{"id":11423,"date":"2018-08-27T13:16:09","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T11:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.book-a-flat.com\/magazine\/?p=11423"},"modified":"2019-05-07T15:57:43","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T13:57:43","slug":"guide-to-saint-germain-des-pres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.book-a-flat.com\/magazine\/en\/guide-to-saint-germain-des-pres","title":{"rendered":"Saint-Germain-des-Pr\u00e9s"},"content":{"rendered":"

The stories of all those who roamed its streets, who loved and fought and rebelled over the centuries still echo within its walls. If you want to hear them, go wherever the wind takes you and follow its maze of alleyways between the Palais du Luxembourg, home of the French Senate, and the River Seine.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Saint-Germain
Saint-Germain Church, the oldest church in Paris \/ \u00a9 Thomas Deschamps – 2018 – All rights reserved<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION<\/h3>\n

The area gets its name from the Abbey of Saint-Germain, whose Romanesque church \u2014 rebuilt after the French Revolution \u2014 remains at the very same location chosen in the 5th century by the Merovingian King Childebert I, son of Clovis. The stage for many a key moment in history, it was destroyed a first time during the Norman invasion at the end of the 9th century, then fortified in the 16th, because it was still located outside of Paris. Flourishing in the 18th century, the Abbey was dissolved during the French Revolution, and its monastic buildings turned into warehouses and jails. In 1794, a fire destroyed the Library. The building\u2019s annexes were sold and its land gave way to apartment buildings. The area as it is nowadays was beginning to take shape. Saint-Germain-des-Pr\u00e9s Church, restored during the 19th and 20th centuries, remains the neighbourhood\u2019s emblematic feature.<\/p>\n

\"Louis-le-Grand
Main entrance to the prestigious high school Louis-le-Grand \/ \u00a9 Thomas Deschamps – 2018 – All rights reserved<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the site which is today the Louis-le-Grand high school, the oldest and largest European medieval university once stood, the central hub of all the Parisian colleges on the Left Bank. The Universit\u00e9 de Paris educated the greatest minds. Thomas Aquinas, Fran\u00e7ois Villon, Joaquim Du Bellay and Pierre de Ronsart are just some of its most well-known students. During the Enlightenment, Encyclopaedists debated in the Procope, still located 13, rue de l’Ancienne Com\u00e9die. To follow in the footsteps of Danton, Marat, Desmoulins or Guillotin, go to Cour du Commerce Saint-Andr\u00e9. At number 9, you\u2019ll find the workshop where the guillotine was developed and tested for the very first time. Number 8 was one of the printing houses of L\u2019Ami du Peuple (The People’s Friend), the most influential political newspaper of the French Revolution, which was edited and published by Marat.
\nDanton’s house, located at number 20, which was destroyed during the roadworks to extend Boulevard Saint-Germain in 1875, was found at the exact location of the Henri Mondor statue.<\/p>\n

FROM THE 19TH CENTURY TO MODERN TIMES<\/h3>\n

Racine, Balzac, George Sand, Musset, Verlaine, Rimbaud and Anatole France \u2014 writers, poets and playwrights were staunch patrons of the Saint-Germain-des-Pr\u00e9s caf\u00e9s. Painters like Delacroix, Ingres and Manet moved there. The area became a special meeting place for the arts scene. To get a feel for the spirit of the time, drop into the Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix museum, 6 rue de F\u00fcrstenberg. Set in the artist\u2019s vast workshop with a view of the picture-perfect garden, it is attached to an apartment located on the second floor where the painter moved to be closer to Saint-Sulpice church and Saint-Anges chapel, sites he had been commissioned to paint. Conserved and restored to their original state, these locations offer a living testimony of the mid-19th-century French art de vivre<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Paris
Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix museum square and workshop \/ \u00a9 Thomas Deschamps – 2018 – All rights reserved<\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Paris
Delacroix museum garden \/ \u00a9 Thomas Deschamps – 2018 – All rights reserved<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Delacroix
In the footsteps of Eug\u00e8ne Delacroix in Paris \/ \u00a9 Thomas Deschamps – 2018 – All rights reserved<\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Rue
Rue de F\u00fcrstenberg Paris, 6th arrondissement \/ \u00a9 Thomas Deschamps – 2018 – All rights reserved<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

Further north, on the banks of the River Seine, stop by the Institute de France, which was built by Mazarin to house a college. It was closed during the French Revolution, then reopened in 1806 by Napoleon to group together the five Academies (Acad\u00e9mie Fran\u00e7aise, Acad\u00e9mie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Acad\u00e9mie des Sciences, Acad\u00e9mie des Beaux Arts and Acad\u00e9mie des Sciences Morales et Politiques) under its prestigious dome. Opposite its entrance, the elegant Pont des Arts bridge spans the River Seine to the right bank. Nowadays, lovers from all around the world meet there to vow eternal love, symbolised by hanging a padlock there.<\/p>\n

From the beginning of the 20th century, this area became the refuge and space of freedom for the international art scene. During WWII, in spite of the imposed curfew, Saint-Germain-des-Pr\u00e9s caf\u00e9s remained open. Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir made Caf\u00e9 de Flore their hideout \u2014 \u201cThere are less Fritzes here than at the D\u00f4me (in Montparnasse<\/em>)\u201d the young philosophy graduate declared. More rustic, the Caf\u00e9 de Flore was not popular among the Wehrmacht officers. Dimly lit by acetylene lamps, the caf\u00e9 became the workplace of future major authors. Sartre wrote The Roads to Freedom<\/em> there, most of Being and Nothingness<\/em> and his play The Flies<\/em> which was controversial during the Liberation, while Simone de Beauvoir wrote All Men Are Mortal<\/em> at its tables.<\/p>\n

\"Saint-Germain-des-Pr\u00e9s
Caf\u00e9 de Flore terrace \/ \u00a9 Thomas Deschamps – 2018 – All rights reserved<\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"French
La Louisiane Fa\u00e7ade, rue de Seine \/ \u00a9 Thomas Deschamps – 2018 – All rights reserved<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

Sartre and de Beauvoir lived in separate furnished studios in the same hotel, like most writers and artists in the neighbourhood. Many of them then moved to La Louisiane hotel, rue de Seine. Juliette Greco, a singer and symbol of Saint-Germain-des-Pr\u00e9s, lived there in May 1948, and had a passionate love affair with the famous trumpeter Miles Davis, who composed the music for the Louis Malle film Elevator to the Gallows<\/em>.
\nThe creative effervescence in the neighbourhood attracted many artists, painters, sculptors, performers and designers. La Louisiane became a special meeting place for Salvador Dali and Amanda Lear, Bernard Buffet, Alberto Giacometti, Vassilakis Takis, Dennis Oppenheim, Nam Jun Paik, Joseph Beuys, Keith Haring and many more. Many of them are no longer here today, but their tradition lives on. Film directors Bertrand Tavernier, L\u00e9os Carax, Jane Campion, Quentin Tarantino are patrons of La Louisiane. The tiny family hotel keeps inviting modern creators to show their works of art, and welcomes editors of cultural content and cyber-entrepreneurs. It boasts 80 charming bedrooms in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Pr\u00e9s<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The stories of all those who roamed its streets, who loved and fought and rebelled over the centuries still echo within its walls. If you…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"amp_status":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.book-a-flat.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11423"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.book-a-flat.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.book-a-flat.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.book-a-flat.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.book-a-flat.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11423"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.book-a-flat.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13105,"href":"https:\/\/www.book-a-flat.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11423\/revisions\/13105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.book-a-flat.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.book-a-flat.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.book-a-flat.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.book-a-flat.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}