Le Quartier Latin

Paris, the ideal city

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A Eucharis lily grows behind the ironwork

of a fence on a sidewalk in 17th century grandeur,

in the timelessness of Paris,

near Easter in April.

The metropolis intersects:

at Boulevarde’s St. Michel and St. Germaine,

in the 5th arrondissement,

on the Left Bank (Rive Gauche) of the Sienne.

One of the oldest streets in Paris,

remnant of a roman-built road to Rome via Lyon,

of tree-lined winding streets

and wide-avenues.

The Latin Quarter,

named for the language spoken here

in the 15th century, the official language

until 1793.

At Place de la Contrescarpe,

the village square, encompasses the spirit

of student revolts of 1968,

haunting the shadows in streets,

and dingy hotels, the wine stores,

and the tiny thread and needle shops,

cafés and restaurants are filled

with Parisians, students and tourists.

A 100 movie theaters in operation,

and 300 films running in any given week,

with fervor for the "seventh art"

of cinema in Paris, the ideal city,

Théâtre de l’Odéon

and the Caveau de la Huchette.

The domed Pantheon, a secular mausoleum

built for the great men and women

of the era of French liberty,

the dome is visible from all parts.

Residents once included: Voltaire,

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile Zola,

and Pierre and Marie Curie.

The famous university, the Sorbonne,

founded in the Latin Quarter,

as a college for theology students.

Musée de Cluny (musée du Moyen Age),

home of medieval abbots of Cluny,

on the ruins of a Gallo-Roman baths,

retain artifacts; medieval statuary,

enamels, ivory, illuminated manuscripts

and precious metalwork.

Luxembourg Garden (Jardin du Luxembourg), 

Or Senate Garden, in the 6th arrondissement. 

Created in 1612 by Marie de' Medici, 

King Henry IV’s widow.

Today, the garden is owned by the French Senate,

which meets in the Palace of Luxembourg,

on 57 acres of lawns, tree-lined promenades,

and flowerbeds in bloom.

The picturesque Medici Fountain, built in 1620.

The name Luxembourg comes from the hill,

Mons Lucotitius, where the garden is located.

Sartre and Hemmingway

sat at Les Duex Magots, under a green canopy,

or Brasserie Lipp, for drink

in the age-old rivalry with Café de Flore,

like life and death.

Aqueduct and thermal baths of Lutèce,

de Cluny, the north’s largest public baths.

A sign in English,

Identifies the bookstore as

Shakespeare and Company,

where an old man now 91 years old claims

to be Walt Whitman's grandson.

(when did Walt Whitman marry

and become a father?).

At night---on the river Sienne

---a chill wind blows over the current,

a wide bateaux glides silently under stone bridges

casting reflections of light on the water's

broken surface.

Nearby, is the oldest tree in Paris,

an Acacia planted in 1601.

By Stephen Barile

From: United States