Don’t Miss Saint-Germain

You don’t want to miss Saint-Germain on your next trip to Paris. At Paris by Mouth, Meg Zimbeck details the best parts of Saint-Germain that you’ll want to experience while there. She writes:

Saint-Germain doesn’t have the hipster cred of the 11th or the architectural richness of the Marais, but this Left Bank neighborhood represents for so many people the postcard Paris of their dreams.

With its stately Haussmannian buildings, twisting streets, and leafy parks, Saint-Germain presents an ideal habitat for strolling (then reading, then snacking).

Its streets are filled with bookshops, antique shops, and just-plain-weird shops. One of my favorite is Deyrolle, a taxidermy boutique that was frequented by Picasso, Dalí and Modigliani.

The pastry and chocolate shops that you’ll find here are among the best in the world. We run three different food tours in this area because there are so many incredible options. You can get a glimpse of some of my favorites in this article by baking queen Dorie Greenspan.

The Café de Flore, once haunted by Breton and Sartre, now hosts an Emily in Paris crowd. But some of my favorite Substack authors still sneak in to write here, usually very early or very late.

But what about the restaurants? Because of high rents, this neighborhood isn’t a hotbed of young culinary creativity. But there are historical gems, some standout spots, and also some places to avoid.

To assemble this collection, I’ve been trying new places (Oktobre, Ambos, Baillotte, Les Parisiens, Colvert, Brasserie des Prés) and to returning to old standbys (Chez Dumonet, Le Comptoir) to see how they’re holding up.

Everything in this guide has been anonymously tested within the last three years. A few favorites from the previous version of this list have been removed because they didn’t meet that cut-off (Quinsou, Colorova, Sauvage, Freddy’s). I’ll update this guide as I continue to review restaurants in this area (Allard is coming soon).

Read more here.