Quai des Grands-Augustins, Riverfront walkway in 6th arrondissement, France.
The Quai des Grands-Augustins is a 354-metre riverfront street on the left bank of the Seine, running from Place Saint-Michel to the Pont Neuf and Rue Dauphine. A low pale stone parapet with a flat coping edges the water, and behind it a paved path where cars park serves a continuous row of multi-storey buildings with light facades and dark roofs.
Before Philip the Fair's reign, this bank was a willow-planted promenade ruined by floods. Philip ordered the provost of merchants to build a quay by letters of 9 June 1291, complained of delays in May 1292, and the work was only completed around 1389. It was first called 'rue de Seine par où l'on va aux Augustins'.
The name comes from a nearby Augustinian monastery that once defined this neighborhood's character. Today people use this riverbank path to walk and sit while watching the Seine flow past the historic buildings.
The path is wide and flat, good for walking at any time of year, with shaded spots under trees nearby. You can easily reach restaurants, cafes, and bookshops from here and are well connected to central Paris subway and streetcar stations.
At No. 15, the cabaret L'Écluse hosted Barbara's debut; Jacques Brel, Léo Ferré, Raymond Devos, Marcel Marceau and Philippe Noiret also performed there. At No. 25, Albert Marquet kept a studio from 1905 and painted many views of the quay.
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