Place de Gaulle Paris

Place de l’Hotel de Ville Its present appearance dates from 1853, but from many centuries, from 1310 to 1830, this vast area was the site of public executions. Flanked by the Rue de Rivoli on one side and the Seine on the other, it is dominated by the wide facade of the Hotel de Ville….

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 cathedral of Notre Dame stands on the site of a Christian basilica which had in turn been built on the site of a temple from the Roman era. Its construction was begun in 1163, under Bishop Maurice de Sully: first, the chancel was built, followed over the years by the nave and aisles and the…

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 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,…