The Place du Marche Saint Honore is today a nice square which hosts in the middle a modern glass building with a covered passage which on sunny days is magnificent and surrounded by a semi-pedestrian area full of bars and bistrots where you can have a nice lunch or spend a warm afternoon.

The square itself has a lot of history: before the French revolution a convent of Dominican monks was established there. They came from rue Saint Jacques and for this reason they were called “Jacobins”. During the French revolution, the most radical club, headed by Robespierre, gathered there, and this is why they were called Jacobins. Nowadays, ‘jacobin’ is a word that exist in almost all European languages meaning radical or extreme leftist.

After the revolution, the monastery was demolished and in 1997 a new project was inaugurated to renovate the area. The glass building hosts banks, offices and a police station. The square has an open air market on Wednesdays and Saturdays with fresh vegetables and all the French delicacies you can imagine. The square also has a great variety of places where you can have a glass of wine, a snack or a bistrot meal. Places to mention are “Au pain quotidien” where breakfast is always a nice experience, or the vegan place Wild & the Moon.

Just while you sit there sipping your drink, think about all the history that happened in that place.