Location
Our
cozy apartment is on the Left Bank in the 5th arrondissement of
Paris around the corner from the Panthéon and beside
St. Étienne du Mont--whose bells peal beautifully throughout
the day. (We're told that there's been a church on this spot since
around 542 A.D. St. Étienne is the church of Ste. Geneviève,
the patron saint of Paris, who deterred Atilla the Hun from entering
Paris during his European siege and ever since, the French have
turned to her during times of stress and danger...)
Our location is very villagey with winding cobblestone
streets, lots of restaurants, music, and university people (since
it's quite near the Sorbonne). The Place Maubert, at the bottom
of the hill, has a market every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday,
and the Place also has a charcuterie, poissonnerie, fromagerie,
and wine store, as well. The best boulangerie in Paris (in our opinion--justified
perhaps by the long lines always out the door) is around the corner
on rue Monge.
The Jardin
du Luxembourg is about a five minute walk away. Notre
Dame and the Seine are about a ten-minute
walk down the hill. Of course, once you're on the Ile de
la Cité (site of Notre Dame), it's easy to cross
over to the Right Bank and find the Louvre, the Marais, the grands
magasins, etc.
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