A Left Bank Morning: Walking to the Luxembourg Gardens

Waking up on rue de Buci

Rue de Buci belongs to the morning before it belongs to anyone else. Around seven, the market traders are still setting out crates of tomatoes and stacking oysters on beds of ice, and the street smells of wet cobbles and warm bread from the bakeries that opened long before you did. The cafés are wiping down their zinc counters. There is a brief, generous window when the sixth arrondissement feels almost private.

This is the hour to walk. Not toward anything urgent, but toward the Luxembourg Gardens Paris keeps as its most civilised piece of green space, roughly fifteen unhurried minutes south. Take a coffee standing at the counter first, the way locals do, then step out onto the still-quiet street.

The first stretch: through Saint-Germain

Follow rue de Buci as it bends into rue Saint-Sulpice, or slip down rue de Seine if you want a slower start past the shuttered galleries. Either way you are walking through Saint-Germain-des-Prés at its most honest, before the crowds arrive and the neighbourhood remembers it is famous.

At this hour the terraces of Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore are half-empty, waiters folding napkins, and you can actually see the old abbey tower of Saint-Germain-des-Prés against a pale sky. Keep going south. The streets narrow and the light drops between the buildings, and then rue Bonaparte opens onto the great blank flank of the church of Saint-Sulpice.

A pause at Saint-Sulpice

The place Saint-Sulpice is worth a stop, even a short one. The fountain of the four bishops runs quietly in the centre, plane trees throw their shade across the paving, and the two mismatched towers of the church lean over everything. If the doors are open, step inside for the Delacroix murals in the first chapel on the right. The cool and the silence are a good counterweight to the street.

From here the gardens are only a few hundred metres away. Cross the place, take rue Férou or rue Bonaparte down to rue de Vaugirard, and the tall iron railings of the Jardin du Luxembourg come into view.

Arriving at the Luxembourg Gardens

Enter through one of the smaller gates rather than the grand one, and let the geometry reveal itself slowly. The gravel crunches. Runners loop the perimeter path. The great octagonal basin sits before the Palais du Luxembourg, where the French Senate meets, and by mid-morning children will be pushing wooden sailboats across the water with long poles you can rent from the vendor nearby.

Claim one of the iconic green metal chairs. They are free, they can be dragged anywhere, and their reclined models are the closest thing Paris offers to a public deckchair. Sit by the basin, or find the quieter corners: the Medici Fountain in its shaded alley of chestnut trees, the beehives near the orchard, the espaliered pear trees trained flat against their frames. The gardens reward wandering more than any plan.

If you have brought bread and cheese from rue de Buci, this is where it belongs. A morning here costs nothing and gives back a surprising amount.

The walk back, unhurried

Leave when the light shifts and the benches fill. On the way home, detour along rue de Fleurus, past the flat where Gertrude Stein once hung her Picassos, or wind up rue de Seine to look at the print sellers now opening their doors. Stop for a second coffee. Buy a paper bag of cherries at the market on rue de Buci, which will by now be in full, noisy swing.

This is the quiet argument for staying in the sixth rather than visiting it: the best of the Left Bank is not a monument you queue for but a rhythm you fall into, and it starts with being able to walk out your own door into it.

Where to wake up: Studio Buci

If this is the morning you want, it helps to begin it in the right place. Studio Buci is a charming studio on rue de Buci itself, in the beating heart of the Left Bank, a few steps from the market and a short walk from the Luxembourg Gardens. Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris 6th, from EUR 160 per night, bookable direct with us.

We keep it simple and comfortable, the way a base for slow mornings should be. Come and let the street wake you up. When you are ready to plan your stay, write to us directly and we will hold the keys.