Pere-Lachaise cemetery
Final resting place of a host of French notables, as well as a hair number of illustrious foreigners, it is one of the world's most famous cemeteries and draws around two million visitors a year. It's a bit like a miniature town in itself with its grid-like layout, cast-iron signposts and neat cobbled lanes - a veritable city of the dead. Size aside, it's surely also one of the most atmospheric cemeteries - an eerily beautiful haven, with terraced slopes and magnificent old trees that spread their branches over the moss-grown tombs as though shading them from the outside world.
Among the most visited graves is that of Chopin, who has willowy muse mourning his loss and is often attended by groups of Poles laying wreaths and flowers in the red and white colours of the Polish flag. Swarms also flock to the grave of ex-Doors lead singer Jim Morrison, who died in Paris in 1971 at the age of 28. Once graffiti-covered and wreathed in marijuana fumes, it has been cleaned up and is watched over by a security guard to ensure it stays that way, though this hasn't stopped fans placing flowers, candles and cigarette butts on his tomb and scribbling messages in praise of love and drugs on other graves and trees nearby.
Another tomb that attracts many visitors is Oscar Wilde's, the base of which is covered in graffiti and lipstick kisses left by devoted fans. It's topped with a sculpture by Jacob Epstein of a mysterious Pharaonic winder messenger. The inscription behind is a grim verse from The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
Other graves include Collete, Sarah Bernhardt, Marcel Proust, Jean Pezon, Victor Noir, Feliz Faure and Jean Carries.
Haussmann's Paris, Quai aux Fleurs
The sheer harmoniousness of modern Paris is the legacy of a uniquely energetic age. From 1853, the overgrown and insanitary medieval capital was ruthlessly transformed into an urban utopia. In half a century, half of Paris was rebuilt. Napoleon III's government provided the force, while banks and private speculators provided the cash. Te poor, meanwhile, were either used for labour or cleared out to the suburban badlands.
The presiding genius was the emperor's chief of works, Baron Haussmann. In his brave new city, every apartment building was seven storeys high. Every facade was built in golden limestone, often quarried from under the city itself, with Neoclassical details sculpted around the windows. Every second and fifth floor had its wrought-iron balcony and every lead roof sloped back from the street-front at precisely 45 degrees.
It would all have been inhumanly regular if it hadn't been for the ground-floor shops, which have provided Paris's streets with a more varied face ever since.
The Ile St-Louis
The Ile St-Louis is arguably the most romantic part of Paris and prime strolling territory. Unlike its larger neighbour, it has no sights as such, save for a small museum devoted to the Romantic Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz.
Instead you'll find tall, austerely beautiful houses on single-lane streets, tree-lined quais, a church and assorted restaurants, cafes and shops. The island feels removed from the rest of Paris, an oasis little touched by the city's turbulent years of revolution and upheaval. Inhabitants of the island even have their own name - "Louisiens".
For centuries the Ile St-Louis was nothing but swampy pastureland, a haunt of lovers, duellists and miscreants on the run, until in the seventeenth century real-estate developed Christophe Marie had he bright idea of filling it with elegant mansions; by 1660 the island was transformed. In the 1840s it gained popularity as a Bohemian hang-out, much like the Ile de Louviers a decade earlier. The Haschischins club met every month on the ground floor of the Hotel Lauzun.
As the name suggests, hashish was handed round - apparently in the form of a green jelly - at the clubs, attended by Manet, Balzac, Nerval and Baudelaire, among others. Baudelaire lived in the building for a while in a small apartment on the second floor, where he wrote much of Les Fleurs du mal and ran up large debts buying antiques. The hotel, built in 1657 by Versailles architect Le Vau, has an intact interior, complete with splendid trompe l'oeil decorations; it's often used for government receptions, and is sometimes open for guided tours to the public - details are given in the "Visites conferences" section in Pariscope.
Le Vau also built the splendid Hotel Lambert at the tip of the island. Decorated by two of seventeenth-century France's greatest painters, Charles Le Brun, who painted Versailles' Galerie des Glaces, and Eustache Le Sueur, it's widely though to be the most beautiful residence in Paris. Past inhabitants include Voltaire, who lived there with his mistress, the Marquise du Chatelet, and exiled Polish prince Adam Czartorisky, famed for his lavish parties. The building is now owned by the Qatari royal family, whose controversial refurbishment plan has been described by one French arcitext as having "the aesthetics of a James Bond village". In early 2009 the Mayor of Paris moved to block the refurbishment, describing it as a threat to the city's architectural heritage.
A visit to the island wouldn't be complete without a stop at Berthillon; eating one of its exquisite ice creams while wandering down rue St-Lous-en-l'Ile is something of a tradition. For absolute seclusion, head for the souther quais, or climb over the low gate on the right of the garden across boulevard Henri-IV to reach Pari's best sunbathing spot. The island is particularly atmospheric in the evening, and an arm-in-arm stroll along the quais is a must in any lovers' itinerary.
Jardin des Plantes
The Jardin des Plantes was founded as a medicinal herb garden in 1626 and has long retained botanical and scientific roles. In the nearby physics labs overlooking the gardens, Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity in 1896, and two years later the Curies cooked up radium. The site has always had another, more leisured side, however, and its hothouses, shady avenues of trees, lawns, museums and zoo make it a favourite oasis for Parisians.
There are entrances on all sides except around the northern corner. The south-westernmost entrance, on the corner of rues Buffon and Geoffroy St-Hilaire, takes you past a sophora tree planted in 1747 and straight to the rosary, which contains over 300 varieties of rose and is at its glorious best in June.
If you enter by the rue Cuvier/rue Lacepede gate, at the northwest corner, and climb the little mazy hillock on the right up to an ironwork gazebo, you can then descend along pleasant winding paths past a stately cedar of Lebanon planted in 1734 towards the hothouses - which are due to re-open after restoration in late 2010. Just beyond lies the must loved Jardin Alpin, a sheltered, sunken space filled with mountain plants from all over the world. Beyond that again is the relatively new Jardin Ecologique, a hidden gem which was an arboretum before being closed off for forty years. It now aims to showcase the natural or at least wild flora of the Parisian basin, and somehow crams in miniature wildflower meadows, a field of cereals, the typical mixed oak-and-hornbeam woodland of the region and even a small stream. It attracts bees, butterflies and, so far over 35 species of bird, including a kingfisher.
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The collection of buildings on the souther side form the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle. Skip the must museums ofoaleontology, anatomy, mineralogy, entomology and paleobotany in favour of the splendid restored Grande Galerie de l'Evolution whose entrance is at the southwestern corner of the garden. The story of evolution is told with the aid of stuffed animals and a combination of clever lighting effects and ambient sounds. If you want to do something as old-fashioned as reading, there are wooden lecture boards in English to accompany the aurals and visuals. On the lower level, submarine light suffuses the space where the murkiest deep-ocean creatures are displayed. Above, glass lifts rise silently from the savannah, where a closely packed line of huge African animals, headed by an elephant, look as if they're stepping onto Noah's ark.
Haussmann's Paris, Quai aux Fleurs
The sheer harmoniousness of modern Paris is the legacy of a uniquely energetic age. From 1853, the overgrown and insanitary medieval capital was ruthlessly transformed into an urban utopia. In half a century, half of Paris was rebuilt. Napoleon III's government provided the force, while banks and private speculators provided the cash. Te poor, meanwhile, were either used for labour or cleared out to the suburban badlands.
The presiding genius was the emperor's chief of works, Baron Haussmann. In his brave new city, every apartment building was seven storeys high. Every facade was built in golden limestone, often quarried from under the city itself, with Neoclassical details sculpted around the windows. Every second and fifth floor had its wrought-iron balcony and every lead roof sloped back from the street-front at precisely 45 degrees.
It would all have been inhumanly regular if it hadn't been for the ground-floor shops, which have provided Paris's streets with a more varied face ever since.
The Ile St-Louis
The Ile St-Louis is arguably the most romantic part of Paris and prime strolling territory. Unlike its larger neighbour, it has no sights as such, save for a small museum devoted to the Romantic Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz.
Instead you'll find tall, austerely beautiful houses on single-lane streets, tree-lined quais, a church and assorted restaurants, cafes and shops. The island feels removed from the rest of Paris, an oasis little touched by the city's turbulent years of revolution and upheaval. Inhabitants of the island even have their own name - "Louisiens".
For centuries the Ile St-Louis was nothing but swampy pastureland, a haunt of lovers, duellists and miscreants on the run, until in the seventeenth century real-estate developed Christophe Marie had he bright idea of filling it with elegant mansions; by 1660 the island was transformed. In the 1840s it gained popularity as a Bohemian hang-out, much like the Ile de Louviers a decade earlier. The Haschischins club met every month on the ground floor of the Hotel Lauzun.
Le Vau also built the splendid Hotel Lambert at the tip of the island. Decorated by two of seventeenth-century France's greatest painters, Charles Le Brun, who painted Versailles' Galerie des Glaces, and Eustache Le Sueur, it's widely though to be the most beautiful residence in Paris. Past inhabitants include Voltaire, who lived there with his mistress, the Marquise du Chatelet, and exiled Polish prince Adam Czartorisky, famed for his lavish parties. The building is now owned by the Qatari royal family, whose controversial refurbishment plan has been described by one French arcitext as having "the aesthetics of a James Bond village". In early 2009 the Mayor of Paris moved to block the refurbishment, describing it as a threat to the city's architectural heritage.
A visit to the island wouldn't be complete without a stop at Berthillon; eating one of its exquisite ice creams while wandering down rue St-Lous-en-l'Ile is something of a tradition. For absolute seclusion, head for the souther quais, or climb over the low gate on the right of the garden across boulevard Henri-IV to reach Pari's best sunbathing spot. The island is particularly atmospheric in the evening, and an arm-in-arm stroll along the quais is a must in any lovers' itinerary.
Jardin des Plantes
The Jardin des Plantes was founded as a medicinal herb garden in 1626 and has long retained botanical and scientific roles. In the nearby physics labs overlooking the gardens, Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity in 1896, and two years later the Curies cooked up radium. The site has always had another, more leisured side, however, and its hothouses, shady avenues of trees, lawns, museums and zoo make it a favourite oasis for Parisians.
There are entrances on all sides except around the northern corner. The south-westernmost entrance, on the corner of rues Buffon and Geoffroy St-Hilaire, takes you past a sophora tree planted in 1747 and straight to the rosary, which contains over 300 varieties of rose and is at its glorious best in June.
If you enter by the rue Cuvier/rue Lacepede gate, at the northwest corner, and climb the little mazy hillock on the right up to an ironwork gazebo, you can then descend along pleasant winding paths past a stately cedar of Lebanon planted in 1734 towards the hothouses - which are due to re-open after restoration in late 2010. Just beyond lies the must loved Jardin Alpin, a sheltered, sunken space filled with mountain plants from all over the world. Beyond that again is the relatively new Jardin Ecologique, a hidden gem which was an arboretum before being closed off for forty years. It now aims to showcase the natural or at least wild flora of the Parisian basin, and somehow crams in miniature wildflower meadows, a field of cereals, the typical mixed oak-and-hornbeam woodland of the region and even a small stream. It attracts bees, butterflies and, so far over 35 species of bird, including a kingfisher.
The collection of buildings on the souther side form the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle. Skip the must museums ofoaleontology, anatomy, mineralogy, entomology and paleobotany in favour of the splendid restored Grande Galerie de l'Evolution whose entrance is at the southwestern corner of the garden. The story of evolution is told with the aid of stuffed animals and a combination of clever lighting effects and ambient sounds. If you want to do something as old-fashioned as reading, there are wooden lecture boards in English to accompany the aurals and visuals. On the lower level, submarine light suffuses the space where the murkiest deep-ocean creatures are displayed. Above, glass lifts rise silently from the savannah, where a closely packed line of huge African animals, headed by an elephant, look as if they're stepping onto Noah's ark.
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