About the area
Saint-Germain-des-Prés
The hotel is greatly located in the heart of Paris, in the picturesque Saint-Germain-des-Prés area. Restaurant, cafes, interior decoration shops and fashion stores can all be found just a few steps away. Within a 10-minute walk, you can also enjoy the Orsay museum as well as the Louvre; Notre-Dame cathedral and Sainte Chapelle are about 15 minutes away. An excellent network of public transportation will take you to the other Paris landmarks as well as to the exhibition centers at Porte de Versailles or Villepinte.
The neighbourhood holds its name from the Saint Germain church. It is known as the oldest one in Paris (11th and 12th centuries). In fact, Saint-Germain-des-Prés was a Benedictine abbey founded in the 6th century, the only remnants of which are some parts of the church as well as a beautiful 17th century town house located on its North side, on rue de l’Abbaye.
For many centuries, the abbey was set outside the city limits. The northern wall of the abbey was a little country lane called rue du Colombier, which then became rue Jacob.
As the city of Paris expanded through the next centuries, Saint Germain was incorporated in it. Most of the buildings that we see today were erected after the French Revolution in 1789, particularly during the 19th century. The neighbourhood started attracting a literary crowd as soon as the 19th century, but it is after World War II that Saint-Germain forged its myth thanks to intellectuals such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus but also artists like Edouard Manet and Eugène Delacroix. Most met on the terraces of famous cafés
(Les Deux Magots, Café de Flore, Le Bonaparte) or in the cellars of sadly disappearing jazz clubs. Along with them came the art galleries, antique dealers, interior designers and books stores which make Saint-Germain-des-Prés the heart and soul of the Left Bank (rive gauche). In the last twenty years, restaurants and fashion designers stores have spread increasingly and changed the traditional personality of this historic district, yet its beautiful church and numerous landmarks are there to show that some things transcend through time.
