Saint-Germain des Pres Guided Tour
One remembers Saint-Germain-des-Prés for the presence of the enormous abbaye of the same name, founded in the VIth century, but also because it became an aristocratic neighbourhood in the XVIIIth century. From a burial site of Merovingian kings, Saint-Germain-des-Prés became in the century of Enlightenement an important place for the French revolution. At the start of the XXth century it then became the neighbourhood of artists and writers.
What does a guided tour of Saint-Germain des Pres include ?
This visit is a chance to discover places such as the old abbey, for which the paintings in the choir have recently been restored, the Procope Café where famous revolutionaries would gather, and where Benjamin Franklin is said to have written several articles of the American Constitution, the former studio of Pablo Picasso where the famous Guernica painting was made. We will also discuss other artists’ workshops such as that of the painter Balthus or Delacroix where Claude Monet and Frederic Bazille lived for a while.
Saint-Germain-des-Prés is also the neighbourhood of cafés such as the Café de Flore, famous for having been the home of discussions between Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, or the Deux Magots or the famous Brasserie Lipp. During the second world war it was also the home of the “zazous”, jazz and existentialism enthusiasts, who liked to listen to Boris Vian and Juliette Gréco.
To visit Saint-Germain-des-Prés is to travel in Paris from the middle ages to the 1960s and discover a legendary area of the capital.