The ultimate guide to the Latin Quarter of Paris
What to See in the Latin Quarter of Paris?
The Latin Quarter of Paris is absorbing. Crammed with iconic landmarks, colorful streets, and a wealth of restaurants from every corner of the world, it is one of Paris’s most compelling neighborhoods. The oldest district in Paris is also home to the Sorbonne and several small museums. A student neighborhood and intellectual melting pot for centuries, it is a Left Bank original with many sights and stories to uncover.
My TOP 5 Highlights of the Latin Quarter in Paris
- Enjoy the color and life of Rue Mouffetard market (139 Rue Mouffetard, 75005). Referenced by Ernest Hemingway and beloved by Julia Child, this market street bursts with vitality and color. A feast for the senses, especially the tastebuds.
- Explore dusty bookstores and have coffee at the iconic Shakespeare & Company (37 Rue de la Bûcherie, 75005). The Latin Quarter once brimmed with nostalgic book stores staffed by passionate bookworms. As more and more close, a visit to one of the neighborhood’s institutions may be the last. A local literary legend, the emblematic Shakespeare & Company is going nowhere right now and remains a choice destination for curious visitors and literature buffs.
- Travel back to the middle-ages at the evocative Cluny Museum (28 Rue du Sommerard, 75005). The diverse collection at this magical museum breathes life into medieval France with colorful art and artifacts, all displayed in the enchanting old Hôtel de Cluny, itself built on Roman ruins.
- Take your breath away at the Panthéon (Pl. du Panthéon, 75005). An awe-inspiring list of the great and the good of French history are entombed or commemorated in this breathtaking monument. Take a moment to savor the grandeur of the building before learning a little about the people it lionizes.
- Explore the hidden corners of this historic quartier. This compact quartier is perfect to explore. Hire a bike or put on your walking shoes, there are surprises around every corner of this ancient quarter: from one of the oldest universities in the world, through bustling café-lined cobblestone streets, to the left bank of the Seine overlooking the majestic Notre Dame cathedral.
General information about the Latin Quarter
Straddling the 5th and 6th arrondissements on the left bank of the River Seine, the Latin Quarter is high on many visitor agendas. Bustling yet laidback, there is little to look out for in personal safety. Like any lively area in Paris, though, it pays to secure your valuables against pickpockets.
While there are quiet spots around, the main streets are rarely quiet. As long as you don’t mind ducking around group photos, exploring by foot (or bike) is ideal, especially as some of the most compelling streets are pedestrian friendly. At night, the district’s bars and cafés really come to life, drawing in visitors and locals to enjoy the boisterous but easygoing nightlife.
How to get to the Latin Quarter?
Several Métro stations serve the Latin Quarter:
- Line 4 – Saint-Michel Notre-Dame (perfect for Notre Dame and the Latin Quarter)
- Lines 4, 10 – Odéon
- Line 7 – Place Monge
- Lines 7, 10 – Jussieu
- Line 10 – Cardinal Lemoine, Maubert – Mutualité, Cluny La Sorbonne
Bus lines serving the Latin Quarter:
- 27, 38, 47, 63, 72, 75, 96.
- Hop-on, Hop-off bus tours include the Latin Quarter.
- My Tip:You can also reach the neighbourhood very comfortably with one of the Hop on Hop off buses in Paris. These are also included in many Paris Sightseeing Passes, with which you can save money on sightseeing during your visit to Paris. Take a look!
Attractions, activities, and tours in the Latin Quarter
An enduring favorite with visitors, there is lots to see and do in the Latin Quarter. And with a lively bar or busy bistro always around every corner, the neighborhood is a delightful place to spend time.
Top attractions
In the Latin Quarter there are many attractions that you should visit. You can find the best ones here.
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01
Cluny Museum
Museum in Quartier LatinOur highlight
A true treasure hidden away in the Latin Quarter in the 5th arrondissement. One of the more unusual museums in Paris, the Cluny Museum is compact yet fascinating. Sited on the ruins of Gallo-Roman baths, the stirring exhibition brings art and artifacts of the middle-ages to light. In our opinion, this is one of the star attractions in the Latin Quarter. More art museum than gallery.
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02
Rue de la Huchette
Street in Quartier LatinOur highlight
Refining the spirit of the Latin Quarter into one densely packed street, rue de la Huchette is a colorful counterpoint to the somber Panthéon. A little touristy and less photogenic than the petite cour du Commerce Saint Andre, but a fun place to shop and soak up the atmosphere. It is also one of the oldest existing streets in Paris and has one of the highest concentrations of restaurants, with Greek specialities predominating. The street also has an intense nightlife with no less than four pubs and many bars.
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03
Saint-Étienne-du-Mont Paris
Religious Site in Quartier Latin
The church Saint-Étienne-du-Mont stands on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. It is one of the architectural jewels of Paris. Not a well-known landmark, but an ornate and calming interior coupled with over 400 years of history make this church a captivating diversion. Pairs nicely with a trip to the nearby Panthéon.
Best tours of the Latin Quarter
There are many things to do in the Latin Quarter of Paris. Here you can find the best tours.
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01
Latin Quarter 2-Hour walking tour
Walking Tour in Quartier Latin
Ensure you don’t miss the Statue of Liberty in the Luxembourg Gardens with an expert guide. The tour passes through the charismatic Latin Quarter, with its many diverting sights.
The best way to explore the Latin Quarter is with a knowledgeable local guide: during your tour with the local guide, you will explore the magical corners and find some of the top sightseeing spots of Paris.
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02
Paris Bike Tour in the Latin Quarter & Le Marais
Bike Tour in Quartier Latin
The Latin Quarter and Le Marais are great for walking, but jumping on a bike means you can fit all the main sights into one tour. Bikes, helmets, and knowledgeable tour guide included. Explore this vibrant city like a local on this 4-hour bike tour through the Latin Quarter and the Jewish quarter of Le Marais. The tour starts in the heart of the Latin Quarter and ends at the Hotel de Sens. On the tour you will stop at, among others: Sant-Sulpice, Pantheon, Place Monge, Arenes de Lutece, Place des Vosges and many more.
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03
Paris Walking Tour in the Latin Quarter
Walking Tour in Quartier Latin
Take this 2-hour walking tour through the Latin Quarter of Paris. Explore the Church of Sainte Genevieve, the Panthéon, the Luxemburg Gardens and many more. Cobbled streets and a treasure trove of history and landmarks make a walking tour accompanied by an insightful guide a surefire way to discover more. Meeting point is at the fountain at Place Saint Michel (7B Place Saint-Michel, 75006 Paris).
Eating & drinking in the Latin Quarter
The Latin Quarter is a laidback place to dine, brimming with relaxed bistros, chic restaurants a bewildering diversity of international cuisines. With a nightlife to match, this is a choice place to find lively watering holes and sophisticated bars.
Top restaurants
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Source: Grains Nobles et Plus/Website01 Grains Nobles et Plus Restaurant
Another gem hidden behind an unfussy exterior, this restaurant adds a touch of panache to quality dining. Wooden beams, art-adorned walls, and comfortable seating let you sit back and enjoy seasonal ingredients and creative surprise menus. You will find this restaurant in the 5th arrondissement.
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02 Huitrerie Regis
Love them or hate them, oysters (huîtres) are a mainstay of Réveillon de la Saint-Sylvestre (New Year’s Eve) dinners. For hardy revelers, they’re a popular morning-after breakfast, often washed down with a glass of crisp wine to (briefly) revive sore heads.
There are seafood markets and restaurants all over Paris, but Huîtrerie Régis know their mollusks better than most. They go above and beyond, happily sharing their expertise in a cozy yet elegant setting. If you want to eat like the French at New Year, oysters are essential. Whether they’ll cure your hangover is open to debate…
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03 La Grange Aux Canards
Fittingly, we end our epicurean odyssey with a taste of old Paris at the quintessentially gallic La Grange Aux Canards. Despite sitting in a Latin Quarter bursting with character and tourists, the menu pulled from the gourmet wonderlands around Perigord is a magnet for residents. The cozy and compact bistrot is frequently packed.
As you might expect, duck is the box office draw. Easily some of the best you’ll find at Parisian restaurants. With only a few diversions to accommodate French essentials (escargots included), duck reigns supreme across the menu. Try the cassoulet with three confits (duck, Toulouse sausage, pork) for an authentic taste of the South. An unequivocally French conclusion to our sweeping tour around some of the best restaurants in Paris.
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04 La Table de Colette
3 to 7-course tasting menus and wallet-pleasing haute-cuisine await at the achingly modern and inventive La Table de Colette. Their eco-responsible sourcing places seasonal vegetables at the heart of everything. In their words, meat and fish are merely the accompaniments.
Creativity seeps into the combinations and playful presentation. Les Amuse Bouches arrive carefully balanced on rocks and in presentation boxes. The Poireau et la sardine (leek and sardine) could be mistaken for a mini baguette sculpture on
display at the Pompidou. Choice wine pairings enliven the fresh and eye-opening flavors.
Yet to win une étoile, this is a place to savor Parisian excellence and revel in farmfresh goodness. Get there before they win a star and reservations are swallowed up. -
05 Le Bistro du Perigord Restaurant
Evoking a homely, traditional bistro vibe and putting together hearty dishes with passion,Le Bistro du Perigord is the archetypal restaurant you always hope to find in the Latin Quarter of Paris.
The most beautiful cafés
A Left Bank rendezvous for generations, frequented by visitors and students, the Latin Quarter has a rich coffee shop heritage and a handful of cafés with traditional character.
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01 Café Delmas
Overlooking a charming small square lined with shops and restaurants that bring it to life, this traditional French café is the place to watch the world go by in the 5th arrondissement.
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02 Café Malongo Atelier Barista
The online consensus seems to be that Malongo Atelier Barista serves some of the best coffee in the Latin Quarter of Paris. They’ll even sell you the beans in their on-trend coffee workshop.
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03 Café Shakespeare & Company
Shakespeare & Company is iconic and located in the 5th arrondissement. A dusty bookshop immortalized by Ernest Hemingway and a fixture for local tours. The in-store café taps into the rich heritage and offers views over Notre Dame.
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04 Jozi Café
Third-wave cafés, with their traceable beans and artisanal brews, are ascendant in Paris. Jozi Café adds delicious breakfast for the mix for one of the better breakfasts in Paris.
Handily located in the itinerary-topping Latin Quarter in a sea of inviting cafés, their brunch selection is concise and very much in tune with modern tastes.
The ubiquitous avocado toasts are there. Smoked salmon too. Pancakes, tartines, pastries, and granola complete the tempting medley.
A well-priced fixed menu covers the highlights and delivers a satisfying and balanced start to the day. With many of the most visited landmarks in walking distance, you couldn’t ask for more.
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05 Nuance Café
Brunch is especially popular at the Nuance Café, a decidedly local hangout in the 5th arrondissement with a warm welcome and comfortable space.
Shopping in the Latin Quarter
Gifted with great markets and lively thoroughfares filled with independent stores and, perhaps, too many souvenir shops, shopping in the Latin Quarter is always entertaining. Some stores to look out for include:
- Fromagerie Laurent Dubois: 47 Ter Bd Saint-Germain, 75005.
- The Abbey Bookshop (Much-loved English language bookstore): 29 Rue de la Parcheminerie, 75005.
- Shakespeare and Company Bookstore (Iconic bookstore of local legend): 37 Rue de la Bûcherie, 75005.
- Album Comics: 67 Bd Saint-Germain, 75005.
- La Cave du Sénat (Fine wines): 16 Rue de Vaugirard, 75006.
- Avanti la Musica (peculiar & fun music boxes): 73 Quai de la Tournelle, 75005.
- Par’ici (kitsch souvenir wonderland): 52 rue Mouffetard 75005.
The best art galleries and museums in the Latin Quarter
Paris’s oldest district is home to several unique museums and bijou art galleries. Here are a few of the best, both in the district and just outside the Latin Quarter.
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01 Cluny Museum
A true treasure hidden away in the Latin Quarter in the 5th arrondissement. One of the more unusual museums in Paris, the Cluny Museum is compact yet fascinating. Sited on the ruins of Gallo-Roman baths, the stirring exhibition brings art and artifacts of the middle-ages to light. In our opinion, this is one of the star attractions in the Latin Quarter. More art museum than gallery.
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02 ArtEthic Gallery
Tiny but inviting gallery displaying sculptures, photographs, and paintings from a handful of working artists. You will find this art gallery in the 5th arrondissement.
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03 Botanical Garden Jardins des Plantes
A green oasis next to the Latin Quarter and home to two natural history museums, art exhibitions, venerable botanic gardens, and La Menagerie (the second oldest zoo in the world.)
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04 Marie Curie Museum Paris - Musée Curie
The Curie Museum in Paris is all about the radioactivity discovered by Pierre and Marie Curie and the work of the two scientists. It is housed in the building where the Curies once conducted their research around the element they discovered, radium.
This is not far from the Paris Pantheon, where the couple has been resting since 1995. In the museum you can see original scientific instruments with which the Curies worked at that time.
The most beautiful hotels in the Latin Quarter
Hotels in the Latin Quarter (and adjacent quarters) tend towards the pricier end for Paris. But that means there are some exceptional lodgings to be found there, especially around the neighborhood fringes.
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01 French Theory
3 stars | What a cool hotel concept: it not only combines a boutique hotel with a distinctly unique design, it is also a concept store and music studio! Located in the heart of the laid-back Latin Quarter, it’s just 200 meters from the Louvre. And at the same time, you’re surrounded by many of the little cafes, bars, and restaurants that make up Paris.For me, French Theory is one of the best budget hotels in Paris, so I didn’t want to deprive you of it here!
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Quelle: booking.com02 Hotel La Lanterne
4 Stars| Boasting a cute pool and courtyard, crisp and stylish décor, and balcony rooms, this boutique hotel at the heart of the Latin Quarter strives for premium comfort and serenity.
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03 Hôtel Les Dames du Panthéon
3 stars | Hôtel des Grands Hommes is a small romantic boutique hotel on Place Panthéon in the Latin Quarter of Paris. Here you are in the heart of Paris, but without the hustle and bustle – next to the Panthéon you are very quickly at the Seine, the church Notre Dame and the Jardin du Luxembourg. My tip: Get a room with a view of the square, then you look at all of Paris – simply a dream!
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04 Hôtel Montecristo EN
4 Sterne | Eines der beliebtesten Boutique Hotels in Paris ist das Hôtel Montecristo im Quartier Latin im 5. Arrondissement. Denn neben der Lage in einem entspannten sicheren und für Paris so typischen Stadtviertel mit seinen Cafés, Bäckereien und Bars seid ihr gleichzeitig ganz nah an vielen wichtigen Sehenswürdigkeiten von Paris. Dazu kommt, dass es wunderschön gestaltet ist, eine sehr gute Bar und einen Wellnessbereich mit Sauna und Pool hat.
Das Hotel ist auch auf diesen Bestenlisten zu finden:
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Quelle: booking.com05 Hotel Residence Henri IV
4 Stars| Evoking Bourbon levels of luxury, this singular hotel condenses the trappings of a comfortable country chateau into a quiet corner of the Latin Quarter in the 5th arrondissement.
History & Facts about the Latin Quarter
The Latin Quarter is founded on the Roman site Lutetia, the foundation stone of modern Paris. It is the oldest district in Paris, even if the vanquished Gauls had already settled île de la Cité opposite. The Romans left behind the Arènes de Lutèce, an amphitheater you can still play in today (even if little remains from the original structure.) île de la Cité would soon become the preferred site of Roman governors and subsequent French kings. But the Latin Quarter remained important and would eventually become home to France’s first university, La Sorbonne (Université de Paris). Opened in 1150, it quickly became a center of learning for Europeans.
By the middle-ages, the university had expanded and the students who filled the street were well-versed in the noble language of the day, Latin. Around this time, the district earned its name, Le Quartier Latin. Despite brief closures during the French Revolution (reopened in 1806) and the student uprisings of 1968, the university continued to grow in stature. Gaining illustrious alumni like Voltaire and exerting influence in France and beyond, it remains the nation’s most prestigious seat of learning.
The other grand monument in the arrondissement is the Panthéon. Commissioned by King Louis XV of France in the 1750s, he never got to see his magnificent church completed. Nor did he know that it would be dedicated to the great and glorious of France. From Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Victor Hugo, the list of names interred and commemorated at the mausoleum is a roll call of France’s finest and a piece of national history.
FAQ
Is the Latin Quarter easy to explore on foot?
Yes – The Latin Quarter is a compact neighborhood of cobbled streets and alleyways best explored on foot.
Do I need a map to explore the Latin Quarter?
Probably. It is impossible to get lost, but with many old streets to explore it can be easy to miss points of interest and even easier to find yourself wandering into an adjacent quartier.
Is the Latin Quarter in Paris safe?
Yes – It’s a student neighborhood and tourist hotspot that rarely sees trouble, even late at night. As ever, store your valuables safely as pickpockets are the biggest risk.
Neighbouring districts
The Latin Quarter is a prime Parisian destination surrounded by similarly popular locales. Opposite the district — in the middle of the Seine — is Paris’s storied island, île de la Cité. Home to Paris’s star attraction, the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, and the resplendent Sainte-Chapelle, crossing the historic Pont Saint-Michel bridge from the Latin Quarter is a moment for your camera. Touching the western borders of the Latin Quarter is the chic Saint-Germain-des- Prés, the leafy garden quartier Odeon, and the former home to Paris’s mint, the tiny Monnaie district.
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