The Latin Quarter: Cheap Eats in Paris, France

Maison De Gyros (17, 5th Arr, Rue De La Huchette)

Amorino  (16, 5th Arr, Rue De La Huchette)

Latin Quarter

5th and 6th arrondissement, Paris, France

It’s possible to find cheap eats in Paris. Look in the Latin Quarter near the Notre-Dame Cathedral. It’s a whole district of affordable fast food, everything from Greek, Italian, and of course French crepes and baguette sandwiches.

We passed by a bunch of green bins on the way to the Latin Quarter. I thought these were dumpsters. But as we were walking passed, a man started opening the bins, one by one, revealing that the bins were actually street vendors. Unfortunately, they weren’t selling food but rather souvenirs: neon Eiffel Towers, posters and magnets.

A few blocks later, we arrived at the narrow streets of the Latin Quarter, smells of deep fried food, wafting through the air. The street signs are still on buildings here, just like England, some tucked in on the side of the building facing an alley. Could they make it any harder to find a street name?

The Latin Quarter is located near the University of Paris (Collège de Sorbonne) as well as a cluster of other post-secondary institutions so there are many students milling about hunting for cheap eats, cool pubs and hangout joints. The Latin Quarter’s name came from the Middle Ages when Latin was the dominate language in the area.

Our French cousins took us to a gyro restaurant that they frequent during school semesters: it’s cheap and the portions are huge, they told us. They weren’t kidding.

On a street corner in the Latin Quarter is Maison De Gyros (5th Arr, Rue de La Huchette), we could smell it way before we walked up to the storefront. Large rounds of meat were being roasted on spits, and the server carved off large cuts of it for each order. It was just like the gyros at home on the West End in Vancouver but better.

We ordered two lamb gyros and had to share them between the four of us; the gyros were that gigantic! Stuffed in a scrumptious toasted pita was loads of smokey, succulent and juicy roasted lamb with crispy fries and lettuce.

Talk about a heart attack wrapped in a pita.

The spices on the lamb tasted like they did back home, a bit on the salty side though.

Our gyro was served on a tray with generous squirts of ketchup and mayonnaise. Obviously, I dipped the fries in the mayo (we were in France, after all). I don’t know what’s in French mayo that makes it creamier and richer but it definitely topped off the meal perfectly.

Amorino  (16, 5th Arr, Rue De La Huchette)

Now what better to wash down a couple of gyros with than scoops of Italian gelato right? Across the street from the gyro place is an Italian gelato shop.

If you order a cone, they shape your gelato into a flower. Our little cousin ordered a cone but I stuck with a cup with a spoon. I’m too clumsy to lick gelato from a cone!

I ordered my favourite flavour: hazelnut with a half scoop of pistachio. I’m not sure if it’s because we were in Paris or not but the gelato here does taste richer and denser, really sticking fast to the little plastic spoon so I almost had to bite it off. Then again, maybe they just freeze their gelato at a colder temperature here. The weather is much more mild than Vancouver.

Two thumbs up for the Latin Quarter. We could have easily spent a whole day wandering around the area, and eaten for half the price that we spent in other parts of the city.