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Five Must See Sights in Saint Germain, Paris

Enjoying – or perhaps suffering – a fresh wave of attention thanks to its role as a key location in Dan Brown’s bestseller The Da Vinci Code, the Musée du Louvre is arguably the world’s greatest museum and art gallery.
Strictly speaking, the name ‘Louvre’ refers to both the museum and the palace in which it is housed. Painting is what it’s most famous for, but it also boasts an unparalleled collection of antiquities from Pharonic Egypt, the Middle East, Greece and Rome. The medieval fortress from which the present day palace originates was built by King Philippe Auguste at the end of the 12th century. Its remains now form the centrepiece of the ‘medieval Louvre’ exhibition beneath the Cour Carré. The building as we see it today dates from 1546, when Francois I decided to built a royal palace on the site of the fortress. (Francois also inadvertently secured the museum’s most celebrated acquisition when he invited Leonardo Da Vinci to spend the last years of his life in Amboise as ‘Premier Painter, Engineer and Architect’. Da Vinci accepted the offer brought the Mona Lisa with him from Milan.) Subsequent Kings, including Louis XVI, modified and added to the palace over a considerable period, yet the building’s carved pilasters and pediments remained surprisingly harmonious in appearance as it grew. The only jarring addition has been the infamous glass pyramid in the centre of the Cour Napoleon – though such is the grace and beauty of the rest of the Palais it has somehow managed to absorb this alien structure without it seeming too outrageous a blemish.
The Louvre became a fully fledged art gallery in the late 18th century, benefiting in large part from the plunder amassed by Napoleon – much of which the French government has serenely failed to return to its original owners.
Just entering the Louvre is a memorable experience in itself. You take an escalator into the vast sunken courtyard beneath the pyramid. Here you’ll find ticket offices, information guides, shops and surprisingly decently priced, high quality cafeteria. Once you’ve purchased your ticket don’t be put off by the monumental scale of the museum – the collections are neatly divided up into seven levels (Oriental, Egyptian, Classical, Sculpture, Painting, Medieval Louvre, Objets d’art), spread over three wings: Denon (south), Richelieu (north) and Sully (east.) It’s an eminently rational layout and you’re unlikely to get lost once you’ve mastered it.
Must-see collections include the Italian masterpieces of the Grande Galerie, the French 19th century large-format paintings, the beautiful French sculptures, the Islamic art and the intriguing medieval Louvre. Among the museum’s many jewels, the undoubted highlights include Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (of course) and The Virgin of the Rocks, Veronese’s Marriage at Cana, Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa, Canova’s Cupid and Psyche, the Venus de Milo and The Winged Victory of Samothrace.

The largest park on the Left Bank, the Jardin du Luxembourg covers over 224,500 square metres. It is formally laid out, with symmetrical lawns and floral parterres, which, in the summer months, are filled with daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths. There are also lots of trees, including tropical palms, kept in giant pots and taken inside during winter.
The park was originally created as the gardens of the Palais du Luxembourg, built in 1612 by architect Salomon de Brosse for Marie de Médicis – King Henri IV’s widow – to remind her of the Palazzo Pitti in her native Florence. Since 1958 the Palais has served as the seat of the French Senate, and is discreetly patrolled by armed guards.
Though it offers a welcome respite from the bustle of the Left Bank, the Jardin can get very busy in fine weather, being a popular sunbathing spot for both Sorbonne students and local residents. It is forbidden to lounge about on most of the lawns, but there are plenty of chairs dotted around the winding gravel paths.
Apart from the Palais, the Jardin’s other centrepiece is an octagonal pond known as the Grand Bassin, where children can sail remote controlled boats. There’s also tennis courts, donkey rides, a large children’s playground, a Jeux de Boules area, an pear orchard and two fountains: the Fontaine de Medicis, a baroque fountain designed in 1624, and the Fontaine de l'Observatoire, which dates from 1873 and features statuary depicting a globe supported by four women, each representing a Continent.

Named after Saint Sulpicius, a 7th century bishop, noted for his resistance to the tyranny of the Merovingian kings of France, St-Sulpice is a monumental but austere classical edifice, constructed intermittently between 1646 and 1745. At 113 meters long, 58 meters wide and 34 meters tall, it is only slightly smaller than Notre-Dame and thus the second largest church in Paris. Its façade features two colonnades – a Doric surmounted by an Ionic – and twin, slightly mismatched towers adorned with Corninthian pilasters.
The interior may seem quite gloomy when you first enter, but it boasts some fascinating features. On the right there’s the Chapelle des Anges, containing three murals by Delacroix, including one of St-Michael slaying a dragon and another of Heliodorus being driven from the Temple of Jerusalem. The nave, meanwhile, contains one of the world's largest organs, comprising 6,588 pipes. Its organists have included two of the last century’s greatest, Charles-Marie Widor and Marcel Dupré.
Briefly secularised as the Temple of Victory during the French Revolution, the Church has witnessed the christening of some unlikely figures, including the Marquis de Sade and the poet Charles Baudelaire, as well as the wedding of the novelist Victor Hugo. In recent years it has attracted new and not entirely welcome attention as one of the Parisian locations of the novel The Da Vinci Code. During the summer of 2005, 20,000 more people visited the church than did in 2004 and it is now on the itinerary of numerous “Da Vinci Code Tours.” As a result, the church authorities have been forced to post notices insisting that the building’s meridian (called the ‘Rose Line’ in the novel) is not the same as the Paris meridian and that a marble obelisk on the transept's northern aisle is not the vestige of an ancient temple.

Bordering St Germain and the Latin Quarter on the Boulevard St Michel, La Sorbonne, though famous the world over, is not an independent University in itself. It in fact began life in 1257 as the Collège de Sorbonne, founded by Robert de Sorbon – chaplain to King Louis IX of France – as one of the first significant colleges of the already existing University of Paris. Its original student body comprising only 20 students, it was suppressed during the French revolution, but existed as a theological college until 1882. After the construction of the present building in 1889, it became an entirely secular institution and gradually “Sorbonne” became a colloquial term for the entire University of Paris.
In 1968 the Sorbonne was a focal point for the May riots, with the administration responding to student protests by calling in the police, who surrounded the university and arrested students, using tear gas to disperse crowds. A few days later, more than 20,000 students, teachers and supporters marched towards the Sorbonne, still sealed off by the police, who charged, wielding their batons. When the Sorbonne reopened, students occupied it and declared it an autonomous "people's university".
In the aftermath of the riots, the University was reorganised. Four of the 13 new interdisciplinary Universities now share the premises of the Sorbonne. The handsome main building, featuring mural paintings by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, is situated in the block surrounded by the Rue de la Sorbonne, Rue des Écoles, Rue Cujas and Rue Saint-Jacques. It’s well worth a visit and its students lend an arty Bohmeian ambience to the surrounding cafés, bars and shops.

Struck down by a mystery illness in 1744, King Louis XV vowed that if he recovered he would give thanks to the patron saint of Paris, Sainte-Geneviève, by building an edifice in her honour. The King did recover and construction of the Sainte-Geneviève Basilica began in 1758, under the supervision of architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot. The overall design was that of a Greek cross, topped off by an 83 metre high Dome and with a façade dominated by massive Corinthian columns. (In many respects it looks like a blend of St Paul’s in London and Invalides). Construction took some time due to financial difficulties, and the building was only completed after Soufflot’s death. The French Revolution then intervened, with the new Revolutionary government blocking the stained glass windows and ordering the building – renamed the Panthéon – to be changed into a mausoleum for the interment of great Frenchmen. Apart from a brief reconsecration, it has remained a secular building ever since.
For most of the 19th century, well before the Eiffel tower, the Sacré-Coeur of Montmartre or the Montparnasse tower, the Panthéon was the first monument seen by travellers arriving in Paris, and a site from which the whole city could be admired in a single, unique, sweeping view. The Panthéon was also the place where, in 1851, the astronomer Jean Bernard Léon Foucault first held his famous experiment, proving that the world spins around its axis. Foucault’s pendulum, moved in 1851 to the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, now resides in the Pantheon once again.
When you enter the Panthéon today, before visiting the crypt note the striking frescoes. On the right wall are scenes from Sainte-Geneviève's life, while on the left she is depicted with a white-draped head looking out over medieval Paris. Among those buried in the crypt itself are Voltaire, Rousseau, Marat, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Jean Moulin, Marie Curie, Louis Braille and Soufflot himself.