Balade de Saint-Germain-des-Près

Today was the first of several CUPA-organized walking tours of various Parisian locales. We started off at the Censier-Daubenton metro stop, ligne 7. Even just getting to the meeting place was an adventure, as I had to change modes of transportation/metro lines 3 times!

Initially, we just strolled along la Rue Mouffetard, taking in the lovely architecture of a true Parisian boulevard. Soon enough, however, we ended up at the first major tour stop: The Arènes de Lutèce, or the ancient Roman amphitheater of Paris.  It was rediscovered in the 1860s during Haussmann’s reconstruction of Paris, which caused some interesting impacts on the neighboring buildings!

Then, of course, there are the buildings inhabited by the famous, notably Rene Descartes and Ernest Hemingway. We saw the building Descartes resided in during his stays in Paris in the 1640s, as well as the building in which Hemingway invented the Bloody Mary (although upon further research this is not actually true). As our story went, however, Hemingway’s wife Mary did not like the smell of alcohol, and when Hemingway discovered that adding tomato juice to vodka covered the smell, the Bloody Mary was born.

We were led down a couple of narrow streets, and then emerged out onto a square housing three very prominent buildings: The famed Lycée Henri IV, the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, and the Panthéon. I got pretty excited about the Panthéon renovation – it’s an incredible feat of engineering!

A couple of blocks later, we were right next to the Sorbonne. I hadn’t quite realized how big it is – it appears to span more than two whole city blocks, although it could be even bigger. From the sides, its façade appears to continue on forever.

The next Roman stop on the tour was the thermal baths, which were actually incorporated into architecture of the hôtel de Cluny when it was constructed in the 14^th and 15^th centuries. We were then swept up into the Middle Ages, as we entered the courtyard and gardens of the Musée de Cluny (you can see pieces of the thermes through the archways in the first photo and to the right of the museum in the second).

The tour then took us wandering through winding streets filled with crêpe vendors, bookstores, and nice restaurants. Our final stop was in one of Paris’ few remaining galeries, paved and covered streets built by Haussmann so that the ladies of the 19^th century could walk in safety without dirtying their gowns.

After the tour, I ended up wandering for a little bit longer with some of the other students and getting my first view of Notre Dame! We didn’t enter it today, but soon, soon….