Holiday Destination: Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city of France. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île de France region, Paris was the largest city in the Western world for about 600 years prior to the 19th century. Paris is today one of the world's leading business and cultural centres, and its influences in politics, education, entertainment, media, fashion, science, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities. Paris is considered one of the greenest and most liveable cities in Europe. It is also one of the most expensive cities. According to 2008 estimates, the Paris agglomeration is Europe's biggest or second biggest city economy and the sixth largest in the world. The Paris region is the first in Europe in terms of research and development capability and expenditure and through its 17 universities and 55 grandes écoles has the highest concentration of higher education students in the European Union. With about 42 million tourists annually in the city and its suburbs, Paris is the most visited city in the world. The city has the second highest number of Michelin restaurants in the world 'after Tokyo' and contains numerous iconic landmarks, such as the world's most visited tourist site the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre Museum, Moulin Rouge, Lido etc, making it the most popular tourist destination in the world with 45 million tourists annually.

Climate

Summer 25.2 °C (77.4 °F), Winter 2.5 °C (36.5 °F)

Tourist Season

Summer Season is the best for visiting Paris.

Accommodation

Hotels and Apartments.

General Information Of Paris

• Land Area: 40.7 sq mi (105.4 km2)
• Population: 1 Million.
• Capital City: Île-de-France.
• Language: French and English.

Tourist Attraction in or Near by Paris

Arc de Triomphe

The Arc de Triomphe is one of the most famous monuments in Paris. It stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle, at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. There is a smaller arch, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, which stands west of the Louvre. The Arc de Triomphe honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I. The Arc de Triomphe is the linchpin of the historic axis, a sequence of monuments and grand thoroughfares on a route which goes from the courtyard of the Louvre, to the Grande Arche de la Défense. The monument was designed by Jean Chalgrin in 1806, and its iconographic program pitted heroically nude French youths against bearded Germanic warriors in chain mail. Groups, friezes, figures and bas reliefs are the signature works of James Pradier, Antoine Etex and Jean Pierre Cortot. But there is no question that the most celebrated sculpture is the work of Francois Rude La Marseillaise.

Belleville Paris

Belleville is a neighbourhood of Paris, France, parts of which lie in four different arrondissements. The major portion of Belleville straddles the borderline between the 20th arrondissement and the 19th along its main street, the Rue de Belleville. The remainder lies in the 10th and 11th arrondissements. It was once the independent commune of Belleville which was annexed by the City of Paris in 1860 and divided between two arrondissements Geographically, the neighborhood is situated on and around a hill which vies with Montmartre as the highest in Paris. The name Belleville literally means 'beautiful town'. The demographics of the neighborhood have undergone many changes throughout the decades. While Armenians, Greeks, and Ashkenazi Jews were once the predominant ethnic groups, North Africans, and more recently, sub Saharan Africans have been displacing these others.

Cathédrale Saint Maclou de Pontoise

Pontoise Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral, and national monument of France, located in the town of Pontoise, now on the outskirts of Paris, in the Val d'Oise. The church, raised to the status of cathedral in 1966 when the Diocese of Pontoise was created, is dedicated to Saint Maclovius. Construction began in the 12th century on the site of an ancient chapel of Saint Eustace and the building was enlarged and completed in the 15th and 16th centuries. Thus the central and eastern parts of the cathedral are 12th century, while the tower and the central portal are in the Flamboyant style. There are Renaissance additions flanking the central structure, and a north portal of the same period. The apse of St. Maclou marks the bond between the Romanesque and ending early Gothic.

Centre Georges Pompidou

Centre Georges Pompidou is a complex in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles, rue Montorgueil and the Marais. It was designed in the style of high tech architecture. It houses the Bibliothèque publique d'information, a vast public library, the Musée National d'Art Moderne which is the largest museum for modern art in Europe, and IRCAM, a centre for music and acoustic research. Because of its location, the Centre is known locally as the Beaubourg. It is named after Georges Pompidou, the President of France from 1969 to 1974 who decided its creation, and was officially opened on 31 January 1977 by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. The Centre Pompidou has had over 150 million visitors since 1977.

Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie

One of the world's largest and most visited science museums, La Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie is on an impressive modern site in northeastern Paris. The Parc de la Villette is a unique area of culture and leisure in Paris. Offering a wide variety of exhibitions and shows, this cultural crossroads is also a lovely park, with gardens surrounding the Ourcq canal. La cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie is located at the top of the park, and is a masterwork of modern architecture. About five million people visit the Cité each year. Attractions include a planetarium, a submarine, an IMAX theatre and special areas for children and teenagers.

Conciergerie

La Conciergerie is a former royal palace and prison in Paris, France, located on the west of the Île de la Cité, near the Cathedral of Notre Dame. It is part of the larger complex known as the Palais de Justice, which is still used for judicial purposes. Hundreds of prisoners during the French Revolution were taken from La Conciergerie to be executed on the guillotine at a number of locations around Paris. Only two outcomes existed a declaration of innocence or a death sentence and in most cases the latter was chosen. The most famous prisoners included Queen Marie Antoinette, the poet André Chénier, Charlotte Corday, Madame Élisabeth, Madame du Barry and the Girondins, who were condemned by Georges Danton, who was in turn condemned by Robespierre, who was himself condemned and executed in a final bout of bloodletting.

Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower is a puddled iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most visited paid monument in the world 7.1 million people ascended it in 2011. The tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010. The tower stands 320 metres tall, about the same height as an 81 story building. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of the tallest man made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. However, because of the addition, in 1957, of the antenna atop the Eiffel Tower, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building. Not including broadcast antennas, it is the second-tallest structure in France, after the Millau Viaduct.

Flame of Liberty

The Flame of Liberty in Paris is a full sized, gold leaf covered replica of the new flame at the upper end of the torch carried in the hand of the Statue of Liberty at the entrance to the harbor of New York City since 1986. The monument, which measures approximately 3.5 metres in height, is a sculpture of a flame, executed in gilded copper, supported by a pedestal of gray and black marble. It is located near the northern end of the Pont de l'Alma, on the Place de l'Alma, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It represented the culmination of that newspaper's 1987 celebration of its hundredth anniversary of publishing an English language daily newspaper in Paris. More importantly, the Flame was a token of thanks for the restoration work on the Statue of Liberty accomplished three years earlier by two French businesses that did artisanal work on the project: namely, Métalliers Champenois, which did the bronze work, and the Gohard Studios, which applied the gold leaf. While the gift to France was prompted by the centennial of the newspaper, the Flame of Liberty, more broadly, is a lasting symbol of the friendship uniting the two countries, just as the statue itself was, when it was given to the United States by France.

Goutte d'Or

The Goutte d'Or is a neighbourhood in Paris, located in the 18th arrondissement. In common parlance, the term Goutte d'Or refers to a loosely defined area around the rue de la Goutte d'Or, to the East of Montmartre in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. When used for administrative or statistical purposes, the Goutte d'Or may be defined in at least two different ways. This neighbourhood has been working class at least since the 19th century. Emile Zola set there the plot of his novel L'Assommoir, depicting the life of alcoholic workers.

Grand Palais

The Grand Palais des Champs Elysées, commonly known as the Grand Palais, is a large historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex located at the Champs Élysées in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Construction of the Grand Palais began in 1897 following the demolition of the Palais de l'Industrie as part of the preparation works for the Universal Exposition of 1900, which also included the creation of the adjacent Petit Palais and Pont Alexandre III. The structure was built in the style of Beaux Arts architecture as taught by the École des Beaux Arts of Paris. The building reflects the movement's taste for ornate decoration through its stone facades, the formality of its floor planning and the use of techniques that were innovative at the time, such as its glass vault, its structure made of iron and light steel framing, and its use of reinforced concrete.

Les Invalides

Les Invalides, officially known as L'Hôtel national des Invalides, is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, 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 the Musée d'Histoire Contemporaine, as well as the burial site for some of France's war heroes. The selected site was in the then suburban plain of Grenelle. By the time the enlarged project was completed in 1676, the river front measured 196 metres and the complex had fifteen courtyards, the largest being the cour d'honneur for military parades.

Musee d'Orsay

The Musée d'Orsay is a museum in Paris, France, on the left bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, an impressive Beaux Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It is probably best known for its extensive collection of impressionist and post impressionist masterpieces by such painters such as Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin and Van Gogh. Many of these works were held at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume prior to the museum's opening in 1986.

Accessibility

Bus Terminal in or Near by

Eurolines Bus Stop

75 bis boulevard de Clichy
A 2 minutes du
Moulin Rouge, Paris, France

Roissy bus location

11 Rue Scribe
Paris, France

Opentour bus station

13 Rue Auber
Paris, Guanacaste, France

Le Méridien Etoile

81 Boulevard Gouvion Saint Cyr
Paris, France

Airport

Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport: For International flights.

Orly International Airport: For International flights.

le Bourget International Airport: For International flights.

Railway Stations

Bercy Train Station Paris

48 bis Boulevard de Bercy
Paris, France

Paris train station

73 Rue de Dunkerque
Paris, France