The Latin Quarter is the oldest part of Paris and somehow also one of the youngest. The Sorbonne is here, the law school occupies a building right on Place du Panthéon, and the moment classes end the streets fill up with students. You go from a medieval alley to a packed terrace in about two minutes. That mix is what I love about it, and it's why I always say to explore it on foot without a rigid plan.
A crêpe to go, then head for the gardens
Crêperie des Arts, on rue Saint André des Arts, has been making crêpes since 1973, passed from father to son, a few steps from the Saint Michel fountain. You can sit inside, the decor is worth a look, but my instinct is always to grab a crêpe to go and eat it in a garden. Jardin du Luxembourg if you want the green chairs and the fountain, Jardin des Plantes if you'd rather have something quieter and more botanical. Both are an easy walk away.
Dinner with the best view in Paris
La Tour d'Argent, on Quai de la Tournelle, has been around since 1582, and the dining room sits on the sixth floor with the windows opening onto the Seine, Notre Dame and Île Saint Louis. To me it's simply the most beautiful view from a table in Paris. In the kitchen, Yannick Franques, Meilleur Ouvrier de France, keeps the house classics including the famous duck, numbered for decades now and finished in front of you on the trolley. One Michelin star, an enormous cellar, and prices to match. This is a dinner you save for an occasion, and you book it far in advance.
Same spirit, different budget: La Rôtisserie d'Argent, two doors down. This is the family's bistro, checked tablecloths, old school service, and a rotisserie in the middle of the room turning all day long. The pike quenelles and the duckling à l'orange are what I order every single time. Rich, traditional cooking, generous portions, and the feeling of sitting in a Lyonnais bouchon that somehow relocated to the banks of the Seine.
Where to shop for something better than a fridge magnet
Shakespeare and Company, on rue de la Bûcherie, facing Notre Dame. George Whitman opened the bookshop in 1951 as Le Mistral, then renamed it in 1964 in tribute to Sylvia Beach, whose own shop on rue de l'Odéon had welcomed Joyce and Hemingway. His daughter Sylvia runs it today. Thousands of passing writers have slept between the shelves over the years, and you can still feel it in the little rooms upstairs. There's usually a line on the sidewalk, so come early in the morning and leave some time for the café next door.
It's the one I'd send you to if you only have time for a single stop. The other shops I love around here, the cabinet of curiosities tucked away on a side street and the studio where everything is hand painted, are all pinned on my map.
What I'd actually go see
The Panthéon first. Under the dome, the copy of Foucault's pendulum replays the 1851 experiment, and it's usually the part kids remember. Below that, the crypt, with Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Marie Curie, Joséphine Baker and Simone Veil. Give yourself an hour and a half. Access to the outer colonnade, over two hundred steps and a clear view across the whole Left Bank, isn't open year round, so check before you make the trip.
Then the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, which isn't one museum but several buildings spread across the Jardin des Plantes. The Grande Galerie de l'Évolution is the famous one, with its iron and glass hall and that long procession of taxidermied animals. My favorite is still the Galerie de Paléontologie et d'Anatomie comparée, opened in 1898 and left almost untouched since, skeletons lined up as far as you can see under the glass roof. The garden is free to enter, the galleries are ticketed, and they close on Tuesdays.
Planning all of this without losing your evenings to it
What I notice with people getting ready for Paris is never a lack of information, it's the opposite. Fifteen tabs open, screenshots lost somewhere in the camera roll, addresses saved across three different apps. And then the moment you need to decide where to have lunch, none of it is findable. That's exactly why I created my Paris guide.
It isn't just a list of addresses. Everything sits in one place, my restaurants, my shops, my coffee shops, my viewpoints and my walks, over 600 geolocated spots on a single map you open in two seconds. You download it once and it works offline, so no worrying about signal or data when you come up out of the metro. You look at what's around you, and you go. No more searching while you're actually there.
And you'll find far more on it than what you came looking for. People usually buy it for one neighborhood or two, and they leave with hundreds of discoveries they never would have thought of. That's the whole point for me: helping you experience Paris like someone who lives here, without spending your nights planning it.
My Paris guide, with the full map and its 600+ addresses, is right here:
And for all my Paris finds, come see me on Instagram: @ellevousguide