Background
Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, gastronomy, and science. For its leading role in the arts and sciences, as well as its very early system of street lighting, in the 19th century, it became known as "the City of Light".
Paris hosts several United Nations organisations including UNESCO, and other international organisations such as the OECD, the OECD Development Centre, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, the International Energy Agency, the International Federation for Human Rights, along with European bodies such as the European Space Agency, the European Banking Authority or the European Securities and Markets Authority.
Highlights
The
ten highlights picked for this vacation are, Eiffel Tower, Louvre Museum, Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, Musée d'Orsay, Luxembourg Gardens, Sainte-Chapelle, Palais Garnier, Arc de Triomphe, Catacombes de Paris, and River Seine.
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is a wrought iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Locally nicknamed "La dame de fer" (French for "Iron Lady"), it was constructed from 1887 to 1889 as the centrepiece of the 1889 World's Fair.
Although initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, it has since become a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognisable structures in the world. It was named part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site ("Paris, Banks of the Seine") in 1991.
The tower is 330 metres tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building, and the tallest structure in Paris. The tower has three levels for visitors, with restaurants on the first and second levels. The top level's upper platform is 276 metres above the ground – the highest observation deck accessible to the public in the European Union. Tickets can be purchased to ascend by stairs or lift to the first and second levels. The climb from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the climb from the first level to the second, making the entire ascent a 600-step climb. Although there is a staircase to the top level, it is usually accessible only by lift.
.JPG)
Figure 1 - The Eiffel Tower
Louvre Museum
The Louvre Museum is the world's most-visited museum, and a historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. This houses some of the world’s most famous artworks. Aside from Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (1503) are other artworks such as Liberty Leading the People (1830) by Eugène Delacroix, Venus de Milo (150-125 BC) by Alexandros of Antioch, The Wedding at Cana (1563) by Paolo Veronese, and the Egyptian wonder, the Seated Scribe (2450-2500 BCE).
The collection at the Louvre is divided into eight departments consisting of archaeological discoveries, art objects, paintings, sculptures, and drawings. The curatorial departments are as follows,
Near Eastern antiquities
Egyptian antiquities
Islamic art
Greek antiquities
Sculpture
Decorative arts
Prints and drawings
Roman antiquities
Etruscan antiquities
Paintings
.JPG)
Figure 2 - The Louvre Museum
.JPG)
Figure 3 - The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci
Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris
The Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, a masterpiece of Gothic architecture, is the most visited monument in France. It was built in the Middle Ages, at the far end of the Île de la Cité. Work started in the 13th century and finished in the 15th century. Badly damaged during the French Revolution, the cathedral was restored in the 19th century by the architect Viollet-le-Duc.
Its many visitors come to admire its stained glass and rose windows, the towers, the steeple and the gargoyles. They can also discover the Notre-Dame treasury and have a go at climbing the towers to enjoy a panoramic view of Paris. In 2013, Notre-Dame is celebrated its 850th anniversary. For this occasion, many events were organized and the cathedral renewed its bells with the arrival of eight new bells as well as a new great bell. Road distances from Paris in France are calculated from point 0 on the cathedral forecourt.
Figure 4 - The Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris
Musée 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, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography.
It houses the largest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces in the world, by painters including Berthe Morisot, Claude Monet, Édouard 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. It is one of the largest art museums in Europe.
Figure 5 - The Musée d'Orsay
Luxembourg Gardens
The Luxembourg Garden is located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France. The creation of the garden began in 1612 when Marie de' Medici, the widow of King Henry IV, constructed the Luxembourg Palace as her new residence. The garden today is owned by the French Senate, which meets in the Palace. It covers 23 hectares and is known for its lawns, tree-lined promenades, tennis courts, flowerbeds, model sailboats, as well as the picturesque Medici Fountain, built in 1620. The name Luxembourg comes from the Latin Mons Lucotitius, the name of the hill where the garden is located.
Sainte-Chapelle
Prague CastleThe Sainte-Chapelle is a royal chapel in the Gothic style, within the medieval Palais de la Cité, the residence of the kings of France until the 14th century, on the Île de la Cité in the River Seine in Paris, France.
The Sainte-Chapelle is considered among the highest achievements of the Rayonnant period of Gothic architecture. It was commissioned by King Louis IX of France to house his collection of Passion relics, including Christ's Crown of Thorns – one of the most important relics in medieval Christendom. This was later held in the nearby Notre Dame Cathedral until the 2019 fire, which it survived. Although damaged during the French Revolution and restored in the 19th century, it has one of the most extensive 13th-century-stained glass collections anywhere in the world.
Sainte-Chapelle is no longer a church. It was secularised after the French Revolution, which ended state religion. It is now operated as a museum by the French Centre of National Monuments, along with the nearby Conciergerie, the other remaining vestige of the original palace.
Palais Garnier
The Palais Garnier is a 1,979-seat opera house at the Place de l'Opéra in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was the primary theatre of the Paris Opera and its associated Paris Opera Ballet until 1989, when a new opera house, the Opéra Bastille, opened at the Place de la Bastille. The company now uses the Palais Garnier mainly for ballet. The theatre has been a monument historique of France since 1923.
The Palais Garnier has been called "probably the most famous opera house in the world, a symbol of Paris like Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, or the Sacré Coeur Basilica". This is at least partly due to its use as the setting for Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera and, especially, the novel's subsequent adaptations in films and the popular 1986 musical.
Prague Castle
Figure 8 - The Palais Garnier
Arc de Triomphe
The Arc de Triomphe is one of the most famous monuments in Paris, France, standing at the western end of the Champs-Élysées at the centre of Place Charles de Gaulle, formerly named Place de l'Étoile—the étoile or "star" of the juncture formed by its twelve radiating avenues. The Arc de Triomphe honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and 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.
.JPG)
Figure 9 - The Arc de Triomphe
Catacombes de Paris
The Catacombs of Paris are underground ossuaries in Paris, France, which hold the remains of more than six million people in a small part of a tunnel network built to consolidate Paris's ancient stone quarries. Extending south from the Barrière d'Enfer ("Gate of Hell") former city gate, this ossuary was created as part of the effort to eliminate the city's overflowing cemeteries.
The ossuary remained largely forgotten until it became a novelty place for concerts and other private events in the early 19th century; after further renovations and the construction of accesses around Place Denfert-Rochereau, it was opened to public visitation in 1874.
Figure 10 - The Catacombes de Paris
River Seine
The Seine is a 483-mile river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France It is navigable by ocean-going vessels as far as Rouen, 75 miles from the sea. Nearly, its whole length is available for recreational boating; excursion boats offer sightseeing tours of the river banks in the capital city, Paris.
There are 37 bridges in Paris across the Seine (the most famous of which are the Pont Alexandre III and the Pont Neuf) and dozens more outside the city. A notable bridge, which is also the last along the course of the river, is the Pont de Normandie, the ninth longest cable-stayed bridge in the world, which links Le Havre and Honfleur.
.JPG)
Figure 11 - The River Seine
No comments:
Post a Comment