Sights in Paris
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Musée de l'Évantail
Around 900 handheld fans are on display here, dating as far back as the mid-18th century. The small museum is housed in what was once a well-known fan manufactory, and its original showroom, dating from 1893, is sublime. It closes during August.
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Bateau Lavoir
At No 11bis you’ll find the Bateau Lavoir, where Max Jacob, Amedeo Modigliani and Pablo Picasso – who painted his seminal Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) here – once lived in great poverty. Originally at No 13, the Bateau Lavoir burned down in 1970 and was rebuilt in 1978.
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Parc de Bercy
Built atop the site of a former wine depot, this large, well-landscaped park is a great place to break for a picnic and let the kids run free. Bercy reached its height as the ‘world’s wine cellar’ in the 19th century: it was right on the Seine, close to Paris yet outside the city walls, meaning that shipping was convenient and commerce tax-free.
Vestiges of its former incarnation are spread across the park and the Cour St-Émilion, where the warehouses were located. In some spots you’ll see the old railroad tracks; in others you’ll find grape vines.
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Docks en Seine
Framed by a lurid-lime wave-like glass façade, a transformed Seine-side warehouse, the Docks en Seine houses the French fashion institute, the Institut Français de la Mode (hence the docks' alternative name, Cité de la Mode et du Design), with a growing program of fashion and design exhibitions and events throughout the year.
One of Paris’ most exciting projects, the docks occupy a 20,000-sq-metre riverside warehouse built in 1907 (the first industrial complex in Paris to use reinforced concrete), where goods were delivered by barge. It was transformed post-millennium into a state-of-the-art cultural centre; its hottest new drawcard is the 2012-opened 'creative space'…
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Château de Vincennes
Originally a meagre 12th-century hunting lodge, this castle was expanded several times throughout the centuries until it reached its present size under Louis XIV. Notable features include the beautiful 52m-high keep (1370) and the royal chapel (1552), both of which are open to visits. Note that the chapel is only open between 11am and noon, and 3pm and 4pm.
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Pont Neuf
Paris’ oldest bridge has linked the western end of Île de la Cité with both river banks since 1607 when the king inaugurated it by crossing the bridge on a white stallion. The occasion is commemorated by an equestrian statue of Henri IV, known to his subjects as the Vert Galant (‘jolly rogue’ or ‘dirty old man’, perspective depending).
View the bridge’s seven arches, decorated with humorous and grotesque figures of barbers, dentists, pickpockets, loiterers etc, from a spot along the river or a boat. Pont Neuf and nearby place Dauphine were used for public exhibitions in the 18th century. In the last century the bridge became an objet d’art in 1963, when…
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Pletzl
When renovation of the Marais began in the late 1960s, the area around rues des Rosiers and des Écouffes - traditionally known as the Pletzl and home to a poor but vibrant Jewish community - was pretty run-down. Now fancy boutiques coexist with Jewish bookstores and kosher butchers' shops, restaurants and felafel joints.
The area is very quiet on the Sabbath (sundown Friday to sundown Saturday).
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Pavillon Davioud
The Pavillon Davioud is an ornate pavilion in the Jardin du Luxembourg which hosts events such as the annual Fête du Miel (Honey Festival) and gardening courses with the École d'Horticulture.
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Musée des Arts Forains
The Museum of the Fairground Art, housed in three old wine warehouses in Bercy Village, is a wonderful collection of old amusements from 19th-century funfairs including carousels, organs and stalls. Most of the items still function and are pure works of art. The place is usually rented only out for corporate events with minimum numbers but phone or visit the website and try your luck. The tour lasts 1½ hours.
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Musée de la Poupée
Frightening to some – all those beady little eyes and silent screams – the Doll Museum is more for adults than for children. There are around 500 of the lifeless creatures here, dating back to 1800, all arranged in scenes representing Paris through the centuries.
There are temporary exhibitions (think Barbie and Sindy and ‘France’s best plush animals’), as well as workshops, storytelling sessions and a ‘hospital’ for antique dolls.
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Musée du Fumeur
The Smoker’s Museum traces the history of one of humankind’s greatest vices: the smoking of tobacco. Hard-core butt-fiends will feel vindicated, though the museum takes an impartial stance, providing (as it states on entry) ‘a vantage point for the observation of changing behaviours’. Done up as an old tobacco warehouse, it has a wonderful collection of portraits.
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Tour Jean sans Peur
This Gothic, 29m-high tower called Tower of John the Fearless was built by the Duke of Bourgogne so he could take refuge from his enemies at the top. Part of a splendid mansion in the early 15th century, it is one of the very few examples of feudal military architecture extant in Paris. Climb 140 steps up the spiral staircase to the top turret.
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Musée Bourdelle
The Bourdelle Museum contains monumental bronzes in the house and workshop where sculptor Antoine Bourdelle (1861–1929), a pupil of Rodin, lived and worked. The three sculpture gardens are particularly lovely and impart a flavour of belle époqueand post-WWI Montparnasse. The museum usually has a temporary exhibition going on alongside its permanent collection (free when there’s no exhibition taking place).
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Palais de la Découverte
Attached to the Grand Palais, this children’s science museum has excellent temporary exhibits (eg moving lifelike dinosaurs) as well as a hands-on, interactive permanent collection focusing on astronomy, biology, physics and the like. Some of the older exhibits have French-only explanations, but overall this is a dependable family outing.
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Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature
The Hunting & Nature Museum may sound like an oxymoron to the politically correct, but in France, where hunting is a very big deal, to show your love for nature is to go out and shoot something – or so it would seem. The delightful Hôtel Guénégaud (1651) is positively crammed with weapons, paintings, sculpture and objets d’art related to hunting and, of course, lots and lots of trophies – horns, antlers, heads.
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Musée Marmottan Monet
This museum, two blocks east of the Bois de Boulogne between Porte de la Muette and Porte de Passy, has the world’s largest collection of works by impressionist painter Claude Monet (1840-1926) – about 100 – as well as paintings by Gauguin, Sisley, Pissarro, Renoir, Degas, Manet and Berthe Morisot. It also contains an important collection of French, English, Italian and Flemish miniatures from the 13th to the 16th centuries.
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Parc des Buttes-Chaumont
This quirky park is one of the city’s largest green spaces; its landscaped slopes hide grottoes, waterfalls, a lake and even an island topped with a temple to Sybil. Once a gypsum quarry and rubbish dump, it was given its present form by Baron Haussmann in time for the opening of the 1867 Exposition Universelle.
It’s a favourite with Parisians, who come here to practise tai chi, take the kids to a puppet show or simply to relax with a bottle of wine and a picnic dinner. The tracks of an abandoned 19th-century railway line (La Petite Ceinture, which once circled Paris) also run through the park.
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Musée Cernuschi
The Cernuschi Museum is comprised of an excellent and rare collection of ancient Chinese art (funerary statues, bronzes, ceramics), much of which predates the Tang dynasty (618–907), in addition to diverse pieces from Japan. Milan banker and philanthropist Henri Cernuschi (1821–96), who settled in Paris before the unification of Italy, assembled the collection during a world tour from 1871–73.
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Cité de la Musique
The Cité de la Musique, on the southern edge of Parc de la Villette, is a striking, triangular-shaped concert hall whose mission is to introduce music from around the world to Parisians. The Musée de la Musique inside displays some 900 rare musical instruments; you can hear many of them being played on the audioguide.
Next door is the new Paris Philharmonic hall (estimated opening 2015) as well as the prestigious Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse, a top school for classical musicians and dancers.
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Musée du Parfum
If the art of perfume-making entices, stop by this collection of copper distillery vats and antique flacons and test your nose on a few basic scents. It’s run by the parfumerie Fragonard and located in a beautiful old hôtel particulier (private mansion); free guided visits are available in multiple languages. A separate wing is a short distance south, in the Théâtre-Musée des Capucines.
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Manufacture des Gobelins
The Gobelins Factory has been weaving haute lisse (high relief) tapestries on specialised looms since the 18th century along with Beauvais-style basse lisse (low relief) ones and Savonnerie rugs. Superb examples are showcased in its gallery; factory visits (1½ hours), by guided tour, take you through the ateliers (workshops) and exhibits of the thousands carpets and tapestries woven here.
Buy tickets in advance at Fnac or turn up well ahead of time for same-day tour tickets.
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Musée Atelier Zadkine
Russian cubist sculptor Ossip Zadkine (1890–1967) arrived in Paris in 1908 and lived and worked in this cottage for almost 40 years. Zadkine produced an enormous catalogue of sculptures made from clay, stone, bronze and wood. The museum covers his life and work; one room displays figures he sculpted in contrasting walnut, pear, ebony, acacia, elm and oak.
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Cabinet des Médailles et Monnaies
Housed in the original home of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France is this enormous hoard of coins, medals and tokens numbering more than 500, 000. There’s also an important collection of antiques, including items confiscated during the French Revolution from Ste-Chapelle and the abbey at St-Denis, including silverware, jewellery and the so-called Dagobert’s Throne, dating from the 7th century, on which French kings were once crowned.
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Bois de Vincennes
In the southeastern corner of Paris, Vincennes Wood encompasses some 995 hectares. It is one of the ‘lungs’ of Paris. On its northern edge, Château de Vincennes is a bona fide royal château with massive fortifications and a moat. The château grounds can be strolled for free, but the 52m-high dungeon (1369), a prison during the 17th and 18th centuries, and the Gothic Chapelle Royale (Royal Chapel) can be visited only by guided tour; call ahead for times.
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Musée de la Poste
Not only posties and philatelists but anyone who enjoys travel, exploration and communication will enjoy this contemporary postal museum. Billed as ‘L’Adresse’ (the Address), the museum offers a fascinating overview of the history of the French postal service, with exhibits spanning several floors. Imaginative temporary exhibitions might be anything from artist-designed letter boxes to wartime postal services or postcards.
Before leaving, don’t miss the shop selling every imaginable French stamp, from Harry Potter designs to romantic red heart-shaped stamps, as well as stamps from overseas French territories including New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
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