Boulevard Saint-Germain

The Boulevard Saint- Germain is a major road on the Rive Gauche, the Left Bank in Paris.

It leads in curved form from the Pont de Sully in the east, a bridge that crosses the Ile Saint- Louis, the Pont de la Concorde towards the Place de la Concorde in the west. She runs through the fifth, sixth and seventh arrondissement. At its center the Boulevard Saint- Germain is crossed by the leading from North to South Boulevard Saint -Michel.

History

The Boulevard Saint- Germain takes its name from the former Abbey of Saint -Germain -des- Prés, which was about the Middle Ages in the middle of today's road course. East of the church crosses the Boulevard, the Latin Quarter, in the west called the Faubourg Saint- Germain, a former suburb that is only from the 17th century and developed in the 18th century became a preferred residential area of the aristocracy. This meaning held - with an interruption during the French Revolution to the 19th century. Honoré de Balzac describes in his works the contrast between the Rive Gauche aristocracy and the bourgeoisie -coming of the Rive Droite, their representative buildings were built on Rue Saint- Honoré or the Champs- Élysées.

Since the thirties of the 20th century, Saint- Germain -des- Prés was associated with the numerous students from the nearby Sorbonne, the preferred visited by this group cafes and lively nightlife. In the famous cafés, such as the Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore, the existentialism movement founded by Jean -Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.

Today is the Boulevard Saint- Germain, where many of the former cafes and restaurants continue to exist, especially a shopping street in which can be found next to a number of bookshops and fashion boutiques furniture stores and upmarket.

In the house N ° 184 is since 1878 the seat of the Société de Géographie, the oldest geographical society in the world. It was founded in 1821 by important scientists, such as Humboldt, Chateaubriand, Dumont d' Urville and Champollion. The entrance stands out with two large caryatids, which are to represent the land and the sea. 1879 fell here, the decision to build the Panama Canal.

Culture and commerce

Next to the Abbey of Saint- Germain -des- Prés and the famous cafés on Boulevard Saint- Germain # 34 the headquarters of the world-renowned perfumer Diptyque.