In short
- What’s there: the Jardin du Luxembourg, the Saint-Germain-des-Prés church, Saint-Sulpice, the Musée Delacroix, the École des Beaux-Arts, the Pont des Arts and the famous cafés.
- Location: the Left Bank, between the 5th and the 7th arrondissements.
- Tickets: most of the sites are free, and only the two museums are paid.
- Who it suits: anyone who loves sitting in cafés and watching, rather than racing between museums.
- Food markets: three, among them a covered market open six days a week and an organic market that runs on Sundays only.
- Restaurants: six recommendations, a carefully kept list, because in this arrondissement it’s easy to pay a lot for a little.
- Walking itineraries: eight take place mostly in the arrondissement, and seven more pass through it.
The 6th arrondissement is Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and to me it’s the arrondissement where sitting down is the most pleasant thing to do. If in the 1st you stand in lines and in the 3rd you walk, here the main activity is ordering something in a café and watching the street.
It’s also the arrondissement with the heaviest intellectual weight: Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980) and Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) wrote at the Café de Flore, Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) drank at the Closerie des Lilas, and the École des Beaux-Arts sent out generations of painters from here. In terms of walking itineraries it’s the richest arrondissement on the site: eight itineraries take place inside it, and seven more pass through it.
So before we set off, here is what you’ll find on this page: first the hotels and apartments I recommend in the arrondissement, then the attractions and museums one by one, the restaurants I send people to, the three food markets with their days and hours, and finally the walking itineraries.
Recommended Hotels in the 6th Arrondissement of Paris
Saint-Germain is one of the most sought-after places to stay in Paris, and the prices reflect that. If you’re not sure what suits you, answer three questions and I’ll pick from my recommendations:
My personal pick
Which hotel in the 6th arrondissement suits you?
One short question, and I will pick out of the places I already checked and wrote about on the site the ones that fit the trip you are planning.
One moment, I am going over my recommendations to find what fits you…
Prefer to go through all my recommendations yourself, with photos and details on every hotel? Here is my page of recommended hotels in the 6th.
Recommended Apartments in the 6th Arrondissement of Paris
An apartment in Saint-Germain is a way to bring down the price per night in an expensive area, and in this case also to make the most of the arrondissement’s three food markets. Here too, you can let me choose:
My personal pick
Which apartment in the 6th arrondissement suits you?
One question about the area, and I will filter the apartments I checked and wrote about on the site. The apartments I recommend directly get booked very fast, so I added excellent Booking.com apartments that I hand-picked for my readers.
One moment, I am going over my recommendations to find what fits you…
Want to go through all the apartments I recommend, with photos and details? Here is my page of recommended apartments in the 6th.
Attractions and Museums in the 6th Arrondissement of Paris
These are the sites I recommend in the 6th. Note that most of them are free, and that three of them are cafés where you only pay for what you order.
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Free entry
Jardin du Luxembourg
The best-loved park in Paris, and the place where every walk in the 6th falls into place.
The garden and the palace were commissioned by Marie de’ Medici (1575–1642) in the 17th century, and she wanted them to remind her of Florence, her hometown. The palace is used today by the French Senate, and the garden itself is open every day from the morning until around sunset. Listen for the whistles of the park keepers: they’re the sign that the gates are closing. Hidden inside the garden is the Fontaine Médicis, and on the eastern side are the chess tables of the regulars.
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The oldest church in Paris
Saint-Germain-des-Prés church
The oldest church in Paris, on the site of an abbey founded in the 6th century. After a long restoration it looks stunning.
What remains is only a small part of a huge abbey that, until the Revolution, controlled large parts of the Left Bank. The restoration of recent years revealed the original colors of the columns and the ceiling, and the result surprises anyone who remembers the gloomy church of earlier years. Inside is also the grave of René Descartes (1596–1650).
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Free entry
Saint-Sulpice church
The second-largest church in Paris, with two murals by Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) and a famous gnomon.
The gnomon was built in the 18th century to help the clergy work out the date of Easter, and Dan Brown (born 1964) turned it into a plot point in his novel, which brought waves of tourists here and an information sign explaining that it’s fiction. The two Delacroix murals are in the first chapel on the right, and I recommend starting with them.
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Musée Delacroix
Delacroix’s last home and studio, in a small museum that opens onto the most romantic square in the city.
Delacroix moved here at the end of his life to be close to the Saint-Sulpice church, where he was painting his great murals. The museum is very small and a visit takes about half an hour, but its inner garden is one of the quietest corners of the arrondissement. The Louvre ticket also covers this museum, because the two are run together.
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Musée du Luxembourg
The first public museum in Paris, and today a hall for temporary exhibitions only.
The museum opened in the 18th century to show the city’s residents works from the royal collection, and it came before the Louvre as a museum. It has been in its current building since the end of the 19th century, and since then it has been used only for temporary exhibitions. It has no permanent collection, so it’s worth checking what’s on before you decide to buy a ticket.
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Architecture
École des Beaux-Arts
A spectacular Neo-Renaissance building where you’ll also find pieces of the Tuileries Palace that burned down.
The school moved to its current home in 1816, and it’s made up of several buildings around courtyards. In the chapel there’s a copy of Michelangelo’s Last Judgment, and stone remnants of the Tuileries Palace, which burned down during the Commune and was never rebuilt, are set into the courtyard. On days without an exhibition, entry is limited to the courtyards, and they’re worth it too.
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The best view in the arrondissement
Pont des Arts and the Institut de France
The footbridge with the most beautiful view in Paris, and facing it the dome of the Institut de France.
The bridge was the first in Paris to be built of metal, and the building opposite is the Institut de France, built as a college that Cardinal Mazarin (1602–1661) founded in his will, and today home to the Académie française. The love locks that used to cover the railing were removed in 2015, after their weight caused part of the railing to collapse. If you’ve come to photograph a sunset, this is the place.
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A charming passage
Cour du Commerce Saint-André
The charming 18th-century passage of the Left Bank, and home to Le Procope too.
This passage is where you’ll find Le Procope, the oldest café in Paris that’s still open, and according to the story, it was in a cellar nearby that Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738–1814) tested the machine named after him on sheep. A tower from the wall of Philippe Auguste is also built into the passage, and you can see it through a glass panel in the floor.
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Café
Café de Flore
The café of Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, and to this day the place to sit and watch.
Sartre and de Beauvoir worked here for whole shifts during the war, partly because the café was heated and their apartments weren’t. The prices here are higher than they deserve to be, and to me what you’re buying is the right to sit for an hour in a place that hasn’t changed since then. The upstairs floor is quieter than the terrace.
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Café
Les Deux Magots
The neighbor and rival of the Café de Flore, with a terrace that looks straight onto the church.
The two Chinese figures on the pillar inside are what gave the place its name, from the days of the silk shop that stood here before the café. The café has awarded an annual literary prize since 1933, and among its winners are names that changed French literature. In terms of prices and crowd, it’s hard to tell it apart from the Flore.
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Café
La Closerie des Lilas
Hemingway’s café, at the southern edge of the arrondissement, looking out on Montparnasse.
Hemingway wrote parts of The Sun Also Rises here, and a brass plaque with his name is still fixed to the bar. There are two options here: the more relaxed brasserie on one side and the expensive restaurant on the other. I recommend the bar and one cocktail, not a full meal.
More Attractions in the 6th Arrondissement Worth Knowing
These are smaller places, the kind you step into on your way somewhere else. I’ve already written separate articles on the first two:
| The place | Address | Why stop there |
|---|---|---|
| Place de Furstemberg | Place de Furstemberg | To me the most romantic square in Paris. Four paulownia trees, one streetlamp and silence |
| Fontaine Médicis | Inside the Jardin du Luxembourg | A 17th-century fountain at the end of a shaded pool, and few people find it without being led there |
| Marché Saint-Germain | 4 Rue Lobineau | A small covered market open six days a week, behind the facade of a shopping center |
| Théâtre de l’Odéon | Place de l’Odéon | A Neoclassical theater from the 18th century, and the square in front of it is a great place to sit |
| Musée Zadkine | 100 bis Rue d’Assas | The sculptor’s home and studio, with a small sculpture garden. A City of Paris museum, the permanent collection is free |
| Monnaie de Paris | 11 Quai de Conti | The former royal mint, today a museum and also a chef’s restaurant |
Tours and Activities in the 6th Arrondissement You Might Enjoy
Show me more activities in Paris
And if you’re looking for attractions in other arrondissements of the city, my Paris attractions page brings them all together in one place.
My Recommended Restaurants in the 6th Arrondissement of Paris
In Saint-Germain it’s easy to pay a lot for a little, which is exactly why this list is short and carefully kept. These are the places I send people to:
| The restaurant | Type | Address | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Semilla | On the radar | 54 Rue de Seine | Modern French cooking with an open kitchen, and one of the best places in the arrondissement for lunch |
| Le Danton | Café | 103 Boulevard Saint-Germain | A café right on the boulevard, good for an unplanned stop |
| Baillotte | On the radar | 16 Rue du Dragon | A small restaurant on Rue du Dragon, a place that got onto my radar |
| La Méditerranée | A reader’s pick | 2 Place de l’Odéon | A recommendation I got from Efrat, a reader. A seafood restaurant facing the Odéon |
| Comptoir Coréen | Asian | 66 Rue Mazarine | Korean cooking on Rue Mazarine, in an area where you wouldn’t expect to find it |
| Le Palanquin | Asian | 12 Rue Madame | Vietnamese on Rue Madame, a family place that has been going for years |
Looking for restaurants in other arrondissements? My page of recommended restaurants is organized by type of cuisine and by arrondissement.
The Food Markets of the 6th Arrondissement of Paris
There are three markets in the 6th, and they’re three completely different types: a covered market that’s open almost all week, a regular morning market, and an organic market that runs on Sundays only. The last two stand in exactly the same spot, on Boulevard Raspail.
| The market | Address | Days and hours | Metro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marché Saint-Germain (covered) | 4 Rue Lobineau | Tuesday to Saturday 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Sunday 8:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Closed on Mondays | Mabillon |
| Marché Raspail | Boulevard Raspail | Tuesday and Friday 7:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. | Rennes |
| Marché biologique Raspail | Boulevard Raspail | Sunday only, 7:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. | Rennes |
The Sunday organic market is one of the best known in Paris and also one of the most expensive, and if you just want to buy food for the apartment, the covered market is more convenient. On my markets page you’ll find the recommended markets in the rest of the city’s arrondissements.
Walking Itineraries in the 6th Arrondissement of Paris
This is the arrondissement with the most itineraries on my site, and that’s no accident: Saint-Germain is made for walking without a goal. I’ve split the itineraries in two: those that take place mostly inside the arrondissement, and those that pass through it and continue.
Itineraries That Take Place in the 6th Arrondissement
Itineraries That Pass Through the 6th and Other Arrondissements
Want all the itineraries I’ve written, by arrondissement and by theme? My page of walking itineraries in Paris brings them all together.
The History of Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Before this was the neighborhood of Sartre and the famous cafés, it was abbey land. The abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés was founded in the 6th century and was one of the richest in France, with land that stretched over everything that is now the 6th arrondissement and parts of the 7th. The abbey church that stands there today is the oldest church in Paris, and almost nothing was left of the abbey itself after the Revolution.
Read my full article on the history of Saint-Germain
The Next Step in Your Trip
The 6th is the heart of the Saint-Germain quarter, but the neighborhood itself is more than an administrative unit. If what interests you is the atmosphere and the identity rather than the full list, my Saint-Germain page brings it together. To the east the 5th arrondissement is waiting for you, and to the north, across the Pont des Arts, the Louvre and the 1st arrondissement.
And if you want to be ready ahead of time for every scenario, my complete Paris guide brings together everything I’ve learned. Have a wonderful trip, and don’t forget to sit in a café for me.
