The Latin Quarter - Best Place in Paris

The Latin Quarter - Best Place in Paris
By Susan Gerle

Paris is one of the most beautiful and romantic cities in the world. The history and architecture and the shopping is too much to absorb in just a few days. The only thing I’d change on the next visit is to make Paris my destination, rather than a small part of a European vacation.

 

My friends and I traveled to Paris by train from Switzerland.  The train station in Paris was bright, busy, hectic, and even musical with small groups of musicians playing in different cafes situated around the station.  The view outside surrounding the square was a mixture of old and new architecture.  

We took time to have fresh French croissants at one of the cafes before getting a taxi to our hotel.  The price for transportation was reasonable and the taxi driver very friendly even though he had very little English.  But that was okay because we had very little French!  I think that was one of the things that made a difference in our experience.  We were obviously taken by what we were seeing and really wanted the input from the locals no matter where we went.

On the first trip there we made reservations to stay at a small “pension” in the Latin quarter of the city.  A friend of mine from Vancouver, Canada was going to join us at the hotel.  He had lived in Paris as a student and knew his way around the Latin quarter very well.

The tiny hotel was a 6-floor walk-up.  A small entrance and foyer was crowded with luggage from people checking in and out and the reception area only a window cut in the wall.  A young woman spoke rapid French but switched quickly to fluent English when she heard my poor attempt at the local language.  It turned out she was a transplanted native of New York City!

We got our room and began the journey up the tiny spiral staircase to the forth floor.  The first day was agony but after a week of doing the stairs half a dozen times a day, we were in pretty good shape!  Our room was small but comfortable.  After getting settled, we connected with my other friend and he took us to a local market, just around the corner.  There we bought some red wine and cheese before heading off in another direction for croissants.  That would be part of our staple diet for the next few days.

The nice thing about staying in the Latin Quarter is it is so close to many of the well-known landmarks, like the Louvre and Notre Dame.  It is also close for catching a Hop-On/ Hop-Off double decker bus, which took us easily to other famous structures like the Eiffel Tower or the Arch De Triumph or the Paris Opera House.  A 2-day pass is extremely reasonable and we used it from early in the morning until after dark.