The writers' Left Bank, from the Île Saint-Louis to Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Seven stops between the Île Saint-Louis and the streets of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where people sculpted, wrote, drank a great deal of coffee and put the world to rights out loud. About three hours on an electric bike in a small group, with a break halfway round; anything you order there is at your own expense.

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The heart of the route fits into six kilometres, with the links to and from the meeting point on top, so about thirteen kilometres in all. Those six kilometres hold the Île Saint-Louis, the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, the rue Mouffetard, the Luxembourg gardens and Saint-Germain-des-Prés. On foot you cover a third of it in an afternoon. On an electric bike you link the whole thing, without sweating up the hill to the Panthéon, and there is still time to stand in front of the doorways. Seven stops, one guide, and buildings that turn back into addresses: where someone sculpted for fourteen years before being confined for thirty, where someone wrote because there was no heating at home, where a street still carries the name of a theatre that left in 1770.

The writers of Paris left few plaques and a great many stories. Camille Claudel lived and sculpted on the quai de Bourbon from 1899 until she was committed, in March 1913. Voltaire and Rousseau, who cordially loathed one another, now lie face to face in the Panthéon crypt, which you only see if you go inside and which the price does not cover. Descartes came back to Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 1819, without his skull, which went astray on the way. Hemingway wrote his first Paris pages a hundred metres from the rue Mouffetard, in two rooms with no hot water. These are the stories we go looking for, façade after façade, from the pavement and from the square.

The tour can be booked as a shared ride, where you join a small group, or as a private ride for your party alone. Indicative prices, all taxes included: on a shared ride, 75 euros per person; private, 95 euros per person. It is never a group package. The electric bike and the helmet are included. The final price, the date and the meeting point are confirmed to you in writing before any payment, and your request is not yet a firm booking. Each group takes five participants at most per guide; beyond five participants we may be able to run a second group at the same time, subject to availability, at the same price per person, and we confirm that to you in writing. A break is planned halfway round: we have no agreement with any establishment, we book no table and we negotiate no rate; anything you order is at your own expense and nothing of the kind is included in the price. The tour starts in the 7th arrondissement and comes back to it.

No entrance fees, no interiors and nothing to eat or drink are included in the price. The Panthéon, the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Delacroix's studio are told from the square or from the forecourt; the guide will tell you which ones are worth coming back to on foot, and in what order.

On this ride

The writers' Left Bank, from the Île Saint-Louis to Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Île Saint-Louis

Two islets left outside the city until 1614: that year the channel between them was filled in, where the rue Poulletier now runs, and Christophe Marie undertook with two associates to build the bridges and lay out the whole island, in return for the right to sell the plots. The grid, one central street, two lines of quays and three cross streets, was finished around 1660, and the façades you ride past are essentially seventeenth-century. At 19 quai de Bourbon, Camille Claudel lived and sculpted from 1899 to 10 March 1913, the day she was committed at her family's request: fourteen years of work here, then thirty years of confinement, until her death in 1943. Her work was only properly rediscovered in the 1980s.

Latin Quarter and the Panthéon

Voltaire and Rousseau lie face to face in the crypt, after loathing each other thoroughly in life. On 30 August 1755 Voltaire wrote to Rousseau about the Discourse on Inequality: "Never has so much wit been used in the attempt to make us stupid; one longs to walk on all fours after reading your work." Marie Curie arrived in 1995, the first woman admitted on her own merits, in a lead-lined coffin because of residual radioactivity; her laboratory notebooks, held at the Bibliothèque nationale, are still active and can only be consulted under a strict protocol. And it was under this dome that Foucault hung, in 1851, a sixty-seven-metre wire weighted with a twenty-eight-kilo sphere, to make the rotation of the Earth visible to the naked eye. The crypt, the pendulum and the whole interior can only be seen from inside, which the price does not cover: the stop is made on the square.

Place de la Contrescarpe and rue Mouffetard

The quarter of the rue Mouf, and of Hemingway's first Paris years. From January 1922 to August 1923 he lodged with Hadley at 74 rue du Cardinal-Lemoine, two rooms with no hot water and no lavatory, a hundred metres from the square; a plaque on the building records that this quarter was the true birthplace of his work and of the stripped-down style that made him famous. Sloping cobbles, a street market, narrow façades: this is the Paris of the beginnings rather than the Paris of the fame, and it has kept a village scale ten minutes from the Panthéon.

Jardin du Luxembourg

The garden belongs to the Senate, and its rules forbid inside it the movement and the parking of all vehicles and all means of locomotion, even non-motorised ones: the bikes stay locked to the racks on the perimeter, with no attended parking, and the stop is made on foot. Movable metal chairs around the pond, chess players, students revising on the steps: the setting has barely changed and it has fed entire pages of French literature. It is a good place to catch your breath for ten minutes.

Place and church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés

The bell tower in front of you was built between 990 and 1014: it is the oldest in Paris, with its arrow slits, its deliberately twisting staircases and its keep-like bearing, the last remnant of a Benedictine abbey founded in the sixth century by Childebert, son of Clovis. Inside lies Descartes, brought here on 26 February 1819 between two Benedictine scholars, Mabillon and Montfaucon, but without his skull: it had gone missing at an earlier exhumation, passed from collector to collector, and now sits in the reserves of the Musée de l'Homme. Around the square, the cafés of the quarter served as an office for Sartre and Beauvoir during the Occupation, because they were warm and home was not; after the war the cellars of the quarter took over, with jazz. The story is told from the forecourt: we go neither into the church nor into any establishment, and nothing to eat or drink is included in the price.

Place de Furstemberg

One of the smallest squares in Paris: four trees, one lamp post, and Delacroix's studio at the far end of a nearby courtyard, at 6 rue de Furstemberg. He moved in on 28 December 1857, leaving behind a studio too far from the Saint-Sulpice chapel he had been commissioned to decorate, and he died there on 13 August 1863, with no heir and no pupil. It is a national museum today; entry is not included in the price and the stop is made on the square. Rumour long made Delacroix the natural son of Talleyrand: the resemblance to the ageing Talleyrand is unsettling, no proof exists, and it remains a rumour.

Rue de l'Ancienne-Comédie and cour du Commerce-Saint-André

The street is named after a theatre that is no longer there. The Comédie-Française moved into number 14 in 1689, opening with Racine's Phèdre and Molière's Le Médecin malgré lui, and had to leave in 1770 under pressure from the doctors of the Sorbonne, scandalised at having actors for neighbours. The cafés that opened in the street opposite the theatre became the first great public salon in Paris: the gazettes were read out loud, the Encyclopédie was argued over, and Voltaire is said to have drunk up to forty cups a day, which nobody has ever verified. A few steps away, the cour du Commerce-Saint-André can still be crossed much as it was in the eighteenth century: at number 8, Marat's newspaper L'Ami du peuple was printed. A generation separates the encyclopédistes from the revolutionaries: same tables, different company. Everything is told from the street and from the passage, both of which are public.

Practical details
Duration
About 3 h, stops and break included; about 13 km, departure and return in the 7th
Level
Easy: the climb up to the Panthéon is taken care of by the electric assist. You need to be able to ride a bike and to be comfortable in Paris traffic, since the route uses streets open to traffic. Every stop is made pushing the bike or with the bike locked up; at the Jardin du Luxembourg, Senate rules require the bikes to be locked to the racks on the perimeter, with no attended parking. Conditions of participation, including the minimum age, are given when you book
Meeting point
Departure and return in the 7th arrondissement; the exact meeting address is confirmed to you in writing when you book
Group
5 participants maximum per guide; beyond five, we may be able to run a second group at the same time, subject to availability, at the same price per person, which we confirm to you in writing
Languages
French or English, tell us which you prefer when you book

Booking is a request, not a firm reservation: we confirm feasibility, date, meeting point and the final price in writing before any payment. Prices are indicative, per person, all taxes included, and cover the use of a pedal-assist bike and a helmet. No entrance fees and no indoor visits are included: the stories are told from the street, the forecourt or the bridge.

Frequently asked questions about this ride

Is the break included in the price?

No. The price covers the pedal-assist electric bike, the helmet and a guide with you for the whole route. Nothing to eat or drink is included: if you order something during the break, it is at your own expense. The place is chosen on the day, depending on the crowds and the route we take. We have no agreement with any establishment, we book no table and we negotiate no rate.

Do we go inside the Panthéon, the church or the cafés?

No. The price includes no entrance fees, no interiors and nothing to eat or drink: the stories are told from the street, the square, the forecourt or the public passage. That applies to the Panthéon and its crypt, to the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and to Delacroix's studio, now a national museum. The guide will tell you what is worth coming back to on foot, and in what order, if you only have one free afternoon.

Do I need to have read the authors?

No. We tell you about the people before the books: addresses, feuds, debts and a great deal of coffee. If you have read Hemingway or Beauvoir you will recognise places; if you have not, you will leave with a reading list.

Is the route hard on a bike?

Reckon on about thirteen kilometres, departure and return in the 7th. The route uses cycle lanes and quiet streets as much as possible, but also streets open to traffic: you need to be able to ride a bike and to be comfortable in Paris traffic. The climb up to the Panthéon is absorbed by the assist. We take a few minutes at the start to get you comfortable on the bike, and the pace follows the group rather than the other way round.

How does booking work?

You send us a date, a route and a number of participants: your request is not yet a firm booking. We come back to you with a slot, a meeting point and the exact price including all taxes, confirmed in writing before any payment. Because the tour takes place on an agreed date, it is not covered by the 14-day right of withdrawal (Article L. 221-28, 12° of the French Consumer Code). Our terms and conditions, which name the competent consumer mediator, are linked in the footer.

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Request a booking

Booking is a request, not a firm reservation: we confirm feasibility, date, meeting point and the final price in writing before any payment. Prices are indicative, per person, all taxes included, and cover the use of a pedal-assist bike and a helmet. No entrance fees and no indoor visits are included: the stories are told from the street, the forecourt or the bridge.

Request a booking