SAINT GERMAIN DES PRES

After World War II, Saint germain des Près became synonymous with intellectual life centred on bars and cafés. Philosophers, writers, actors and musicians mingled in the cellar nightspots and brasseries, where existentialst philosophy coexisted with American jazz.

The area is now smarter that in the heyday of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, the enigmatic singer Juliette Grécot and the new-wave film makers (such as Godard and Truffaut)

However, the writers are still around, enjoying the pleaures of sitting in Les Deux magots, Café de Flore and other haunts, or in the Jardins du Luxembourg, just behind the Odeon Theatre.

The 17th century buildings have survived, but signs of change are evident in the affluent shops dealing in antiques, books and fashion. Somehow, it has become an up-to-date place, through which runs Boulevard Saint Germain.

This thoroughfare is the most celebrated of the left bank, and curves across three districts from The Ile Saint Louis to the Pont de la Concorde. The architecture is homogeneous because the Boulevard was another of Baron Haussmann's bold strokes of 19th century urban planning.

Jardins and Palais du Luxembourg :

With its statuary, formal gravel paths and benches, the Luxembours is the quintessential Paris park. Most unusual sights include an apiary, joggers and martial art practitioners.

Tennis courts, pétanque pitches, a basketball hoop, pony rides and puppet shows add to the fun. At weekends in summer, the octagonal pond in front of the palace is surrounded by smartly dressed Parisian children bearing batons to guide the progress of their sailing boats.

Fronting rue de Vaugirard, the Palais du luxembourg was designed by Salomon de Brosse in the early 17th century for Queen Mary de Medicis, the florentine wife of Henry IV. Today, the palace houses the French Senate.

Address : main entrance corner of bd St. Michel and rue de Medicis, 6th. Open daily, dawn-dusk.

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