Saint-Germain-des-Prés: the art de vivre of the Left Bank

There are neighbourhoods that you pass through and others that you inhabit, even in passing. Saint-Germain-des-Prés belongs to the second kind. In this corner of the 6th arrondissement, literary history, a love of beautiful things and the gentleness of a sunlit terrace blend effortlessly. You come for a coffee and you stay for the atmosphere: the whole art de vivre of the Left Bank fits in that sentence.

Here is a walk grounded in what the Left Bank has that is most refined: its thousand-year-old church, its legendary cafés, its galleries, its garden, its publishing houses. Not a list of addresses, but a way of inhabiting the neighbourhood, hour after hour.

The heart: the church and the square

It all begins around the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the oldest in Paris, whose Romanesque bell tower has watched over the neighbourhood for nearly a thousand years. At its feet, the boulevard Saint-Germain is in full swing, but you only have to step a few metres away to rediscover the silence of the cloister and the small shaded squares.

Early in the morning, before the terraces fill up, this is where the neighbourhood reveals itself: the pale stone, the cobblestones still damp, the hurried step of the booksellers raising their shutters. A suspended moment, almost provincial, in the heart of Paris.

Where to have a legendary coffee?

You cannot speak of Saint-Germain without its legendary cafés, facing one another across a few dozen metres:

• The discreet upper floor and the red banquettes where people have been putting the world to rights for a century.
• The terrace turned towards the church, ideal for a hot chocolate in the late morning.
• The great brasserie with its faience and white-jacketed waiters, an institution of lunches that stretch on.

The secret lies less in the place than in the hour. Avoid the tourist peak of midday. Favour the morning coffee, low-angled light and free tables, or the late-afternoon apéritif, when the regulars resume their habits.

Where to wander between galleries and antique dealers?

Leave the boulevard for the rue de Seine and the rue de Buci: you are entering the Paris of art dealers. Painting galleries, antique dealers, old prints, rare furniture: the shop windows follow one another like an open-air museum, free and ever-changing with each new hanging.

It is a walk you take without aim, with a curious eye, pushing open the door of a gallery for the sole pleasure of looking. Weekday afternoons are the most peaceful. Many gallery owners enjoy sharing an anecdote about a piece: you only have to linger.

A few steps away, the place de Furstemberg, tiny and perfect, with its paulownias and Delacroix’s former studio, remains one of the most photographed and yet most quiet spots in the neighbourhood, and one of the stops on our walk through the most prestigious streets in Paris. A stop of a few minutes, at dusk, beneath the street lamps.

When to go to the rue de Buci market?

To grasp the daily life of the neighbourhood, nothing beats the rue de Buci at the small morning market. Stalls of greengrocers, cheesemongers, florists, rotisseries whose aroma fills the street: you do your shopping as in a village, basket on your arm.

The right moment is Saturday in the late morning, when the bustle is at its height without being stifling. There you put together an improvised lunch to carry off towards the nearby garden.

The garden and the palais du Luxembourg

Head south and the neighbourhood opens onto the jardin du Luxembourg, the setting of the Senate. It is the lung of the Left Bank: metal chairs that you move to follow the sun, the basin where little sailboats drift, avenues of chestnut trees, hidden apiaries and orchards.

Each hour has its colour here:

• The morning, the joggers and the calm of the still-empty paths.
• Midday, lunches on the grass and games of chess under the trees.
• The late afternoon, the golden light on the façade of the palace, the best moment for a read on a chair facing the basin.

The ideal day sums up as follows:

Moment	Place	What you live there
Early morning	church and small shaded squares	the neighbourhood revealed, almost provincial
Late morning	legendary cafés, rue de Buci market	low-angled light, free tables, lively stalls
Afternoon	rue de Seine galleries, place de Furstemberg	the open-air museum of art dealers
End of day	jardin du Luxembourg	a read facing the basin, gilding on the palace

Where to find the Paris of publishers and booksellers?

Saint-Germain is, lastly, the neighbourhood of the book. The great publishing houses have their historic addresses here, and the bookshops, general or specialised, punctuate every street. You wander between two appointments, you unearth a rare edition, you sometimes come across an author at a signing.

This discreet presence of literature gives the neighbourhood its particular tempo: neither hurried nor nonchalant, but attentive. An elegance that does not show itself and that you feel.

A concierge who knows the neighbourhood

To live in Saint-Germain, even a few weeks a year, is to hold to these gestures: the right table booked in time, the pied-à-terre ready before loved ones arrive, the florist on the rue de Buci to welcome a stay, the reliable craftsman when a detail calls for attention.

At French Realty, a dedicated concierge knows this neighbourhood and its habits. They prepare your home, welcome your guests, coordinate daily life and leave you with the essential: the pleasure of a legendary terrace and a walk towards the Luxembourg, with nothing to organise. This intendance is quoted individually, by the time actually spent, when you need it. That is the spirit of the bespoke concierge service, and all our Parisian living subjects are gathered in the Journal’s Art de vivre category.