Discover Local Paris Left Bank: What to Do Around Mercure Paris Left Bank

At Mercure, we believe you shouldn't need a guidebook to feel like you belong somewhere. That's the idea behind Discover Local: since 1973, every Mercure hotel has been built around its neighbourhood, not just dropped into it — from the décor on the walls to the flavours on the menu. Step into any Mercure and our teams are on hand with the kind of tips you won't find in a guidebook: the market stall locals queue for, the bar where nobody speaks English, the walk that skips the crowds. They live here. They know. Discover Local isn't a generic city guide — it's a short, honest list of the restaurants, markets and neighbourhoods our own hotel teams actually recommend to guests, updated as the city changes around us. Below, you'll find our picks for Paris Left Bank, an interactive map to help you find your way, and answers to the questions travellers ask us most. So — where will Discover Local take you?

Paris Left Bank in 5 picks

Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Historic café territory — Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots still anchor the corner by the church, the oldest in Paris. Go for an early coffee before the terraces fill, when it's still mostly locals reading the paper.

Latin Quarter & the Sorbonne

Narrow streets radiating out from the university, packed with bookshops and student haunts. Shakespeare and Company, the English-language bookstore by Notre-Dame, is worth the queue — climb to the upstairs reading room if you can.

Jardin du Luxembourg

Paris's grandest formal garden, fronting the French Senate. Bring nothing and do nothing — rent one of the green metal chairs by the pond and watch the model sailboats, a tradition here for generations.

Montparnasse

Once the haunt of painters and writers between the wars, still home to grand old brasseries like La Coupole. The Tour Montparnasse observation deck gives you the one Paris skyline view that includes the Eiffel Tower itself.

Musée d'Orsay

A former train station turned Impressionist museum — the building is half the reason to go, with its glass roof and giant station clock you can see the city through. Go late afternoon when the light through the clock face is best.

Where to eat
Rue Mouffetard, one of the oldest market streets in Paris, is still lined with cheesemongers, fishmongers and wine shops rather than chains. For a proper sit-down, the Left Bank's brasseries — think steak-frites, sole meunière, a carafe of house wine — are built for lingering, not rushing.
Where to wander
Walk the quais along the Seine and you'll pass the bouquinistes — the green booksellers' boxes that have lined the riverbank for centuries, selling old postcards, prints and secondhand books. It's one of the few genuinely free things to do in this part of the city, and one of the best.
Getting around
The Left Bank is compact and made for walking — Saint-Germain, the Latin Quarter and Montparnasse are all connected on foot in under half an hour. RER B and C both cut through the area if you need to move faster, and the Métro fills in the rest. Wherever you're staying at one of our Mercure hotels across the Left Bank, you're rarely more than a short walk from the river.
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FAQ

Very much so. Most of what's worth seeing sits within a compact stretch between the Seine and Montparnasse, easily covered on foot in a day or two.

The Seine splits Paris in two. The Left Bank (south side) leans intellectual and artistic — universities, bookshops, cafés with a literary past — while the Right Bank holds more of the grand monuments and shopping.

Saint-Germain-des-Prés puts you closest to cafés and galleries; the Latin Quarter suits those who want to be near the Sorbonne and Notre-Dame; Montparnasse offers more space and easy train links.

Where to sleep

See our Mercure hotels across Paris Left Bank, ideally placed to explore these picks.

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Where to sleep

See our Mercure hotels across Paris Left Bank, ideally placed to explore these picks

View hotels