Jardin des plantes

What if, starting from a simple train station, you could travel through two thousand years of strange stories, hidden treasures, miracles… and frankly suspicious smells? From Austerlitz Station to Saint-Médard Church, passing through the Jardin des Plantes, the Grand Mosque, the Arènes de Lutèce, and Rue Mouffetard, this walk takes you along a continuous thread through the 5th arrondissement—no loops or unnecessary detours, just a rich collection of secrets.

Which scientific garden hides the world’s largest sapphire, a cedar almost “stolen” from Lebanon, and a zoo right in the heart of Paris? How did the Grand Mosque save lives during World War II, far beyond its tea room and pastries? And why did the Arènes de Lutèce, where gladiators and wild beasts once fought, disappear for over 1,500 years before being accidentally rediscovered beneath a bus depot?

Further along, the route leads you to a neighborhood where street plaques honor mathematicians, poets, and philosophers: Monge, Pascal, Descartes, Benjamin Fondane… You’ll learn why Fondane refused to be saved without his sister, what a menacing mascaron was meant to protect, and what “I think, therefore I am” truly means when standing in front of the house where it was written.

The walk ends amidst the bustle of Place de la Contrescarpe, Rue Mouffetard, and Saint-Médard Church: the mysterious origin of the name “Mouffetard” (Roman hill or foul odors?), a treasure of over 3,300 gold coins found in a wall by workers, poet cabarets, the Marquis de Sade’s bachelor pad, barricades from Les Misérables… and the famous “convulsions” at Saint-Médard Cemetery, where entire crowds went into trance in the 18th century.