#1 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Hotel de Ville
Paris
~0.03 miles from Paris city center
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The Hôtel de Ville (French for "City Hall") in Paris, France, is the building housing the City of Paris's administration. Standing on the place de l'Hôtel de Ville (formerly the place de Grève) in the city's IVe arrondissement, it has been the location of the municipality of Paris since 1357. It serves multiple functions, housing the local administration, the Mayor of Paris – since 1977 –, and also being a venue for large receptions. The Mayor of Paris is Bertrand Delanoë, since 2001.
It is located near the metro station: Hôtel de Ville.
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#2 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Pont d'Arcole
Paris
~0.11 miles from Paris city center
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The Pont d'Arcole is a bridge in Paris over the River Seine. It is served by the Metro station Hôtel de Ville.
The need for a bridge communicating between place de Grève (now Place de l'Hôtel-de-Ville) and the île de la Cité had been felt for years. Called the passerelle de Grève for the first two years of its life, its present name - according to the most generally accepted hypothesis - comes from the Battle of the Bridge of Arcole, in which Napoleon defeated the Austrians in 1796.
It was only in 1828 that a suspension bridge for pedestrians with two 6m-wide carriageways, supported from a central pier in midstream, was built by Marc Seguin. In 1854, with increased traffic due to the prolongation of the rue de Rivoli, it was replaced by a more substantial metal structure that could also be used by vehicular traffic. The pont d'Arcole was built to the plans of Alphonse Oudry (1819–1869), retired Ingénieur des Ponts et Chaussées and his partner Nicolas Cadiat; the structure was innovative in that it was the first unsupported bridge across the Seine to be made entirely in wrought iron rather than cast iron. The low arch, only lightly cambered, was also innovative, and on 16 February 1888 it suddenly sagged by 20 cm and had to be consolidated. It was only between 1994 and 1995 that the city council made overall repairs to the bridge's roadways, reviewing its waterproofing and paintwork at the same time.
The bridge is also historically notable in that it was over this bridge that the first tanks of Général Leclerc's 2nd Armored Division rolled on their way to the place de l'hôtel de ville during the Liberation of Paris in August 1944.
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#3 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Pont Notre Dame
Paris
~0.14 miles from Paris city center
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The Pont Notre-Dame is a bridge that crosses the Seine in Paris, France linking the quai de Gesvres on the Rive Droite with the quai de la Corse on the Île de la Cité. The bridge is noted for being the "most ancient" in Paris, in the sense that, while the oldest bridge in Paris that is in its original state is undoubtedly the Pont Neuf, a bridge in some form has existed at the site of the Pont Notre-Dame since antiquity; nonetheless, it has been destroyed and reconstructed numerous times, a fact referred to in the Latin inscription on it to honor its Italian architect, Fra Giovanni Giocondo. The bridge once was lined with approximately sixty houses, the weight of which caused a collapse in 1499.
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#4 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Pont au Change
Paris
~0.22 miles from Paris city center
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The Pont au Change is a bridge over the Seine River in Paris, France.
The bridge is located at the border between the first and fourth arrondissements. It connects the Île de la Cité from the Palais de Justice and the Conciergerie, to the Right Bank, at the level of the Théâtre du Châtelet.
Several bridges bearing the name Pont au Change have stood on this site. It owes its name to the goldsmiths and money changers who had installed their shops on an earlier version of the bridge in the 12th century. The current bridge was constructed from 1858 to 1860, during the reign of Napoleon III, and bears his imperial insignia.
The Pont au Change is featured in the novel Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Police Inspector Javert finds himself unable to reconcile his duty to surrender Jean Valjean to the authorities with the fact that Valjean saved his life. He comes to the Pont au Change and throws himself into the Seine.
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#5 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Conciergerie
Paris
~0.24 miles from Paris city center
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The Conciergerie (French: La Conciergerie) is a former royal palace and prison in Paris, France, located on the west of the Île de la Cité, near the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. It is part of the larger complex known as the Palais de Justice, which is still used for judicial purposes. Hundreds of prisoners during the French Revolution were taken from La Conciergerie to be executed on the Guillotine at a number of locations around Paris.
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#6 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Pont Louis Philippe
Paris
~0.25 miles from Paris city center
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The Pont Louis-Philippe is a bridge across the River Seine in Paris. It is located in the 4th arrondissement, and it links the Quai de Bourbon on the Île Saint-Louis with the Saint-Gervais neighborhood on the right bank.
On 29 July 1833, to celebrate his accession to the throne following the "Trois Glorieuses" (the three glorious days of the July Revolution) , Louis-Philippe laid the first stone for a previously-nameless suspension bridge, located on the extension of the Rue du Pont Louis Philippe. Built by Marc Seguin and his brothers, it crossed the Seine to the Île Saint-Louis. It was opened to traffic one year later, on 26 July 1834. After the French Revolution of 1848 (during which the bridge and its tollhouses were burnt down), it was restored and renamed "Pont de la Réforme", a name it held until 1852.
In the face of increased traffic (the tollhouses had not been restored), it was demolished to be replaced by the present structure in 1860. This new structure, an arch bridge, was built by the engineers, Edmond-Jules Féline-Romany and Jules Savarin, between August 1860 and April 1862, a little further upstream than its predecessor. The Pont Louis-Philippe was inaugurated in April 1862. The spandrels above the four-metre-wide piers in the Seine are decorated with stone laurel wreaths surrounding metallic rosettes.
The only modification since then (unlike its much-modified contemporary, the Pont de Bercy) was the replacement of the stone guardrails (badly damaged by pollution) with replica railings in 1995.
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#7 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Notre Dame Cathedral, 4th
Paris
~0.26 miles from Paris city center
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Notre Dame de Paris (in English: Our Lady of Paris), also known as Notre Dame Cathedral, is a Gothic, Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral of the Catholic archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the "cathedra", or official chair, of the Archbishop of Paris, André Cardinal Vingt-Trois. Notre Dame de Paris is widely considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture in France and in Europe. It was restored and saved from destruction by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, one of France's most famous architects. The name Notre Dame means "Our Lady" in French, and is frequently used in the names of Catholic church buildings in Francophone countries. Notre Dame de Paris was one of the first Gothic cathedrals, and its construction spanned the Gothic period. Its sculptures and stained glass show the heavy influence of naturalism, unlike that of earlier Romanesque architecture.
Notre Dame de Paris was among the first buildings in the world to use the flying buttress (arched exterior supports). The building was not originally designed to include the flying buttresses around the choir and nave. After the construction began and the thinner walls (popularized in the Gothic style) grew ever higher, stress fractures began to occur as the walls pushed outward. In response, the cathedral's architects built supports around the outside walls, and later additions continued the pattern.
The cathedral suffered desecration during the radical phase of the French Revolution in the 1790s, when much of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. During the 19th century, an extensive restoration project was completed, returning the cathedral to its previous state.
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#8 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Palais de Justice
Paris
~0.27 miles from Paris city center
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The Palais de Justice, located in the Île de la Cité in central Paris, France, is built on the site of the former royal palace of Saint Louis, of which the Sainte Chapelle remains. Thus the justice of the state has been dispensed at this site since medieval times. From the sixteenth century to the French Revolution this was the seat of the Parlement de Paris.
It houses various courts:
The Paris court of large claims (tribunal de grande instance) and the associated Paris correctional court; as of 2007 there are discussions so as to their possible relocation in another location;
The Paris Court of Appeal;
The French Cour de cassation (highest jurisdiction in the French judicial order).
The Palais also contains the ancient structure of the Conciergerie, a former prison, now a museum, where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before being executed on the guillotine. The exterior includes sculptural work by sculptor Jean-Marie Bonnassieux.
Security is maintained by gendarmes.
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#9 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Centre George Pompidou (3rd/4th)
Marais
~0.28 miles from Paris city center
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Centre Georges Pompidou is a complex in the Beaubourg area, near Les Halles and the Marais. It was opened in 1977 and designed in the style of high-tech architecture. It houses a vast public library, the Mus?National d'Art Moderne, and IRCAM, a centre for music and acoustic research. It is named after Georges Pompidou, who was President of France from 1969 to 1974.
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#10 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Pont Saint Louis
Paris
~0.28 miles from Paris city center
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The pont Saint-Louis is a bridge across the River Seine in the IVe arrondissement of Paris. It links the Île de la Cité with the Île Saint-Louis. It is served by the Cité stop of the Paris Metro.
The present bridge is the seventh to link the two islands since 1630. The pont Saint-Landry (1630-1634) was the first of these.
In 1717 a wooden bridge was rebuilt, with seven arches, and named the "Pont Rouge", due to the colour in which it was painted. It was destroyed in 1795. In 1804, under the direction of the engineer Dumoustier, a new two-arch bridge was built, 70 m long and 10 m wide, and mainly in oak. It was demolished in 1811, and a suspension bridge replaced it in 1842. Twenty years later, this was replaced by a metallic bridge, with a single arch with a 64m opening. In 1939, this one was demolished. In 1941, it was replaced by a "passerelle" resembling an iron cage. In 1968, the present bridge was begun, and inaugurated in 1970.
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#11 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Petit Pont
Paris
~0.29 miles from Paris city center
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The Petit Pont (Little Bridge) is a bridge crossing the River Seine in Paris, built in 1853, although a structure has crossed the river at this point since antiquity. The present bridge is a single stone arch linking the IVe arrondissement and the Île de la Cité, with the 5th arrondissement, between quai de Montebello and quai Saint-Michel. The Petit Pont is notable for having been destroyed, at a minimum, thirteen times since its original inception during Gallo-Roman times to the mid-nineteenth century. It is served by the Metro station Saint-Michel.
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#12 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Pont au Double
Paris
~0.29 miles from Paris city center
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The Pont au Double is a bridge over the Seine in Paris, France.
Location
The bridge links the 4th and 5th arrondissements of Paris, from the Île de la Cité to the quai de Montebello.
Located near the metro stations: Cité, Maubert-Mutualité or Cluny - La Sorbonne.
In 1515, Francis I was asked to build a bridge over the small branch of the Seine in order to carry patients to the Hôtel-Dieu hospital on the Île de la Cité. Construction began in 1626 and in 1634 the two sides were connected.
The Pont au Double derives its name from the toll amount which was charged, a "double" denier, money used to pay for the construction of the bridge.
In 1709, the bridge collapsed. It was rebuilt and remained in place until 1847. In 1883, the Pont au Double was replaced by a one arch cast-iron bridge.
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#13 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Sainte Chapelle
Paris
~0.30 miles from Paris city center
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La Sainte-Chapelle ("The Holy Chapel") is a Gothic chapel on the Île de la Cité in the heart of Paris, France. It is perhaps the high point of the full tide of the rayonnante period of Gothic architecture.
The Sainte-Chapelle, church the palatine chapel in the courtyard of the royal palace on the Île de la Cité, was built to house precious relics: Christ's crown of thorns, the Image of Edessa and thirty other relics of Christ that had been in the possession of Louis IX since August 1239, when it arrived from Venice in the hands of two Dominican friars. Unlike many devout aristocrats who stole relics, the saintly Louis bought his precious relics of the Passion, purchased from the Latin emperor at Constantinople, Baldwin II, for the exorbitant sum of 135,000 livres, which was paid to the Venetians, to whom it had been pawned. The entire chapel, by contrast, cost 40,000 livres to build and until it was complete the relics were housed at chapels at the Château de Vincennes and a specially-built chapel at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. In 1241, a piece of the True Cross was added, and other relics. Thus the building in Paris, consecrated 26 April 1248, was like a precious reliquary: even the stonework was painted, with medallions of saints and martyrs in the quatrefoils of the dado arcade, which was hung with rich textiles.
At the same time, it reveals Louis' political and cultural ambition, with the imperial throne at Constantinople occupied by a mere Count of Flanders and with the Holy Roman Empire in uneasy disarray, to be the central monarch of western Christendom. Just as the Emperor could pass privately from his palace into Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, so now Louis could pass directly from his palace into the Sainte Chapelle.
The Royal chapel was a prime exemplar of the newly developing culminating phase of Gothic architectural style called "Rayonnant" that achieved a sense of weightlessness. Its architect is generally thought to have been Peter of Montereau. It stands squarely upon a lower chapel which served as parish church for all the inhabitants of the palace, which was the seat of government (see "palace"). The king was later granted sainthood by the Catholic Church as Saint Louis.
The most visually beautiful aspects of the chapel, and considered the best of their type in the world, are its stained glass for which the stonework is a delicate framework, and rose windows added to the upper chapel in the fifteenth century.
No designer-builder is directly mentioned in archives concerned with the construction, but the name of Pierre de Montreuil, who had rebuilt the apse of the Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis and completed the façade of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris is sometimes connected with the Sainte Chapelle.[4]
Much of the chapel as it appears today is a recreation, although nearly two-thirds of the windows are authentic. The chapel suffered its most grievous destruction in the late eighteenth century, during the French Revolution, when the steeple and baldachin were removed, the relics dispersed (though some survive as the "relics of Sainte-Chapelle" at Notre Dame de Paris), and various reliquaries, including the grande châsse, were melted down. The Sainte-Chapelle was requisitioned as an archival depository in 1803. Two meters' worth of glass was removed to facilitate working light, and destroyed or loosed upon the market.[5] Its well-documented restoration, completed under the direction of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in 1855, was regarded as exemplary by contemporaries[6] and is faithful to the original drawings and descriptions of the chapel that survive.
The Sainte Chapelle has been a national historic monument since 1862.
A replica of the Sainte Chapelle can be found in Chicago, Illinois. The St. James Chapelle of Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary, located on 103 E. Chestnut St, was built in the early 1900s under the direction of George Cardinal Mundelein in founding the high school seminary.
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#14 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Pont Saint Michel
Paris
~0.33 miles from Paris city center
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Pont Saint-Michel is a bridge linking the Place Saint-Michel on the left bank of the river Seine to the Île de la Cité. It was named after the nearby chapel of Saint-Michel. It is near Sainte Chapelle and the Palais de Justice. The present 62-metre-long bridge dates to 1857.
First constructed in 1378, it has been rebuilt several times, most recently in 1857.
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#15 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Pont de l'Archeveche
Paris
~0.34 miles from Paris city center
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The Pont de l'Archevêché (Archbishop's Bridge) is a bridge crossing the Seine river in Paris, France.
The bridge links the 4th Arrondissement, at the Île de la Cité, to the 5th Arrondissement, between the quai de Montebello and the quai de la Tournelle.
Located near the metro station: Maubert-Mutualité.
The Pont de l'Archevêché is the narrowest bridge in Paris. It was built in 1828, by the engineer Plouard, for the society Pont des Invalides after the demolition of the suspension bridge at Les Invalides.
The bridge is 68 meters long and 11 meters high. It is composed of three arches of stone carrying heights of 15, 17, and 15 meters, respectively. The low clearance of the arches do cause an impediment to river traffic; however, in spite of a municipal decision in 1910 to rebuild it, the bridge was never replaced.
The bridge commonly seen in the background of the set on Highlander when the show was set in Paris.
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#16 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Pont Marie
Paris
~0.39 miles from Paris city center
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The Pont Marie is a bridge which crosses the Seine in Paris, France.
The bridge links the Île Saint-Louis to the quai de l'Hôtel de Ville and is one of three bridges designed to allow traffic flow between the Île Saint-Louis and the Left and Right banks of Paris. The Pont Marie links the Right Bank and is the counterpart of the Pont de la Tournelle which is built along the same line but serves to connect the Île Saint-Louis with the Left Bank.
The Pont Marie derives its name from the engineer Christophe Marie, who proposed its construction beginning in 1605 in order to augment and assist in the urbanisation of the île Saint-Louis. However the bridge was not actually approved for building by the king until 1614, at which point Louis XIII laid the first stone as part of a formal bridge building ceremony. Following approval, the Pont Marie's construction was spread out over 20 years, from 1614 to 1635. Thus, the bridge is one of the oldest bridges in Paris.
In 1635 the bridge was opened to circulation. Following its construction, there were proposals to build houses along the bridge's span. These proposals were countered by Christophe Marie, however approximately fifty were built regardless by carpenter Claude Dublet.
On March 1, 1658 a flood occurred, which caused the destruction of twenty houses that were built atop the structure and the deaths of about sixty people as well as the loss of two arches near to the île Saint-Louis side of the bridge. In 1660 a wooden bridge was rebuilt on the same spot, this time with a toll-booth which was designed to raise funds for the complete, stone renovation of the structure. This reconstruction was completed in 1670. In 1740, the remainder of the buildings atop the Pont Marie were removed and in 1769 all building atop the bridge was forbidden. In 1788, houses were barred from construction atop bridges throughout the city.
Since the 18th century, the structure has seen little change aside from the flattening of its rise which did not alter the appearance.
It is interesting to note each of the five arches of the Pont Marie is unique and that the niches in the abutments have never been filled with statues.
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#17 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Pont de la Tournelle
Paris
~0.43 miles from Paris city center
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Pont de la Tournelle (Tournelle Bridge in English), is an arch bridge spanning the river Seine in Paris.
The first, a wooden bridge, was built during the Middle Ages. This bridge connected the Eastern bank of the Seine (le quai Saint-Bernard) to l'île Saint-Louis. It was subsequently washed away by a flood on 21 January 1651. A stone bridge was erected in its place in 1658. It was demolished in 1918 and replaced by the current bridge in 1928, after it suffered several natural disasters, especially the flood of 1910.
The Pont de la Tournelle was intentionally built lacking symmetry, in order to emphasize the shapeless landscape in the part of the Seine that it bestrides. Consisting of a grand central arch that links the riverbanks via two smaller arches, one on each side, it's decorated on the Eastern bank with a pylon built on the left pier's cutwater, and a statue of St. Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris, atop of the pylon, designed by Polish-French monumental sculptor Paul Landowski.
The term "Tournelle" traces its origin to a square turret (tourelle in French) constructed at the end of the 12th Century on the fortress of Phillipe Auguste.
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#18 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Forum des Halles (1st)
Paris
~0.49 miles from Paris city center
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Les Halles (pronounced [le al]) (48°51'46?N 2°20'40?E) is an area of Paris, France, located in the 1er arrondissement, just south of the fashionable rue Montorgueil. It is named for the large central wholesale marketplace, which was demolished in 1971, to be replaced with an underground modern shopping precinct, the Forum des Halles. It is notable in that the open air center area is below street level, like a pit, and contains sculpture, fountains, and mosaics, as well as museums including the Musée Grévin - Forum des Halles (a wax museum).
Beneath this lis the underground station Châtelet-Les-Halles, a central hub of Paris's express commuter rail system, the RER.
http://en.forumdeshalles.com/vue/form/forumdeshallesuk/accueil/accueil.htm
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#19 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Latin Quarter/Left Bank (5th)
Paris
~0.51 miles from Paris city center
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The Latin Quarter of Paris (Quartier latin) is an area in the 5th and parts of the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It is situated on the left bank of the River Seine, around the Sorbonne University.
Known for its lively atmosphere and bistros, the Latin Quarter is the home to a number of higher education establishments besides the university itself, such as the École Normale Supérieure, the École des Mines de Paris (a ParisTech institute), the Schola Cantorum, and the Jussieu university campus. Other establishments such as the École Polytechnique (also a ParisTech engineering school) have relocated in recent times to more spacious settings. The area gets its name from the Latin language, which, as the international language of learning in the Middle Ages, was once widely spoken in and around the University.
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#20 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
City Centre Paris
Paris
~0.53 miles from Paris city center
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#21 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Musee National du Moyen Age
Paris
~0.54 miles from Paris city center
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The Musée de Cluny, officially known as Musée National du Moyen Âge (National Museum of the Middle Ages), is a museum in Paris, France. It is located in the 5th arrondissement at 6 Place Paul Painlevé, south of the Boulevard Saint-Germain, between the Boulevard Saint-Michel and the Rue Saint-Jacques.
Among the principal holdings of the museum are the six La Dame à la Licorne (The Lady and the Unicorn) tapestries, from the late fifteenth century, often considered one of the greatest works of art of the Middle Ages in Europe.
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#22 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Pont de Sully
Paris
~0.56 miles from Paris city center
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The Pont de Sully (or Pont Sully) is a bridge across the River Seine in Paris, France.
In reality two separate bridges meeting on the eastern tip of the Île Saint-Louis, it links the 4th and 5th arrondissements of the capital along the line of the Boulevard Henri IV, and connects to the eastern end of the Boulevard Saint-Germain. Sully - Morland is the nearest Metro station.
The two parts of the bridge, known as the Passerelle Damiette (on the right-bank side) and the Passerelle de Constantine on the left-bank side, were authorized by an act of 18 June 1836, in favor of M. de Beaumont, the projector, who would recoup his expenses, valued at 380.000 fr., by collecting tolls. The bridges, opened to traffic January 1838, were a pair of pedestrian suspension bridges, constructed by the engineer Surville. The Passerelle Damiette was destroyed in the 1848 Revolution, while the Passerelle de Constantine, built between 1636 and 1638, collapsed in 1872 owing to corrosion in its cables.
The current bridge was constructed in 1876, as part of Haussmann's renovation of Paris, and opened on 25 August 1877. It is named in honour of Maximilien de Béthune, duke of Sully (1560-1641) and minister to Henry IV. It was designed by the engineers Paul Vaudrey and Gustave Brosselin. They set it at an angle of about 45 degrees to the river banks, which means that it gives a splendid view over the quais of the Île Saint-Louis and Notre Dame. The southern part consists of three cast iron arches, while the northern part, over the narrower arm of the river, consists of a central 42m arch in cast iron and two 15m arches in masonry.
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#23 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Picasso Museum
Marais
~0.57 miles from Paris city center
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The Musée Picasso is an art gallery located in the Hôtel Salé in rue de Thorigny, in the Marais district of Paris. The hôtel particulier that houses the collection was built between 1656 and 1659 for Pierre Aubert, seigneur de Fontenay, a tax farmer who became rich collecting the gabelle or salt tax (the name of the building means "salted"). The architect was Jean Boullier from Bourges, also known as Boullier de Bourges; sculpture was carried out by the brothers Gaspard and Balthazard Marsy and by Martin Desjardins. It is considered to be one of the finest historic houses in the Marais.
The mansion has changed hands several times through both sales and inheritances. The occupants have included the Embassy of the Republic of Venice (1671), then François de Neufville, duc de Villeroi; it was expropriated by the State during the Revolution; in 1815 it became a school, in which Balzac studied; it also housed the municipal Ecole des Métiers d'Art. It was acquired by the City of Paris in 1964, and was granted historical monument status in 1968. The mansion was restored by Bernard Vitry and Bernard Fonquernie of the Monuments Historiques between 1974-1980.
The Hotel Salé was selected for the Musée Picasso after some contentious civic and national debate. A competition was held to determine who would design the facilities. The proposal from Roland Simounet was selected in 1976 from amongst the four that were submitted. Other proposals were submitted by Roland Castro and the GAU (Groupement pour l'Architecture et l'Urbanisme), Jean Monge, and Carlo Scarpa. For the most part, the interior of the mansion (which had undergone significant modifications) was restored to its former spacious state.
In 1968, France created a law that permitted heirs to pay inheritance taxes with works of art instead of money, as long as the art is considered an important contribution to the French cultural heritage. This is known as a dation, and it is allowable only in exceptional circumstances. Dominique Bozo, a curator of national museums, selected those works that were to become the dation Picasso. This selection was reviewed by Jean Leymarie and ratified in 1979. It contained work by Picasso in all techniques and from all periods, and is especially rare in terms of its excellent collection of sculptures. Upon Jacqueline Picasso's death in 1986, her daughter offered a new dation. The collection has also acquired a number of works through purchases and gifts.
Picasso once said "I am the greatest collector of Picassos in the world." He had amassed an enormous collection of his own work by the time of his death in 1973, ranging from sketchbooks to finished masterpieces. The Musée Picasso contains more than 3000 different works of art by Pablo Picasso including drawings, ceramics and paintings. This is complemented by Picasso's own personal art collection of works by other artists, including Cézanne, Degas, Rousseau, Seurat, de Chirico and Matisse. It also contains some Iberian bronzes and a good collection of primitive art. One of the most impressive aspects of the museum is that it contains a large number of works which Picasso painted after his seventieth birthday.
The museum has also made a real effort to present accompanying information. For example, the work of cartoonists of the time who mocked or caricatured his work is displayed with Picasso's work from the 1950s. There are a few rooms with thematic presentations, but the museum largely follows a chronological sequence, displaying painting, drawings, sculptures and prints. Other items on display include photographs, manuscripts, newspaper clippings and photographs to provide additional contextual information.
The second floor has a special area set aside for temporary exhibitions and prints. The third floor contains the library, the documentation and archives department (reserved for research), and the curator's offices.
Jean Clair is the museum's current director.
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#24 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Institut du Monde Arabe
Paris
~0.58 miles from Paris city center
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The Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA) or Arab World Institute (AWI), in English, was established in 1980 in Paris, when 18 Arab countries concluded an agreement with France to establish the Institute to disseminate information about the Arab world and set in motion detailed research to cover Arabic and the Arab world's cultural and spiritual values. The Institute also aims at promoting cooperation and cultural exchanges between France and the Arab world, particularly in the areas of science and technology, thus contributing to development of relations between the Arab world and Europe. Libya joined the agreement in 1984.
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#25 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Passarelle des Arts
Paris
~0.62 miles from Paris city center
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The Pont des Arts or Passerelle des Arts is a pedestrian bridge in Paris which crosses the Seine River. It links the Institut de France and the central square (cour carrée) of the palais du Louvre, (which had been termed the "Palais des Arts" under the First Empire).
Between 1802 and 1804, a nine-arch metallic bridge for pedestrians was constructed at the location of the present day Pont des Arts: this was the first metal bridge in Paris. This innovation was due to Napoléon I, following a design of English manufacture. The engineers Louis-Alexandre de Cessart and Jacques Dillon initially conceived of a bridge which would resemble a suspended garden, with trees, banks of flowers, and benches.
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#26 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Louvre (1st)
Paris
~0.63 miles from Paris city center
Hotels Close to Louvre (1st)
The Musée du Louvre, or officially the Grand Louvre — in English, the Louvre Museum or Great Louvre, or simply the Louvre — is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited museum in the world, and a historic monument. It is a central landmark of Paris, France and is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement (district). Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres (652,300 square feet).
The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre) which began as a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are still visible. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1672, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of antique sculpture.[3] In 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years.[4] During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum, to display the nation's masterpieces.
The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being confiscated church and royal property. Because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The size of the collection increased under Napoleon when the museum was renamed the Musée Napoléon. After his defeat at Waterloo, many works seized by Napoleon's armies were returned to their original owners. The collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and gifts since the Third Republic, except during the two World Wars. As of 2008, the collection is divided among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; Prints and Drawings.
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#27 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Place des Vosges
Paris
~0.67 miles from Paris city center
Hotels Close to Place des Vosges
The Place des Vosges is the oldest planned square in Paris. It is located in the Marais district, and it straddles the dividing-line between the 3rd and 4th arrondissements of Paris.
Originally known as the Place Royale, the Place des Vosges was built by Henri IV from 1605 to 1612. A true square (140 m x 140 m), it embodied the first European program of royal city planning. It was built on the site of the Hôtel des Tournelles and its gardens: at a tournament at the Tournelles, a royal residence, Henri II was wounded and died. Catherine de Medicis had the Gothic pile demolished, and she removed to the Louvre.
The Place des Vosges, inaugurated in 1612 with a grand carrousel to celebrate the wedding of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria, is the prototype of all the residential squares of European cities that were to come. What was new about the Place Royale in 1612 was that the housefronts were all built to the same design, probably by Baptiste du Cerceau, of red brick with strips of stone quoins over vaulted arcades that stand on square pillars. The steeply-pitched blue slate roofs are pierced with discreet small-paned dormers above the pedimented dormers that stand upon the cornices. Only the north range was built with the vaulted ceilings that the "galleries" were meant to have. Two pavilions that rise higher than the unified roofline of the square center the north and south faces and offer access to the square through triple arches. Though they are designated the Pavilion of the King and of the Queen, no royal personage has ever lived in the aristocratic square. The Place des Vosges initiated subsequent developments of Paris that created a suitable urban background for the French aristocracy.
Before the square was completed, Henri IV ordered the Place Dauphine to be laid out. Within a mere five-year period the king oversaw an unmatched building scheme for the ravaged medieval city: additions to the Louvre, the Pont Neuf, and the Hôpital Saint Louis as well as the two royal squares.
Cardinal Richelieu had an equestrian bronze of Louis XIII erected in the center (there were no garden plots until 1680). The original was melted down in the Revolution; the present version, begun in 1818 by Louis Dupaty and completed by Jean-Pierre Cortot, replaced it in 1825. The square was renamed in 1799 when the département of the Vosges became the first to pay taxes supporting a campaign of the Revolutionary army. The Restoration returned the old royal name, but the short-lived Second Republic restored the revolutionary one in 1848.
Today the square is planted with a bosquet of mature lindens set in grass and gravel, surrounded by clipped lindens.
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#28 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Sorbonne
Paris
~0.68 miles from Paris city center
Hotels Close to Sorbonne
The name Sorbonne (La Sorbonne) is commonly used to refer to the historic University of Paris in Paris, France or one of its successor institutions (see below), but this is a recent usage, and "Sorbonne" has actually been used with different meanings over the centuries.
For information on the historic University of Paris and the present universities, which are its successor institutions or the Collège de Sorbonne, please refer to the relevant articles.
The name is derived from the Collège de Sorbonne, founded in 1253 by Robert de Sorbon as one of the first significant colleges of the medieval University of Paris; the university as such predates the college by about a century, and minor colleges had been founded already in the late 12th century. The Collège de Sorbonne was suppressed during the French revolution, reopened by Napoleon in 1808 and finally closed in 1882. This was only one of the many colleges of the University of Paris that existed until the French revolution. Hastings Rashdall, in The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (1895), which is still a standard reference on the topic, lists some 70 colleges of the university from the Middle Ages alone; some of these were short-lived and disappeared already before the end of the medieval period, but others were founded in the Early modern period, like the Collège des Quatre-Nations.
With time, the college came to be the centre of theological studies and "Sorbonne" was frequently used as a synonym for the Paris Faculty of Theology despite being only one of many colleges of the university.
In 1970, the University of Paris was divided into thirteen different universities. These universities still stand under the management of a common rectorate – the Rectorate of Paris - with offices in the Sorbonne. Four of these universities currently include the name "Sorbonne" in their names or are affiliated with the Sorbonne.
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#29 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Maison de Victor Hugo
Paris
~0.69 miles from Paris city center
Hotels Close to Maison de Victor Hugo
Maison de Victor Hugo is a museum, operated by the the City of Paris, which preserves the house that Victor Hugo lived in for 16 years from 1832–1848.
The museum is in the Place des Vosges and dates from 1605 when a lot was granted to Isaac Arnauld in the south-east corner of the square. It was substantially improved by the de Rohans family, who gave the building its current name of Hôtel de Rohan-Guéménée. Victor Hugo was 30 when he moved into the house in October 1832 with his wife Adèle. They rented a 280 square metre apartment on the second floor. The mansion was converted into a museum when a large donation was made by Paul Meurice to the city of Paris to buy the house.
The museum consists of an antechamber leading through the Chinese living room and medieval style dining room to Victor Hugo’s bedroom where he died in 1885.
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#30 of 30 Things To Do in Paris
Pantheon
Paris FR
~0.76 miles from Paris city center
Hotels Close to Pantheon
The Panthéon (Latin: Pantheon,[1] from Greek Pantheon, meaning "Every god") is a building in the Latin Quarter in Paris, containing the remains of distinguished French citizens.
In 1744, King Louis XV of France suffered from a serious illness and vowed to replace the old church of the Abbey of St Genevieve if he recovered. He did recover, and entrusted Abel-François Poisson, marquis de Marigny with the fulfillment of his vow. In 1755, Marigny commissioned Jacques-Germain Soufflot to design the church, with construction beginning two years later. Due to the economic problems in France at this time, work proceeded slowly. In 1780, Soufflot died and was replaced by his student, Jean-Baptiste Rondelet. The remodeled Abbey of St. Genevieve was finally completed in 1790, but during the early stages of the French Revolution, the National Constituent Assembly decided to convert it into a secular mausoleum for prominent Frenchmen, retaining Quatremère de Quincy to oversee the project.
It is an early example of neoclassicism, with a façade modeled on the Pantheon in Rome, surmounted by a dome that owes some of its character to Bramante's "Tempietto". Located in the 5th arrondissement on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, the Panthéon looks out over all of Paris. Soufflot had the intention of combining the lightness and brightness of the gothic cathedral with classical principles, but its role as a mausoleum required the great gothic windows to be blocked. Nevertheless, it is one of the most important architectural achievements of its time and the first great neoclassical monument.
In 2006, Ernesto Neto, a Brazilian artist, installed "Léviathan Thot", an anthropomorphic installation inspired by the biblical monster. The art installation was in the Panthéon from September 15, 2006, until October 31 for Paris' Autumn Festival.
In late 2006, a "cultural guerilla movement" calling itself Untergunther completed a year-long project where they covertly repaired the Panthéon's antique clockworks.
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