Rue du Bac stretches a little over a kilometre between quai Voltaire by the river Seine, to rue de Sèvres, crossing boulevard Saint-Germain. It takes its name from the ferry (bac) built in 1550 and used to transport stones for the construction of the Tuileries Palace. It’s now home to numerous food shops, cafes and restaurants, as well as the Bon Marché Rive Gauche department store and the Grande Epicerie de Paris. As you walk along, you’ll pass a number of elegant former private mansions. At numbers 118, 120 and 128 for example the buildings now house the French missionary society, and at number 140, the chapel of Notre-Dame-de-la-Médaille-Miraculeuse is a much-visited pilgrimage site.
