Don’t bring your Latin dictionary to the Latin Quartier– they don’t speak Latin. But, they did. For more than a thousand years. Even the ladies of the night conducted business in Latin.
Paris’ Latin Quarter lies on the Left Bank (Rive Gauche) of the Seine directly south of Notre-Dame Cathedral. From there, it runs up the side of Mount Genevieve to the Panthéon overtop of the ancient ruins of Lutetia, Rome’s version of Paris (53BC to 410 AD).
The district’s academic roots began with the founding of the University of Paris in the 1150s. For centuries, cheap lodgings, cheaper foods, the nightlife and the openness of Parisian society drew European, American and British authors, writers, painters and poets who found that special feeling that inspired their creativity.
Today, it runs with equal measure of tourists and students each seeking a special experience and, for the most part, finding it.
This book is is built around a walking tour from Place Michel through the old villages to the Sorbonne, the Panthéon and onto Place Contrescarpe where Hemingway scorned the locals at the Café d’Assassins from his flat around the corner. It is filled with anecdotes, writings and poems of famous authors and ample photographs and maps.
