Renowned among high-school and university students, as well as intellectuals, the Latin Quarter is equally popular with visitors, nostalgic for their youth and foreign tourists, attracted by the atmosphere of learning, arthouse cinemas and ancient Lutecia. Nowadays you will have to sidestep the brash signs of the fast-food eateries and cheap fashion stores, to head for the more authentic lanes behind St Michel, Maubert or around the Rue Mouffetard, to experience its yesteryear charm.