Paris — The Left Bank: Bac to Bonaparte

The Rive Gauche answer to the Faubourg: a cabinet of taxidermied wonders, the swimming-pool Hermès, the world’s first department store, and the little shops of pigment, wax and chocolate that supplied three centuries of Parisian genius.

1. 0:00 — Deyrolle 46 rue du Bac
   Begin in the 1831 cabinet of curiosities — lions, beetles and botany prints upstairs; Woody Allen filmed here, Dalí shopped here.
2. 0:30 — Hermès 17 rue de Sèvres
   The Left Bank Hermès — built inside the Lutetia’s 1935 art-deco swimming pool; the ash-wood pods alone justify the detour.
3. 1:00 — Le Bon Marché 24 rue de Sèvres
   The world’s first department store, 1852 — Eiffel worked on the frame; cross to the Grande Épicerie for the food halls.
4. 1:40 — Poilâne 8 rue du Cherche-Midi
   The P-scored sourdough from the wood-fired cellar oven — buy the punitions by the bag.
5. 2:05 — Debauve & Gallais 30 rue des Saints-Pères
   Chocolate since 1800 from Marie-Antoinette’s pharmacist — the colonnaded counter is a national monument of appetite.
6. 2:30 — Cire Trudon 78 rue de Seine
   Wax since 1643 — candles for Versailles; the green-and-gold busts still cast in Normandy.
7. 2:50 — Sennelier 3 quai Voltaire
   The pigment shop of Cézanne and Picasso — honey-based pastels invented here for Degas; creaking drawers of pure color.
8. 3:15 — Officine Universelle Buly 6 rue Bonaparte
   Finale in the apothecary theatre — water-based perfumes, combs and calligraphed labels while you wait.

Pierre Hermé’s macarons wait on rue Bonaparte, the bouquinistes’ green boxes line the quai, and the eternal question — Flore or Deux Magots — deserves to be settled in person, twice.