Paris is situated in the heart of the Ile-de France, capital of the country and world famous capital of fashion, art, architecture and the so-called bon-vivant lifestyle attracting million visitors a year seeking to enjoy some of the bustling activities taking place in almost every corner of the city. Whether for shopping, cultural events, music festivals, art exhibits and almost anything else, Paris seems to be the ideal frame for your dreaming vacations. Planning a trip to the French capital is however an easy task due to the large variety of city attractions and things to do elsewhere.

In Paris, there are no less than 170 theaters and over 134 museums so when it comes to culture and entertainment, you can bet there is something to see matching your personal preferences, including festivals, art exhibits and many other cultural events taking place in the city all year round. However, based in those preferences, you must plan carefully to pick the right services including accommodations closer to the places of your personal interest, although if you cannot afford a room in the Champs-Elysees, there are beautiful hotels alongside Paris riverbanks and across the city’s départements (boroughs.)

Travelers hive Paris boutiques, departments stores, and shopping malls wanting to take back home the latest fashion designer clothing and original perfumes and fragrances at reduced prices. Food and wine is also another exciting activity and a unique opportunity to enjoy them in the cradle of the French cuisine, nevertheless as a top-notch capital city, restaurants offer to visitors international and regional cuisine.

Lovers of simple life can find a haven of quiet a peaceful life at the tea restaurants that also serve taste salads and sandwiches with your cup of tea. Open-air cafés in Paris are called Open-air “guinguettes” and besides picturesque offer exquisite liqueurs as coffee companion.

Cafe bars in Paris are more popular during daylight that piano bars that are populated during the Parisian nightlife, when other shows wink at you inviting to the Crazy Horse Paris, Moulin Rouge and other burlesque shows famous all over the world since more than one hundred years.

Other venues to enjoy Paris night time include the Académié de lá brirë, performing acts at the Cite de la Musique (City of Music), and comedy acts at Lane Rouge. If you travel with a group of friends or your family, remember to ask your travel agent for group passes available for visiting stadium, monuments, museums and other venues at a reduced price. In Paris, a single pass can grant you access to over 50 different places and events!

Paris daylight or nightlight walk tours takes you straight to the Place de la Concorde, Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris, Eiffel Tower, the Palais Royal, its monumental fountain, the historic Le Jardin des Tuileries, and Musée du Louvre with its Pyramide Inversée (Inverted Pyramid). The Louvre was built in 1793 and houses some of the most important fine art and painting collections of all the times.

The Porte Saint-Martin is a Parisian monument located at the site of one of the gates of the now-destroyed fortifications of Paris. It is located at the crossing of Rue Saint-Martin, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin and the grands boulevards Boulevard Saint-Martin and Boulevard Saint-Denis.

The Gates of Paris
Two triumphal arches, at the Porte Saint-Martin and Porte Saint-Denis, were commissioned by Louis XIV to commemorate his military victories. Ever since 1670, reinforcement of France’s northeastern borders had allowed the removal of fortifications surrounding Paris, and this circumference was transformed into verdant promenades. During the centuries that followed, they were to become the “grand boulevards” of Paris.

Symbolically marking the entrances into 17th-century Paris at the sites of the old toll-gates, these two triumphal arches served only an ornamental function. Their sculptures and bas-reliefs celebrated the King as a head of war.
History of the Porte Saint-Martin

Porte-Saint-Martin, Théâtre de la, Paris, celebrated playhouse, built in 1782 to replace the Opéra, which had been burnt down. The opera company remained there until 1794, and the building was apparently not used as a theatre again until 1810, when one of the first plays to be presented was a melodrama by Pixérécourt. In 1822 an English company appeared unsuccessfully in Othello and in 1827 Frédérick played for the first time with Mme Dorval, whose career was to be linked spectacularly with the Porte-Saint-Martin. The great days of the theatre were in the 1830s, when it saw the first night of the elder Dumas’s Antony and Le Tour de Nesle and Hugo’s Marion Delorme and Lucrèce Borgia; but with the decline of Romantic drama the fortunes of the theatre also declined and in 1840 it closed after the banning of Balzac’s Vautrin. When it reopened it had no settled policy, but continued to present revivals and commonplace and lachrymose melodramas such as Dennery’s Marie-Jeanne; ou, La Femme du peuple (1846), in which Mme Dorval made her last appearance. It was burnt down in the rioting of 1870 and rebuilt on the original plans, but somewhat smaller. It had a further moment of glory in the 1880s when it was acquired by Sarah Bernhardt, who had appeared there 18 years earlier in the fairy-tale play La Biche au bois and now returned in a revival of Meilhac and Halévy’s Frou-Frou. In 1898 the record run of Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac again made the theatre one of the most popular in Paris. Because of its great size it was later unable to compete with the cinema, and from 1936 to 1978 it was devoted almost entirely to musical comedy. Marcel Marceau then took it over as a base for his École de mimodrame. It housed the Comédie-Française when the latter was strike-ridden, and in 1989 staged an adaptation of Camus’s novel La Peste.
(more…)

Introduction The Museums of Paris

Perhaps frenetic is the best word to describe architectural and arts activity in Paris during the last two decades. While Mitterand was in office, the French government instituted a series of grand projets, thereby assuring that Paris would become the focus of international attention. A number of new museums were created, in part to relieve the Louvre of its overcrowding, and to establish thematic exhibits, typified by such locales as the Institut du Monde Arabe.

For those who plan to visit many monuments and museums during your séjour à Paris, Discover France offers the “Museums and Monuments Card” (Carte Musées et Monuments), valid for unlimited visits and priority access to approximately 70 locations in — and near — Paris. It can also be purchased at the Paris Tourist Office (127, avenue des Champs-Elysées), at its reception offices in certain Paris train stations, at the Eiffel Tower, in the major Métro stations, or at most of the 70 attractions. Cards are available in denominations valid for either one, three, or five consecutive days.

Since Parisians regard museum-going as a normal cultural pastime, most often indulged in on weekends, you should try to visit most exhibits on weekdays, if possible. Of course, if budgetary constraints are an issue, Sundays are often half-price and sometimes free. Private art galleries usually cost nothing, and the free views of Parisian architecture offer a grandiose experience in themselves, while the many street artists provide itinerant amusement.

The Salon Chopin, situated in the Bibliothèque Polonaise de Paris (6, quai d’Orléans, 75004), is a room dedicated to the memory of the composer, Chopin, containing personal memorabilia, paintings, manuscripts, documents, and music. Public access is limited to four guided tours on Thursdays or by appointment.

Three times the size of the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie is a massive monument with walls of glass, which would seem almost unapproachable if not for its Géode, a bubble of reflecting steel that seems like it was dropped from an intergalactic game of boules into a pool of water. Within the Géode, half the sphere consists of the largest projection screen on the planet. The Cité was built in 1986, with a futuristic rooftop lighting system designed to follow the sun across the sky. The permanent Explora show whisks visitors through 323,000 square feet of “space, life, matter and communication” exhibits, featuring scale models of satellites, planes and robots. A number of multimedia shows take place both in the second-floor Planetarium and the hemispherical cinema of the Géode, which are very popular with children. (Admission free with the card.)

Though it originally served as the royal tennis court, built under Napoleon III, the Jeu de Paume was converted into a museum at the beginning of the 20th century. As the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, it inherited an important collection of Impressionist paintings in 1947. Alas, this collection was transferred to the Musée d’Orsay in 1986. Recently, it has been converted to a showcase for contemporary art and photographic exhibits.

(more…)

The Luxembourg Palace in Paris, the first great example of French classical architecture during the 17th century, was the culmination of the long tradition of the chateau as a building type. It was commissioned in 1615 by Marie de Médicis, regent of France, for a site on the Left Bank then occupied by the Hôtel du Luxembourg, from which the name was derived. The regent favored an Italianate structure modeled after Palazzo Pitti in her native Florence, but the architect Salomon de Brosse followed a typically French layout of wings surrounding a court, with the chief living quarters and chapel facing the garden. The west wing was the original site of the paintings (1622-25; Louvre, Paris) by Peter Paul Rubens depicting the regent’s life.

Luxembourg PalaceDuring the 19th century the palace was extensively remodeled: the garden facade was added (1836-41) by Alphonse de Gisors, and a cycle of paintings (1845-47) by Eugène Delacroix was added to the library. The building was a prison during the Revolution, used for the peace conference of 1946, and now houses the French Senate.

The Palais du Luxembourg in the VIe arrondissement of Paris, north of the Jardin du Luxembourg, is the seat of French Senate.

The formal Luxembourg Garden (French: Jardin du Luxembourg) presents a 25-hectare green parterre of gravel and lawn populated with statues and provided with large basins of water where children sail model boats. In the southwest corner, there is an orchard of apple and pear trees and the théâtre des marionnettes

The Luxembourg Palace lies in beautiful surroundings in the northern part of the Luxembourg Garden. The palace which was originally built for King Louis XIII’s mother, is now the seat of the French senate.

The Luxembourg Palace was never used by the mother of King Louis XIII, and remained empty for a long period. The palace has since then among other purposes served as the residence of Napoleon Bonaparte and the head quarter of Herman Göring.

During the 20th century the palace went through a substantial renovation, and the now famous Luxembourg Garden was added to the property.

Luxembourg Garden
A real Parisian favorite, the Jardin du Luxembourg is a magnificent, harmonious 25-hectare green oasis on Paris’ fashionable Left Bank. The formal gardens are populated with many statues (including one of Sainte-Gèneviève, patron saint of Paris), fountains and beautiful flowers. In the southwest corner, there is an orchard where several hundred species of apple and pear trees blossom each spring. Children love the park, too, especially for its parc à jeux (playground) and the théâtre des marionettes (puppet theater); they can also rent boats and sail them in the glassy ponds. Sunday afternoon band concerts draw a crowd in the summer. The sprawling grounds are usually animated by lovers, students, chess aficionados, games of boules, and tennis players.

(more…)