France · Île-de-France · Paris
Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Saint-Germain-des-Prés is one of the four administrative quarters of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, gathered around a former abbey church.
About Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Where to stay in Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Saint-Germain-des-Prés is small enough to cross on foot, closed in by the Seine on the north, the rue des Saints-Pères on the west, the rue de Seine and rue Mazarine on the east and the rue du Four on the south. Everything sits inside that frame. The Musée d'Orsay, the Church of Saint-Sulpice and the Luxembourg Museum are the largest of its named sites.
Choosing a street here means choosing which of them to wake beside.
About Saint-Germain-des-Prés
What are the main landmarks in Saint-Germain-des-Prés?
The museum count runs high. The Musée d'Orsay heads a list taking in the Musée Maillol, the Luxembourg Museum, the Eugène-Delacroix National Museum, the Musée de la Monnaie de Paris and Mundolingua, with the Maison Gainsbourg among the houses. Churches answer them: the Church of Saint-Sulpice, Saint-Joseph-des-Carmes, the église Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin and the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral.
Beaux-Arts de Paris and the Galerie Maeght keep schooling and dealing in the same few streets.
What is the history of Saint-Germain-des-Prés?
An abbey came first. The quarter takes its name from the former Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, whose church stands at the middle of the streets that grew around it, and the whole of it belongs to the wider Latin Quarter. Later occupants left their own addresses, among them the Maison d'Auguste Comte and Pablo Picasso's studio at 7 rue des Grands-Augustins.
Religious houses stayed too. The Crypte des Missions étrangères de Paris and the Monastère de la Visitation carry that part of the record, and the quarter's own people are known as Germanopratins.
Where is Saint-Germain-des-Prés?
Saint-Germain-des-Prés fills a corner of the 6th arrondissement, closed by the Seine on the north and by the rue du Four on the south.
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Updated September 2026