place de la Contrescarpe

Place de la Contrescarpe sits where the old city walls once stood, marked today by a low, circular stone fountain surrounded by café tables. In the seventeen twenties, the poet Jean-Baptiste Rousseau lived in a house on this square, where he famously feuded with neighbors, leading to a series of pamphlets that eventually forced him into exile. The square remains a tight knot of activity, defined by the way the narrow streets of the Latin Quarter spill into this single, sun-drenched oval.