October on Rue de la Bûcherie.

Rue de la Bûcherie in the 5th arrondissement is one of those Paris streets that feels ordinary until you learn its past.

It takes its name from the old Port aux Bûches, where logs were unloaded for the city. In the Middle Ages the same street became a place where damaged meat was salted and boiled to feed the poorest Parisians.

By the late 1400s the Faculty of Medicine had settled here. Students studied anatomy in an amphitheatre that still stands at numbers 13–15. The first botanical garden in Paris was planted nearby in 1575.

The street is quieter at this time of year even around the famous Shakespeare and Company bookshop.

“The streets of Paris are best explored without hurry — they reveal themselves only to the unhurried.”

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Part of the “Streets of Paris” Series

Each Saturday, we wander through the streets of Paris — tracing light, texture, and the quiet poetry of daily life.

Browse the full series

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