User:Andy Dingley/Paris
Days
[edit]Latin Quarter
[edit]- Shakespeare & Co.
- Musee Cluny
- Pantheon
- Saint Sulpice
- Jardin des Plantes
Montmartre
[edit]Seine and Île de la Cité
[edit]Start on Île de la Cité metro, then go South of the river, then reverse and walk Northwards
- Sainte-Chapelle
- Notre Dame
- Shakespeare & Co
- Banks of the Seine eastwards along the left bank for the views of Notre Dame
- North again past Île Saint-Louis
- Northwards to Tour Saint-Jacques
- Les Halles
- Beauborg
4
[edit]5
[edit]6
[edit]Destinations
[edit]Sights
[edit]Sacré-Cœur
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Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre
Media related to Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre at Wikimedia Commons
One of the most famous churches in Paris, but also worth visiting for the view from the top of the hill.
Funicular – tiny, but it saves a climb up the stairs and it is, after all, a funicular.
Avenue Junot – this gets a plug in Secret Paris as 'best unknown street in Paris'. I don't know it.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@48.8860891,2.3444574,313m/data=!3m1!1e3
Sainte Chapelle
[edit]
Media related to Sainte-Chapelle at Wikimedia Commons
Beautiful church, and especially the stained glass. If you do any church, make it this one.
Best visited early in the morning, in the winter with a low Sun.
- District
- Île de la Cité
Pantheon
[edit] Media related to Pantheon at Wikimedia Commons
Great big famous church with lots of history and an unusual shape (big dome). You will inevitably walk nearby anyway.
- District
Latin quarter
Galleries
[edit]Musee Rodin
[edit] Media related to Musee Rodin at Wikimedia Commons
- District
- west side of the 7th
Musée d'Orsay
[edit]
Media related to Musée d'Orsay at Wikimedia Commons
One of the big name art galleries, mostly Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. Less crowded than the Louvre, and a more recent collection, less dark varnish and obscure royalty.
Orangerie
[edit]
Media related to Musée de l'Orangerie at Wikimedia Commons
A small gallery, known mostly for two large oval rooms displaying Monet's Water Lilies. There's a lower floor with a contemporary collection of Impressionists and onwards: Rousseau, Matisse, Picasso.
If you're making a trip all the way to Giverny for Monet, this would seem an essential.
- District
Louvre
Beauborg
[edit].jpg)
Media related to Musée national d'art moderne at Wikimedia Commons
The modern art museum is one of the things inside the Centre Pompidou (locally known as the Beauborg). The building is at least as well known as the collection. The collection is a good one of 20th century painting and sculpture.
Just outside is the Stravinsky Fountain, containing a number of sculptures by Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely.
On the whole, and given the location, it's worth seeing the outside of the building and the fountain, but the museum would depend on how keen you are.
District
[edit]Museums
[edit]Musée de Cluny
[edit]_Mon_seul_d%C3%A9sir_(La_Dame_%C3%A0_la_licorne)_-_Mus%C3%A9e_de_Cluny_Paris.jpg)
Media related to Musée de Cluny at Wikimedia Commons
The Museum of the Middle Ages. Both a beautiful collection, and an attractive building.
- District
Latin Quarter
Musee Arts et Metiers
[edit] Media related to Musee des Arts et Metiers at Wikimedia Commons
Somewhere between an older science museum and the Victoria and Albert. A very good museum, if you like mechanisms, automata and things of that ilk.
Streets
[edit]Rue Saint Sulpice
[edit] Media related to Rue Saint-Sulpice at Wikimedia Commons
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@48.8512853,2.3363561,285m/data=!3m1!1e3
- District
Latin Quarter
Avenue Junot
[edit]_-_2021-08-03_-_2.jpg)
Media related to Avenue Junot at Wikimedia Commons
District
[edit]Montmartre
Food
[edit]Parks
[edit]UNESCO Japanese garden
[edit] Media related to Garden of the UNESCO Headquarters at Wikimedia Commons
- District
7th
Albert Kahn Musee et Jardins
[edit]_(5997298318).jpg)
Media related to Albert Kahn Japanese garden at Wikimedia Commons
- District
- Boulogne-Billancourt
- Metro
- Boulogne Pont de Saint-Cloud
Buttes-Chaumont
[edit]
Media related to Parc des Buttes-Chaumont at Wikimedia Commons
Probably the best park in Paris. Built into an old quarry, so it's not just a manicured flat space.
Luxembourg
[edit]
Media related to Jardin du Luxembourg at Wikimedia Commons
Probably the best known park in central Paris. Very Parisian, it's rigidly shaped into formal beds between dusty paths. A classic sight and a useful spot for an al fresco lunch, but not the prettiest.
- District
Montparnasse
Jardin des Plantes
[edit] Media related to Jardin des Plantes at Wikimedia Commons
A botanical garden, big enough to look like parkland inside rather than just a garden in Paris. Appeared in The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec which should be enough reason for a visit and a lunch picnic.
Also contains the Natural History Museum (good display of giant skeletons, old and new), the Geological Museum etc.
Squares
[edit]Concorde
[edit]
Media related to Place de la Concorde at Wikimedia Commons
A ghastly traffic island, with no human scale. Fit only for imperial parades, and traffic jams. Unmissable, as one of the great "tourist sights" of Paris.
The sights include the Luxor obelisk and two overblown fountains. It sits just North of the Seine and the Pont de la Concorde. East-west it's between the end of the Tuileries Garden and the start of the Champs-Élysées.
- District
eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.
- Nearby
Vosges
[edit]
Media related to Place des Vosges at Wikimedia Commons
The oldest planned square in Paris, at the start of the 17th century, and the heart of Le Marais. Nowadays it's an exemplar of Parisian squares, with expensive shops around a manicured garden. Something to see, briefly.
- District
Marais, 3rd/4th, just North
Vendôme
[edit]
Media related to Place Vendôme at Wikimedia Commons
Another of the classic formal Parisian squares. Vastly expensive hotels, shops you can't get through the door of. But it's famous and there's a big column in the middle, celebrating Napoleon being Napoleon (at Austerlitz).
- District
1st
Others
[edit]Arts et Metier metro station
[edit]
The steampunk metro station!
Shakespeare & Co bookshop
[edit]The famous English language bookshop, and a historical site from the days of Hemingway, Joyce etc. Small park outside. The noticeboard carries adverts for live-aboard boats.
Essential to walk past and tick off as "having been there". Not essential to really visit inside the shop.
- District
Right on the left bank of the Seine, opposite Notre Dame
Canal Saint Martin
[edit]A gorgeous place to walk alongside, and still not well known. Although it's apparently the new fashionable place to live.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@48.8735287,2.3638277,268a,35y,356.63h/data=!3m1!1e3
Bateau mouche
[edit]The tourist river boats. Classic tourist fodder, but they are still a good way to get a first look at Paris, either by day or by night. If the nights are early, it's also something to do in the early evening.
Avoid the dining trips. Overpriced and uninspiring food.
Flea markets
[edit]Several of them, mostly around the edges near the Périphérique. The most famous is the marché aux puces, near Porte de Saint-Ouen to the North.