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Faubourg Saint-Marcel, Paris — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Faubourg Saint-Marcel shares its name with the Église Saint-Marcel, and Saint-Louis de la Salpêtrière stands within the same quartier of Paris.
About Faubourg Saint-Marcel
Where to stay in Faubourg Saint-Marcel
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Beds cluster near the Butte-aux-Cailles swimming pool. Streets around 3 rue des Gobelins put a traveller within an easy walk of the Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé, the Église Saint-Marcel and the Couvent des Cordelières, which is a lot of quartier to cover on foot. Nights run local rather than touristic, with the boulodrome place Paul Verlaine and the Butte-aux-Cailles swimming pool doing more trade than any sight.
Expect a residential hush.
About Faubourg Saint-Marcel
What are the main landmarks in Faubourg Saint-Marcel?
Churches mark the quartier out. The Église Saint-Marcel carries the name the whole faubourg goes by, while Saint-Louis de la Salpêtrière, the Église Saint-Dominique and the Couvent des Cordelières fill out a list that is more devotional than touristic. Cinema has one address here, the Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé, and medicine another at the musée d'art et d'histoire de l'hôpital Sainte-Anne.
Swimmers head for the Butte-aux-Cailles swimming pool, and the address at 3 rue des Gobelins gives the streets one more listed name.
What is the history of Faubourg Saint-Marcel?
No charter fixes a date here. What survives for Faubourg Saint-Marcel is a set of religious foundations rather than a chronicle, the Couvent des Cordelières and the Église Saint-Marcel among them, with Saint-Louis de la Salpêtrière added to the same list. Museums came later.
The Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé and the musée d'art et d'histoire de l'hôpital Sainte-Anne both turn institutions into collections, and the Église Sainte-Anne-de-la-Butte-aux-Cailles carries the name of the Butte-aux-Cailles.
Where is Faubourg Saint-Marcel?
Flat streets, then a rise. Faubourg Saint-Marcel sits within Paris, taking in the Butte-aux-Cailles and the ground around the Église Saint-Marcel.
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Updated September 2026