Faubourg Saint-Marcel is an unofficial district in Paris overlapping with parts of the 5th and 13th arrondissement. Nowadays luxurious and expensive, till the 19th century it was impoverished and disease-ridden, as Honoré de Balzac’s “La Comédie humaine” and Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables” describe.
Since the Middle Ages, Faubourg Saint-Marcel was home for craftsmen and poorly qualified workers. The incorporation of the suburb into Paris in the 19th century and subsequent Haussmann’s renovation of Paris transformed the district. These days it is one of the most expensive areas in Paris.