Paris: Saint Germain des Prés Walk & Seine Cruise Option

4.92

(177 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

“Here, Hemingway drank too much coffee and wrote too little,” our guide Chloé grinned as she waved her hand at the tiny round tables outside Café Procope. I’d heard about this place before—the oldest café in Paris—but seeing it with the morning light slanting across the cobbles made it feel less like a legend and more like someone’s living room. The smell of espresso drifted out as a waiter in a crisp apron squeezed past us with a tray. I tried to imagine what it sounded like here in the 1920s, all clinking cups and arguments about art. Hard to picture until Chloé told us about Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir arguing philosophy just down the street—she did an impression that made everyone laugh (her cigarette mime was spot-on).

Walking around Saint Germain des Prés is nothing like the big boulevards—everything’s close together, kind of jumbled but cozy. We ducked into the church (Chloé said it’s the oldest in Paris), and for a second it was so quiet you could hear your own shoes echo. The stone felt cool under my hand—older than most countries. There was this moment when sunlight hit the stained glass just right and painted colors on my jacket sleeve; I didn’t expect to feel anything about a church, honestly, but there it was. After that we wandered down these narrow streets where you can still see grooves worn into the stones from centuries of market carts. Someone passed by with a bag of chocolate from one of those old shops—I caught a whiff of cocoa in the air.

I kept losing track of time because every corner had some story: jazz clubs tucked behind plain doors, or that hotel where Miles Davis once stayed (I think Chloé said he played trumpet on the roof? Or maybe I misheard—my French is questionable). She pointed out where the Treaty of Paris was signed—just casually, like “oh yeah, that’s where America became America.” At some point we stopped at a national theater Marie-Antoinette herself inaugurated; I tried to picture her sitting there but couldn’t really manage it. The pace was relaxed—no rush—which I liked. If you want to add on the Seine river cruise after, your ticket works anytime for a year, so you don’t have to decide right away.