Eglise
Saint Germain : Built around
the oldest romanesque abbey in Paris, Saint-Germain-des-Prés
is one of the most picturesque areas in Paris: cobbled streets,
mysterious passageways, shady courtyards, charming little squares,
famous cafés, lively jazz clubs, fruit and vegetable
markets. It has
given birth to all the intellectual upheavals which have
rocked Paris.
In the rue de l'Ancienne Comédie,
you can find the oldest café in Paris, opened in 1686,
le Procope, where Voltaire and Rousseau propagated their ideal
of progress, and where Danton exchanged revolutionary ideas
with Marat and Robespierre. Other famous regular customers
include La Fontaine, Beaumarchais, Balzac, Hugo, Verlaine,
the Encyclopedists, Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon, Daudet, Oscar
Wilde, Musset and George Sand. In the fifties, Jean-Paul Sartre,
Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir sat for hours at Café de
Flore or Aux Deux Magots, re-painting the neighborhood in existantialist
colours. Today's
Saint-Germain-des-Prés
is still a literary and artistic haunt with publishing houses,
old bookstores,
antique shops and art galleries lining the streets. Shoppers
will also appreciate the fact that the upmarket fashion emporia
has moved in (Armani, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, etc...)
|