| Rue de la Huchette | |
| Map Type: | France Paris |
| Map Size: | 265 |
| Arrondissement: | 5th |
| Quarter: | Sorbonne |
| Terminus A: | 4 rue du Petit Pont and 6 place du Petit Pont |
| Terminus B: | 3 place Saint-Michel |
| Length: | 164m (538feet) |
| Width: | 10m (30feet) |
| Completion Date: | c. |
| Inauguration Label: | Denomination |
| Inauguration Date: | c. |
The rue de la Huchette is one of the oldest streets running along the Rive Gauche in Paris, France. Running eastward just below the Seine river from the Place Saint-Michel, it is today an animated Latin Quarter artery with one of the highest concentrations of restaurants in the city, Greek specialties predominating. It is situated between Boulevard Saint-Michel and Rue du Petit-Pont and faces the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. This almost exclusively pedestrian street is very popular with tourists. Disdained by some guidebooks as "Bacteria Alley", the street nevertheless has an intense night life with no fewer than four pubs and several bars.
The street is celebrated by the American writer Elliot Paul, who lived there in the 1920s and 30s, in The Last Time I Saw Paris (1942).
The rue de la Huchette existed as early as 1200 as the rue de Laas, a road running adjacent to a walled vineyard property known then as the clos du Laas. The property was sold and divided for urban development in the early 13th century, grew many noble properties in the centuries following, but from the 17th century the rue de la Huchette was known mostly for its taverns and rotisseries ("meat-roasters").
The inhabitants of the rue de la Huchette in the period leading up to the Second World War are portrayed in Elliot Paul's book The Last Time I Saw Paris, called "A Narrow Street" in the British edition (1942). The period after the Second World War is covered in Paul's book Springtime in Paris (1950).
From around 1284 the name of a house on the street belonging to the Notre-Dame chapter — À la Huchette d'Or — took the place of the former rue de Laas appellation. The obscure word "huchette" may derive from "hutchet", an old term for a bugle.
The street is known for its collection of Greek restaurants. The maitre d's of these establishments often shatter cheap plates on the street in front of their doors to attract attention and entice tourists inside.