Neighbours and rivals the Café de Flore attracted local Surrealists including Robert Desnos, and Picasso was also a regular. Just across from the church on Boulevard St Germain are two of the Left Bank’s most famous cafés – the Deux Magots and Café de Flore. This drink is similar to a Hugo spritz but with two key differences — this recipe includes lemon juice while a Hugo spritz uses muddled fresh mint leaves and no additional citrus.

St. Germain Pitcher Spritzer Recipe (Just 5 Ingredients St. Germain Pitcher Spritzer Recipe (Just 5 Ingredients

Germain tastes pleasantly floral, lightly herbal, sweet without being sugary, and is surprisingly versatile. Turn right and follow Rue de Vaugirad to the entrance to the Luxembourg Gardens next to the Musée du Luxembourg, an art museum inside a former orangery. It’s made with delicate floral elderflower liqueur and bubbly Prosecco, which compliment each other perfectly. Be sure to bash the sprigs a little between your palms before adding them to your drink to help release their aromas. It was the burial place of the early Frankish kings, but their remains were transferred to the Basilica of Saint Denis in the north of Paris.

The bubbly combination transports you right to Northern Italy, where this cocktail was born and is popular to this day. Follow in the footsteps of Hemingway and Jean-Paul Sartre – who lived just around the corner at number 42 Rue Bonaparte – to the Deux Magots. The small square to the north of the church was recently renamed Place Juliette Greco after one of the greatest French chanteuses, who died in 2020. The spritz was invented back in the 1800’s in Italy as a way to water down sparkling wine by mixing in…well, water!

St. Germain Elderflower Spritz - Burrata and Bubbles The Best St. Germain Elderflower Spritz - Burrata and Bubbles

The first thing I noticed was the gorgeous nave vault, a deep blue decorated with golden stars, resembling the night sky. It has a selection of Delacroix’s drawings, sketches and letters on display as well as personal items like photos and his easel. If you turn left at the end of Rue Bonaparte you’ll reach the world-famous Musee d’Orsay, housed in a vast former railway station, and the magnificent Musee du Louvre is across the Seine from there. It was built to reflect what many medieval churches would have looked like before adherents of the Reformation did away with what was believed to be superfluous decoration. The Chapel is often used as a concert venue – sadly it was closed for this reason both times I recently visited – but it’s a very simple, humble and atmospheric part of the church, evoking similar feelings to another very old Parisian church nearby, St Julien le Pauvre.He created the drink as an alternative to the classic Aperol spritz, and it quickly spread across the country and into Europe.