It's little wonder that
so many wistful songs
have been penned over
the years about France's
capital, Paris .
Few cities leave the
visitor with such vivid
impressions, whether
it's the drifting cherry
blossoms in the tranquil
gardens of Notre-Dame,
the riverside quais on a
summer evening, the
sound of blues in
atmospheric cellar bars,
or the ancient alleyways
and cobbled lanes of the
historic Latin Quarter
and villagey Montmartre.
Paris has no problem
living up to the painted
images and movie myths
with which we're all
familiar. Indeed, the
whole city is something
of a work of art. Two
thousand years of
shaping and reshaping
have resulted in
monumental building,
sweeping avenues, grand
esplanades and
celebrated bridges. Many
of its older buildings
have survived intact,
having been spared the
ravages of flood and
fire and saved from
Hitler's intended
destruction. Moreover,
they survive with a
sense of continuity and
homogeneity, as new sits
comfortably against a
backdrop of old - the
glass Pyramid against
the grand fortress of
the Louvre, the Column
of Liberty against the
Opéra Bastille. Time has
acted as judge, as
buildings once
surrounded in
controversy - the Eiffel
Tower, the Sacré-Coeur,
the Pompidou Centre -
have in their turn
become well-known
symbols of the city. Yet
for all the tremendous
pomp and magnificence of
its monuments, the city
operates on a very human
scale, with exquisite,
secretive little nooks
tucked away off the
Grands Boulevards and
very definite little
communities revolving
around games of boules
and the local
boulangerie and café.
Architecturally, the
Cathédrale de Notre-Dame,
Sainte-Chapelle and
the Palais du Louvre
, in the city's centre,
provide a constant
reminder of Paris's
religious and royal past.
The backdrop of the
streets is predominantly
Neoclassical, the result
of nineteenth-century
development designed to
reflect the power of the
French state. Each
period since, however,
has added, more or less
discreetly, novel
examples of its own
styles - with Auguste
Perret, Le Corbusier,
Mallet-Stevens and
Eiffel among the
early twentieth-century
innovators. In recent
decades, the
architectural additions
have been more dramatic
in scale, producing new
and major landmarks, and
recasting down-at-heel
districts into important
centres of cultural and
consumer life. New
buildings such as La
Villette, La Grande
Arche de la Défense
, the Opéra Bastille
, the Institut du
Monde Arabe and the
Bibliothèque
Nationale have
expanded the dimensions
of the city, pointing it
determinedly towards the
future.
Paris's museums
and galleries , not
least the mighty
Louvre , number
among the world's
finest. The tradition of
state cultural endowment
is very much alive in
the city and collections
are exceedingly well
displayed and cared for.
Many are also housed in
beautiful locations,
such as old mansions and
palaces, others in bold
conversions, most
famously the Musée
d'Orsay , which
occupies a former train
station. The
Impressionists here and
at the Musée
Marmottan , the
moderns at the Palais
de Tokyo , the
smaller Picasso
and Rodin museums
- all repay a visit. In
addition, the
contemporary scene is
well represented in the
commercial galleries
that fill the Marais,
St-Germain, the Bastille
and the area around the
Champs-Élysées, and
there's an
ever-expanding range of
museums devoted to other
areas of human endeavour
- science, history,
decoration, fashion and
performance art.
Few cities can
compete with the
thousand-and-one
cafés, bars and
restaurants that
line every Parisian
street and boulevard.
The variety of style and
décor, cuisine and price
is hard to beat too.
Traditional French food
has become increasingly
innovative and the many
ethnic origins
represented among the
city's millions have
opened eateries
providing a range of
gastronomic options for
every palate and pocket.
The city entertains
best at night, with a
deserved reputation for
outstanding film
and music .
Paris's cinematic
prowess is marked by
annual film festivals,
with a refreshing
emphasis on art,
independent and
international films.
Music is equally
revered, with nightly
offerings of excellent
jazz, top-quality
classical, avant-garde
experimental,
international rock, West
African soukous
and French-Caribbean
zouk , Algerian
raï , and
traditional chansons
.
If you've time, you
should certainly venture
out of the city. The
region surrounding the
capital - the Île de
France - is dotted with
cathedrals and châteaux
as stunning and steeped
in history as the city
itself - Chartres,
Versailles and
Fontainebleau , for
example. An equally
accessible excursion
from the capital is that
most un-French of
attractions,
Disneyland Paris .
The city
Geography and history
have combined to give
Paris a remarkably
coherent and
intelligible structure.
The city lies in a basin
surrounded by hills. It
is very nearly circular,
confined within the
limits of the the ring
road, the boulevard
périphérique, which
follows the line of the
city's nineteenth-century
fortifications. The
capital's raison d'être
and its lifeline, the
River Seine , flows
east to west, carving
the city in two.
Anchored at the hub of
the circle, in the
middle of the river, is
the island from which
the rest of Paris grew:
the Île de la Cité
, home of the capital's
oldest religious and
secular institutions -
Notre Dame cathedral and
the Palais de Justice.
The north or Right
Bank ( rive
droite ) of the
Seine is characterized
by imposing government
buildings, sweeping
vistas and elegant
boulevards. The longest
and grandest
thoroughfare is the so-called
Voie Triomphale ,
which runs from the
Louvre to the Grande
Arche de la Défense in
the northwest, taking in
the Tuileries gardens,
Champs-Élysées and Arc
de Triomphe, each
monument an expression
of royal or state power
across the centuries. To
the immediate north and
east of the Voie
Triomphale spread the
commercial and financial
quarters, site of the
stock exchange, the
refurbished nineteenth-century
passages and Les
Halles shopping centre.
Just to the east of Les
Halles lie the Marais
and Bastille
quartiers, two of the
city's liveliest and
most happening areas.
The south bank of the
river, or Left Bank
( rive gauche ),
owes its existence to
the cathedral school of
Notre-Dame, which
spilled over from the
Île de la Cité and
became the university of
the Sorbonne, attracting
scholars and students
from all over the
medieval world. Ever
since, it has been the
traditional domain of
academics, writers and
artists.
The city is divided
into twenty
arrondissements ,
whose spiral arrangement
provides a fairly
accurate guide to its
historical growth .
Centred on the Louvre,
they wind outwards in a
clockwise direction. The
inner hub of the city
comprises
arrondissements 1er to
6e, and it's here that
most of the major sights
and museums are to be
found. The outer or
higher-number
arrondissements were
mostly incorpor ated
into the city in the
nineteenth century -
some, such as
Montmartre, Belleville
and Passy , have
succeeded in retaining
something of their
separate village
identity. Historically,
the districts to the
west attracted the
aristo cracy and the
newly rich, while those
to the east accommodated
mainly the poor and the
working class,
distinctions which
largely hold true to
this day, though much of
the east is gradually
being gentrified.
Paris is not
particularly well
endowed with parks. The
largest, the Bois de
Boulogne and the
Bois de Vincennes ,
at the western and
eastern limits of the
city respectively, do
possess small pockets of
interest, but are
largely anonymous
sprawls. For a break
from the bustle of the
city, it is best to try
an out-of-town excursion,
to the gardens of
Giverny , for
example, or the forest
of Fontainebleau
.
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