La Rive Gauche

La Rive Gauche means The left bank of the River Seine in Paris. I started my exploration of this area from the Boulevard St Micheal. At the famous Saint Micheal fountain which has become a popular meeting point for many people. Walking slowly through the Latin quarter and admiring both history and architecture that day.  It is known as the Latin Quarter because Latin used to be spoken widely in this area since it was situated in the midst of many higher learning institutions.

Other than the many Greek restaurants in the area, “Rive Gauche” or “Left Bank” reminds one of Paris filled with artists, writers and philosophers, including Pablo Picasso, Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, Henri Matisse, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and dozens of other members of the great artistic community at Montparnasse.

I love the little cobbled stone alley ways, the old buildings that each holds it’s little secrets. Napoleon Bonaparte’s secret apartment, Oscar Wilde’s hotel, “Cafe Flore” – the literary and artistic shrine associated with many writers and artists such as Jean Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Picasso and American writer James Baldwin, residences of Delacroix, Richard Wagner, Thomas Jefferson when in Paris, Racine, Ingres, Hemingway. There’s so much to look out for if you know what you are looking for. And even if you don’t the streets are still pretty and quaint to get lost in.