and the Contrescarpe all sit on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève — expect a climb from the river.