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It's little wonder that so many wistful songs have been penned over
the years about France's capital, Paris . Few cities leave
the visitor with such vivid impressions, whether it's the drifting
cherry blossoms in the tranquil gardens of Notre-Dame, the riverside
quais on a summer evening, the sound of blues in atmospheric cellar
bars, or the ancient alleyways and cobbled lanes of the historic
Latin Quarter and villagey Montmartre.
Paris has no problem living up to the painted images and movie myths
with which we're all familiar. Indeed, the whole city is something of a
work of art. Two thousand years of shaping and reshaping have resulted
in monumental building, sweeping avenues, grand esplanades and
celebrated bridges. Many of its older buildings have survived intact,
having been spared the ravages of flood and fire and saved from Hitler's
intended destruction. Moreover, they survive with a sense of continuity
and homogeneity, as new sits comfortably against a backdrop of old - the
glass Pyramid against the grand fortress of the Louvre, the Column of
Liberty against the Opéra Bastille. Time has acted as judge, as
buildings once surrounded in controversy - the Eiffel Tower, the Sacré-Coeur,
the Pompidou Centre - have in their turn become well-known symbols of
the city. Yet for all the tremendous pomp and magnificence of its
monuments, the city operates on a very human scale, with exquisite,
secretive little nooks tucked away off the Grands Boulevards and very
definite little communities revolving around games of boules and the
local boulangerie and café.
Architecturally, the Cathédrale de Notre-Dame, Sainte-Chapelle
and the Palais du Louvre , in the city's centre, provide a
constant reminder of Paris's religious and royal past. The backdrop of
the streets is predominantly Neoclassical, the result of
nineteenth-century development designed to reflect the power of the
French state. Each period since, however, has added, more or less
discreetly, novel examples of its own styles - with Auguste Perret,
Le Corbusier, Mallet-Stevens and Eiffel among the early
twentieth-century innovators. In recent decades, the architectural
additions have been more dramatic in scale, producing new and major
landmarks, and recasting down-at-heel districts into important centres
of cultural and consumer life. New buildings such as La Villette, La
Grande Arche de la Défense , the Opéra Bastille , the
Institut du Monde Arabe and the Bibliothèque Nationale have
expanded the dimensions of the city, pointing it determinedly towards
the future.
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Paris's museums and galleries , not least the mighty Louvre,
number among the world's finest. The tradition of state cultural
endowment is very much alive in the city and collections are exceedingly
well displayed and cared for. Many are also housed in beautiful
locations, such as old mansions and palaces, others in
bold conversions, most famously the Musée d'Orsay , which
occupies a former train station. The Impressionists here and at the
Musée Marmottan , the moderns at the Palais de Tokyo , the
smaller Picasso and Rodin museums - all repay a visit. In
addition, the contemporary scene is well represented in the
commercial galleries that fill the Marais, St-Germain, the Bastille
and the area around the Champs-Élysées, and there's an ever-expanding
range of museums devoted to other areas of human endeavour - science,
history, decoration, fashion and performance art.
Few
cities can compete with the thousand-and-one cafés, bars and
restaurants that line every Parisian street and boulevard. The
variety of style and décor, cuisine and price is hard to beat too.
Traditional French food has become increasingly innovative and the many
ethnic origins represented among the city's millions have opened
eateries providing a range of gastronomic options for every palate and
pocket.
The
city entertains best at night, with a deserved reputation for
outstanding film and music . Paris's cinematic prowess is
marked by annual film festivals, with a refreshing emphasis on art,
independent and international films. Music is equally revered, with
nightly offerings of excellent jazz, top-quality classical, avant-garde
experimental, international rock, West African soukous and
French-Caribbean zouk , Algerian raï , and traditional
chansons .
If
you've time, you should certainly venture out of the city. The region
surrounding the capital - the Île de France - is dotted with cathedrals
and châteaux as stunning and steeped in history as the city itself -
Chartres, Versailles and Fontainebleau , for example. An
equally accessible excursion from the capital is that most un-French of
attractions, Disneyland Paris.
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