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Four Must See Sights in the Latin Quarter, Paris

Though famous the world over, La Sorbonne is not an independent University in itself. It in fact began life in 1257 as the Collège de Sorbonne, founded by Robert de Sorbon – chaplain to King Louis IX of France – as one of the first significant colleges of the already existing University of Paris. Its original student body comprising only 20 students, it was suppressed during the French revolution, but existed as a theological college until 1882. After the construction of the present building in 1889, it became an entirely secular institution and gradually “Sorbonne” became a colloquial term for the entire University of Paris.
In 1968 the Sorbonne was a focal point for the May riots, with the administration responding to student protests by calling in the police, who surrounded the university and arrested students, using tear gas to disperse crowds. A few days later, more than 20,000 students, teachers and supporters marched towards the Sorbonne, still sealed off by the police, who charged, wielding their batons. When the Sorbonne reopened, students occupied it and declared it an autonomous "people's university".
In the aftermath of the riots, the University was reorganised. Four of the 13 new interdisciplinary Universities now share the premises of the Sorbonne. The handsome main building, featuring mural paintings by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, is situated in the block surrounded by the Rue de la Sorbonne, Rue des Écoles, Rue Cujas and Rue Saint-Jacques. It’s well worth a visit and its students lend an arty Bohmeian ambience to the surrounding cafés, bars and shops.

Struck down by a mystery illness in 1744, King Louis XV vowed that if he recovered he would give thanks to the patron saint of Paris, Sainte-Geneviève, by building an edifice in her honour. The King did recover and construction of the Sainte-Geneviève Basilica began in 1758, under the supervision of architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot. The overall design was that of a Greek cross, topped off by an 83 metre high Dome and with a façade dominated by massive Corinthian columns. (In many respects it looks like a blend of St Paul’s in London and Invalides). Construction took some time due to financial difficulties, and the building was only completed after Soufflot’s death. The French Revolution then intervened, with the new Revolutionary government blocking the stained glass windows and ordering the building – renamed the Panthéon – to be changed into a mausoleum for the interment of great Frenchmen. Apart from a brief reconsecration, it has remained a secular building ever since.
For most of the 19th century, well before the Eiffel tower, the Sacré-Coeur of Montmartre or the Montparnasse tower, the Panthéon was the first monument seen by travellers arriving in Paris, and a site from which the whole city could be admired in a single, unique, sweeping view. The Panthéon was also the place where, in 1851, the astronomer Jean Bernard Léon Foucault first held his famous experiment, proving that the world spins around its axis. Foucault’s pendulum, moved in 1851 to the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, now resides in the Pantheon once again.
When you enter the Panthéon today, before visiting the crypt note the striking frescoes. On the right wall are scenes from Sainte-Geneviève's life, while on the left she is depicted with a white-draped head looking out over medieval Paris. Among those buried in the crypt itself are Voltaire, Rousseau, Marat, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, Jean Moulin, Marie Curie, Louis Braille and Soufflot himself.

Though it serves a variety of scientific purposes, being the main botanical garden in France, the Jardin des Plantes is also the perfect place to just wander around if the bustle of the city gets too much for you. Originally known as the Jardin du Roi, it was created in 1626 by Guy de La Brosse – Louis XIII's physician – as a herb garden to illustrate plants’ medicinal properties to medical students. There is still a Botanical School there today, which trains botanists and maintains a one-hectare plot containing about 4500 plants arranged by family.
Covering 28 hectares in all, the Jardin des Plantes displays regional plants, not native to France, in the Mexican and Australian hothouses, as well as the Alpine garden. The Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, situated within the garden, is made up of four galleries: the Grande Galerie de l'Evolution, the Mineralogy Museum, the Paleontology Museum and the Entomology Museum. The Grande Galerie de l'Evolution, in particular, is stunning, displaying thousands of animal specimens. Larger than life, they tell the astonishing story of evolution: presented in three acts in a grandiose stage set. Within the gardens there’s also an aquarium and a small zoo (founded in 1795 and initially populated by animals from the royal menagerie at Versailles), as well as a Rose Garden, with hundreds of species of roses and rose trees.

Though not strictly in the Latin Quarter itself, the Cathédrale de Notre-Dame is so close by (and so monumental) that it would be a shame not to visit it. Immortalised by Victor Hugo in his great novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (and, for a younger generation, by the Disney animated film of the book), the Cathedral stands in splendid isolation on the Île de la Cité – a small island in the Seine that is the oldest part of Paris. The city’s most celebrated Gothic landmark, it was begun in 1165 and, not surprisingly given its immense size and the complexity of its statuary, took two centuries to complete. Since then it has enjoyed two thoroughgoing restorations: one at the behest of Hugo in the 1820s and the other at the turn of the millennium. Approaching the west front of the cathedral, you’ll notice its celebrated 69-metre tall towers and the legendary gargoyles on the Galerie des Chimères that connects them. As you enter, pay close attention to the magnificent carvings over the portals, which depict scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary, scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary’s mother and Christ enthroned judging the living and the dead. The last, in particular, displays an unexpectedly satirical aspect, with the damned bearing more than a fleeting resemblance to the Kings and Bishops of the period in which the carvings were created. Inside, the most eye-catching aspect is the contrast between the dimness of the nave and the way light pours into the choir from the immensely tall windows of the transept, as if it were being bathed in heavenly beneficence.