Le 7ème (septième) arrondissement → La tour Eiffel.Westwards, you’ll find the most expensive streets in Paris. Except that here, it’s in Saint-Germain-des-Prés – and the narrator realizes that places and people change so much and so quickly, that it’s as if “there’s no ‘after’ or ‘before’ – only now.” The lyrics are also about a meeting with the same person in the same place, years later. → Written by Guy Béard, sung by several great singers like Juliette Greco, but I like this version by Anthony Perkins best. → By Patrick Bruel, famous singer (and later, actor) from the 80s and 90s the narrator has a meeting in front of the Panthéon with his friends from university, planned 10 years ago (“ On s’était donné rendez-vous dans dix ans…”) Did they live up to their high expectations?

In le sixième arrondissement, you can walk around in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the chic neighborhood that used to be the center of French philosophy and literature in the 1950s, with residents such as Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Juliette Gréco, Jean-Luc Godard… At the top is written: “Aux grands hommes la patrie reconnaissante.” (= “To the great men, from a grateful nation / fatherland.”) In the area, you can visit Le Panthéon, where the Republic has buried great men and women since the Revolution: Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Pierre et Marie Curie… And recently, Josephine Baker. The name was coined to poke fun at the professors and students who would live in the neighborhood. → The name of le quartier latin (the latin quarter) comes from its universities – such as the famous la Sorbonne – that used to teach in the latin language (and latin classics). They’ve traditionally been a place for students and the center of French intellectual life, with le Quartier latin. Le 5è (cinquième) arrrondissement and l e 6è (sixième) arrondissement are also some of the oldest streets in Paris. The next arrondissements of the city center are on la rive gauche, the left bank of the river Seine.

Bruel opera garnier