The area around Notre-Dame had long been snubbed because of its heavy tourist traffic. But the cathedral’s reopening this week is about to redirect interest back to the geographic and historic heart of the city, which boasts the largest concentration of MICHELIN-Starred restaurants in Paris and has been quietly undergoing its own changes over the last five years.
“I think there is a mini renaissance happening in the 5th arrondissement,” says Vanessa Grall, writer and owner of the newly opened cabinet of curiosities Messy Nessy’s Cabinet in the neighborhood. “And I think it’s been happening since the Notre-Dame fire in 2019 and alongside the restoration which I think is quite fitting.” The key word here is ‘mini’. Because in conversations with longtime residents and restaurateurs, one of the neighborhood’s defining characteristics is its old-world charm.
“Historically speaking, it’s the richest district in Paris,” points out chef Guy Savoy, whose eponymously named Two MICHELIN-Starred French restaurant at the Monnaie de Paris (the Paris mint), has anchored the neighborhood as one of the city’s top gastronomic destinations since 2015. “Architecturally the neighborhood hasn’t changed and should never change. It’s the most beautiful thing we’ve done for this city. We haven't changed the charm and liveliness of the streets.”
Indeed, to stroll the area around the Notre-Dame cathedral, which itself dates back to 1163, is to explore the ancient cradle of Paris, home to some of the city’s oldest and most important landmarks, and the most picturesque, postcard-pretty streets.
And a handful of restaurants in the area are proof of the area's soul surviving the ages. For instance, the bistro Allard, which remains a beacon of Parisian culinary heritage. For over 80 years, this cherished bistro has embodied the spirit of Marthe Allard, the cook credited with transforming a former wine merchant’s shop into a gastronomic institution in 1932. Today, it is led by the talented young chef Lisa Desforges. Chosen by Alain Ducasse to embody Allard’s legacy, she channels the spirit of Fernande Allard, the original founder's daughter-in-law, a brilliant chef whose cooking once earned the bistro Two MICHELIN stars.
Another marker of the area's history is Pont Neuf, which translates to ‘new bridge,’ and is, in spite of its name, the oldest standing stone bridge in the city with a history that dates back to 1578. Connecting the left and right banks via Île de la Cité, long believed to be the historic birthplace of Paris, the bridge provides sweeping views of the shimmering River Seine in either direction: gaze westward to behold the lattice silhouette of the Eiffel Tower in the distance; turn eastward to find the Conciergerie, a former medieval royal palace turned courthouse and prison, whose most famous captive was Marie-Antoinette, the last queen of France before the French Revolution in 1789.
Beneath the Notre-Dame square lies one of the largest crypts in Europe, ancient ruins that hold the secrets of the city’s past when Paris was ruled by the Romans and went by the name Lutetia.
And then there is the Notre-Dame de Paris, a soaring example of gothic architecture that housed presumed relics of Jesus’ crucifixion – crown of thorns, a fragment of the cross and nail – before the fire of 2019 brought down the spire and forced its closure for five years.
Where to Eat
“We’ve managed to avoid gentrification,” adds André Terrail, owner of One MICHELIN Star La Tour d’Argent on the Quai de la Tournelle, one of the city’s oldest and most historic restaurants in Paris, famous for their theatrical pressed duck dish. The sixth-floor restaurant features a bird’s eye view of Notre-Dame, with which it is intimately connected: Terrail’s father Claude paid for the nightly illumination of the monument in the 1950s for the pleasure of his dinner guests. “It’s a bit of its own island. You get the impression that we have our own identity.”
Change has happened quietly and gradually, either in the renewal of old spaces like the Tour d’Argent’s historic 2023 renovation with the addition of a new open kitchen and luxury hotel suite, or the arrival of small businesses like Grall’s shop.
A modern-day cabinet of curiosities whose trademark item is vintage-style, wax-sealed bottles filled with water from the Seine (or as Grall puts it, “the tears of poets, artists, flâneurs and lovers”), the shop is located on rue de Bièvre, a quiet, narrow side street lined with artisan shops and centuries’ old buildings that was once a thin river stream, the Bièvre, that cut through the city. “Honestly I think it's like one of the most magical streets in Paris,” she says.
Along with Grall, another newcomer to the neighborhood is the café Chanceux on rue Galande, an artisan coffee and gourmet sandwich shop where focaccia and pastrami are made in-house and chicken schnitzel sandwiches attract both neighborhood locals and tourists. Their arrival brings new and youthful offerings to a neighborhood that, according to chef Julia Sedefdjian, has a long history of well-established businesses and restaurant options.
“A lot of businesses and restaurants have been here for a while, so it’s very reassuring in terms of what you’re going to find,” says Sedefdjian, the youngest female chef to earn a MICHELIN Star for her Mediterranean-inspired fine dining restaurant Baieta (which means ‘kiss’ in the Niçois dialect) which opened in 2018 on rue de Pontoise.
“There’s a diversity of styles in both foreign cuisine and French gastronomy and here we have an exceptional concentration of different cuisines,” sums up Guy Savoy about the area. For instance, just a few streets over, for instance, is another MICHELIN Starred fine dining address, restaurant AT, which has been holding court on rue Cardinal Lemoine since 2014. Named after the initials of Japanese chef Atsushi Tanaka, the restaurant’s faceless facade and modest discretion belies a cuisine d’auteur that is inventive, artful and painstakingly precise.
Restaurant Sola (One MICHELIN Star) on rue de l’Hôtel Colbert, has also been a fixture of the neighborhood since 2010 as a fine dining Franco-Japanese restaurant under two different Japanese chefs. Its latest owner, chef Kosuke Nabeta, bridges the two cultures in an omakase tasting menu.
Where to Stay
Set inside the luxury department store La Samaritaine on the Left Bank, is French luxury conglomerate’s first hotel in the French capital, Cheval Blanc Paris. Along with 72 rooms and suites, many of which feature sweeping views of the Seine and Pont Neuf, the hotel is also home to triple MICHELIN-Starred restaurant Plénitude and a Dior spa with one of the longest private pools in Paris.
For views of the Seine from the easternmost tip of Île de la Cité, there’s also SO/ Paris hotel a fashion and art-focused hotel with 162 rooms and suites, and a rooftop restaurant on the 15th floor, Bonnie, that features a wraparound terrace and floor to ceiling windows which showcase the beauty of the Seine and its surroundings. The hotel has some of the most uniquely dazzling views in Paris.
Other options include the Relais Christine, a former 16th century abbey turned five-star boutique hotel with 48 rooms designed in the style of Louis XIII, located discreetly in a small courtyard; Hotel Baume, whose 35 rooms and suites are inspired by the 1930s; and Hotel Récamier, a small, intimate boutique hotel with 24 rooms designed to suit different tastes like modern monochrome or African motifs.
What to Do
If there’s one thing you must do, it’s to explore Paris on foot, says Savoy, particularly along the banks of the Seine where the bouquinistes, or open-air booksellers, sell vintage French books, and the pace of pedestrians slows in time with the gentle currents of the Seine. “Time doesn’t stop, but it slows down,” he says. For Chanceux Galande’s co-owner Thomas Lehoux, the legendary bookshop Shakespeare and Company on the Left Bank is a must for its old winding aisles of books lined up on rickety shelves, as well as the small park Square René Viviani, home to the city’s oldest tree.
The area is also home to some of the city’s best jazz clubs: Terrail’s personal favorite is the Caveau des Oubliettes, while Grall recommends Le Piano Vache.
Another must-visit is the historic flower market Marché aux fleurs Reine Elizabeth II, steps from the cathedral on Île de la Cité, where artisan florists have been selling exotic flowers and artfully arranged bouquets under wrought iron pavilions since the 19th century. Square du Vert-Galant, on the westernmost tip of Île de la Cité, is also a picturesque, romantic green oasis in the middle of the Seine, home to a lush and weeping willow.
Address book:
Hotels
Cheval Blanc Paris - 8 quai du Louvre, 75001
SO/ Paris - 10 rue Agrippa d'Aubigné, 75004
Relais Christine - 3 rue Christine, 75006
Hotel Baume - 97rue Casimir Delavigne, 75009
Hotel Récamier - 3bis Place St Sulpice, 75006
Restaurants
La Tour d'Argent - 13 quai Tournelle, 75005
Guy Savoy - Monnaie de Paris, 11 quai de Conti, 75006
Allard - 41 rue St André des Arts, 75006
AT - 4bis rue du Cardinal-Lemoine, 75005
Baieta - 5 rue Pontoise, 75005
Café
Chanceux - 63 rue Galande, 75005
Shops
Messy Nessy's Cabinet - 19 rue de Bièvre, 75005
Shakespeare & Co. - 37 rue Bûcherie, 75005
Jazz clubs
Caveau des Oubliettes - 52 rue Galande, 75005
Le Piano Vache - 8 rue Laplace, 75005
Flower market
Queen Elizabeth II Flower Market - 44 Place Louis Lépine, 75004
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