This quartier of Paris gets its name from the Abbey of Saint Germain de Près or St Germain of the Fields. The area of St Germain was once marshlands and fields located outside of the Paris walls. Today, it couldn’t be more a part of Paris. St Germain is where the D’Artagnan went in search of Milady, it’s where the Lost Generation found themselves after the First World War, it’s where Sartre ‘existentialized’ and it’s also where Voltaire drank 40 cups of coffee a day at Le Procope, Paris’ oldest restaurant.

Today, you can eat oysters at Bar a Huitres, people-watch at Mabillon, shop for flowers on Rue de Buci. Here you can be a part of Parisian landscape just as much as St. Germain is today.