Sights in Paris
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Hall Napoléon
The split-level public area under the glass pyramid is known as the Hall Napoléon. The hall has temporary exhibition halls, bookshop and souvenir store, a café and auditoriums for lectures and films.
reviewed
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Musée de l’Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris
A museum devoted to the history of Parisian hospitals since the Middle Ages may not sound like a crowd-pleaser, but some of the paintings, sculptures, drawings and medical instruments are very evocative of their times.
reviewed
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B
Les Arts Décoratifs
A trio of privately administered museums collectively known as the Decorative Arts sit in the Rohan Wing of the vast Palais du Louvre. Admission includes entry to all three here as well as the Musée Nissim de Camondo in the 8e. Temporary exhibitions, open until 9pm on Thursday, command an additional fee.
The Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Applied Arts Museum) displays furniture, jewellery and such objets d’art as ceramics and glassware from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance through the art nouveau and art deco periods to modern times.
The much smaller Musée de la Publicité (Advertising Museum) has some 100,000 posters in its collection dating as far back as the 13th…
reviewed
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C
Géode
The giant mirrorlike sphere known as the Géode ) shows hi-res 3D and Imax films (40 minutes each) projected onto a 180-degree screen to surround you with the action. Free headsets for an English soundtrack are available.
reviewed
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D
Musée des Plans-Reliefs
Admission to the Army Museum includes entry to all the sights in Hôtel des Invalides, like the Musée des Plans-Reliefs, an esoteric museum full of scale models of towns, fortresses and chateaux across France.
reviewed
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E
Hôtel du Petit Luxembourg
The heavily guarded Hôtel du Petit Luxembourg was the modest 16th-century pad where Marie de Médici lived while Palace du Luxembourg was being built. The president of the Senate has called it home since 1825.
reviewed
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F
Crèche
This day nursery (Marc Younan, 2002) of wood and resin in the garden of the Couvent des Récollets looks like a jumbled pile of gold- and mustard-coloured building blocks. A central glass atrium functions as a ‘village square’.
reviewed
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Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain
This stunning glass-and-steel building, designed by Jean Nouvel, is a work of art in itself. It hosts temporary exhibits on contemporary art (from the 1980s to today) in a wide variety of media – from painting and photography to video and fashion, as well as performance art.
reviewed
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Assemblée Nationale
The lower house of the French parliament, known as the National Assembly, meets in the 18th-century Palais Bourbon, which fronts the Seine. Tours are available through local deputies, making citizens and residents the only ones eligible. Next door is the Second Empire-style Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, built between 1845 and 1855.
reviewed
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Grand Palais
Erected for the 1900 Exposition Universelle (World’s Fair), the Grand Palais today houses several exhibition spaces and a restaurant (Minipalais) beneath its huge 8.5-ton art nouveau glass roof. Some of Paris’ biggest shows (Renoir, Chagall, Turner) are held in the Galeries Nationales, lasting three to four months.
Other exhibit spaces include the imaginative Nef – which plays host to concerts, art installations, a seasonal amusement park and horse shows – and several other minor galleries. Renovations are ongoing and the monument will continue to develop its layout in the coming years, though it will remain open. Hours, prices and the exhibit dates vary significantly…
reviewed
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Maison de Victor Hugo
The former house of author Victor Hugo, the Maison de Victor Hugo, is now a municipal museum devoted to the life and times of the celebrated novelist and poet, with an impressive collection of his own drawings and portraits. Temporary exhibitions command an admission fee.
reviewed
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K
Cité Nationale de l’Histoire de l’Immigration
This heavyweight museum documents the hot-potato topic of immigration through a series of informative historical displays that cover groups as diverse as the Vietnamese, Portuguese, Jews and Russians. The multimedia permanent collection called Repères (Landmarks) and the gallery of personal items donated by members of the public are emotive and informative. It’s housed in the lavish 1931 Palais de la Porte Dorée.
reviewed
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Cinéaqua
On the eastern side of the Jardins du Trocadéro is Paris’ largest aquarium. It’s not the best you’ll ever see, but it is a decent rainy-day destination for families, with a shark tank and some 500 species of fish on display. There are also, somewhat oddly, three cinemas inside (only one of which shows ocean-related films), though non-French-speaking kids will need to be old enough to read subtitles, as almost everything is dubbed into French.
reviewed
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Marché de St-Honoré
This monumental glass hall (Ricardo Bofill, 1996) of offices and shops replaces an unsightly parking garage (now underground) and evokes the wonderful passages couverts (covered shopping arcades) that begin a short distance to the northeast.
reviewed
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Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes
Like the Jardin des Plantes in which it’s located, this 1000-animal zoo is more than a tourist attraction, also doubling as a research centre for the reproduction of rare and endangered species. During the Prussian siege of 1870, the animals of the day were themselves endangered, when almost all were eaten by starving Parisians.
reviewed
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O
Musée de la Monnaie de Paris
Closed for renovations at the time of writing, the Parisian Mint Museum traces the history of French coinage from antiquity onwards, with displays that help to bring to life this otherwise niche subject. It’s housed in the 18th-century royal mint, the Hôtel de la Monnaie, which is still used by the Ministry of Finance to produce commemorative medals and coins.
The overhaul of this sumptuous neoclassical building with one of the longest facades on the Seine is slated to incorporate triple Michelin starred chef Guy Savoy’s new cafe and restaurant.
reviewed
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Musée du Stylo et de l'Écriture
The Museum of the Pen and of Penmanship has the most important collection of writing utensils in the world – with pens dating back to the mid-18th century – as well as paper and calligraphy. It can be visited on other days if you phone and book in advance.
reviewed
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Q
Jeu de Paume
The Galerie du Jeu de Paume – Site Concorde (Jeu de Paume National Gallery at Concorde), which stages innovative exhibitions of contemporary art, is housed in an erstwhile jeu de paume (real, or royal, tennis court) in the northwestern corner of the Jardin des Tuileries and is all that remains of the Palais des Tuileries. It stages innovative photography exhibitions.
reviewed
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Musée de la Musique
The Musée de la Musique, inside the Cité de la Musique, displays some 900 rare musical instruments out of a collection of 4500 warehoused, and you can hear many of them being played on the audioguide.
reviewed
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Pré Catelan
The Pré Catelan garden area at the Parc de Bagatelle includes the Jardin Shakespeare, in which plants, flowers and trees mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays are cultivated.
reviewed
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Maison du Jardinage
The Parc de Bercy, which links the Palais Omnisports with Bercy Village, is a particularly attractive, 13.5-hectare public garden. The Maison du Jardinage in the centre of the park takes a close look at gardening and the environment, and offers courses.
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Parc de Belleville
A few blocks east of blvd de Belleville, this lovely park occupies a hill almost 200m above sea level, set amid 4.5 hectares of greenery. Little known to visitors, the park (which opened in 1992) offers some of the best views of the city.
reviewed
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Maison de Verre
One of the best examples of modernist architecture in all of Paris is the Maison de Verre, the exquisite ‘Glass House’ designed by Pierre Chareau and completed in 1932. Unfortunately only architects and architecture students get the green light to visit the interior.
reviewed
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Pavillon de l’Arsenal
Contemporary architecture in the capital is the focus of the permanent 800-sq-metre exhibition called ‘Paris, Visite Guidée’ (Paris, a Guided Tour) at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal, which is the city’s town-planning and architectural centre. It also has rotating exhibits.
reviewed
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Palais de l'Élysée
Some 400m north of av des Champs-Élysées is rue du Faubourg St-Honoré (8e), the western extension of rue St-Honoré. It has renowned couture houses, jewellers, antique shops and the 18th-century Palais de l’Élysée, which is the official residence of the French president.
reviewed