Sights in France
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Eiffel Tower
When it was built for the 1889 Exposition Universelle (World Fair), marking the centenary of the Revolution, the Tour Eiffel faced massive opposition from Paris’ artistic and literary elite. The ‘metal asparagus’, as some Parisians snidely called it, was almost torn down in 1909 but was spared because it proved an ideal platform for the transmitting antennas needed for the new science of radiotelegraphy. Named after its designer, Gustave Eiffel, the tower is 324m high, including the TV antenna at the tip. This figure can vary by as much as 15cm, however, as the tower’s 7300 tonnes of iron, held together by 2.5 million rivets, expand in warm weather and contract when it’s …
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Musée du Louvre
The vast Palais du Louvre was constructed as a fortress by Philippe-Auguste in the early 13th century and rebuilt in the mid-16th century for use as a royal residence. In 1793 the Revolutionary Convention turned it into the nation’s first national museum.
The paintings, sculptures and artefacts on display in the Louvre Museum have been assembled by French governments over the past five centuries. Among them are works of art and artisanship from all over Europe and important collections of Assyrian, Etruscan, Greek, Coptic and Islamic art and antiquities. Traditionally the Louvre’s raison d’être is to present Western art from the Middle Ages to about the year 1848 (at wh…
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Musée d’Orsay
Facing the Seine from quai Anatole France, the Musée d’Orsay is housed in a former train station (1900). It displays France’s national collection of paintings, sculptures, objets d’art and other works produced between the 1840s and 1914, including the fruits of the Impressionist, post-Impressionist and art nouveau movements.
Many visitors to the museum go straight to the upper level (lit by a skylight) to see the famous Impressionist paintings by Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, Degas and Manet and the post-Impressionist works by Cézanne, Van Gogh, Seurat and Matisse, but there’s also lots to see on the ground floor, including some early works by Manet, Monet, Reno…
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Jardin du Luxembourg
When the weather is fine, Parisians of all ages come flocking to the formal terraces and chestnut groves of the 23-hectare Jardin du Luxembourg to read, relax and sunbathe. There are a number of activities for children here, and in the southern part of the garden you’ll find urban orchards as well as the honey-producing Rucher du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Apiary).
The Palais du Luxembourg, at the northern end of the garden, was built for Marie de Médicis, Henri IV’s consort; it has housed the Sénat (Senate), the upper house of the French parliament, since 1958. There are guided tours of the interior, usually at 10.30am one Saturday a month; advance reservations obligat…
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Basilique du Sacré Cœur
Perched at the very top of the Butte de Montmartre, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart was built from contributions pledged by Parisian Catholics as an act of contrition after the humiliating Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. Construction began in 1873, but the basilica was not consecrated until 1919.
Some 234 spiralling steps lead you to the basilica’s dome, which affords one of Paris’ most spectacular panoramas; they say you can see for 30km on a clear day.
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Centre Pompidou
This centre has amazed and delighted visitors since it was inaugurated in 1977, not just for its outstanding collection of modern art, but also for its radical architectural statement.
The open space at ground level has temporary exhibitions and information desks, while the 4th and 5th floors house the Musée National d’Art Moderne, France’s national collection of art dating from 1905 onwards. About a third of the 50,000-plus works, including the work of the surrealists and cubists, as well as pop art and contemporary works, are on display.
West of the Pompidou, place Georges Pompidou and nearby pedestrian streets attract buskers, musicians, jugglers and mime artists,…
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Sainte Chapelle
The place to visit on a sunny day! Security checks make it long and snail-slow to get into this gemlike Holy Chapel, the most exquisite of Paris’ Gothic monuments, tucked away within the walls of the Palais de Justice (Law Courts). But once in, be dazzled by Paris’ oldest and finest stained glass – the light on sunny days is extraordinary.
Built in just under three years (compared with nearly 200 for Notre Dame), Ste-Chapelle was consecrated in 1248. The chapel was conceived by Louis IX to house his personal collection of holy relics (including the Holy Crown now kept in the treasury at Notre Dame). The chapel’s exterior can be viewed from across the street from th…
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Cathédrale de Notre Dame de Paris
Cathédrale de Notre Dame de Paris is the true heart of Paris; in fact, distances from Paris to all parts of metropolitan France are measured from place du Parvis Notre Dame, the square in front of Notre Dame. A bronze star, set in the pavement across from the main entrance, marks the exact location of point zéro des routes de France (point zero of French roads).
Notre Dame, the most visited site in Paris, with 10 million people crossing its threshold each year, is not just a masterpiece of French Gothic architecture but has also been the focus of Catholic Paris for seven centuries. Constructed on a site occupied by earlier churches – and, a millennium before that, a Gal…
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Palais des Papes
This Unesco World Heritage Site, the world’s largest Gothic palace, was built when Pope Clement V abandoned Rome in 1309 and settled in Avignon. The immense scale of the palace, with its cavernous stone halls and vast courtyards, testifies to the wealth of the popes; the 3m-thick walls, portcullises and watchtowers emphasise their need for defence.
Today it takes some imagination to picture the former luxury of these vast bare rooms. You can catch whispering glimpses in the wonderful 14th-century chapel frescos painted by Matteo Giovannetti; in the dark-blue walls of the Pope’s apartment, threaded with dusky red flowers; and in the superb Chambre du Cerf, alive with med…
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Musée de l’Orangerie
Located in the southwestern corner of the Jardin des Tuileries, this museum, with the Jeu de Paume, is all that remains of the once palatial Palais des Tuileries, which was razed during the Paris Commune in 1871. It exhibits important Impressionist works, including a series of Monet’s Decorations des Nymphéas (Water Lilies) in two huge oval rooms purpose-built in 1927 on the artist’s instructions, as well as works by Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, Sisley, Soutine and Utrillo. An audioguide costs €5.
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Cathédrale Notre-Dame
Victor Hugo declared it a ‘gigantic and delicate marvel’, Goethe professed that its ‘loftiness is linked to its beauty’ and, no matter the angle or time of day, you too will be captivated by Strasbourg’s centrepiece Gothic cathedral. At once immense and intricate, the cathedral is a riot of filigree stonework and flying buttresses, leering gargoyles and lacy spires.
The west facade, most impressive if approached from rue Mercière, was completed in 1284, but the 142m spire – the tallest of its time – was not in place until 1439; its southern companion was never built.
On a sunny day, the 12th- to 14th-century stained-glass windows – especially the rose windo…
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La Seine
In the city of romance, the Seine River is its lifeblood. Formerly a major trade route, today the river's islands, bridges and quays evoke the most romantic visions of Paris. This nostalgia is heightened after dark when the Seine shimmers with the watery reflections of floodlit monuments and bridges. C'est magnifique!
A stroll along the Seine is a quintessential Parisian experience.
The attractions along the river's main island, Île de la Cité, read like a who's-who of Paris' finery; from Notre Dame to Sainte Chapelle, the Conciergerie and the flower market. By contrast, Île St-Louis has a village-like, provincial calm. The area's charming 17th-century stone houses, teaho…
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Musée National du Moyen Âge
The National Museum of the Middle Ages is housed in two structures: the frigidarium (cooling room) and other remains of Gallo-Roman baths dating from around AD 200, and the late-15th-century Hôtel de Cluny, considered the finest example of medieval civil architecture in Paris.
The spectacular displays at the museum include statuary, illuminated manuscripts, weapons, furnishings, and objets d’art made of gold, ivory and enamel. But nothing compares with La Dame à la Licorne (The Lady with the Unicorn), a sublime series of late-15th-century tapestries from the southern Netherlands now hung in circular room 13 on the 1st floor. Five of them are devoted to the senses, whi…
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Grande Arche de la Défense
La Défense’s draw card is the Grande Arche (Great Arch) – a remarkable, cube-like structure, 110m square, of white Carrara marble, grey granite and glass. It’s constructed out of 3600 prefabricated cases, each 2.8m square and 800g in weight, and the entire construction rests on a dozen 30m-tall underground pillars. Scale the cigarette-butt-littered steps to the foot of this incredible arch free of charge and ponder its meaning as ‘a window to the world, a symbol of hope for the future; that all men can meet freely’. Or pay to travel 1.6m per second to the ‘roof’ on the 35th floor, where temporary art exhibitions hang out alongside scaled models of the arch, a video sho…
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Gare Montparnasse
Brittany and places en route from Paris (eg Chartres, Angers, Nantes); TGV Atlantique Ouest and TGV Atlantique Sud-Ouest trains to Tours, Nantes, Bordeaux and other destinations in southwestern France.
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Arc de Triomphe
Located 2km northwest of place de la Concorde in the middle of place Charles de Gaulle (or place de l’Étoile), Paris’ Triumphal Arch is the world’s largest traffic roundabout. It was commissioned by Napoléon in 1806 to commemorate his imperial victories but remained unfinished when he started losing battles and then entire wars. It was not completed until 1836. Since 1920, the body of an Unknown Soldier from WWI, taken from Verdun in Lorraine, has lain beneath the arch; his fate and that of countless others is commemorated by a memorial flame that is rekindled each evening around 6.30pm.
From the viewing platform atop the arch (50m up via 284 steps and well worth …
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Aiguilles de Bavella
The Col de Bavella (Bavella Pass) is overlooked by the imposing silhouette of one of the most striking and beautiful landscape features in the south of Corsica: the sharp points of Aiguilles de Bavella, also called the Bavella Needles. If you're lucky you may spot a few of the mouflons (wild mountain sheep) that sashay around the area.
The peaks, which rise to a height of more than 1600m (5250ft) and which are also known as the Cornes d'Asinao (Asinao Horns), are jagged points whose colour ranges from ochre to golden depending on the position of the sun in the sky. Behind these stone 'needles' looms the profile of Monte Incudine (2134m/7000ft), which the GR20 links to the…
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Cathédrale Notre Dame
Rising from rich farmland to dominate the charming medieval town of Chartres is Cathédrale Notre Dame, a must-see. Its brilliant-blue stained glass and collection of relics, including the Sainte Voile (Holy Veil) said to have been worn by the Virgin Mary when she gave birth to Jesus, have lured pilgrims since the Middle Ages. Up until 4pm daily, the shop below the North Tower inside the cathedral rents informative, 25-/45-/70-minute English-language audioguide headsets costing €3.20/4.20/6.20 – you’ll need to leave your passport or other ID as a deposit. Guided tours in English (Tel: 02 37 28 15 58; millerchartres@aol.com;tour €10) with the incomparable ‘Maître de …
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City Walls
Wrapping around the city, Avignon's ramparts were built between 1359 and 1370. They were restored during the 19th century, minus their original moats - though even in the 14th century this defence system was hardly state-of-the-art, lacking machicolations (openings in the parapets for niceties like pouring boiling oil on attackers or shooting arrows at them).Within the walls are a wealth of fine museums - the Avignon Passion booklet lists the whole gamut.
The Avignon Passion pass entitles you to 20% to 50% discounted entry on your second and subsequent visits to museums and monuments (the equivalent of student prices), as well as reduced prices on the tourist office walki…
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Musée Rodin
One of our favourite cultural attractions, the Rodin Museum is both a sublime museum and one of the city’s most relaxing green spots with its lovely garden sprinkled with sculptures and shade trees. Rooms on two floors of this 18th-century residence display extraordinarily vital bronze and marble sculptures by Rodin, including casts of some of his most celebrated works: The Hand of God,The Burghers of Calais (Les Bourgeois de Calais),Cathedral, that perennial crowd-pleaser The Thinker (Le Penseur) and the incomparable The Kiss (Le Baiser). There are also some 15 works by Camille Claudel (1864–1943), sister of the writer Paul Claudel and Rodin’s mistress.
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Vieux Lyon's Traboules
The most celebrated of Vieux Lyon's traboules include those linking 27 rue St-Jean with 6 rue des Trois Maries; 54 rue St-Jean with 27 rue du Bœuf (push the intercom button to buzz open the door); 10 quai Romain Rolland with 2 place du Gouvernement; 17 quai Romain Rolland with 9 rue des Trois Maries; and 31 rue du Bœuf with 14 rue de la Bombarde. Although a couple of Vieux Lyon's traboules date from Roman times, most were constructed by canuts (silk weavers) in the 19th century to facilitate the transport of silk in inclement weather. Resistance fighters found them equally handy during WWII. Guided tours available.
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Musée Renoir
The city of Cagnes-sur-Mer is nothing to write home about. What is, however, is the exquisite Musée Renoir. Le Domaine des Collettes (as the property was known) was home and studio to an arthritis-crippled Renoir (1841–1919) from 1907 until his death. He lived there with his wife and three children, and the house is wonderfully evocative. Works on display include Les Grandes Baigneuses (The Women Bathers; 1892), a reworking of the 1887 original, and rooms are dotted with photographs and personal possessions. The beautiful olive and citrus groves are as much an attraction as the museum itself. Many visitors set up their own easel to paint.
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Roman Amphitheatre
Built around AD 100 to seat 24,000 spectators, this magnificent amphitheatre is wonderfully preserved, even retaining its upper storey. Its system of passages and exits are engagingly called vomitories and were designed so patricians attending combats never had to rub shoulders with the plebs up top. It lives on as Les Arènes, a sporting and cultural venue.
Les Arènes lives on as a frequent sporting and cultural venue - an excellent thing in itself though the scaffolding and temporary barriers do detract from its appeal as a historical site. Buy your ticket at the reception point, tucked into its northern walls.
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Fort de la Bastille
These days, the strategic importance of Fort de la Bastille might have waned, but the city and mountain views it proffers are spectacular. Three viewpoint indicators explain the surrounding vistas (glimpse Mont Blanc on clear days) and panels maps out hiking trails, some of which lead down the hillside.
To get to the fort, hop aboard the riverside Téléphérique Grenoble Bastille. The ascent in egg-shaped pods, which climb 264m from the quay over the swift waters of the River Isère, is almost more fun than the fort itself. Unsurprisingly, it gets crowded in summer - leave early to avoid the worst queues.
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Institut du Monde Arabe
Set up by France and 20 Arab countries to promote cultural contacts between the Arab world and the West, the Institute of the Arab World is housed in a critically praised building (1987) that successfully mixes modern and traditional Arab and Western elements.
The institute hosts some fascinating temporary exhibitions. Its permanent museum, closed for renovation since April 2010, will focus on painting a global vision of the Arab world through 19th-century to contemporary art and artisanship, instruments from astronomy and other fields of scientific endeavour in which Arab technology once led the world.
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