Saint-Germain-des-Prés Quarter, Paris

The church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in the square of that name in Paris, belonged to a wealthy Benedictine abbey founded on this site in the eighth century and destroyed during the French Revolution. It bears the name of Germanus (Germain), a bishop of Paris who was canonized in 754. As early as the sixth century there was a church here, in the meadows (prés) bordering the Seine, containing the tombs of the Merovingian kings Childéric I, Clotaire II and Childéric II, which were plundered during the Revolution. Destroyed several times by the Norsemen, the church was rebuilt around the year 1000 in Late Romanesque (the nave) and Early Gothic style (choir, completed 1163). Of the conventual buildings there survive only the abbot's palace (16th-17th C.), the prior's lodgings and remains of the destroyed Lady Chapel. In the north transept are the tomb (by Kaspar Marsy) of King John II Casimir Vasa of Poland (d. 1672), who became abbot of Saint-Germain after his abdication, and a marble statue of St Francis Xavier by Guillaume Coustou. In the second chapel on the south side of the choir are the grave-slabs of the philosopher René Descartes (d. 1650) and two learned Benedictines, Jean Mabillon (d. 1707) and Bernard de Montfaucon (d. 1719). In the Lady Chapel (Chapelle de la Vierge) is a statue of the Virgin by Dupaty (1822).

The Boulevard Saint-Michel (Boul' Mich' for short), on the boundary between the fifth and sixth arrondissements in Paris, runs south from the Seine, crosses the Boulevard Saint-Germain and continues past Place de la Sorbonne on the left and the Jardin du Luxembourg on the right to the Port-Royal ; RER, where it meets the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Boulevard de Port-Royal.The Saint-Michel Métro is a popular meeting- place; and whether the rendezvous is in front of the Fontaine Saint-Michel or in one of the numerous cafes round the square this is a good starting point for walks along the Quais flanking the Seine, to the Cité, in the Quartier Latin, to Saint-Germain-des-Prés or up the boulevard to the Jardin du Luxembourg.If you are looking for shoes or the latest style in jeans or some little bit of nonsense or other, the shops along the Boul' Mich' offer a wide choice, as do the street traders with their varied displays of Indian shawls, leather goods, Far Eastern perfumes and jewelry.During the school and university year (October to June) the boulevard is busy with schoolchildren and students from all over the world. In the summer months the crowds consist mainly of tourists, who are sometimes disappointed to meet only their own kind. It is more interesting to explore the little side streets of the Quartier Latin to left and right of the boulevard with their numerous restaurants and cafes.

To get some impression of the scale and complexity of Paris's sewage system those interested can visit an exhibition on the city's sewers in (or rather under) Place de la Résistance (entrance opposite 93 Quai d'Orsay). Here are several galleries containing plans and documents and an audio-visual show illustrating the development of Paris's water supply and sewage systems from Roman times by way of the large reservoir (the Grand Siphon de l'Alma) constructed by an engineer named Belgrand in the reign of Napoleon III to present-day Paris.

The house once occupied by Eugène Delacroix; it is now a museum, with mementos and documents relating to the great Romantic painter. Opposite, at No. 5, is a house in which the playwright Jean Anouilh lived for a time. His play "Antigone" was given its first performance in 1944, with the permission of the German occupation authorities - although, camouflaged under its antique subject-matter, it was a clear call for resistance.

The elegant Procope is the oldest cafe- restaurant in Paris. Founded by a Sicilian named Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli in 1686, it soon developed into the meeting-place of the Paris intellectuals, frequented by the philosophers of the Enlightenment and later by the hotheads of the Revolution and the poets of the Romantic period.

The antique shopping district on Paris' Rive Gauche district includes; Rue du Bac, Rue de Beaune, Rue de Lille, Rue de l'Université, Rue des Saints-Pères, and Quai Voltaire.

The Musée National de la Légion et des Ordres de Chevalerie in Paris contains documents, orders and badges of the orders of chivalry down to the State orders of the present day.

Rue de Furstemberg opens out into a romantic little square shaded by plane trees. Place de Furstemberg occupies the site of the courtyard of the abbey of Saint Germain des Prés, round which were stables and coach houses.

The former laboratory of Pierre and Marie Curie has been made into a form of a museum, containing various notebooks, lab coats and a replica of the tool used for the Curies' purifications of radioactive elements.

This museum is the former headquarters of the carpenters' guild, Compagnons Charpentiers du Devoir de Liberté.

This is the largest anatomy museum in France. It contains 5,800 anatomical items such as embryology, osteology and splanchnology.

The Musée-Galerie de la Seita in Paris is the museum of the state tobacco industry.

The Ecole Nationale Supérieure in Paris contains collections of the 17th C Royal Academy of Art and the Ecole des Beaux Arts; periodic special exhibitions.