Place de Gaulle Paris

What the press defined as “the most beautiful museum in Europe” is to be found on the left bank of the Seine, where the State Audit Court originally stood in 1870; it was then destroyed during the Commune. In 1898 the Paris-Orleans railway company assigned the building of the new station to Victor Laloux. The…

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…

The origin of the Louvre goes back to the end of the 12th century, when Philippe Auguste, before leaving for the Third Crusade, had a fortress built near the river to defend Paris from the incursions of the Saxons ( in fact the name Louvre seems to derive from the Saxon word “leovar”, meaning “fortified…

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 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 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,…