Located in the fifth arrondissement (district) of Paris, the area around Rue Mouffetard is one of the oldest and liveliest neighborhoods in the city. It runs between the Place Contrescarpe, at its northern end, and Square Saint-Médard at the southern end. There are many restaurants, cafés, bars and shops along the street and an open-air street market towards Square Saint-Médard. It is a predominantly pedestrian avenue with limited motor traffic.

Rue Mouffetard runs along a flank of a hill which was called from Roman times as “mont Cetardus” and many historians believe “Mouffetard” is a derivation of this name. As with today’s rue Lagrange, rue Galande, rue Descartes and rue de la Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, it is a road built by the Romans. In the Middle Ages it was the center of Saint-Médard village, and from 1724 it became a district of Paris known as Faubourg Saint Médard. The neighborhood escaped Baron Haussmann’s city redevelopment relatively unchanged. The Rue Mouffetard area today, broadly speaking, is part of the latin Quarter.

Rue Mouffetard and the area are featured in director Krzysztof Kie?lowski’s film, “Three Colors: Blue” (Trois Couleurs: Bleu).

Text based on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rue_Mouffetard,_Paris