Where to eat · Vegetarian restaurant · €€ · 5e · Latin Quarter
Le Grenier de Notre-Dame
France's oldest vegetarian dining room, running since 1978 a few steps from the cathedral, and it has outlived most of the fashions that came after it. Lentil burgers crowned with Bleu d'Auvergne, gratins, and a mango-and-avocado tartare; vegan and gluten-free marked plainly.
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Weekday lunch is the cheaper entry point; the dark vegan chocolate cake is the dessert regulars defend.
Getting there
- Maubert Mutualité10210 m · 4 min walk
- Cluny - La Sorbonne10320 m · 6 min walk
- Saint-Michel Notre-Dame4RER BRER C330 m · 6 min walk
Around the corner
Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre · 100 m away
Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, in full Église Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, is a Melkite Greek Catholic parish church in Paris, France, and one of the city's oldest religious buildings. Begun in Romanesque style during the 12th century, most of its architecture is Primary Gothic. It is in the 5th arrondissement, on the left bank of the Seine River, about 500 meters away from the Musée de Cluny and not far from the Maubert-Mutualité Paris Métro station. It shares a city block with the Square René Viviani.
Wikipedia ↗Walks that pass nearby
- Phantom Parisstop 2 of 6 · 100 m
Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre
12th-century church on the Left Bank, opposite Notre-Dame. One of the oldest surviving churches in Paris, built circa 1170 — older than most of Notre-Dame itself. Saved from demolition by being too small to bother with.
The square out front (Square René-Viviani) holds the oldest tree in Paris, planted 1601. Inside, the apse and three aisles are original 12th century. Now a Greek Catholic church; usually open in the afternoons.
- Latin Quarter under 30 minutesstop 3 of 6 · 100 m
Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre
Romanesque church begun around 1170 — older than most of Notre-Dame across the river. Now a Greek Catholic Melkite chapel; the iconostasis at the front is 20th-century but the rest of the building is pure 12th century.
Free, usually open afternoons. The square out front (Square René-Viviani) holds the oldest tree in Paris (1601). Walk into the apse and look at the capitals on the columns — each is carved differently with vegetal motifs from the late Romanesque period.
- Hidden Parisstop 2 of 6 · 110 m
The oldest tree in Paris
A Robinia pseudoacacia planted in 1601 by botanist Jean Robin in the garden of Notre-Dame's medical school. Now in Square René-Viviani, propped up with a metal crutch, hollow but still alive. Officially the oldest tree in the city.
Square René-Viviani is on the Left Bank facing Notre-Dame, just behind Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre church. The tree is fenced in the south corner of the square. The plaque is in French; touching the bark is allowed.
- Paris Undergroundstop 3 of 6 · 120 m
Crypte archéologique du Parvis Notre-Dame
Beneath the cathedral square: foundations of Roman Lutetia, medieval streets, and the original Hôtel-Dieu hospital. Excavated 1965 when the city built an underground car park; turned into a museum that almost no one visits.
Entrance is in the small staircase on the parvis itself, in the centre near the bronze "Point Zéro" disc. Combined ticket with the Carnavalet Museum is good value. Allow 45 min — small but extraordinary, and never crowded.
Within a few minutes' walk
- Le LoubnaneLebanese / mezze€€ · 2 minA Latin Quarter Lebanese kitchen run by the same family since 1984, where the case to make is for the cold-and-hot mezze spread — tabbouleh, kibbeh, the lot — rather than a single plate.
- Shakespeare and CompanyIndependent bookshop€ · 2 minGeorge Whitman's English-language bookshop, opened in 1951 opposite Notre-Dame. Narrow stairs, beds among the shelves where 'Tumbleweeds' have slept since the 1950s, a piano, a wishing well and a reading library upstairs — a bookshop and a stubborn anachronism at once.
- Caveau des OubliettesJazz cellar€€ · 2 minA 12th-century stone cellar, once a dungeon, given over to nightly jam sessions rather than ticketed billings — soul on Wednesdays, jazz-funk on Thursdays and Sundays. Sets run on a fixed clock at 21:45, 22:45 and 23:45.
- Le Caveau de la HuchetteJazz cellar€€ · 3 minA vaulted 16th-century stone cellar run as a swing and bebop club since 1949, with a live band and a packed dance floor every night. Come to dance, not to watch.
- Les Bouquinistes de la SeineOpen-air booksellers€ · 6 minRoughly 900 wagon-green boxes bolted to the river parapets, worked by licensed second-hand dealers in books, old prints and postcards. Recognised in 2019 as French intangible heritage, and defended in 2024 when a plan to remove them for the Olympics was overruled.
- Piscine PontoiseArt Deco pool€ · 7 minA 1933 Art Deco municipal pool with a 33-metre basin under a listed glass roof, swimmable from early morning through to a blue-lit nocturne that runs to midnight on weekdays.
Where to stay near Le Grenier de Notre-Dame
- Hôtel MarignanBudget hotel€ · 5 minA family-owned holdout with a guest kitchen and free laundry — economies rare in the 5th — though there is no lift and the rooms are slight.
- BVJ Quartier LatinNon-profit hostel€ · 7 minNon-profit hostelling since 1948, a few streets from Notre-Dame on Rue des Bernardins: 140 beds in single-sex dorms and a handful of private rooms, plainly furnished, breakfast thrown in, and about as central as a €19 bed gets in Paris.
- Hôtel Dame des ArtsRooftop-view design hotel€€€ · 9 minA board-formed concrete building at the Danton–Saint-Germain corner, interiors by Raphael Navot, opened 2023. The seventh-floor terrace gives a true 360 — Eiffel Tower one way, Notre-Dame the other.
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Landmarks nearby
The district · 5e
Latin Quarter — The student hillThe oldest quarter, Roman under the surface — the Panthéon, the Sorbonne, the Arènes de Lutèce, Rue Mouffetard's market hill. Bookish and steep, with cheap eats that have fed students for centuries.
Best for: Readers, walkers, and anyone who wants character and value over polish.
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