15 min
40 min
7 · 10 · RER B
43.0 / km²
27
8
2,607
+12% vs city
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Staying in Latin Quarter (5th)
The 5th is the Roman city and the medieval university, and it is still the best-value central arrondissement. Rooms run noticeably under the 4th and the 1st for a walk that is only five minutes longer: Notre-Dame is across one bridge, the Jardin du Luxembourg is at the western edge, and the Pantheon, the Cluny museum and the Arenes de Lutece are all inside the district.
RER B stops at Saint-Michel and Luxembourg, which is the direct line to Charles de Gaulle, and metro 10 runs east-west across the touristed northern half. Everything else here is walking, which is the point - the streets between the Pantheon and rue Mouffetard are the part of Paris that looks most like the reason you came.
Two warnings. Rue de la Huchette and the lanes around it are a tourist-menu strip with fixed-price moussaka and touts at the door; walk five minutes uphill for the real thing. And the student quarter is now a memory rather than a fact - the district gentrified and the students moved to the 13th - so do not book here expecting cheap beer and late noise. It gets quiet after midnight.
What works
- Notre-Dame is fifteen minutes on foot, over one bridge
- Rooms run under the 1st and 4th for a walk five minutes longer
- RER B at Saint-Michel and Luxembourg goes straight to the airport
- Rue Mouffetard and the streets round the Pantheon are walking, not metro
What does not
- Rue de la Huchette is a tourist-menu strip with touts working the doors
- The hill up to the Pantheon is steep enough to notice with luggage
- The students it is named for have largely priced out to the 13th
- RER B is the line pickpockets work hardest, airport run included
The area still has a significant student presence, with several universities and schools of higher education being located in the area. However, due to gentrification, most student and faculty have been forced to more affordable areas such as the 13th.