South of rue de Rivoli: Quartier Saint Paul

From Paris Hotels Reviews

South of rue de Rivoli: Quartier Saint Paul

The southern part of the Marais, the Quartier Saint Paul, between the rue de Rivoli/St.Antoine and the Seine, is less buzzy than the rest of the district, its quite, atmospheric streets lined with attractive old housed. The chief sights are the moving Memorial de la Shoah, with its museum documenting the fate of French Jews in the last war; the Maison Europeene de la Photograhie, which hosts exhibitions by contemporary photographers; and the Pavillion de l’Arsenal, a showcase for the city’s current architectural projects. The area is also a good hunting ground for antiques, concentrated mostly in the Village St-Paul and rue Saint-Paul.

The first landmark you come to, starting at the western end of the district, near the Hotel de Ville, is the church of St-Gervais-St-Protais (M° Hotel de Ville). There’s been a church on this site since the sixth century; the current building was started in 1494, though not completed until the seventeenth century, which explains the mismatched late-Gothic interior and Classical exterior. There’s some lovely stained glass inside, sixteenth-century carved miser cords and a seventeenth-century organ, one of Paris’s oldest and played on by eight generations of the Couperin family, including the famous Francois Couperin. The third chapel down on the right commemorates the hundred-odd victims of a German shell that hit the church on Good Friday 1918 and caused part of the nave to collapse.

Exiting the church round tha altar at the back, you enter cobbled rue des Barres, a picturesque little street, filled with the scent of roses from nearby gradens in summer and a nice setting for the outdoor terrace of L’Ebouillante café.