Place de la Contrescarpe

Ernest Hemingway lived around the corner from there on rue du Cardinal-Lemoine on the third floor of number 74, and described the square in The Snows of Killimanjaro. Balzac also described it in Père Goriot. The fountain was put in in 1990. The word Contrescarpe itself is from the creation in 1852 of a military emplacement there. Before then, it was at limits of the walls of the city - the Enceinte de Philippe Auguste. Remenants of the wall are also just around the corner on rue Clovis at number 3. The square now is dominated by two cafes, one of them La Chope, the other La Contrescarpe.

These two cafés trade customers with the seasons. La Chope - on the northern side of the square - gets the sun just about all day throughout the year.