| East of the Panthéon, the villagey rue de la Montagne-Ste-Geneviève descends towards place Maubert, passing the pleasant cafés and restaurants around rue de l'École-Polytechnique. The road takes its name from one of the grandest and most notorious of the grandes écoles that used to be based here – a quasi-military college that prepares its students, known as "les X", for top jobs in research and administration and requires them to wear khaki suits in class. It has since decamped to the suburbs of Palaiseau leaving its old buildings to the Ministry of Research and Technology – a trip down memory lane for many of its staff no doubt. Heading uphill, rue Descartes runs into the tiny and attractive place de la Contrescarpe. Once an arty hangout where Hemingway wrote – in the café La Chope – and Georges Brassens sang, it's now a tourist hotspot. Just to the east, on rue Lacépède, is a municipal crèche whose lovely curved frontage was inspired by the shape of a pregnant woman's belly. The ancient rue Mouffetard begins just off place de la Contrescarpe, winding downhill to the church of St-Médard, once a country parish church beside the now-covered River Bièvre. The street's origins may be Roman, but most of the upper half is tackily modern, given over to touristy eating places. On the facade of no. 12 is a curious painted-glass sign from a different era, depicting a black man in striped trousers waiting on his mistress, with the unconvincing legend, "Au Nègre Joyeux". The bottom half of the street, with its sumptuous fruit and vegetable stalls – among lots of clothes and shoe shops and cafés – still maintains an authentic neighbourhood air, particularly in the mornings when the market is in full swing. Continuing south, Avenue des Gobelins leads into the 13e arrondissement, passing the Gobelins tapestry workshops on the way up to busy place de l'Italie.
| 
