Rive Gauche
From Paris Hotels Reviews
Rive Gauche
In French, rive gauche means much more than just the "left bank" of the Siene. Technically, all Paris south of the river is the "Left Bank" (imagine you’re looking downstream), but to Parisian ears the name conjures up the creative, sometimes anarchic, spirit that once flourished in the two central arrondissements, the 5e and 6e. The rive gauche has ling opposed the rive droite in more ways than just the geographical: In the Quartier Latin, around the 5e, a distinctively alterntive ambience was created by the university – a powerful and independent-minded presence for centuries – while for much of the twentieth century any painter, writer or musician with good Bohemian credentials would have lived or worked in or around the 6e arrondissement. Between the wars you could find the painters Picasso and Modigliani in the cafés of the Montparnasse, nobnobbing with writers such as Guillaume Apolinaire, André Breton, Jean Cocteau and Anais Nin, and expect wannabes like henr Miller and Ernest Hemingway. After World War II the glitterati moved on to the cafés and jazz clubs of St-Germain, which became second homes to writers and musicians such as Jacques Prévert, Boris Vian, Sidney Bechet and Juliette Gréco – and, most famously, to he existentialists Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. But what really defined the Rive Gauche’s reputation for turbulence and innovation were les évènements, the political “events” of May 1968. Escalating from leftist student demonstrations to factory occupations and massive national strikes, they culminated un the near-overthrow of de Gaulle’s presidency.
Since that infamous summer, however conservatives have certainly has their vengeance on the spirit of the Left Bank. The last three decades have seen rampant gentrification, the streets from which such revolution sprang now housing expensive apartments, art galleries and high-end fashion boutiques, while the cafès once frequented by penniless intellectuals and struggling artists are filled with designers, media and political magnates, and scores of well-heeled foreign residents.
