Le Quartier Latin / Saint Germain

Saint Germain des Pres was originally a little market town formed around the abbey of Saint Germain. Hôtel Paris at that time, it consisted mostly of fields worked by the Benedictine monks. The church, which dates from the era, shelters the tombs of the Merovingians and Saint Germain, bishop of Paris. The current building has been reconstructed and added to over the years, starting in 990 after the Norman raids. The abbey gave a piece of its land along the Seine to the University Pré-aux-Clercs.

Marguerite de Valois, Henry IV's first wife, also managed to get a piece of the Pré-aux-Clercs, where she built an enormous mansion overlooking the Seine. She got the land under the condition that the banks of the river would have the name "Malacquis" (ill-gotten) - the name has since been transformed into "Malaquais". Many big statesmen lived here around the end of the 17th century, and their mansions and courtyards are today the seat of many governmental ministries. More about Hotel Eiffle Tower Paris

After the Revolution, the neighborhood would not come back into style until after the Second World War. Ultimately, it came to be known as a center of intellectualism; the Café de Flore and the Deux Magots were popular hangouts for such minds as Vian, Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir.

Source : www.pariserve.tm.fr