Paris grew up along the banks of the Seine and what is now the 5th was the epicentre of Roman Paris. The baths of Cluny and the Roman Arena off the rue Monge are among the vestiges of this period. In the middle ages, vineyards attached to the Abbeys of Notre Dame de Paris and Saint Germain des Prés flourished all along the left bank. The Montagne Saint Geneviève, upon which now sits the Pantheon, formed a large vineyard divided into ‘clos’ or enclosures, with streets still bearing their names (Clos Bruneau, Clos Garlande...).
The National Botanical Gardens
Transmitting a tradition... In the Jardin des Plantes, which has been open to the public for almost 400 years, the tremendous plant diversity in shapes, colours and perfumes is the support for knowledge dissemination and preservation. Among this botanical diversity, there have always been vines. The hidden vineyard of the park is planted to Chardonnay, Gamay, Pinot Noir, Baco and Noah and functions as an experimental vineyard to study the beneficial effects of companion planting and the presence of indigenous 'weeds' and grasses of the Ile de France.
The Abbaye St-Victor and the Halle aux Vins
From 1800 to 1865 the consumption of wine in Paris rose from 1 million hectoliters to 3.55 million. The storage at the Halle aux Vins became insufficient and the location was incompatible with the transportation of wine via railway. In 1865 the government decided to build another massive complex of wine warehouses at Bercy. Initially both sites handled equal amounts of wine. With the expansion of Bercy in 1910 it began to handle the majority of the wine trade, while the Halle aux Vin continued to function as a centre for fine wine and spirits.
The Roman Arena
Built nearly 2000 years ago, the Roman Arena is a living testimony to the engineering skills of the Roman Empire. The Arènes de Lutèce are among the most important remains from the Gallo Roman era in Paris known in antiquity as Lutetia together with the Thermes de Cluny and was used to present gladiatorial combats as well as theatre. Constructed in the 1st century AD, it is considered the longest of its kind constructed by the Romans. The sunken arena of the amphitheater was surrounded by the wall of a podium 2.5 m (8.2 feet) high, surmounted by a parapet. The presence of a 41.2-m- (135-foot-) long stage allowed scenes to alternate between theatrical productions and combat. A series of nine niches aided in improving the acoustics. Five cubbyholes were situated beneath the lower terraces, of which there appear to have been animal cages that opened directly into the arena. Historians believe that the terraces, which surrounded more than half of the arena's circumference, could accommodate as many as 17,000 spectators.
Place de la Contrescarpe & the Mouffetard
Place de la Contrescarpe is the axis of a large, formerly working-class district, the ancient Faubourg Saint-Médard, gentrified, but still colourful, that spreads to the south on both sides of the market street Rue Mouffetard. In the Middle Ages the area lay outside the walls of the city. It has long been a haven for outsiders, real and fictional.
François Villon caroused at the taverns outside the Porte de la Bourdelle, the gate to the road to Lyon, in the 15th century, when the little plateau which is now Place de la Contrescarpe teemed with the activity of travellers, stable hands, traders, teamsters, and sedan chair porters. The most popular tavern was the Maison de la Pomme de Pin, where students and fellows came to drink cheap, untaxed wine. Rabelais drank at this tavern in the early 16th century, and a few years later Pierre Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay, and fellow poets formed the Pléiade to promote the controversial idea that French was as legitimate a language for poetry as Latin.
The quarter has hosted other celebrated literary figures including Balzac, who lived nearby on the rue Cassini and referred to the Mouffetard “as the grimest quarter of Paris”; Ernest Hemingway who lived at 74 rue Cardinal Lemoine, taking inspiration from the quarter to write ‘A Moveable Feast’; James Joyce finished writing ‘Ulysses’ at 71 rue Cardinal Lemoine, an apartment that belonged to Valery Larbaud, another writer, poet, translator; George Orwell lived ‘down and out in Paris’ at 6 Rue du Pot de Fer.
On the nearby rue Rollin, the philosopher René Descartes (“I think therefore I am”) lived at #14 in 1644, 1647 and 1648; farther down the street near the end, Blaise Pascal, philosopher and theologian lived at #2.
Victor Hugo wrote about the church Saint Medard at the foot of the Rue Mouffetard food market in Les Misérables: After escaping Thénardier's clutches, Jean Valjean and little Cosette are holed up in a hovel at No. 50–52 boulevard de l'Hôpital. Hugo writes that Valjean often visits the church of Saint Médard…
