La Rive Gauche (French pronunciation: ​[la Êiv É¡oʃ], The Left Bank) is the southern bank of the river Seine in Paris. Here the river flows roughly westward, cutting the city in two: looking downstream, the southern bank is to the left, and the northern bank (or Rive Droite) is to the right.
"Rive Gauche" or "Left Bank" generally refers to the Paris of an earlier era: the Paris of artists, writers and philosophers, including Colette, Margaret Anderson, Djuna Barnes, Natalie Barney, Sylvia Beach, Erik Satie, Kay Boyle, Bryher, Caresse Crosby, Nancy Cunard, Hilda Doolittle (H.D.), Janet Flanner, Jane Heap, Maria Jolas, Mina Loy, Henry Miller, Adrienne Monnier, Anaïs Nin, Jean Rhys, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Renee Vivien, Edith Wharton Pablo Picasso, Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, Henri Matisse, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Baldwin and dozens of other members of the great artistic community at Montparnasse. The phrase implies a sense of bohemianism, counterculture and creativity. Some of its famous streets are the Boulevard Saint-Germain, the Boulevard Saint-Michel, the rue Bonaparte and the Rue de Rennes.
The Latin Quarter is a Left Bank area in the 5th and 6th arrondissements, so named because originally Latin was widely spoken by students in the vicinity of the University of Paris.
See also
- Arrondissements of Paris
- Rive Droite (Paris)
- Bank (geography)
References
