Paris 7th District
Paris 7th District is commonly known as Quartier du Palais-Bourbon.
It includes: Quartier du Gros-Caillou, Quartier des Invalides, Quartier St-Thomas d’Aquin and Quartier de l’Ecole Militaire.
Paris 7th district is the most visited in the city. You will indeed find iconic Parisian monuments such as the Eiffel Tower, Hôtel des Invalides, Ecole Militaire, Orsay Museum and Legion d’Honneur Museum-Hotel de Salm.
It is also the heart of French power, housing the Assemblée Nationale (Palais Bourbon), various ministries and foreign embassies in the prestigious Faubourg-Saint-Germain.
QUARTIER DES INVALIDES and QUARTIER DE L’ECOLE MILITAIRE: Paris 7th district developed on the vast plain of Grenelle. This area was essentially rural, except for the castle and its farm of Grenelle, which belonged to the Abbey of Sainte-Geneviève, and were demolished to give way to the Hôtel des Invalides and the École Militaire. The rest of the land fell under the jurisdiction of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés Abbey.
The Faubourg Saint-Germain began to expand beyond the ramparts that Philip-Augustus had built at the end of the 12th century. Prestigious private mansions and religious buildings were built along the road leading to Versailles when King Louis XIV left Paris at the end of the 18th century. The courtiers thus abandoned the Marais to settle in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, a district which today still has the highest concentration of private mansions and historical monuments in Paris.
QUARTIER SAINT-THOMAS D’AQUIN: The church of Saint Thomas Aquin was remodelled in the 17th century and became the parish church of the wealthy suburb of Saint-Germain.
QUARTIER DU GROS-CAILLOU: The workers employed in the construction of the Hôtel Royal des Invalides settled in the village of Gros Caillou in the second half of the 17th century. The area grew further in the 18th century to house workers employed in the construction of the Palais-Bourbon and the École Militaire.
Although largely spared by the upheavals of the French Revolution, Paris 7th district was, however, reshaped by Haussmann‘s urban reforms in the mid-19th century. The construction of Boulevard Saint-Germain did indeed lead to the demolition of many private mansions.
Metro stations serving Paris 7th District
Line 8: Ecole Militaire, Latour-Maubourg, Invalides
Line 10: Ségur, Duroc, Vaneau, Sèvres-Babylone
Line 12: Sèvres-Babylone, Rue du Bac, Solférino, Assemblée Nationale
Line 13: Duroc, St-François-Xavier, Varenne, Assemblée Nationale
RER C: Champ de Mars-Tour Eiffel, Pont de l’Alma, Invalides, Musée d’Orsay
