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Paris
Paris assaults the senses, demanding to be seen, heard, touched, tasted and smelt. From romance along the Seine to landscapes on bus-sized canvases to the pick-an-ism types in cafés monologuing on the use of garlic or the finer points of Jerry Lewis, Paris is the essence of all things French.
Gaze rapturously at its breezy boulevards, impressive monuments, great works of art and magic lights. Savour its gourmet pastiche of cheese, chocolate, wine and seafood. Feel the wind in your face as you rollerblade through Bastille, or a frisson of fear and pleasure atop the Eiffel Tower.
Paris is a city to discover. So see the sights, visit the museums - they're part of the experience. But then jump on the metro or a bus and get off at a place you've never heard of, wander through a quartier where French mixes with Arabic or Vietnamese, poke your head into mysterious shops, have lunch in a local restaurant, or just perch on a café terrace with a vin blanc and let yourself fall in love with your very own Paris.
Area: 105 sq km
Population: 2.12 million
Country: France
Time Zone: GMT/UTC +1 (Central European Time)
Telephone Area Code: 01
Orientation
Both the capital of the nation and of the historic Île de France region, Paris is located in northern central France. Central Paris - known as Intra-Muros, or within the walls - is a nice, oval-ish shape, divided neatly in two by the Seine, with 20 arrondissements (districts) spiralling clockwise from the centre in a logical fashion. The area north of the river, the Rive Droite (Right Bank), includes the tree-lined Avenue des Champs-Élysées, running west to the Arc de Triomphe. East of the avenue is the massive Musée du Louvre, the Centre Georges Pompidou and a lively district of museums, shops, markets and restaurants. Immediately south of the Centre Georges Pompidou on the Île de la Cité is the world-famous Notre Dame. The area south of the river, the Rive Gauche (Left Bank), is home to the city's most prominent landmark, the Eiffel Tower. To the east, in the Saint Germain de Prés and Montparnasse districts, Paris' famous academic, artistic and intellectual milieus waft in and out of focus through a haze of Gitanes smoke.
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When to Go
Paris is at its best during the temperate spring months (March to May), with autumn coming in a close second. In winter, there are all sorts of cultural events to tempt the visitor, but school holidays can clog the streets with the little folk. August is usually hot and sticky, and it's also when many Parisians take their yearly vacations, so businesses are likely to be closed.
Events
Most museums and shops are closed on France's jours fériés (public holidays). When a holiday falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, expect to see a lot of shuttered storefronts on that Monday or Friday as well. The doors of banks are good places to check for announcements of long holiday weekends.
France's national day, 14 July, commemorates the 1789 storming of the Bastille prison, the event that kicked off the French Revolution. Across the country, the holiday is celebrated with serious abandon, especially in Paris, where the day ends with a massive fireworks display and throngs of people in the streets.
Public Holidays
1 Jan - New Year's Day
Mar/Apr - Easter
1 May - May Day
8 May - Victory in Europe Day
May - Ascension Thursday
Seventh Sunday after Easter - Pentecost/Whit Sunday
Seventh Monday after Easter - Whit Monday
14 July - Bastille Day
15 Aug - Assumption Day
1 Nov - All Saints' Day
11 Nov - Armistice Day/Remembrance Day
25 Nov - Christmas Day
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Attractions
Arc de Triomphe & Champs Élysées
The Arc de Triomphe is the world's largest traffic roundabout and the meeting point of 12 avenues. It was commissioned in 1806 by Napoleon to commemorate his imperial victories, but remained unfinished until 1836.
Since 1920, the body of an unknown soldier from WWI taken from Verdun in Lorraine has lain beneath the arch, his fate and that of countless others like him commemorated by a memorial flame rekindled each evening around 6:30pm. France's national remembrance service is held here annually on Nov 11th.
From the viewing platform on top of the arch (284 steps), you can see the 12 avenues - many of them named after illustrious generals - radiating toward every part of Paris.
Tickets are sold in the underground passageway - the only sane way to reach the base of the arch - that surfaces on the even-numbered side of Ave des Champs-Élysées.
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Bois de Boulogne
The modestly sized Bois de Boulogne, on the western edge of the city, is endowed with forested areas, meandering paths, belle époque cafes and little wells of naughtiness. Each night, pockets of the Bois de Boulogne are taken over by prostitutes and lurkers with predacious sexual tastes. In recent years, the police have cracked down on the area's sex trade, but locals still advise against walking through the area alone at night. The Bois de Boulogne was damaged in the storms of December 1999; its renovation is due to be completed in 2004.
Catacombes
In 1785, Paris decided to solve the problem of its overflowing cemeteries by exhuming the bones of the buried and relocate them in the tunnels of several disused quarries, leading to the creation of the Catacombes. Visitors to this disturbing 'attraction' will find themselves 20m (65ft) underground, working their way along corridors stacked with bones.
People over 60 can get in for free, which says a lot about the French sense of humour. The tunnels, which were used by the Résistance during WWII as a headquarters, are south of the Seine.
Cathédrale Notre Dame
If Paris has a heart, then this is it. Notre Dame de Paris is not only a masterpiece of French Gothic architecture, but has also been Catholic Paris' ceremonial focus for seven centuries. The cathedral's immense interior, a marvel of medieval engineering, holds over 6000 people and has spectacular rose windows.
Although Notre Dame is regarded as a sublime architectural achievement, there are all sorts of minor anomalies, as the French love nothing better than to mess with things. These include a trio of main entrances that are each shaped differently, and which are accompanied by statues that were once coloured to make them more effective as Bible lessons for the hoi polloi. The interior is dominated by a 7800-pipe organ that was restored but has not worked properly since.
It's well worth the effort of climbing the 387 steps of the north tower. This will bring you to the top of the west facade and face to face with many of the cathedral's most frightening gargoyles, which enjoy a spectacular view of Paris.
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Centre Pompidou
The Pompidou Centre, also known simply as Beaubourg, is all about modern and contemporary 20th-century art. Thanks in part to its vigorous schedule of temporary exhibitions, it has become the most visited cultural sight in Paris.
The design of the Pompidou has drawn critical comment since construction began in 1972. To keep the exhibition halls uncluttered, the architects put the building's 'insides' on the outside, with each duct, pipe and vent painted its own telltale colour: elevators and escalators are red, electrical circuitry yellow, plumbing green and air-conditioning blue.
After a massive renovation during 1998-99 the center has a stunning reworked facade on the west side, an expanded exhibition space, and a new cinema, restaurant and cybercafé - plus new facilities for dance, theatre, CD and video.
Two floors are dedicated to exhibiting some of the 40,000-plus works of the Musée Nationale d'Art Moderne, France's national collection of 20th-century art. The top floors have a magnificent view of Paris, and place George Pompidou below attracts street performers, musicians and artists.
Cimetière du Père Lachaise
Founded in 1804, Père Lachaise's 70,000 ornate tombs form a verdant, open-air sculpture garden. Among its resting residents are famous composers, writers, artists, actors, singers, dancers and even the immortal 12th-century lovers Abélard and Héloïse.
One of the most popular graves is that of rock star Jim Morrison of The Doors, who died in an apartment on Rue Beautreillis (4e) in the Marais in 1971.
The cemetery has four entrances, two of them on Blvd de Ménilmontant. Newsstands and kiosks in the area sell a detailed map, 'Plan Illustré du Père Lachaise'.
Two-hour, English-language tours are run on Saturday at 3pm Jun-Sep. French-language tours, are run most Saturdays at 2:30pm.
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Eiffel Tower
Built for the 1889 Exposition Universelle (World Fair), held to commemorate the centennial of the Revolution, the Tour Eiffel was the world's tallest structure at 320m (1050ft) until Manhattan's Chrysler Building was completed.
Initially opposed by the city's artistic and literary elite - who were only affirming their right to disagree with everything - the tower was almost torn down in 1909. Salvation came when it proved an ideal platform for the antennas needed for the new science of radiotelegraphy. Just southeast of the tower is a grassy expanse that was once the site of the world's first balloon flights and is now used by teens as a skateboarding arena or by activists bad-mouthing Chirac.
When you're done peering upward through the girders, three levels are open to the public. There are elevators to the top but they have long queues. You can avoid the queues by walking up the stairs in the south pillar to the 1st or 2nd platforms. Guided visits are also available.
Musée d'Orsay
The spectacular Musée d'Orsay displays France's national collection of paintings, sculptures, objets d'art and other works produced 1848-1914, including the fruits of the impressionist, postimpressionist and art nouveau movements.
It thus fills the chronological gap between the Louvre and the Musée National d'Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou. The museum is austerely housed along the Seine in a former railway station built in 1900 and reinaugurated in its present form in 1986.
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Musée du Louvre
The Louvre may be the world's greatest art museum - but it's also the one most avoided by visitors to Paris. Daunted by its size and overwhelming richness, many people head to smaller galleries. But if you have even the merest interest in the fruits of human civilisation from antiquity to the 19th century, then visit you must.
To make your visit more enjoyable, pick up one of the useful map-guides and check out the works you really want to see, concentrating on only a couple of sections of the museum.
The most famous works from antiquity include the Seated Scribe, the Jewels of Rameses II and the armless duo - the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo. From the Renaissance, don't miss Michelangelo's Slaves, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and works by Raphael, Botticelli and Titian. French masterpieces of the 19th century include Ingres' La Grande Odalisque, Géricault's The Raft of the Medusa and the work of David and Delacroix.
The former fortress began its career as a public museum in 1793 with 2500 paintings; now some 30,000 are on display.
The Grand Louvre project has breathed new life into the museum with many new and renovated galleries now open to the public. To avoid queues at the pyramid, buy your ticket in advance and/or enter through the underground shopping mall.
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Place des Vosges
The Marais district spent a long time as a swamp and then as agricultural land, until in 1605 King Henry IV decided to transform it into a residential area for Parisian aristocrats. He did this by building Place des Vosges and arraying 36 symmetrical houses around its square perimeter. The houses, each with arcades on the ground floor, large dormer windows, and the requisite creepers on the walls, were initially built of brick but were subsequently constructed using timber with a plaster covering, which was then painted to look like brick. Duels, fought with strictly observed formality, were once staged in the elegant park in the middle. From 1832-48 Victor Hugo lived at a house at No 6, which has now been turned into a municipal museum. Today, the arcades around the place are occupied by expensive galleries and shops, and cafés filled with people drinking little cups of coffee and air-kissing immaculate passersby.
Sainte Chapelle
The most exquisite of Paris' Gothic gems, Sainte Chapelle is tucked away within the walls of the Palais de Justice. The chapel is illuminated by a veritable curtain of luminous 13th-century stained glass (the oldest and finest in Paris).
Consecrated in 1248, Sainte Chapelle was built to house what was believed to be Jesus' crown of thorns and other relics purchased by King Louis IX. The chapel's exterior can be viewed from across the street, from the law courts' magnificently gilded 18th-century gate, which faces Rue de Lutèce.
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