Montmartre for Artists

You can’t come to Paris and not spend a few hours wandering the streets of Montmartre – the 18th arrondisement in Paris. It is here where you will find ‘the old Paris’ that time refuses to forget. There are also some great cheap apartments for rent if you plan to stay for a week or more in Paris.

Saint Germain

Just next door is one of my favourite neighbourhoods in Paris – Saint Germain. Here you’ll find some great boutiques, especially those selling second hand luxury goods.

The Latin Quarter

If you’re tired of attractions and just want to meander through backstreets and find some great cheap eats, head straight for the Latin Quarter – located right next door to more well-known St Germain des Pres.

Catacombs of Paris

If you’re up for something different, why not consider a catacombs tour underneath Paris!? If you dare, there are a range of different tours on offer.

Place de la Concorde

Place de la Concorde is the largest public square in Paris, located between the Champs Elysees and Tuileries Garden.

Disneyland Paris

Located 32km East of Paris, Disneyland Paris is a great day trip for the kids or kids at heart!

Hotel de Ville

Located a short stroll from Notre Dame Cathedral in the 4th arrondisement, Hotel de Ville is an impressive building and the location of the municipality of Paris. If you’re in Paris during winter, Hotel de Ville has one of the cities’ biggest skating rinks located out the front during the cooler months.

Pont Alexandre III

Surely this would have to be the prettiest bridge in the entire city! Running from the left to right bank of the seine, Pont Alexandre III also offers a great view of the Eiffel Tower from afar.

Tuileries Garden

A popular choice, the tuileries gardens are located right by the louvre, en route to the Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomphe if you’re travelling on foot. The gardens even have a few ice cream parlours to keep you satisfied during those long hot summers!

Versailles Palace

Although technically outside of Paris itself, the Palace of Versailles has long held a high significance for Paris and France. Once the royal residence of King Louis XIV, Versailles and its many hallways are a living history in itself. If you visit during the summer, don’t miss the Palace Gardens. For a great bite to eat, you’ll be delighted to find an Angelina bakery inside the Palace!

Musee d’Orsay

Located on the Left Bank of the Seine, the Musee d’Orsay is Paris’ “lesser known” museum, but has become equally as popular in recent years.

Jardin du Luxembourg

Located in the 6th arrondisement, the Luxembourg Garden is one of the most enjoyable summer attractions in Paris. Whether you take a bite to eat for lunch or kick back on the public chairs and people watch, you’ll be sure to enjoy the summer sunshine for a few hours in the gardens.

Opéra Garnier

The Paris Opera is one of the world's greatest opera and ballet houses. Founded more than three centuries ago by Louis XIV, it possesses two theatres, the Palais Garnier (1875) and the Opéra Bastille (1989). Its mission is to preserve and develop our operatic and ballet heritage and it gives more than 350 performances per year. Great composers such as Rameau, Gluck, Rossini, Verdi, Wagner, Gounod, Massenet, Poulenc and Messiaen all gave the first performances of their works here. The ballet company, rich in historical tradition, performs all around the world. Over the years it has played host to the greatest choreographers: George Balanchine, Serge Lifar, Rudolf Nureyev, Roland Petit, Maurice Béjart, and of course Pina Bausch.

Panthéon

The Pantheon Paris (Latin Pantheon, from Greek Pantheon, meaning "Every god") is a building in the Latin Quarter
of Paris, France. It was originally built as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve, but after many changes now 
combines liturgical functions with its role as a famous burial place. It is an early example of Neoclassicism, with a
facade modelled after the Pantheon in Rome surmounted by a dome that owes some of its character to Bramante's "Tempietto".

Located in the 5th arrondissement on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, the Panthéon looks out over all of Paris. Its
architect, Jacques-Germain Soufflot, had the intention of combining the lightness and brightness of the gothic 
cathedral with classical principles. Soufflot died before his work was achieved, and his plans were not entirely 
followed. The transparency he had planned for his masterpiece was not attained. Nevertheless, it is one of the 
most important architectural achievements of its time and the first great neoclassical monument.

As with most famed buildings, the Pantheon Paris has its unique story. The reason the it was was built was to 
replace the damaged Sainte-Genevieve church under the orders of Louis XV who was putting this monument up as 
a gratitude to God after his health had recovered. Soufflot was chosen for accomplishing the task. He wanted to 
have the Gothic style combined with the classical structure. Because of financial problems, Soufflot could not finish 
the building during his life; he died before seeing it completed and his pupil who finished it, did not exactly have the
same ideas of his master and made some changes. However there is little doubt that this building is one of the greatest neoclassical monuments and a true masterpiece.

Les Invalides

Itr is a hotel in Paris. The characteristic golden dome of Les Invalides is easily recognizable because of its height and cheer beauty. And what lies inside the dome is definitely worth a visit: Napoleon’s Tomb. But there are other great highlights and curiosities in this 17th century building that should not be missed. Les Invalides should therefore be on top of your sightseeing list, no matter how long you stay in Paris.

Sainte chapelle

The Sainte-Chapelle was constructed within the heart of the Palais de la Cité, Parisian royal residence, in the middle of the XIIIth century by Louis IXth. Conceived as a monumental reliquary, the Sainte Chapelle housed the Crown of Thorns of Christ’s Passion. Today, the architecture and famous-glass windows of the Sainte Chapelle represent a major example of the Radiant Gothic period.

L'Arc de triomphe

The Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile {ahrk duh tree-ohmf' duh lay-twahl'}, the world's largest triumphal arch, forms the backdrop for an impressive urban ensemble in Paris. The monument surmounts the hill of Chaillot at the center of a star-shaped configuration of 12 radiating avenues. It is the climax of a vista seen the length of the Champs Elysées from the smaller Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in the Tuileries gardens, and from the Obélisque de Luxor in the place de la Concorde. In 1806, Napoleon I conceived of a triumphal arch patterned after those of ancient Rome and dedicated to the glory of his imperial armies. The structure was designed by Jean François Thérèse Chalgrin (1739-1811), completed in 1833 and inaugurated in 1836 by the French king, Louis-Philippe. Its deceptively simple design and immense size, 49.5 m (162 ft) in height, mark it unmistakably as a product of late 18th-century romantic neoclassicism. The arch also serves as a reminder that Chalgrin was a pupil of Etienne Louis Boullée, the father of visionary architecture. The most famous of its sculptural reliefs is La Marseillaise (1833-36) of François Rude. Specific historic associations notwithstanding, the arch has become an emblem of French patriotism.

Le Sacré-Cœur

The Sacré-Coeur, consecrated in 1919, is one of the most iconic monuments in Paris. At the top of the Butte Montmarte, it has one of the most beautiful panoramic views of the capital, from 130 metres above ground. In a Roman-Byzantine style, the Sacré Coeur is recognizable by its white colour. Inside the building, the ceiling is decorated with the largest mosaic in France measuring about 480 m². The crypt is also worth a visit. And to go even higher up, visitors can access the dome where the 360° view of Paris is magnificent. A short walk from the Sacré Coeur is the Place du Tertre, the district of Abbesses with its steep, winding roads, and at the bottom of the hill, the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret.

La Notre Dame

Maurice de Sully, bishop of Paris, decided to build a new cathedral for the expanding population, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Although construction started in 1163, it was not completed until roughly 180 years later in about 1345. Built in an age of illiteracy, the cathedral retells the stories of the Bible in its portals, paintings, and stained glass.

On completion of the choir in 1183, work was begun on the nave and completed c.1208, followed by the west front and towers c.1225-1250. A series of chapels were added to the nave during the period 1235-50, and to the apse during 1296-1330 (Pierre de Chelles and Jean Ravy). Transept crossings were built in 1250-67 by Jean de Chelles and Pierre de Montreuil (also the architect of the Sainte-Chapelle). The six-part rib vaults and the thin elements articulating the wall are typically Early Gothic. The appearance of the interior was radically transformed in the mid-13th century when the small clerestory windows typical of the Early Gothic style were enlarged downward and filled with High Gothic tracery. The enlargement caused the removal of the unusual triforium. Originally the interior had the four-story elevation common to many Early Gothic churches, and the triforium had large round openings instead of the normal arcades.

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Le Louvre

n August 10, 1793, the Musée du Louvre, located on Paris’ Right Bank, opened its doors to the public. For more than 600 years, the Louvre had been a symbol of the wealth, power and decadence of the French monarchy, and the confiscation and reconstituting of what had been a royal palace into a national museum was seen as a grand cultural gesture embodying the egalitarian values of the recent French Revolution. Today it is one of the world’s largest museums (with 70,000 pieces of art spread across more than 650,000 square feet of gallery space) and the most visited (it takes 2,000 employees to maintain the museum and its artwork for the Louvre’s 8.8 million annual visitors). As the world-famous museum turns 220 years old, here are some surprising facts about its long history.
1. Pyramid- une pyramide
2. Water

La Tour Eiffel

In 1889, Paris hosted an Exposition Universelle (World’s Fair) to mark the 100-year anniversary of the French Revolution. More than 100 artists submitted competing plans for a monument to be built on the Champ-de-Mars, located in central Paris, and serve as the exposition’s entrance. The commission was granted to Eiffel et Compagnie, a consulting and construction firm owned by the acclaimed bridge builder, architect and metals expert Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel. While Eiffel himself often receives full credit for the monument that bears his name, it was one of his employees—a structural engineer named Maurice Koechlin—who came up with and fine-tuned the concept. Several years earlier, the pair had collaborated on the Statue of Liberty’s metal armature.Eiffel reportedly rejected Koechlin’s original plan for the tower, instructing him to add more ornate flourishes. The final design called for more than 18,000 pieces of puddle iron, a type of wrought iron used in construction, and 2.5 million rivets. Several hundred workers spent two years assembling the framework of the iconic lattice tower, which at its inauguration in March 1889 stood nearly 1,000 feet high and was the tallest structure in the world—a distinction it held until the completion of New York City’s Chrysler Building in 1930. (In 1957, an antenna was added that increased the structure’s height by 65 feet, making it taller than the Chrysler Building but not the Empire State Building, which had surpassed its neighbor in 1931.) Initially, only the Eiffel Tower’s second-floor platform was open to the public; later, all three levels, two of which now feature restaurants, would be reachable by stairway or one of eight elevators. Millions of visitors during and after the World’s Fair marveled at Paris’ newly erected architectural wonder. Not all of the city’s inhabitants were as enthusiastic, however: Many Parisians either feared it was structurally unsound or considered it an eyesore. The novelist Guy de Maupassant, for example, allegedly hated the tower so much that he often ate lunch in the restaurant at its base, the only vantage point from which he could completely avoid glimpsing its looming silhouette.

1. The Eiffel Tower: L:a Tour Eiffel
2. A restaurant-- Le Jules Verne: un restaurant
3. An elevator: ascenseur
4. A pond: un étang
5. Tour bus: nus de tournée