Where to Stay in Saint-Germain-des-Pres: Left Bank Guide

Why the Left Bank Wins for Repeat Visitors

First-time travellers often plant themselves near the Eiffel Tower or the Champs-Elysees, and there is nothing wrong with that. But people who return to Paris tend to drift south, across the Seine, to the sixth arrondissement. Saint-Germain-des-Pres is where the city stops performing for tourists and simply gets on with being itself: a neighbourhood of booksellers, art dealers, small markets and cafes where the same faces appear at the same tables each morning.

When you are deciding where to stay in Saint-Germain-des-Pres, understand what you are buying. You are not buying proximity to a monument. You are buying walkability. From here the Louvre is a fifteen-minute stroll across the Pont du Carrousel, the Musee d'Orsay is barely ten, and Notre-Dame sits just across the river on the Ile de la Cite. You rarely need the metro, though Metro 4 at Saint-Germain-des-Pres and Metro 10 at Mabillon are close when you do.

The Cafes That Made the Neighbourhood

The literary cafes on Boulevard Saint-Germain are famous for good reason, though you should treat them as landmarks rather than daily habits. Cafe de Flore and Les Deux Magots faced each other across the intellectual life of the twentieth century, and their terraces still catch the best of the afternoon light. Order a cafe creme, sit for an hour, watch the boulevard, and consider the price the cost of the view.

For everyday coffee, go smaller and quieter. The side streets around rue de Seine and rue Mazarine hide places where a croissant and an espresso cost what they should. My advice to guests is simple: find one cafe within two minutes of your door and become a regular by day three. That is how you stop feeling like a visitor.

Galleries, Bookshops and the Art of Wandering

Saint-Germain has quietly been the gallery district of the Left Bank for decades. Rue de Seine, rue Mazarine and rue des Beaux-Arts are lined with art dealers whose windows change often enough to reward a slow walk. You do not need to buy anything, or even go inside, to enjoy them. The Ecole des Beaux-Arts itself sits on rue Bonaparte, and its students spill into the surrounding streets.

Bibliophiles should give themselves an afternoon. The bouquinistes line the quays along the Seine, and small bookshops tuck themselves between the galleries. Cross to rue de l'Odeon for the descendants of the shops that once published Joyce. This is a neighbourhood built for aimless walking, and the best mornings here have no plan at all.

Rue de Buci and the Morning Market

If there is one street that captures the neighbourhood's rhythm, it is rue de Buci. By nine in the morning the fishmonger has laid out his ice, the cheese shop is fragrant, the flower stalls are open, and the cafes are setting chairs onto the pavement. This short pedestrian-friendly stretch, where rue de Buci meets rue de Seine, is the beating heart of daily life on the Left Bank.

Come for the market produce, stay for the theatre of it. Buy strawberries and a wedge of Comte, a baguette from the bakery, a bottle of something from the caviste, and you have assembled a picnic without trying. Which brings us to the finest place to eat it.

The Luxembourg Gardens, Ten Minutes Away

Walk south from rue de Buci, up rue de Tournon, and the Jardin du Luxembourg opens in front of you. This is the Left Bank's living room. Parisians read on the green metal chairs, children sail wooden boats on the octagonal pond, and joggers loop the gravel paths at dawn. The Palais du Luxembourg, home to the French Senate, presides over all of it.

Arrive early. There is a particular quality to the light in the gardens before the crowds, when the gardeners are still watering the parterres and the chairs are wet with dew. It is the sort of ordinary luxury that keeps people coming back to this part of Paris rather than any other.

Where to Stay: Studio Buci

Everything above argues for staying inside the neighbourhood itself, not near it. When you sleep on rue de Buci, the market is your front door, the cafes are your kitchen, and the Luxembourg Gardens are a short walk before breakfast. You wake to the sound of the stalls being set up and step straight into the life of the sixth.

Our own answer to where to stay in Saint-Germain-des-Pres is Studio Buci, a charming studio right on rue de Buci, in the beating heart of the Left Bank (Saint-Germain-des-Pres, Paris 6th). It is compact, elegant and honestly located, from EUR 160 per night and bookable direct with us. If you are the kind of traveller who returns to Paris to live it rather than tick it off, come and be a Buci regular by day three. We would be glad to hand you the keys.