things to do in paris

There’s a small exhibition about how this building was designed and constructed, and two headline-grabbing temporary exhibitions a year.At the time of writing this article the main event was an exhibition by MoMa with works by Picasso, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Max Beckmann, Jasper Johns, Gustav Klimt, Rem Koolhaas, Paul Cézanne and many more.Translating to “New Bridge”, Pont Neuf is in fact the oldest stone bridge in Paris, begun in 1578 and completed in 1606. The bateaux mouches offer everything from a gourmet meal, a flute of champagne or just sightseeing with commentary.

Must-sees include the newly refurbished Paris’s first botanic garden—founded by Louis VIII in 1626 for medicinal plants and exotic specimens from afar—its shaded paths, arbors, and flower beds are beloved of joggers, lovers, and strollers. Up close you’ll see the craftsmanship and attention to detail that went into the sculptures on the carousels, amusement games and automata.Outside the Christmas period you have to sign up for a tour in advance.These are given in French but there’s a brochure in English explaining the exhibits.A quick jaunt from the Palais Garnier is the flagship of the revered department store brand, Galeries Lafayette.Receiving around 25 million shoppers a year, this one store generates 1.8 billion Euros in sales, more than London’s Harrods or New York’s Bloomingdale’s.The Galeries Lafayette Haussmann opened in 1894, and a location designed to catch Paris’s moneyed bourgeoisie.In 1907 it was given its first makeover, and this is when the monumental Neo-Byzantine was installed, 43 metres above the shop floor.A later update in 1932 gave the store its characteristic Art Deco styling.Luxury shoppers need look no further, but if you’re just here to see the sights, make sure to go up to the terrace to gaze over the Opera Garnier, Invalides and Eiffel Tower.Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans was a cousin of Louis XVI and wouldn’t be spared the guillotine during the Revolution.But from 1778 he built himself a park in what is now the extremely posh northern part of the 8th arrondissement.The park was right on the Wall of the Ferme générale, a system of tolls built not long before the Revolution to collect taxes on goods brought into the city.The big rotunda at the main entrance of the park is from 1787 and is one such toll station.There are original monuments from Louis Philippe’s garden like an ice house shaped like a pyramid and a gorgeous Classical colonnade beside the pond.In 1797-98 the aviation pioneer André-Jacques Garnerin performed world firsts with hot air balloons and parachutes in this park.The best food markets in Paris are a little off the tourist trail, and there’s a great one in Quartier des Quinze-Vingts a couple of streets up from the Coulée Verte René-Dumont.A vital local amenity the Marché d’Aligre trades six days a week, and has both outdoor stalls and a covered market with three halls.At the permanent stalls inside are boucheries and charcuteries selling meat preparations from around France, so that might be cured Bayonne ham, rilettes, pâté, terrines, foie gras as well as chicken and pork cooked on rotisseries.The square outside is packed with noisy traders selling seasonal fruit, vegetables, flowers and fresh herbs.All but three Kings of France were buried at this Gothic church in the suburb of Saint-Denis.It’s a satisfying timeline of French history that begins with Clovis I in the 6th century and ends with Louis XVIII who died in 1824.

The park was founded between 1855 and 1866 as part of Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann’s Renovation of Paris.Long before that it had been a hunting park for the Medieval Kings of France, who resided at the Château de Vincennes on the northern border of the park.That property, famed for its towering keep was where the English King Henry V died in 1422. Or, better yet, make a reservation at Alain Ducasse’s gastronomic restaurant Le Jules Verne and forego the lines in the VIP elevator.Hands down the best shopping in Paris, the Marais is all that and so much more. Come around to the side for a better look at the bridge’s “mascarons”, grotesque faces on the corbels in the cornice.You don’t need to count them, but there are 384 in all.At the dawn of the 20th century the banker Albert Kahn set out on a mission to record the world with photography and film.Over 22 years he sent photographers and cameramen to all corners of the globe,. And the project was only stopped by the Wall Street Crash.In the end “Archives of the Planet” amounted to 72,000 colour pictures and 180,000 metres of film.Outside are gardens of the world that he commissioned more than a century ago.In four hectares there are French and English gardens, as well as a traditional and contemporary Japanese garden.Kahn also recreated a patch of forest from the Vosges, and a “blue forest” where azaleas and rhododendrons flower in spring.The industrialist Émile Étienne Guimet was an avid traveller and in the 1870s was sent to Asia to conduct a survey of religion on the continent.During his trip he amassed an inconceivably large and rich collection of art.The museum, which opened in 1889, is one of the largest arrays of Asian art outside Asia.And what’s clever about the exhibition is the way contemporary art is sprinkled in with antiquities.To give you sense of what’s in store, there are Indian fabrics, Greco-Buddhist sculptures from Afghanistan and Pakistan and Japanese samurai armour.And from China there are statues and porcelain, paintings and reliefs from various dynasties dating back to the Han Dynasty in the 1st century.If you have time to kill before your entry slot for the Louvre, you could do a lot worse than take a closer look at this stunning church on the east side.Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois dates all the way back to the 600s, and has a mix of Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance design.The 15th-century main portal is original, and has beautiful carvings on its archivolts and jambs, while inside is a sensational 13th-century wooden statue of Saint-Germain, a Flemish 16th-century altarpiece and a pew designed for Louis XIV by Charles Le Brun and Claude Perrault in the 1680s.Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Charles-André van Loo and many other artists who once lived at the Louvre have their tombs at this church.Something else to divert you while you’re waiting to go into the Louvre is the most celebrated of the palace’s courtyards: The Cour Carrée was ordered by François I as part of the Western Extension in the 16th century and is held as one of the greatest achievements of Mannerist architecture in France.Pierre Lescot led the design between 1546 and 1551, producing a benchmark for French Classicism.Responsible for the ornamentation was the sculptor Jean Goujon, who contributed the masterful friezes, high-reliefs, drapery and statues in the niches from 1555 to 1562.Hop on Line 9 of the Métro to the western suburbs to visit the French National Ceramics Museum.Sèvres is the most revered name in French ceramics, and has been the site of a Royal, then Imperial and now National Manufactory since 1756.

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