Montmartre

Montmartre (French pronunciation: ​[mɔ̃.maʁtʁ]) is a large hill in Paris's 18th arrondissement. It is 130 metres high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank in the northern section of the city. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by rue Caulaincourtand rue Custine on the north; rue de Clignancourt on the east; boulevard de Clichy and boulevard de Rochechouart to the south.^[1] containing sixty hectares.^[2] Montmartre is primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur on its summit and as a nightclub district. The other, older, church on the hill is Saint Pierre de Montmartre, which claims to be the location at which theJesuit order of priests was founded.

Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Saint-Germain-des-Prés (French pronunciation: ​[sɛ̃ ʒɛʁmɛ̃ de pʁe]) is one of the four administrative quarters of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France, located around the church of the former Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Its official borders are the River Seine on the north, the rue des Saints-Pèreson the west, between the rue de Seine and rue Mazarine on the east, and the rue du Four on the south. Residents of the quarter are known asGermanopratins.^[1]

The quarter has several famous cafés, including Les Deux Magots, Café de Flore, le Procope, and the Brasserie Lipp, and a large number of bookstores and publishing houses. In the 1940s and 1950s, it was the centre of theexistentialist movement (associated with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. It is also home to the École des Beaux-Arts, the famed school of fine arts, and the Musée national Eugène Delacroix, in the former apartment and studio of painter Eugène Delacroix.

Latin Quarter, Paris

The Latin Quarter of Paris (French: Quartier latin, IPA: [kaʁtje latɛ̃]) is an area in the5th and the 6th arrondissements of Paris. It is situated on the left bank of the Seine, around the Sorbonne.

Known for its student life, lively atmosphere and bistros, the Latin Quarter is the home to a number of higher education establishments besides the university itself, such as the Lang–Martinez Psychiatric Hospital, the École des Mines de Paris, Panthéon-Assas University, the Schola Cantorum, and the Jussieu university campus. Other establishments such as the École Polytechnique have relocated in recent times to more spacious settings.

The area gets its name from the Latin language, which was once widely spoken in and around the University since Latin was the language of learning in the Middle Ages in Europe.

Catacombs of Paris

The Catacombs of Paris (French: Catacombes de Paris,   (help·info)) are underground ossuaries in Paris, France which hold the remains of about six million people^[1] in a small part of the ancient Mines of Paris tunnel network. Located south of the former city gate "Barrière d’Enfer" beneath Rue de la Tombe-Issoire, the ossuary was founded when city officials were faced with two simultaneous problems: a series of cave-ins starting in 1774 and overflowing cemeteries, particularly Saint Innocents. Nightly processions of bones from 1786 to 1788 transferred remains from cemeteries to the reinforced tunnels, and more remains were added in later years. The underground cemetery became a tourist attraction on a small scale from the early 19th century, and has been open to the public on a regular basis since 1874 with surface access from a building at Place Denfert-Rochereau.

Place de la Concorde

The place was designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel in 1755 as a moat-skirtedoctagon between the Champs-Élysées to the west and the Tuileries Garden to the east. Decorated with statues and fountains, the area was named Place Louis XV to honor the king at that time. The square showcased an equestrian statue of the king, which had been commissioned in 1748 by the city of Paris, sculpted mostly by Edmé Bouchardon, and completed by Jean-Baptiste Pigalleafter the death of Bouchardon.

Disneyland Paris

Disneyland Paris, originally Euro Disney Resort, is an entertainment resort inMarne-la-Vallée, a new town located 32 km (20 mi) east of the centre of Paris, and is the most visited theme park in all of France and Europe.^[1] It is owned and operated by Euro Disney S.C.A., a publicly traded company in which The Walt Disney Company owns a majority stake.^[2] The resort covers 4,800 acres (19 km²)^[3] and encompasses two theme parks, several resort hotels, a shopping, dining, and entertainment complex, and a golf course, in addition to several additional recreational and entertainment venues. Disneyland Park is the original theme park of the complex, opening with the resort on 12 April 1992. A second theme park, Walt Disney Studios Park, opened in 2002. The resort is the second Disney park to open outside the United States, following the opening of the Tokyo Disney Resort in 1983.

Hotel de Ville

In July 1357, Étienne Marcel, provost of the merchants (i.e. mayor) of Paris, bought the so-called maison aux piliers ("House of Pillars") in the name of the municipality on the gently sloping shingle beach which served as a river port for unloading wheat and wood and later merged into a square, the Place de Grève(French for "Square of the Strand"), a place where Parisians often gathered, particularly for public executions. Ever since 1357, the City of Paris's administration has been located on the same location where the Hôtel de Ville stands today. Before 1357, the city administration was located in the so-calledparloir aux bourgeois ("Parlour of Burgesses") near the Châtelet.

Pont Alexandre III

The Beaux-Arts style bridge, with its exuberant Art Nouveau lamps, cherubs,nymphs and winged horses at either end, was built between 1896 and 1900. It is named after Tsar Alexander III, who had concluded the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1892. His son Nicholas II laid the foundation stone in October 1896. The style of the bridge reflects that of the Grand Palais, to which it leads on the right bank.

The construction of the bridge is a marvel of 19th century engineering, consisting of a 6 metres (20 ft) high single span steel arch. The design, by the architects Joseph Cassien-Bernard andGaston Cousin, was subject to strict controls that prevented the bridge from obscuring the view of the Champs-Élysées or theInvalides.

The bridge was built by the engineers Jean Résal and Amédée d'Alby. It was inaugurated in 1900 for the Exposition Universelle (universal exhibition) World's Fair, as were the nearby Grand Palais and Petit Palais.

Tuileries Garden

The Tuileries Garden (French: Jardin des Tuileries, IPA: [ʒaʁdɛ̃ de tɥilʁi]) is a public garden located between the Louvre Museum and the Place de la Concorde in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. Created by Catherine de Medici as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in 1564, it was eventually opened to the public in 1667, and became a public park after the French Revolution. In the 19th and 20th century, it was the place where Parisians celebrated, met, promenaded, and relaxed.^[1]

Les Invalides

Les Invalides (French pronunciation: ​[lezɛ̃valid]), commonly known as Hôtel national des Invalides (The National Residence of the Invalids), or also asHôtel des Invalides, is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement ofParis, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building's original purpose. The buildings house the Musée de l'Armée, the military museum of the Army of France, the Musée des Plans-Reliefs, and theMusée d'Histoire Contemporaine, as well as the Dôme des Invalides, a large church with the burial site for some of France's war heroes, most notablyNapoleon Bonaparte (lists below).

Palais Garnier

The Palais Garnier is a 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. It was originally called the Salle des Capucines, because of its location on the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, but soon became known as the Palais Garnier, in recognition of its opulence and its architect, Charles Garnier. The theatre is also often referred to as the Opéra Garnier and historically was known as the Opéra de Paris or simply the Opéra,^[7] as it was the primary home of the Paris Opera and its associated Paris Opera Balletuntil 1989, when the Opéra Bastille opened at the Place de la Bastille.^[8]The Paris Opera now mainly uses the Palais Garnier for ballet.

La Pantheon

The Panthéon (Latin: pantheon, from Greek πάνθειον (ἱερόν) '(temple) to all the gods'^[1]) is a building in the Latin Quarter in Paris. It was originally built as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve and to house the reliquary châsse containing her relics but, after many changes, now functions as a secular mausoleumcontaining the remains of distinguished French citizens. It is an early example ofneoclassicism, 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. Designer Jacques-Germain 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.

Palace of Versailles

The Palace of Versailles, or simply Versailles-, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. It is also known as the Château de Versailles.

When the château was built, Versailles was a country village; today, however, it is a wealthy suburb of Paris, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) southwest of the French capital. The court of Versailles was the centre of political power in France from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution. Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime.

La Sainte Chapelle

The most famous features of the chapel, among the finest of their type in the world, are the great stained glass windows, for whose benefit the stone wall surface is reduced to little more than a delicate framework. Fifteen huge mid-13th-century windows fill the nave and apse, while a large rose window with Flamboyant tracery (added to the upper chapel c.1490) dominates the western wall.

Despite some damage the windows display a clear iconographical programme. The three windows of the eastern apse illustrate the New Testament, featuring scenes of The Passion (centre) with the Infancy of Christ (left) and the Life of John the Evangelist (right). By contrast, the windows of the nave are dominated by Old Testament exemplars of ideal kingship/queenship in an obvious nod to their royal patrons. The cycle starts at the western bay of the north wall with scenes from the Book of Genesis (heavily restored). The next ten windows of the nave follow clockwise with scenes from Exodus, Joseph, Numbers/Leviticus, Joshua/Deuteronomy, Judges, (moving to the south wall) Jeremiah/Tobias, Judith/Job, Esther, David and the Book of Kings. The final window, occupying the westernmost bay of the south wall brings this narrative of sacral kingship right up to date with a series of scenes showing the rediscovery of Christ's relics, the miracles they performed, and their relocation to Paris in the hands of King Louis himself.

Things you will see

• Rose Window
• Louis IX

L'Arc de Triomphe

In the attic above the richly sculptured frieze of soldiers are 30 shields engraved with the names of major French victories in the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars.^[12]The inside walls of the monument list the names of 660 people, among which are 558 French generals of the First French Empire;^[13] The names of those generals killed in battle are underlined. Also inscribed, on the shorter sides of the four supporting columns, are the names of the major French victories in the Napoleonic Wars. The battles that took place in the period between the departure of Napoleon from Elba to his final defeat at Waterloo are not included.

Things you will see

• angels
• the arc
• names of battles
• Names of french military leaders
• the victory of 1810

Le Sacre Coeur

In response to requests from French bishops, Pope Pius IX promulgated the feast of the Sacred Heart in 1856. The basilica itself was consecrated on 16 October 1919.

Since 1885 (before construction had been completed), the Blessed Sacrament (a consecrated host which, according to Church teaching, has become by the consecration of the priest Christ's Body and Blood during Mass) has been continually on display in a monstrance above the high altar. Perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has continued uninterrupted in the Basilica since 1885. Because of this, tourists and others are asked to dress appropriately when visiting the basilica and to observe silence as much as possible, so as not to disturb persons who have come from around the world to pray in this place of pilgrimage.

Things you will see

• Pipe organs
• king saint louis
• Saint joan of arc
• romano-byzantine features
• cealing painting of Jesus