Paris Hotels

The Cite The Cite, the center of the city’s life since the 3rd century was founded here on what was the largest of the islands in the Seine. It was the first settlement and first religious center, and here were erected the Cathedral and the Palais de Justice. Numerous bridges link it to the banks…

This gate too, like the Porte St-Martin, has the form of a triumphal arch, with a single vault, measuring 79 feet both in height and in width. Designed by Blondel and erected in 1672, it has a sculpture by the Anguier brothers and was intended to celebrate the victories of Louis XIV in Germany, when…

The Opera is the largest theater for lyric opera in the world ( it covers an area of 120,000 square feet and can accommodate an audience of 2000 and 450 performers on the stage ). Designed by Garnier and built between 1862 and 1875, it is the most typical monument of the era of Napoleon…

The Eiffel Tower, which has become the symbol of Paris, was erected for the World Fair in 1889. A masterpiece designed by the engineer Gustave Eiffel, it is altogether 1050 feet high, an extremely light, interlaced structure made of 15000 pieces of metal welded together. Its weight of 7000 tons rests on four huge piers…

This is a huge complex of buildings, including the Palais de Justice itself, the Sainte-Chapelle, and the Conciergerie. On this same site, the Roman rulers had their administrative and military headquarters; the kings of the Merovingian dynasty followed their example, and later the Capetians erected a chapel and a keep here. In the 13th century,…

The huge arch stands in regal isolation in the middle of the square. Ordered by Napoleon to the Grand Army as a memorial, Chalgrin began it in 1806. Finished in 1836, it truly surpasses in Rome the Arch of Constantine in size and has one archway: it’s 147 feet broad and 164 feet high. On…