The Island of San Luis is one of the three islands that are to the passage of the Seine river within the current municipal limit of the city of Paris. The other two Parisian islands are Isla de la Cité and Isla de los Cisnes. Located in the IV District of Paris, the Island of San Luis was thus baptized, in 1725, in honor of King Louis IX of France, also called "Saint Louis" or, in French, Saint Louis, for being one of the six saints with that first name in having been canonized by the Catholic Church.
The island communicates with the rest of Paris by bridges on both banks of the river and with the Isle de la Cité by the Saint-Louis Bridge. From antiquity to the seventeenth century, this island was wild: it was used for cattle grazing and for storing wood. One of the first examples of urban planning, were drawn flat and was built throughout the island during the reigns of Henry IV and Louis XIII, in the seventeenth century. Today an oasis of calm in the bustling center of Paris, this island has only one-way streets, two bus stops and no subway station. Most of the island is dedicated to residential purposes, but there are several restaurants, shops, cafes and ice cream parlors on the street, as well as a large church, the Church of Saint-Louis-en-l'Île.