Paris

Introduction

Paris has long inspired opinionated outbursts, from delusional to denouncing, but on one matter travellers remain in agreement: it's among the most stimulating cities in the world. Paris assaults all the senses, demanding to be seen, heard, touched, tasted and smelt. From luminescent landmarks to fresh poodle droppings on the pavement, the city is everything it should be - the very essence of all things French. If you come here expecting all you've heard to be true, you won't leave disappointed.

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 Pompidou Centre 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.

When to Go

Like the old song says, Paris is at its best in springtime (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 January - New Year's Day
late March or April - Easter Sunday, Easter Monday
1 May - May Day
8 May - Victory in Europe Day
May (40th day after Easter) - Ascension Thursday
7th Sunday after Easter - Pentecost/Whit Sunday
7th Monday after Easter - Whit Monday
14 July - Bastille Day
15 August - Assumption Day
1 November - All Saints' Day
11 November - Armistice Day/Remembrance Day
25 December - Christmas Day

Attractions

This enormous building, constructed around 1200 as a fortress and rebuilt in the mid-16th century for use as a royal palace, began its career as a public museum in 1793. As part of Mitterand's grands projets in the 1980s, the Louvre was revamped, with the addition of a 21m (67ft) glass pyramid entrance. Initially deemed a failure, the new design has since won over those who regard consistency as inexcusably boring. Vast scrums of people puff and pant through the rooms full of paintings, sculptures and antiquities, including the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and Winged Victory (which looks like it's been dropped and put back together). If the clamour becomes unbearable, your best bet is to pick a period or section of the Louvre and pretend that the rest is somewhere across town.

Designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers in the '70s, the Centre Georges Pompidou, displaying and promoting modern and contemporary art, is far and away the most visited sight in Paris. An extensive, two-year, ?85 million millennium renovation has made it even more popular. The Forum du Centre Pompidou at ground level has temporary exhibits and information. The fourth and fifth levels exhibit about a third of the 40,000-plus works of the Musée National d'Art Moderne. The Bibliothèque Publique d'Information - a free, three-tiered library - has a staggering 2500 periodicals, including many English-language newspapers and magazines. There's also a new cinema, CD and video centre, and dance and theatre venues. A square just to the west attracts street musicians, Marcel Marceau impersonators and lots of unsavoury types selling drugs or picking pockets.

The city's cathedral ranks as one of the greatest achievements of Gothic architecture. Notre Dame was begun in 1163 and completed around 1345; the massive interior can accommodate over 6000 worshippers. 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 spectacular and enormous rose windows, and a 7800-pipe organ that was restored but has not worked properly since. From the base of the north tower, visitors with ramrod-straight spines can climb to the top of the west façade and decide how much aesthetic pleasure they derive from looking out at the cathedral's many gargoyles - alternatively they can just enjoy the view of a decent swathe of Paris. Under the square in front of the cathedral an archaeological crypt displays in situ the remains of structures from the Gallo-Roman and later periods.

Lying inside the Palais de Justice (law courts), Sainte Chapelle was consecrated in 1248 and built to house what was reputedly Jesus' crown of thorns and other relics purchased by King Louis IX earlier in the 13th century. The gem-like chapel, illuminated by a veritable curtain of 13th-century stained glass (the oldest and finest in Paris), is best viewed from the law courts' main entrance - a magnificently gilded 18th-century gate. Once past the airport-like security, you can wander around the long hallways of the Palais de Justice and, if you can find a court in session, observe the proceedings. Civil cases are heard in the morning, while criminal trials - usually reserved for larceny or that French specialty crimes passionnel - begin after lunch.

Spectacularly housed in a former railway station built in 1900, the Musée d'Orsay was reinaugurated in its present form in 1986. Inside is a trove of artistic treasures produced between 1848 and 1914, including highly regarded Impressionist and Post-impressionist works. Most of their paintings and sculptures are found on the ground floor and the skylight-lit upper level, while the middle level has some magnificent rooms showcasing the Art-Nouveau movement. Nearby, the Musée Rodin displays lively bronze and marble sculptures by Camille Claudel and Auguste Rodin, including casts of some of Rodin's most celebrated works. There's a shady sculpture garden out the back, one of Paris' treasured islands of calm.

This towering edifice was built for the World Fair of 1889, held to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution. Named after its designer, Gustave Eiffel, it stands 320m (1050ft) high and held the record as the world's tallest structure until 1930. 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. When you're done peering upwards through the girders, you can visit any of the three public levels, which can be accessed by lift or stairs. 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.

A popular promenade for the ostentatious aristos of old, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées has long symbolised the style and joie de vivre of Paris. Encroaching fast-food joints, car showrooms and cinemas have somewhat dulled the sheen, but the 2km (1mi) long, 70m (235ft) wide stretch is still an ideal place for evening walks and relishing the food at overpriced restaurants.

Established in 1805, this necropolis attracts more visitors than any similar structure in the world. Within the manicured, evergreen enclosure are the tombs of over one million people, including such luminaries as the composer Chopin; the writers Molière, Apollinaire, Oscar Wilde, Balzac, Marcel Proust and Gertrude Stein; the artists David, Delacroix, Pissarro, Seurat and Modigliani; the actors Sarah Bernhardt, Simone Signoret and Yves Montand; the singer Édith Piaf; and the dancer Isadora Duncan. The most visited tomb, however, is that of The Doors lead singer, Jim Morrison, who died in Paris in 1971. One hundred years earlier, the cemetery was the site of a fierce battle between Communard insurgents and government troops. The rebels were eventually rounded up against a wall and shot, and were buried where they fell in a mass grave.

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.

In the late 18th century, Paris decided it had a problem with its cemeteries, namely that they were full, if not overflowing. Faced with potential outbreaks of disease, not to mention aesthetic concerns, the city authorities decided to exhume the bones of the buried and relocate them in the tunnels of several disused quarries. The decision to do this was made in 1785 and led 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.

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.

Off the Beaten Track

The relatively small region surrounding Paris - known as the Île de France (Island of France) - was where the kingdom of France began its 12th-century expansion. Today, it's a popular day-trip destination for Parisians and Paris-based visitors. Among the region's many attractions are woodlands ideal for hiking, skyscrapered districts endowed with sleekly functional architecture, the much-maligned EuroDisney, elegant historical towns and Versailles, the country's former political capital and seat of the royal court. The latter is the site of the Château de Versailles, the grandest and most famous palace in France. Built in the mid-1600s during the reign of Louis XIV, the chateau is a keen reminder of just how much one massive ego and a nation's wealth could buy in days of old (eat your heart out, Bill Gates). Apart from grand halls, bedchambers, gardens, ponds and fountains too elaborate to discuss, there's also a 75m (250ft) Hall of Mirrors, where nobles dressed like ninnies could watch each other dancing.

The little-touristed Saint Martin canal, running through the northeastern districts of the Right Bank, is one of Paris' hidden delights. The 5km (3mi) waterway, parts of which are higher than the surrounding land, was built in 1806 to link the Seine with the much longer Canal de l'Ourcq. Its shaded towpaths - specked with sunlight filtering through the plane trees - are a wonderful place for a romantic stroll or bike ride past locks, metal bridges and unassuming but well turned-out Parisian neighbourhoods. A clean-up of the area should make this an even more pleasant spot to while away the hours.

A city cannot grow, prosper and become truly great unless some way is found to deal with its odiferous output of bodily wastes. Along the Seine, east of the Eiffel Tower, Paris has a unique working museum devoted to such an answer: sewerage. The entrance to the museum is a rectangular maintenance hole that leads into 480m (1575ft) of raw sewerage tunnels, replete with all sorts of vaguely familiar objects flowing beneath your feet.

Activities

Water enthusiasts are well catered for in Paris - there are around 30 swimming pools and the Aquaboulevard water park, too. And, among uniquely Parisian activities, it's hard to beat drifting lazily down the Seine (or the Marne, the Oise or any of the city's canals) in a canal boat. (Rentals are available year-round.) Be it on tarmac or slippery ice, Paris has discovered skating in a big way. In winter the Patinoire du Parvis de la Défense and Patinoire de l'Hôtel de Ville bring ice skating into the public arena. When it comes to aerobics, weight training and so on, gyms and fitness clubs are a penny a barrel. One of the best bowling alleys in Paris, Bowling de Paris, can be found in the Bois de Boulogne. If this isn't enough, Paris' weekly entertainment pamphlets, Pariscope and L'Officiel des Spectacles, list up-to-date information in French on every imaginable outdoor activity. Look for listings on randonnées pédestres (hiking in groups), cyclisme (biking), escalade (rock climbing), plus parachuting, canoeing, squash, tennis and more.

History

Paris was founded towards the end of the 3rd century BC on what is now the Île de la Cité by a tribe of Celtic Gauls known as the Parisii. Centuries of conflict between the Gauls and Romans ended in 52 BC, when Julius Caesar's legions took control of the territory and the settlement became a Roman town. Christianity was introduced in the 2nd century AD, and the Roman party was finally crashed in the 5th century by the arrival of the Franks. In 508 AD, Frankish king Clovis I united Gaul as a kingdom and made Paris his capital, naming it after the original Parisii tribe.

Paris prospered during the Middle Ages: In the 12th century, construction began on the cathedral of Notre Dame (work continued for nearly 200 years), while the Marais area north of the Seine was drained and settled to become what's known today as the Right Bank. The Sorbonne opened its doors in 1253, the beautiful Sainte Chapelle was consecrated in 1248 and the Louvre got its start as a riverside fortress around 1200.

Scandinavian Vikings (also known as Norsemen, or Normans) began raiding France's western coast in the 9th century; after three centuries of conflict, they started to push toward Paris. These conflicts gave birth to the Hundred Years War between Norman England and Paris' Capetian dynasty, eventually resulting in the French defeat at Agincourt in 1415 and English control of Paris in 1420. In 1429, a 17-year-old stripling called Jeanne d'Arc re-rallied the French troops to defeat the English at Orléans, and, with the exception of Calais, the English were expelled from France in 1453.

Embracing the trappings of the Italian Renaissance helped Paris get back on its feet at the end of the 1400s, and many of the city's signature buildings and monuments sprang up during the period. Still, by the late 16th century Paris was again up in arms, this time in the name of religion. Clashes between the Huguenots (French Protestants supported by England), the Catholic League and the Catholic monarchy sank to their lowest levels in 1572 with the St Bartholomew's Day massacre of 3000 Huguenots in town to celebrate the wedding of Henri of Navarre (later, King Henri IV).

Louis XIV, known as le Roi Soleil (the Sun King), ascended to the throne in 1643 at the tender age of five and held the crown until 1715. During his reign, he nearly bankrupted the national treasury with prolonged bouts of battling and building. His most tangible legacy is the palace at Versailles, 23km (15mi) south-west of Paris. Louis was succeeded by Louis XV and then Louis XVI. The excesses of the latter and his capricious queen, Marie-Antoinette, led to an uprising of Parisians on 14 July 1789 and the storming of the Bastille prison - the act that kick-started the French Revolution.

The populist ideals of the revolution's early stages quickly gave way to the 17,000 head-loppings of the Reign of Terror, wherein even a few of the original 'patriots' got cozy with Madame la Guillotine. The unstable post-revolution government was consolidated in 1799 under a young Corsican general, Napoleon Bonaparte, who adopted the title First Consul. In 1804, the Pope crowned him Emperor of the French, and Napoleon proceeded to sweep most of Europe under his wing. Napoleon's hunger for conquest led to his defeat, first in Russia in 1812 and later at Belgium's Waterloo in 1815. His legacy in modern France includes the national legal code, which bears his name, and monuments such as the massive neoclassical Arc de Triomphe.

Following Napoleon's exile, France faltered under a string of mostly inept rulers until a coup d'état in 1851 brought a new emperor, Napoleon III, to power. In 17 years, he oversaw the construction of a flashy new Paris, with wide boulevards, sculptured parks and - not insignificantly - a modern sewer system. Like his namesake uncle, however, this Napoleon and his penchant for pugnacity led to a costly and eventually unsuccessful war, this time with the Prussians in 1870. When news of their emperor's capture by the enemy reached Paris, the masses took to the streets, demanding that a republic be created.

Despite its bloody beginnings, the Third Republic ushered in the glittering belle époque (beautiful age), with its famed Art Nouveau architecture and a barrage of advances in the arts and sciences. By the 1920s and 1930s, Paris had become a worldwide centre for the artistic avant-garde and had entrenched its reputation among freethinking intellectuals. The excess of that era was cut short by the Nazi occupation of 1940, and Paris remained under Germany's thumb until 25 August 1944. (The Allied forces that retook the city were spearheaded by Free French units in order to give the French the honour of liberating their capital.) After the war, Paris regained its position as a creative hotbed and nurtured a revitalised liberalism that reached a crescendo in the student-led 'Spring Uprising' of 1968. The Sorbonne was occupied, barricades were erected in the Latin Quarter, and some 9 million people nationwide were inspired to join in a paralyzing general strike, drawing attention to their increasing dissatisfaction with the rigidity of French institutions.

During the 1980s, President François Mitterand initiated the futuristic grands projets, a series of costly building projects that garnered widespread approval even when the results were popular failures. Responses to the flashier examples, like the Centre Pompidou and the glass pyramids in the Louvre, have ranged from appalled 'mon Dieux' to absolute doting rapture; if nothing else, the projets invigorated dialogue about the Parisian aesthetic.

In the late 1990s, the city dominated the international spotlight with two front-page events: the rumour-plagued auto-accident death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in August 1997 (though it's arguable that an idealised icon can ever really die), and France's first-ever World Cup victory (3-0 over the odds-on favourite, Brazil) in July 1998. Both events brought Parisians out into the streets by the thousands and international press corps in droves.

Of less emotional interest but nonetheless significant, the political party behind Jacques Chirac, who has been France's president since mid-1995, lost the country's parliamentary elections in June 1997 to a coalition of Socialists, Communists and Greens headed by current Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. Jospin, who engineered a local economic recovery and introduced a 35-hour working week, for a while looked a favourite in the 2002 presidential elections. In a surprising turn of events, far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen was highly successful in the first round of the election due to a low voter turnout. A subsequent strong show of support for Chirac - and a powerful slap in the face for Le Pen - gave him a landslide victory, knocking Jospin out of the race in the process.

In 2001 Paris elected its first openly gay mayor, Bertrand Delanoe. He was stabbed in a hate crime in October 2002, but recovered successfully. He remains popular, with progressive city policies on the agenda. One of the big issues facing Paris in early 2003 is whether the city will bid for the 2012 summer Olympic Games.

Getting There & Away

Paris has two main airports, Aéroport d'Orly, 16km (10mi) south of central Paris, and Aéroport Charles de Gaulle, 27km (17mi) to the north. (Beauvais airport handles Ryanair and charter flights.) Flights run daily to all parts of the country, but the high-speed TGV (train à grande vitesse) train services are usually more convenient. Charles de Gaulle is a major international hub, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding a flight, regardless of where you're flying. Departure tax is built into the ticket price and varies according to the destination (about US$21 to Italy and US$75 to the USA).

There are dozens of ways to get to and from Paris' airports, from rapidfire shuttle trains to the standard assortment of pokey public buses, private shuttles and taxis. There's even a bus that runs solely between the two airports.

There are six major train stations in Paris, each of which handles traffic to different parts of France and the rest of Europe. The most spectacular route is via the Channel Tunnel (or Chunnel); the Eurostar passenger service takes only three hours. TGV services also link Paris with Amsterdam and Brussels. France's superb domestic rail network can take you to almost every part of the country.

Euroline buses run from Paris to cities all over Europe. Long-haul bus travel within France isn't really an option, however. Hoverspeed runs bus-boat-bus combos from London, but with the convenience of the Channel Tunnel routes you'd have to be pretty hard-pressed to consider it. There are also ferries and hovercraft between Britain, Ireland and France.

With the Eurotunnel service, you can now drive from London to Paris, with your car neatly on the shuttle train. If driving from elsewhere in Europe, once you're in France, modern autoroutes will get you to Paris quickly, if rather expensively.

Getting Around

Say what you will about driving around Paris, but the city's public transportation is world class. Choose travel passes carefully - depending on how many trips you make, daily passes aren't necessarily good value for money. The weekly (also monthly) Carte Orange travel pass can be a better deal, even if you're staying less than a week.

The most charming of Paris' public transport options, the underground Métropolitain (and its sister system, the RER), is a simply massive network. No matter where you are, chances are there's a metro station within a few blocks. Likewise, the public bus system covers everywhere, but its hours are laughable and don't even try to hop aboard on Sunday or a holiday. The Noctambus network takes over in the heavily trafficked areas once both the underground and the day buses go to sleep.

In case you hadn't guessed it, driving around Paris is a job best reserved for the terminally aggressive - if you don't have lots of time to kill, you're better off taking public transport. Likewise with bicycles: Parisians don't much like to share the road, and bikes aren't allowed on the metro. There are river shuttles along the Seine, but these cater more to gawking tourists than to commuters. Paris is surprisingly pedestrian friendly; it's compact and there are few hills - watch out on pedestrian crossings, though, cars tend not to stop.

Further Reading