Rough Guide. Paris Directions

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Contents

Ideas

Musée d’Orsay

This converted railway station provides a

cathedral-like setting for the greatest works

of French Impressionism.

쑺 P.132 쑺 ST-GERMAIN 쒀

Musée National d’Art

Moderne, Pompidou Centre

One of the finest collections of modern art

in the world, with major holdings of works

by Kandinsky, Picasso and Matisse.

쑺 P.100 쑺 BEAUBOURG AND LES HALLES 쑽

Musée Picasso

The largest collection of Picassos any-

where, displayed in a beautiful Renaissance

mansion.

쑺 P.108 쑺 THE MARAIS 쑽

Site de Création

Contemporaine

A cutting edge gallery and exhibition space,

this fills the contemporary-art gap in the

great national collections.

쑺 P.88 쑺 TROCADERO 쑺

Contents

Ideas

Paris boasts a host

of lesser-known

but first-rate

museums, often

overlooked by

visitors, and

consequently much

less crowded than,

say, the Louvre or

the Orsay. You can

explore subjects as

diverse as the

history of Judaism

in France,

eighteenth-century

decorative arts, and

the history of the

city’s sewers (

les

égouts

), as well as viewing

some fascinating artefacts,

ranging from Khmer

sculpture at the Musée

Guimet to Neolithic dug-out

canoes at the Musée

Carnavalet. Many

museums, moreover, enjoy

beautiful settings, such as

fine Renaissance

mansions, showing off their

collections to full

advantage.

Lesser-known museums

Musée Carnavalet

A fascinating museum that brings the

history of Paris alive through a wealth of

paintings and artefacts and some wonder-

ful old interiors, rescued from houses

pulled down to make way for

Haussmann’s redevelopments.

쑺 P.109 쑺 THE MARAIS 쑽

Musée d’Art et d’Histoire

Judaïsme

You could easily spend a couple of hours

and not notice the time passing in this

absorbing museum devoted to the history

and art of Jews in Europe and North Africa.

쑺 P.105 쑺 THE MARAIS 쒀

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Musée Cognacq-Jay

A small but choice collection of eighteenth-

century paintings and decorative art built up

by a family of philanthropists and art lovers,

the Cognacq-Jays.

쑺 P.109 쑺 THE MARAIS 쒀

Musée Guimet

Visiting the beautifully designed Musée

Guimet, with its refined statues and sculp-

tures from all over the Buddhist world, is a

distinctly spiritual experience.

쑺 P.87 쑺 TROCADERO 쑽

Musée d’Art Moderne de la

Ville de Paris

The city’s own art collection specializes in

paintings of or about Paris itself, making

this one of the most rewarding and intimate

of the larger art galleries.

쑺 P88 쑺 TROCADERO 쒀

Contents

Ideas

To summon up the

ghosts of the city’s

past, you could take

in paintings of

Parisian scenes like

Renoir’s

Bal du

Moulin de la Galette

in the Musée

d’Orsay, or read

great Parisian

novels like Hugo’s

Les Misérables

Maupassant’s

Bel

Ami

, but you’d do as well

to visit one of the city’s

historic houses. Many

have been turned into

museums and the best

preserve an original

writer’s study or artist’s

studio. Seeing intimate

domestic details like a

stove, bed or sideboard, or

admiring the cool north

light through high studio

windows, is an excellent

antidote to the grander

scale of the city outside.

House museums

Musée Rodin

Rodin’s elegant studio home now houses

the definitive collection of the sculptor’s

powerful, mould-breaking works.

쑺 P.140 쑺 EIFFEL TOWER AREA 쑽

Musée Jacquemart-André

This sumptuous Second Empire

residence, built for the art-loving

Jacquemart-André couple, displays their

choice collection of Italian, Dutch and

French masters.

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AND TUILERIES

Contents

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Musée Delacroix

Delacroix lived and worked in this pretty

studio building, where you can see some of

his smaller works as well as some personal

effects.

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Musée Moreau

Gustave Moreau’s eccentric canvases cover

every inch of his spacious studio’s walls;

immediately below, you can visit the tiny

apartment where the artist lived with his

parents.

쑺 P.159 쑺 MONTMARTRE AND 쒀

NORTHERN PARIS

Musée Bourdelle

The heroic scale of Bourdelle’s proto-

Modernist sculptures is perfectly balanced

by the homely, just-as-he-left-it feel of the

sculptor’s studio and living quarters.

쑺 P.144 쑺 MONTPARNASSE 쑽

Maison de Balzac

The house lived in by Balzac in the 1840s

preserves the simple desk where he would

write for up to eighteen hours at a time for

weeks on end.

쑺 P.177 쑺 WESTERN PARIS 쒀

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Of all the ways to

get under the skin

of Paris, perhaps the

most satisfying is

just to appreciate

the peace in one of

the city’s harder-to-

find little gardens,

or take a short

walk along the

elegant promenades

that can be found

here and there, with

a bit of looking.

Quite apart from their

charm, and the pleasure to

be found in discovering

them, these hidden nooks

and quiet breathing spaces

are wonderful for people-

watching: this is where

you’ll find Parisians

walking their dogs, playing

with their kids, reading,

hand-holding, and just

taking time out from the

city.

Walks and gardens

Promenade Plantée

Get a different angle on the city from this

old railway viaduct, now an elevated

walkway planted with a glorious abun-

dance of trees and flowers.

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Jardin Atlantique

Although a public park, the Jardin

Atlantique is actually hidden away on top

of the Montparnasse railway tracks – a

triumph of engineering and contemporary

garden design.

쑺 P.142 쑺 MONTPARNASSE 쒀

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Ideas

Canal St-Martin

With its elegant arched bridges and leafy

quais

, the Canal St-Martin is a charming

spot for a stroll.

쑺 P168 쑺 EASTERN PARIS 쑺

Jardin du Palais Royal

Enclosed by a stately ensemble of arcaded

buildings and little frequented, the Jardin du

Palais Royal feels like a secret garden in the

middle of the city.

쑺 P.94 쑺 THE GRANDS BOULEVARDS 쒀

AND PASSAGES

Place Dauphine

Relax and watch a spot of leisurely

boules

being played under the chestnuts of this

peaceful and secluded square.

쑺 P.68 쑺 THE ISLANDS 쑽

Allée des Cygnes

One of the most unusual Paris walks, this

takes you along a tree-lined embankment

adrift in the Seine and proffers dramatic views

of the post-industrial western riverbanks.

쑺 P.150 쑺 SOUTHERN PARIS 쑽

Contents

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From the royal

tombs at St-Denis to

the memorials at the

Panthéon and

Napoleon’s tomb at

Les Invalides, the

dead of Paris

certainly make their

presence felt. It’s the

cemeteries, however, that

make the biggest impact

on the city’s landscape.

From vantage points like

the Eiffel Tower they seem

to fill a surprising amount

of the city’s area, looking

like green islands speckled

with miniature stone

apartment blocks. Père-

Lachaise is a major draw,

but don’t miss the smaller

graveyards at Montmartre

and Montparnasse. The

most morbid sight of all,

the bone-lined catacombs,

is covered in “Underground

Paris” (see p.146).

Dead Paris

Montparnasse cemetery

You can seek out the graves of Baudelaire,

Beckett, Sartre and de Beauvoir at

Montparnasse cemetery, and admire the

powerful Brancusi sculpture of

The Kiss

쑺 P.145 쑺 MONTPARNASSE 쒀

Père-Lachaise cemetery

Pay homage to Chopin, Oscar Wilde or

Jim Morrison – just some of the count-

less notables buried in what is arguably

the world’s most famous cemetery.

쑺 P.171 쑺 EASTERN PARIS 쒀

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Montmartre cemetery

Zola’s grave, its effigy often graced by a

rose, is found at Montmartre, along with

other artistic greats Stendhal, Degas and

François Truffaut.

쑺 P.157 쑺 MONTMARTRE AND

NORTHERN PARIS

쑽

Panthéon

Moving their remains to the crypt of the

Panthéon is the greatest honour the French

Republic can bestow on its artists, poets,

thinkers and politicians.

쑺 P.120 쑺 QUARTIER LATIN 쑸

Napoleon’s tomb

The emperor’s magnificently pompous tomb

is the highlight of the great military complex

of Les Invalides.

쑺 P.139 쑺 THE EIFFEL TOWER AREA 쒀

Contents

Ideas

Paris boasts an

unparalleled

concentration of

haute-cuisine

restaurants and is

the perfect place to

blow out on the

meal of a lifetime.

Not only will the

food be some of the

most sublime you’ve

ever tasted but the

service will be

impeccable –

attentive yet

discreet . Also, while

the decor might be

belle époque

Louis XV, gastronomic

cuisine doesn’t have to

mean astronomic prices,

some restaurants offer a

set lunch menu for around

e60. In the evening prices

average at e150 for three

courses, and there’s no

limit on the amount you

can pay for fine wines.

Gastronomic restaurants

Taillevent

Michelin three-star rated since 1973 – no

mean achievement –

Taillevent

won’t fail

to please with its ever-inventive dishes

and outstanding wine cellar.

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AND TUILERIES

L’Ambroisie

Beautiful tapestries provide a fitting

backdrop to this intimate and refined

restaurant, which serves exquisite and

creative cuisine.

쑺 P.114 쑺 THE MARAIS 쒀