Welcome back to my guide to Paris. On the previous post I’ve started the part about the “arrondissment” so I’m gonna start from there.

1eme arrondissment: Don’t miss the Saint Eustache church and a quick tour of the Forum des Halles. The Halles were the ancient market of Paris, right now there’s a quite big garden and a mall and this is the meeting point on Saturdays’ afternoons for people from the “banlieu” (the outskirts of the city).
If you can speak french (and, if you like, of course, theather) you should get some tickets for the Comedie Francaise. I went there once and my french was not the best but the theather is beautiful and it worth a visit. Comedie Francaise is close to Palais Royal. Palais Royal has a great garden where sometimes there are some festivals and concert.
From Palais Royal get to Place Vendome and then Opera Garnier.

2eme arrondissment: it’s the financial district of the city with the Stock Exchange (Bourse). A thing that worth a visit is the Passage des Panoramas and the Passage du Caire. There are several Art Galleries and the Mairie (8, Rue de la Banque) offers a lot of  entertaining things.

Some curious facts:

Bibliotheque National (58, Rue de Richelieu): it was created by Charles V in the XIVth century in Paris, then it was moved by Charles VII and Louis XII to the castles of Blois and d’Amboise

Academie de Magie (46, Gallerie Vivienne): it was founded in 1786 by the Queen of France and by Cagliostro, occultist and adventurer, he was famous because of his strange “affaires”

27, Boulevard Poissonniere: Chopin lived here for a while

61,Rue de Richelieu: Stendhal lived here and wrote the “Rouge et Noir” and “Les promenades dans Rome” at 69, Rue de Richelieu

3eme arr: If you like Modern Art, Centre Pompidou (or Beaubourg) is definitely your place. In front of the building there are a lot of street artists. Other interesting spots are the “Archives Nationales”, the “Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers” and the Pablo Picasso Museum.

On 51, Rue Montmorency there’s the most ancient house of Paris. Take a look at the “Square du Temple”, a quiet garden. Then visit the Hotel de Montmorency and Hotel de Marle. These “Hotels” are the ancient houses of the nobles.

If you want to discover something about the history of Paris, visit the Musee Carnevalet. It’s nice the Passage Vendome, near Place de la Republique.

4eme arrondissment: I’ve discovered recently that Notre Dames, the famous cathedral is in this arrondissment and not in the 1eme but anyway…this is one of the most interesting district of Paris. There are of course several sites like Notre Dames, Eglise Saint Merri, Eglise Saint Gervais Saint Protais, la Tour Saint Jacques (where pilgrims used to meet) but I really prefer some other secret things.

If you take the Rue de Rivoli, pass the Hotel de Ville and go in the direction of Place de la Bastille, check the Hotel Sully, get inside. It’s one of my favourite spots and you can get to Place des Vosges, one of the most beautiful square of Paris. Also in Rue de Rivoli there’s also the church Saint Paul, very impressive. Continue this street and you will get to Place de la Bastille. From there take the Viaduc des Arts: it’s a mile long promenade elevated with a garden. at the end of the promenade you will arrive in the 12eme arrondissment.

The Marais is the heart of the 4eme arrondissment and it’s the district of Jews (Rue de vielle Temple, Rue des Rosiers), Gays and artists. There are a lot of pubs/bar in that zone but the prices are quite high. If you’ve got the guide de Routard (it’s a classic french guide) don’t listen to their suggestions about places to have a lunch. I remember that I paid 8 euro for a small kebab and a coke. On Saturday several places are closed because of Jewish tradition. The beginning of Rue de Temple is just for gays (nothing against them but I mean that at night you won’t see a single girl!), then if you continue the street you will get to pubs and clubs that are crowded by students.

Near the Hotel de Ville there is one of the most famous “Grand Magazine” of Paris, called BHV (Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville). It’s really expensive usually bit if you are there in July there are a lot of discounts so if you are looking for presents and gifts it’s a good place.

to be continued

AT

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