Tour · 6 stops · ~30 min walking
Latin Quarter under 30 minutes
The 5th, fast.
If you have half an hour — say, between dinner and a film at Le Champo — this is the loop: Saint-Michel fountain, Saint-Séverin, Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, the Roman ruins, the Sorbonne. About 1.5 km of dense medieval Paris.
1Place Saint-Michel
Opened 1855, the southern end of Boulevard Saint-Michel. The Fontaine Saint-Michel (the giant relief of the archangel slaying the dragon) is from the same year — a Haussmann-era theatrical set piece. The square was the site of major student-uprising barricades in May 1968.
Best photographed from the south side of the square looking up. The fountain is most striking after dark when the bronze of Saint Michael catches lamp-light. From here, walk east along Rue de la Huchette.
From Wikipedia›
The Place Saint-Michel is a public square in the Latin Quarter of Paris. It lies on the borderline between the 5th and 6th arrondissements, on the left bank of the river Seine. It faces the Île de la Cité, to which it is linked by the Pont Saint-Michel.
Read more on Wikipedia →Verified nearby ·Hôtel Dame des Arts3 minLe Caveau de la Huchette4 min
→Walk east along Rue de la Huchette and Rue Saint-Séverin — about 3 min through the medieval-grid alleys.
48.85380, 2.34380
2Saint-Séverin
13th-to-15th-century flamboyant Gothic church. The double ambulatory behind the high altar is famously elaborate — a 16th-century twisted column called the "palmier" (palm tree) is the architectural showpiece. The bells are pre-Revolutionary, including a 1412 bell that's the oldest in any Paris church.
Free entry. Walk straight to the back of the apse to see the twisted palm-tree column. The 14th-century 'charnel-house' courtyard (cloister) on the south side is the only surviving medieval cemetery cloister in central Paris.
From Wikipedia›
Saint-Séverin is a commune in the Charente department in southwestern France.
Read more on Wikipedia →Verified nearby ·Le Caveau de la Huchette1 minCaveau des Oubliettes2 min
→Walk south on Rue Saint-Jacques, then east on Rue Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre. ~5 min.
48.85250, 2.34540
3Saint-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.
From Wikipedia›
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.
Read more on Wikipedia →Verified nearby ·Caveau des Oubliettes1 minShakespeare and Company1 min
→Walk south on Rue Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre, then west on Rue de l'Hôtel Colbert. The Cluny museum is one block south. ~5 min.
48.85200, 2.34710
- 4
Musée de Cluny exterior
The medieval mansion (Hôtel de Cluny, 1485–1500) attached to the Roman frigidarium of the Lutetia thermae. The stone exterior — late Gothic with flamboyant tracery — sits next to the bare Roman wall, two thousand years apart, fused into one building.
If you don't have time for the museum interior (Phantom Paris and Underground tours both go inside), at least walk around the exterior corner where Boulevard Saint-Michel meets Rue Du Sommerard. The cardinal's coat of arms over the gateway is original 1500.
Verified nearby ·Le Champo2 minBouillon Racine3 min
→Walk east on Rue des Écoles (or up Boulevard Saint-Michel), then turn north into the Sorbonne courtyard via Place de la Sorbonne. ~5 min.
48.85060, 2.34380
- 5
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.
Verified nearby ·Hôtel Grand Cœur Latin2 minLe Champo3 min
→Walk south on Rue Saint-Jacques, ~5 min, to the Panthéon.
48.84850, 2.34340
6Panthéon
1758–1790, originally Saint Geneviève's church. Converted into a secular mausoleum during the Revolution; now holds the tombs of Voltaire, Rousseau, Hugo, Zola, the Curies, Dumas, Foucault (the pendulum), and Soufflot (the architect, who lived just long enough to see his own design completed).
Climbable to the dome on most days (paid, separate ticket). Inside the crypt, follow the signposted route — Voltaire and Rousseau face each other across a small chamber on the south side. Foucault's pendulum hangs from the dome's centre and is genuinely doing the original 1851 experiment.
From Wikipedia›
The Panthéon is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, in the centre of the Place du Panthéon, which was named after it. The edifice was built between 1758 and 1790, from designs by Jacques-Germain Soufflot, at the behest of King Louis XV; the king intended it as a church dedicated to Saint Genevieve, Paris's patron saint, whose relics were to be housed in the church. Neither Soufflot nor Louis XV lived to see the church completed.
Read more on Wikipedia →Verified nearby ·Café de la Nouvelle Mairie3 min
48.84620, 2.34640