Tips 1 - 10 of 66 Paris Things to Do
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This is my nomination for the world's most beautiful concert venue, the 13th century Sainte Chapelle on the Ile de la Cité in the center of Paris.
On many evenings there are two one-hour concerts here, the first at 19:00 (7.00 pm) and the second at 20:30 (8.30 pm). I chose the first concert in hopes that there would still be ample sunlight shining through the amazing 13th century stained glass windows (which there was).
Tickets to these concerts cost 25 Euros each, plus 2.50 commission if you buy it ahead of time at the fnac store as I did. This is not cheap (you can see an entire opera in Paris for less than that), but well worth it to be able to sit for an hour in this fantastically beautiful Gothic building listening to brilliant music played by soloists from the leading French orchestras.
Second photo: The chamber music concert I attended at the Sainte Chapelle was by the Orchestre Les Archets de Paris, a chamber music ensemble that was founded in 1992, composed mainly of solo musicians from the National Orchestra of the Paris Opera or the National Orchestra of France. (Click on the link to hear samples of their fine music.) Their program started with two short pieces by Vitali (1644?-1692) and J. Pachelbel (1653-1706), followed by the complete Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
Third photo: Christophe Guiot, the conductor and violin soloist, came to the back of the chapel after the concert to sign CD booklets.
Fourth photo: Another advantage of attending an evening concert is that you can have a good look at the inside of the Sainte Chapelle without waiting in the long queue that tends to form during the day.
Unfortunately your Museum Pass will not speed up your entry to the Sainte Chapelle because there is only one line -- and a sign in French politely asking Museum Pass holders to se patienter in the same queue along with everybody else.
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Phone: 01 42 77 65 65
Address: 4 boulevard du Palais, 75001 Paris
Directions:
Velib' 4002
Métro Cité
GPS 48°51'19.07" North; 2°20'42.28" East
Website: http://www.archetspf.asso.fr/
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When he died in December 1791 at age 35, the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was still working on his last composition, his Requiem Mass in D Minor (K. 626).
The Requiem had been commissioned by a mysterious messenger with wads of money who wouldn't say who he was working for. This has led to countless speculative stories over the years, including highly fictionalized accounts in Milos Forman's 1982 film Amadeus and in the opera Mozart and Salieri by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908), which was staged at the Frankfurt Opera in 2007.
Because of all the mystery surrounding Mozart's Requiem, I took the opportunity to hear it performed in a mysterious venue, La Madeleine, which is a large Catholic church disguised as a Greek temple.
Second photo: Waiting for the concert. As the white house lights are dimmed, the place starts to look more and more mysterious. It's easy to imagine a black-cloaked messenger lurking in the shadows somewhere.
Third photo: The Amadeus Choir and the Jean-Louis Petit Orchestra performing Mozart's Requiem under the direction of Luc Baghdassarian, who has won first prizes in several "Young Conductors" and "International Conductors" competitions in Switzerland, Rumania and Austria.
Fourth photo: Looking up at the artwork on the domes during the concert.
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Phone: 01 42 50 96 18
Address: Place de la Madeleine and Rue Royale
Directions:
Velib' 8005
Métro Madeleine
GPS 48°52'9.73" North; 2°19'26.14" East
Website: http://www.aviewoncities.com/paris/madeleine.htm
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Things To Do: Paris Plages = Paris Beaches
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One of the more vicious acts of vandalism in recent Paris history was the destruction of the right bank in the 1960s for the purpose of installing the Voie Express Georges Pompidou, an expressway for eastbound motor vehicles by the side of the River Seine.
Georges Pompidou (1911-1974), for whom the expressway was named, was the prime minister of France from 1962 to 1968 and was president from 1969 until his death in 1974. Like many politicians of his generation, he was intent on making cities fit for cars, not people.
Fortunately, times have changed. The current mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, was elected in 2001 and reelected in 2008 on a clear platform of reducing motor traffic and re-allocating urban space to give more of it back to the people.
One of his first major projects, starting in 2002, was Paris Plages (Paris Beaches), in which the Voie Express is closed off to motor vehicles for a month every summer so the people can use it for strolling, cycling, playing music, lying in the sun and generally having a good time by the side of the river. It is open to everyone, but is particularly intended for people with low incomes who can't afford to take expensive vacations.
Paris Plages was very controversial at first, and even now, after seven highly successful summers, there are still people who are opposed to it -- motorists, of course, who bemoan the loss of their near-monopoly on the use of public space, but also rich people who live nearby and don't like to have us impecunious folks loitering around near their neighborhoods.
Second photo: Deck chairs and sun umbrellas are provided at no cost, paid for mainly by corporate sponsors who are identified quite discreetly, because the city made clear right from the start that Paris Plages was not going to be blatantly commercialized.
Third photo: People strolling at Paris Plages 2008.
Fourth photo: Here the misting fountains are still running just before sunset -- they were turned off shortly after I took this photo. The idea of the misting fountains is that on hot afternoons you can walk under them to cool off. (Yes, that's the Eiffel Tower off in the distance.)
Fifth photo: All along Paris Plages there are cafés and also stands where you can buy something to eat or drink. Here a friendly Iranian man is making me a crêpe with nut nougat cream.
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Website: http://www.pps.org/great_public_spaces/one?public_place_id=997
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Things To Do: Music at Paris Plages
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Just about any time there are musicians at Paris Plages playing for tips, like this group of two guitarists and two violinists.
Also there are free concerts by rock and folk groups in the evenings, free shows be dance and theater groups and dozens of other free activities like dancing lessons, mini-golf, exercise bikes, bodybuilding equipment, rowing machines, Tai Chi, table tennis and fencing. Something is always going on, so it's not only an area for strolling but a month-long summer festival.
Swimming in the river is not allowed, but a temporary outdoor swimming pool has been set up opposite the Quai des Célestins.
The most controversial rule is that woman are not allowed to go topless -- they could be fined 38 Euros for doing so.
Second photo: A jazz band near Pont Neuf.
Third photo: A soprano singing opera arias under the bridge.
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Website: http://www.paris.fr/portail/english/Portal.lut?page_id=8118&document_type_id=2&document_id=56315&portlet_id=19237
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Things To Do: Cyclists at Paris Plages
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Among the strollers there are also cyclists who take advantage of Paris Plages for a leisurely car-free ride along the Seine.
To the left is a café and a children's play area with sand -- there are several areas where lots of sand has been trucked in to make it more like a beach.
Second photo: Two cyclists, one on a Velib' bike and one on her own bike. Yes, that's a palm tree in the white box -- there are lots of them, all along Paris Plages.
Third photo: Cycling into the sunset on a Velib' bike.
Fourth photo: Cyclist on a Velib' bike with Pont Neuf and the tourist boats in the background.
Fifth photo: In addition to Paris Plages in the summer, this expressway is also closed off to motor traffic every Sunday at other times of year, along with numerous other Paris streets, as part of the city's program called Paris respire (Paris breathes). On Sundays you can see these signs all over Paris: "Road reserved for cyclists and pedestrians from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m."
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Website: http://www.rfi.fr/actuen/articles/104/article_1198.asp
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Louvre: 35,000 works of art
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Three of the major museums in Paris have divided up the History of Art among themselves. The Louvre, being the largest, is responsible for Art from the earliest times up to 1847. The Musée d'Orsay takes over for the remarkable sixty-six years from 1848 to 1914, and the Museum of Modern Art at the Centre Pompidou shows works from 1914 to the present -- though this is not a hard and fast rule, and there is inevitably some overlapping.
I can think of one other city that has a similar division of epochs among its major museums, namely Munich, which has the Alte Pinakothek for European paintings from the 14th to 18th centuries, the Neue Pinakothek for the 19th century and the Pinakothek der Moderne for 20th and 21st century art.
Most people enter the Louvre through the Pyramid the central courtyard, but it goes faster if you buy a Museum Pass or simply an advance admission ticket, both of which are available at the fnac (Forum des Halles) or online at http://www.fnacspectacles.com.
These allow you to enter more quickly through the priority entrance in Passage Richelieu.
Second photo: There are 35,000 works of art on display in the Louvre, so it's sort of like the internet -- you can't possibly see them all, so you have to navigate to see what you want, or take potluck. And don't let yourself be overwhelmed by the sheer masses of fantastic artworks! This is room 39 on the second floor of the Richelieu wing, showing Dutch masterpieces from the second half of the 17th century.
Third photo: Le Pont du Rialto (Rialto Bridge in Venice) by Antonio Canal, aka CANALETTO (1697- 1768), in hall C on the second floor of the Sully wing.
Fourth photo: La nuit ; un port de mer au clair de lune (The night ; a seaport by moonlight), painted in 1771 by Joseph Vernet (1714-1789). On display in room 52 on the second floor of the Sully wing.
Fifth photo: The Galerie d'Apollon (Gallery of Apollo) has recently been restored after three years of work funded by a corporate sponsor. It is in hall 66 on the first floor of the Denon wing.
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Phone: +33 (0)1 40 20 51 77
Directions:
Velib' 1013, 1025
Métro Palais-Royal-Musée du Louvre
GPS 48°51'39.60" North; 2°20'8.85" East
Website: http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home.jsp?bmLocale=en
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Louvre: Ruebens and Marie de' Medici in the Louvre
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Why the French king Henri IV felt obliged to marry Marie de' Medici, of all people, is something I have never quite understood, even though I once had a phase in which I read several books about Henri IV, including Heinrich Mann's two-volume novel about his life.
They had six children in eight years, including the future king Louis XIII, but the marriage was an extremely stormy and unhappy one. Nonetheless, on the 13th of May 1610 Henri officially conferred the Regency of France on his wife before going off to fight a war in Germany. The next day he was assassinated -- could this have been just a coincidence? -- and Marie assumed power as Queen of France on behalf of her eight and a half year old son.
Over a decade later, after she had been banished and then reprieved by her son Louis XIII, Marie de' Medici commissioned the Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) to paint a series of monumental allegorical pictures giving her version of her life and hard times.
Twenty-four of these paintings are on display in the Richelieu wing of the Louvre, in room 18 on the second floor.
Ruebens was a diplomat as well as an artist, and in these paintings he managed to depict some very controversial scenes without seriously offending any of the people involved (at least no one who was still alive at that point).
Also he managed to include dozens of his favorite kind of models, namely chubby nude women, by declaring them to be the Fates or Goddesses or Nereids or other allegorical figures.
Second photo: Here is Marie's explanation of why Henri married her -- it was love! In this painting Cupid is giving Henri a portrait of Marie. Immediately he "lets himself be disarmed by love" according to the title of the painting.
Third photo: This was the fateful day when Henri conferred the Regency on Marie, with their son the future Louis XIII gazing up at her (not at him!) in admiration.
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Phone: +33 (0)1 40 20 51 77
Directions:
Velib' 1013, 1025
Métro Palais-Royal-Musée du Louvre
GPS 48°51'39.60" North; 2°20'8.85" East
Website: http://www.henri-iv.com/index.htm
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Louvre: Ladies of the Louvre
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Paintings by French neo-classical artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) are on display both in the Louvre (in the Sully and Denon wings) and across the river in the Musée d'Orsay.
This one from the year 1862 is called Le bain turc (The Turkish Bath) and is in the Louvre in room 60 on the second floor of the Sully wing.
Second photo: Jeune fille en buste by Baron Pierre-Narcisse Guérin (1774-1833), in room 54 on the second floor of the Sully wing. Her short hair style, which wouldn't seem out of place in 21st century Paris, was known in the 19th as "à la Titus". It was inspired by Roman Antiquity and came into fashion in France during and after the French Revolution, in contrast to the elaborate hair styles of the Old Regime.
Third photo: L'odalisque by François Boucher (1703-1770). The label by this painting speaks of "a delicious eroticism of the boudoir" and speculates that the model might have been the artist's wife. It goes on to say that "the immodest spectacle of the body abandoned in the disorder of the sheets confers a deliberately licentious character" to the painting.
Fourth photo: Forget about the Mona Lisa, by the way. She is small and always beleaguered by hundreds of people. (Unless you are a fan of lining up just because everyone else does.)
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Phone: +33 (0)1 40 20 51 77
Directions:
Velib' 1013, 1025
Métro Palais-Royal-Musée du Louvre
GPS 48°51'39.60" North; 2°20'8.85" East
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Room number 1 in the Musée d'Orsay, the first room on the right on the ground floor, is called Ingres et l'Ingrisme. As soon as you enter you are confronted with one of his most famous paintings, La Source (The Spring).
I learned from the museum's website that Ingres started this picture in 1820, but then put it aside and didn't finish it until 1856. Even then he got two of his students to fill in the background, which seems to have been common practice in those days.
This painting was shown at several exhibitions in the 1850s and 60s, and was widely discussed as a synthesis of the real and the ideal. Is the nude figure a statue or a real person, or both?
In 1857 the painting was bought by Count Charles-Marie Tanneguy Duchâtel for 25000 francs. In his home the painting was "surrounded by large plants and aquatic flowers so that the nymph of the spring looked even more like a real person."
If Ingres were alive today I think he would paint pictures of girls taking photos with their digital cameras. (Or riding bicycles or talking on their cell phones.)
Second photo: On the top floor of the Musée d'Orsay is the impressionist collection, with astounding numbers of famous and familiar paintings. In room 32 alone there are 42 paintings by Renoir, Monet, Pissarro and Sisley. The one in the photo is Le bassin d'Argenteuil by Claude Monet (1840-1926).
Third photo: Another famous painting in the same room, also by Monet: one of the eleven pictures that he painted of La gare Saint-Lazare, one of the six big terminus railroad stations in Paris.
Fourth photo: The Musée d'Orsay also used to be a railroad station, as you can see from this photo that I took from the top of the Tour Seine, the Seine Tower at the back end of the museum.
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Phone: +33 (0)1 40 49 48 14
Address: 62, rue de Lille, Paris
Directions:
Velib' 7007
Métro Solférino
GPS 48°51'35.79" North; 2°19'33.03" East
Website: http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/search/commentaire/commentaire_id/the-spring-2968.html?cHash=06a609f92e
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At the back end of the ground floor of the Musée d'Orsay there is an interesting exhibit on the building of the "new" (meaning new in the 19th century) opera house which was ordered by the Emperor Napoleon III and designed by the young architect Charles Garnier (1825-1898).
This model shows a cross-section of the opera building, with its entrance hall, grand staircase, auditorium with crown and the stage and backstage areas. Today this opera house is known as the Opéra Garnier or Palais Garnier, after its architect. It is one of five opera houses currently operating in Paris, the others being the Opéra Bastille, the Théâtre du Châtelet, the Opéra Comique (Salle Favart), and the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.
Second photo: L'escalier de l'Opéra, a painting of the Grand Staircase of the then-new opera house, painted around 1980 by Victor Navlet (1819-1886). The French State bought this painting directly from the artist in 1881 and displayed it for six years in the French Embassy in Berlin.
Third photo: This is the definitive sketch for the ceiling of the opera house, by the painter Jules-Eugène Lenepveu (1819-1898), who proceeded to paint exactly this on the round ceiling of the auditorium. Lenepveu's ceiling paintings are still there, but they are no longer visible because they have been covered since 1964 by the new ceiling paintings of Marc Chagall (1887-1985).
Fourth photo: Portrait of the architect Charles Garnier, painted in 1868 by Paul Baudry (1828-1886).
Fifth photo: Under a glass floor there is a model of the opera house and the entire district around it, as it was in the early years of the 20th century.
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Phone: +33 (0)1 40 49 48 14
Address: 62, rue de Lille, Paris
Directions:
Velib' 7007
Métro Solférino
GPS 48°51'35.79" North; 2°19'33.03" East
Website: http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/home.html
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Join a Discussion Queueing up in Paris
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Destinations near Paris- Île de la Cité, 1.22 km / 0.76 miles
- Clichy, 4.43 km / 2.75 miles
- Neuilly-sur-Seine, 5.21 km / 3.24 miles
- Asnières, 6.64 km / 4.13 miles
- Courbevoie, 7.12 km / 4.42 miles
- Boulogne-Billancourt, 7.12 km / 4.42 miles
- Suresnes, 7.3 km / 4.54 miles
- Puteaux, 7.3 km / 4.54 miles
- Issy-les-Moulineaux, 7.39 km / 4.59 miles
- Bois-Colombes, 7.39 km / 4.59 miles
» See all locations nearby» Popular Île-de-France locations» Popular France locations» Popular Europe locations |
 Comments for Nemorino about Paris | | | | |
pfsmalo Thu Jun 25, 2009 14:49 UTC
Thanks for the visit Don. Shall be returning to Paris this autumn. I'm glad you are on our side for bike riding, terrific tips for cyclists in Paris. Regards Paul | MarcusH Mon May 25, 2009 21:50 UTC
boulevard de Ménilmontant (métro Ménilmontant, line 2), serves free food after 7 pm four nights a week: free moules frites on Wednesday and Thursday evenings and free couscous on Fridays and Saturdays. | globetrott Mon May 25, 2009 21:47 UTC
Thanks a lot, Don for this excellent tour through Paris and plenty of new updates since my last visit to this page ! Cycling in Paris ?? I dont know, I rather take the metro ;-)) | breughel Thu May 21, 2009 07:46 UTC
Back to your Paris reviews. What do I have to see on my next trip? The Opera Garnier maybe. |
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