:: How to choose your apartment rentals 5th arrondissement Paris, France? ::

In addition to the lively and historic Latin Quarter, the 5th is home the a great variety of bistros, museums, churches and medieval ruins. Shopping along the rue Mouffetard, the Pantheon and more are just the beginning.

Of course no visit to Paris is complete without an exploration of French wine and food. In addition to museums, churches and monuments, the 5th offers many choices for doing exploring all the culinary delights Paris has to offer. The Latin Quarter, which fills a sizeable portion of this arrondissements, is home to many bars, bistros, restaurants, and nightclubs.

For a little food and fun shopping, the lower end of rue Mouffetard traveling away from the Panthéon or a short walk from your apartment rentals in Paris hosts an ongoing fruit and vegetable market, also lined with a wide variety of food and wine shops.

But a major dimension of this area is rooted in history. The 5th is one of the best known of the city's central districts, located on the Left Bank (Rive Gauche) of the river Seine. The "Latin Quarter" was so-named from the fact that the first great Parisian university, the Sorbonne, was founded here, and Latin was the language the medieval period students used to speak. As a number of rare archaeological remains reveal, the 5th was also the core of ancient Gallo-Roman Paris.

The area still has a significant student presence, as several universities and schools of higher education are still quartered in the area. You will probably see many students and artists as you leave your short term apartment rentals in Paris each morning.

Traces of the district's past survive in such sites as the Arènes de Lutèce, a Roman amphitheatre, which once held at least fifteen thousand spectators. It is the only surviving above-ground ruins of the Gallo-Roman era in Paris, except for the nearby Thermes de Cluny. The Roman arena could hold approximately 15,000 spectators and was constructed sometime in the first or second centuries AD. It as rediscovered in the mid-19th century with the construction of a streetcar on the site. Victor Hugo, the famous Nineteenth Century writer played a major role in preserving these ruins. The theatre has been preserved as a quiet archaeological park.

The Jardin des Plantes, France’s main botanical garden, was founded as the royal medicinal garden in 1626 by King Louis XIII's doctor, and contains over 10,000 species. Its gardens include an Art Deco winter garden, a rose garden, an alpine garden, Mexican and Australian hothouses, as well as a maze. The grounds also include a small zoo known as La Ménagerie, founded with animals from the royal menagerie at Versailles.

The Museum of Natural History (Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle) is also located in the 5th, which includes the recently renovated Grande Galerie de l'Evolution.

Other historical landmarks near your Paris 5th arrondissement apartments rental, near the Panthéon (literally “all the Gods” in Greek), originally conceived by Louis XV as a grand neo-Classical church honoring the patron saint of Paris, Saint Geneviève. It had been meant as a church to honor the recovery of King Louis XV, but the French Revolution intervened and the Panthéon was turned into a mausoleum. Some luminaries buried here include Braille, Dumas, Hugo, Marat (French Revolution leader disinterred after little more than a year), Moulin (French Resistance leader), Curie, Voltaire, and Zola.

Middle Ages buffs will certainly want to visit the Musée Cluny, the Museum of the Middles Ages (Musée du Moyen Age), housed in a 15th century abbey, alongside 1st century Gallo-Roman baths. Perhaps the most striking medieval building in Paris, it has a great collection of medieval art and artifacts. Once the town house of the Abbots of Cluny dating back to the early 14th century, it was rebuilt in both Gothic and Renaissance styles starting near the end of the 1600s. Highlights include the original heads from the facade of Notre Dame, the "Lady and the Unicorn" tapestries and a papal golden rose.

Those interested in science and history will find the Musée Curie worth a trip. This scientific museum preserves the offices and laboratories of Pierre and Marie Curie, pioneers in the discovery of radioactivity. Their instruments, equipment and even furniture are all here, arranged as they were during their critically important research which helped usher in the modern scientific and technological age.

The Thermes de Cluny are what remain of Third Century Gallo-Roman baths. Some of the original decorative wall painting and mosaics remain. History seems to unfurl around you, and you are there alongside it in your Paris rentals 5th district.

Churches also abound here, such as the Eglise Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre. St Geneviève was responsible for saving Paris from the Huns in 451 and her shrine in the church has been a popular place of pilgrimage ever since.