Explore Around

Hotel Saint Marcel is your perfect excuse for a long walk through the older, more worn-in parts of Paris. Just five to seven minutes on foot will get you to the Jardin des Plantes-one of the most aggressively lovely botanical gardens anywhere in Europe-where it houses and contains access to the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution (spectacular natural history museum) and also a small zoo known as the Ménagerie. Practically across the street from there is garden is mosque-the Grande Mosquée de Paris. "Even if you're not religious," they insist, "you must visit their tea room ('Salon de Thé')"-have sweet mint tea and honey-soaked pastries in stunning tiled courtyard.

Head a bit west, roughly ten to fifteen minutes, and you are in the very heart of the Latin Quarter. Entering by one of its oldest and most lively streets: Rue Mouffetard. Up this sloping cobblestoned street there must always be packed cheese shops and bakeries along with wine bars plus all those inexpensive student bistros. This is an excellent area in which to while away an evening because here,[1]the atmosphere happens to be both vibrant and perfectly Parisian.[2]At the bottom end[3]of Rue Mouffetard sits Place de la Contrescarpe; yet another well-known square for some serious people watching over a glass(or three)of wine.

For the lovers of modern architecture and books, there is a Bibliotheque Nationale de France(BnF Francois Mitterrand) just 15-20 minutes walking distance(east direction) or one metro stop away. The area has been recently developed with some cool cinema complexes and floating bars on the Seine river barges.