In the mid-nineteenth century, Napoleon III commissioned Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann to rebuild Paris for the modern era. Up until this point, Paris had been much like other European cities: dirty, dark, disorderly, and in grave danger of fire or plague. But Haussmann changed all that — he swept away most of the teetering medieval houses and stinking alley-ways, and replaced them with broad, sunlit boulevards and solid stone buildings with matching façades.

And it’s beautiful. All those blue slate roofs, the wrought iron railings, the pierre de taille… For a lot of people, that Haussmann look is the very definition of Paris.

Except…

It gets a little dull. After a couple of months of living here, all those grand vistas terminating in perfectly manicured parks and brilliantly illuminated fountains start to seem a little blah. And maybe it’s just an onslaught of the winter greys, but lately I find myself yearning for winding back streets and ramshackle, idiosyncratic structures.

Luckily, there are little pockets of “old Paris” hiding here and there throughout the city, if you know where to look.  Indeed, right in my own neighborhood (the 5th arrondissment, known as the Quartier Latin), are a number of cozy little corners that show a completely different side of Paris.  My favorites include a twisty and a bit creepy looking street right out of a De Chirico painting, a wood-beamed passageways hint at a medieval past, a few narrow, flower-filled back streets, and a humble (but very practical) old fountain, right on the Rue Mouffetard.