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between, where, as your nose will tell you, the shops are literally spilling into the street with luscious offerings such as roasting chickens and potatoes, rustic saucisson, pâtés, and pungent cheeses, especially at Androuët (No. 134). You can find everything you’ll need for a picnic as well as gifts to bring home to your favorite foodie. If you’re here in the morning, Le Mouffetard Café (No. 116) is a good place to stop for breakfast (for about €8). For one of the best baguettes in Paris detour to the nearby Boulanger de Monge, which includes a scrumptious selection of organic offerings, at 123 rue Monge. Note that most of the shops are closed on Monday.

QUICK BITES: Cafés all over sell this haute couture brand of ice cream, but the headquarters of Berthillon (31 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile, Ile St-Louis | 75004 | 01–43–54–31–61) is the place to come for this amazing treat. It features more than 30 flavors that change with the seasons, including scrumptious chocolat au nougat and mouth-puckering cassis (black currant). Expect to wait in line. The shop and adjacent tea salon is open Wednesday to Sunday 10–8 but closed during the peak summer season, from July 20 to September 1.

Also popping up all over Paris—there were 28 outlets at this writing, including the popular spot on Ile St-Louis (47 rue St-Louis-en-l’Ile, Ile St-Louis | 75004 | 01–44–07–48–08) —and winning converts faster than you can finish a double scoop, is the Amorino chain of gelaterias. Popular flavors include rich Bacio (dark chocolate and hazelnuts) and spécialités such as amaretto laced with crunchy biscuits and almonds. The shop is open every day, noon to midnight.

WORTH NOTING ON THE ILE ST-LOUIS AND THE LATIN QUARTER

La Sorbonne.

You can’t get into Paris’s most famous university without a student ID, although you can try to talk your way past a friendly guard. If you succeed, enter on Rue Victor Cousin, cross the cobbled courtyard where students have gathered for nine centuries, and peek into the muraled lecture halls. Today, La Sorbonne remains the heart and soul of the Quartier Latin, though it is also known as Paris IV, one of several campuses that make up the public Université de Paris. | 1 rue Victor Cousin, Quartier Latin | 75005 | Station: Cluny–La Sorbonne.

Panthéon.

Rome has St. Peter’s, London has St. Paul’s, and Paris has the Panthéon, whose enormous dome dominates the Rive Gauche. Built as a church, it has long been the resting place of a virtual who’s who of France’s cultural and political elite, including Voltaire, Zola, Dumas, Victor Hugo, Rousseau, and Marie Curie. Begun in 1764, the building was almost complete when the French Revolution erupted. By then, architect Jacques-German Soufflot had died, supposedly from worrying that the dome would collapse. He needn’t have fretted: The dome is so perfect that Foucault used this space to test his famous pendulum to prove the rotation of the earth. The best view is had from outside, however, as the vast neoclassical interior looks more like an abandoned wine cellar than a hallowed burial ground. It’s entirely empty except for the 19th-century murals lining the walls and a model of Foucault’s pendulum hanging from the center of the dome. The famous residents are in the crypt. There is little info in English—and none on the people buried here, so if you’re a history buff, do your homework before you come. | Pl. du Panthéon, Quartier Latin | 75005 | 01–44–32–18–00 | pantheon.monuments-nationaux.fr/en/ | €8 | Apr.–Sept., daily 10–6:30; Oct.–Mar., daily 10–6 | Station: Cardinal Lemoine; RER: Luxembourg.

FROM ORSAY TO ST-GERMAIN-DES-PRÉS

If you had to choose the most classically Parisien neighborhood in Paris, this would be it. St-Germain-des-Prés has it all: genteel blocks lined with upscale art galleries, storied cafés, designer boutiques, and a fine selection of museums. Cast your eyes upward after dark and you may spy a frescoed ceiling in a tony apartment. These historic streets can get quite crowded, so mind your elbows and plunge in.

This quartier is named for the oldest church in Paris,