Underground & cool · Independent bookshop · € · 6e · Saint-Germain-des-Prés
The Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore
Penelope Fletcher's English-language bookshop, facing the Luxembourg gardens — a tightly chosen Left Bank selection of literary fiction, poetry, small-press and food writing, with the bilingual children's offshoot next door.
Cross into the Jardin du Luxembourg opposite and read what you have just bought on a green chair.
Getting there
- LuxembourgRER B310 m · 6 min walk
- Odéon410430 m · 8 min walk
- Cluny - La Sorbonne10450 m · 8 min walk
Around the corner
Place de l'Odéon · 170 m away
The Place de l'Odéon is a semicircular square in the Odéon quarter in the 6th arrondissement of Paris.
Wikipedia ↗Walks that pass nearby
- Saint-Germain in 90 minutesstop 4 of 6 · 170 m
Place de l'Odéon
Semicircular square in front of the Théâtre de l'Odéon (1782), one of the oldest theatres in Paris. The square was conceived as a single architectural unit — five identical limestone houses radiating from the theatre, designed in the same neoclassical style.
Café Le Rostand on the east side of the square is the literary café Sartre frequented when Café de Flore was too crowded. The theatre itself is worth a peek inside — the lobby is open before performances and is original 18th-century.
- Latin Quarter under 30 minutesstop 5 of 6 · 260 m
Place de la Sorbonne
The small fountain-and-café square in front of the Sorbonne's main entrance. The Chapelle de la Sorbonne (1635) — with its imposing dome — is Cardinal Richelieu's funerary chapel; he's buried inside. The university itself dates to 1257; the current main building is 1885.
The square has a few cafés with tables in the shade — Café de la Sorbonne is the standby, full of students at lunchtime. The chapel is rarely open to the public; the dome is best viewed from the north side of the square.
- Hidden Parisstop 3 of 6 · 380 m
Roman baths at Cluny
The frigidarium of the 2nd-century Gallo-Roman thermae of Lutetia: a 14 m vaulted brick-and-stone room, still standing, attached to the side of the medieval Cluny mansion. One of the largest surviving Roman structures north of the Loire.
Enter via the Musée de Cluny on Place Paul-Painlevé (paid). The frigidarium is the first room as you go in — go straight there before the medieval art and you'll have it to yourself. Ceiling height is 14 m; look up.
- Phantom Parisstop 1 of 6 · 380 m
Roman baths at Cluny
The frigidarium of the Lutetia thermae, built around 200 AD. A 14 m vaulted brick-and-stone hall, still standing where it was built. The largest extant Roman structure north of the Loire.
Inside the Musée de Cluny, Place Paul-Painlevé. The frigidarium is the first room as you enter — go straight there before the tapestries. Look up to see the original Roman vaulting. Outside, the herb garden retraces the original Roman footprint.
Within a few minutes' walk
- Hôtel Grand Cœur LatinBoutique hotel€€ · 3 minA 2023 reworking near the Sorbonne where the basement holds the rarity: a fifteen-metre lap pool modelled on Roman baths, plus a hammam, included with the room.
- Bouillon RacineBouillon€€ · 5 minA 1906 Art Nouveau dining hall — carved wood, bevelled mirrors, listed as a monument — serving honest bouillon fare at prices that haven't chased the décor. The travers de porc de Picardie is the dependable order.
- Le ChampoRepertory cinema€ · 6 minA two-screen repertory house on the rue des Écoles since 1938, run on retrospectives and ciné-clubs rather than new releases — a complete István Szabó cycle one season, the occasional seven-hour anime marathon with coffee and croissants at dawn.
- Le Comptoir du RelaisBistro / brasserie€€ · 8 minThe counter that launched a thousand bistronomy imitations, now under Bruno Doucet but unchanged in character. By day it serves brasserie plates and country terrines without a reservation; by night it turns into a prix-fixe siege.
- L'Avant Comptoir de la MerStanding seafood wine bar€€ · 8 minCamdeborde's standing seafood annexe: a zinc bar, a corridor, and fifty photo-posters strung overhead in lieu of a menu. The warm whelks with wasabi mayo and the razor clams marinière justify the elbowing.
- Café de la Nouvelle MairieNatural wine bistro€€ · 9 minA terrace on a quiet square behind the Panthéon, a low-intervention wine list, and a short blackboard of well-sourced plates. The Left Bank without the crowd.
Landmarks nearby
The district · 6e
Saint-Germain-des-Prés — The literary Left BankThe cafés where the existentialists held court — Flore, Deux Magots, Lipp — plus the Luxembourg Gardens and the city's densest run of galleries and antiquaires. Expensive, polished, and aware of it.
Best for: Those who want the postcard Left Bank and have the budget for it.
Everything we've verified in the 6e →How we verified this
Confirmed currently operating as of June 2026,cross-checked against 1 source:
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