On place Saint-Sulpice, behind a surprisingly plain colonnaded façade and two deliberately mismatched towers, stands the largest church in Paris after Notre-Dame. Paintings by Delacroix, a great Cavaillé-Coll organ and an astronomical gnomon share the space, a few streets from the hotel.
The church at a glance
Built from 1646 on the foundations of a Romanesque church, it was only completed a century later, for lack of funds: the south tower, never finished, is five metres shorter than its twin. It is 120 metres long and 57 metres wide. Victor Hugo married Adèle Foucher here in 1822.
Don't miss
In the Chapel of the Holy Angels, Eugène Delacroix's three murals, including Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, are among his last great works. The gnomon in the transept, a marble obelisk linked to the floor by a brass line, was used to set the date of Easter, not to hide the esoteric secrets The Da Vinci Code attributes to it. Rarer still, the crypts and the upper parts of the façade open only for monthly guided tours.
Visiting tips
The church is an eight-minute walk from the hotel. Visiting on your own gives access to the nave, the gnomon and the Delacroix chapel. To go further, volunteer guides from the Art, Culture et Foi association lead themed visits on set dates, including a general tour in English on Sundays.
Close by
The square and its Fontaine des Quatre Points Cardinaux are made for a break on a café terrace. The Luxembourg Gardens are five minutes away, and the bookshops and galleries of rue Bonaparte lead down to Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
