Paris, for All Seasons, All the Year Through

Day or night, Paris in all its splendour is a wonderful sight. Take an ILLUMINATIONS night tour of the city, which incorporates a cruise on the River Seine and a drive around Paris to some of the major sights not seen on the cruise. Paris at night is both elegant and romantic, with monuments lit up showing off their architectural splendour. It is what one imagines it to be and more.

In summer, when the daylight hours are longer, be sure to take the cruise that starts around 9pm so you can see the full effect of the city before and after the lights come on. Multilingual commentary is offered by a number of different cruise companies on different boats.

Quick Tips:

Learn a few phrases to get the communications ball rolling. Everyone knows Bonjour, Merci Beaucoup, S'il Vous Plait, Pardon . . . and a smile is the best passport, costs nothing, but means everything. Clichéd, I know, but it has worked well for me all the times I travel there.

Best Way To Get Around:

The Metropolitan can be a bit daunting at first, but once you have mastered the art of reading the Metro map, it is the best way to get around this complicated, congested, and confusing city, but worth every bit of the hassle and effort to get to know.

You may find it a bit dry from my description, but once there, it's hard to resist the lure of the golden dome.

Built by Louis XIV, the Hôtel des Invalides is the largest architectural project of his reign after Palais de Versailles. It was built for his wounded soldiers, who previously had no option but to live by stealing if they refused to join the abbeys, and they were obligated to take them in.

The construction was undertaken by Libéral Bruant, who built the eastern half of the building on the Grenelle plain between 1671 and 1674. The first group of veterans moved in immediately. Before the western section was completed, Louis replaced Bruant with Jules Hardouin-Mansart, who built the double church of the Invalides. The Soldiers' Church, for the pensioners, opened in 1677. And the Domed Church, reserved for the king and his entourage, opened in 1706.

The Soldiers' Church can be entered through a gallery on the second floor of the main court. It has an austere barrel vault that is 230 feet long, without a transept. There is a custom of hanging captured enemy flags from its ceiling, a custom that dates back to the age of the Empire. The flags hung here all date after March 17, 1814; on this date, the allies entered Paris, and Marshal Serurier, then Governer of the Invalide, ordered the destruction of all trophies.

The Dôme was originally conceived as a mausoleum of the Bourbons at St. Denis, but had never been carried through. The complex, centralized design of the building allowed for optimal light. More than 27,830 pounds of gold (approximately 555,000 gold leaves) was used on the dome, with up to 10 master goldsmiths deployed in 1989 for the production. After December 15, 1840, when Napoleon's ashes were brought back to Paris, the dome became the mausoleum of the Bonapartes. The crypt is 20 feet deep, with an opening 49 feet in diameter; it holds the Emperor's tomb, which is made of Finnish red porphyry.

The central pavilion, with the entrance to the Invalides, is rounded in shape and is decorated with a carved pediment depicting the Sun King.

Pensioners lived in the ancillary buildings with ordinary soldiers, sleeping five or six to a room, whilst officers' rooms had one or two beds. Invalid pensioners had individual rooms in the infirmary. Ten years of military service was the requirement for admittance to the Invalides, and prayers and mass were compulsory. The building can accommodate up to 2,000 veterans, but had 3,000 in 1710, functioning almost as a small town!

After the return of Napoleon's ashes, the mausoleum began to take precedence over the soldiers' homes. Today, cannons no longer fire at the Invalides to announce great events, but it still has a modern surgical hospital and houses the museums of the Army, Relief Maps and Plans, and the Liberation.

Notre Dame de Paris, at the geographic and historical heart of the capital, illustrates the splendors and variations of Gothic architecture between the mid-12th and the early 14th centuries. No other building is so associated with the history of Paris as Notre Dame. A Gothic masterpiece standing on the site of the Roman temple, at the time it was finished in about 1330, Notre Dame was 130 metres long and featured flying buttresses, a large transept, a deep choir, and 69-metre-high towers. It stands majestically on the Ile de la Cité, cradle of the city. Pope Alexander III laid the first stone in 1163, marking the start of 170 years of toil by armies of Gothic architects and medieval craftsmen. Ever since, a procession of the famous has passed through the three main doors below the massive towers. The simplicity and harmony of this impressive building derive from a skillful combination of horizontals and verticals.

Victor Hugo’s novel Notre Dame de Paris, published in 1831, drew the public’s attention to the building’s need of restoration. Restoration work, directed by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and Jean-Baptiste Lassus, was completed in 1864. It covered both the external structure and interior decorations. On the exterior, the carvings on the western façade and the southern transept were restored, as were the spire, the gables, and the pinnacles. On the interior, restoration work mainly affected the elevation bays and the structure of the windows.

The west front has three main doors with superb statuary, an openwork gallery, and a central rose window which depicts the Virgin in a medallion of rich reds and blues. The Portal of the Virgin, to the left, depicts the Virgin surrounded by saints and kings and is a fine composition of 13th-century statues. The Kings’ Gallery, to the right, features 28 kings of Judah gazing down on the crowds; it is a horizontal version of the tree of Jesse, which portrayed 28 statues of Christ’s ancestors up until 1793. They were restored in the 19th century. The south tower houses the cathedral’s famous Emmanuel bell, and the legendary Galerie des Chimières (gargoyles) hide behind a large upper gallery between the towers. The latter displays a number of monstrous creatures which reveal Viollet-le-Duc’s inventive imagination. It was rumoured that one of the gargoyles resembled his wife! You can get up close and personal with them by taking 387 steps up the north tower (left of entrance) for a small fee, which goes to the cathedral’s conservation fund.

The spire, designed by Viollet-le-Duc, soars to a height of 90 metres. And Jean Ravy’s spectacular flying buttresses, at the east end of the cathedral, have a span of 15 metres. The south façade’s Rose Window, with its central depiction of Christ, is an impressive 13 metres high. The transept was built at the start of Philippe-Auguste’s reign in the 13th century. The Treasury houses the cathedral’s religious treasures, including ancient manuscripts and reliquaries.

Notre Dame consists of a nave with five double bays flanked by double aisles, a short, wide transept punctuated at each end with magnificent rose windows, and a round apse with seven sections. The square vaults -- six over the central nave and four over the side aisles -- used a single type of pillar throughout to produce an effect of structural unity. In this majestic setting, kings and emperors were crowned, and royal Crusaders were blessed. But Notre Dame was also the scene of turmoil. Revolutionaries ransacked the place, banished religion, changed it into a temple to the Cult of Reason, and then used it as a wine store. Napoleon restored religion in 1804, and architect Viollet-le-Duc later restored the buildings.

From the main entrance, turn right toward the double-sided aisle and gaze upon Le Brun’s "May" paintings, which hang in the side chapels; these religious paintings were presented by Paris guilds, one a year to the cathedral, on each May Day in the 17th and 18th centuries.
►Continue toward the transept and arrive at the South Rose Window, which retains much of its original 13th-century stained glass. It depicts Christ in the centre, surrounded by virgins, saints, and the 12 apostles.
►Head to the middle and discover, against the southeast pillar of the transept, a 14th-century statue of the Virgin and Child. Originally from the chapel of St. Aignan, it is why this cathedral is called Our Lady of Paris.
►Toward the back is a high stone screen, which encloses the chancel and provides canons at prayer with peace and solitude from noisy congregations.
►Next, take a left to the heart of the cathedral, where behind the altar is Nicolas Coustou’s Pietà, also named the Virgin of Compassion, standing on a gilded base sculptured by François Girardon. On the other end is the humbled figure of Louis XIII, on bended knees, bare-headed, presenting his crown to the almighty. Louis XIII, who after many years of marriage was childless, pledged to erect a high altar and redecorate the east chancel to honour the Virgin if an heir was born to him. The future Louis XIV was born in 1638, and it was he who carried out his father’s vows 60 years after his birth. He ordered architect Robert de Cotte to renovate the choir, and Antoine Vassé created a high altar. Six angels of gilded bronze by the pillasters carry the instruments of the Passion.
►The carved woodwork choir stalls detail bas-reliefs on the back of the high stalls, with scenes from the life of the Virgin.
►On the north side of the transept is the 21-meter high, 13th-century stained-glass window depicting the Virgin, encircled by figures from the Old Testament. End your tour by going up the flight of steps of the north tower that leads to sights of the famous gargoyles and magnificent views of Paris.

Open daily between 8am and 7pm. Admission charge applies for going up the towers.

It is located in the district synonymous with intellectual life, centering cafés and bars frequented by philosophers, writers, actors, and musicians. It is where Victor Hugo used to live, and the site of the famous Musée d’Orsay.

Designed by Victor Lalour for the 1900 Universal Exhibition, the former Gare d’Orsay stands on the site of two former state buildings, which, in the early 19th century, were left in ruins due to the Paris Commune fires of 1870 to 1871. The Orléans Railway Company bought over the plot of land in 1897, with a view to make it a railway station for trains serving Nantes, Bordeaux, and Toulouse. Construction was completed within 2 years, just in time for the exhibition. Scheduled to be torn down in 1970, it was saved by the skin of its teeth, and in 1986, 47 years after it had closed as a mainline train station, the superb building was reopened as one of the foremost impressionist museums. A visit to this museum is a must even if you are not an art buff. And for art lovers (like myself), it can be a spiritual experience.

The long-distance terminus ceased operation in 1939, and the station, an immense hall with an arched vault 128 feet high, and running alongside it, a narrower hall topped by a series of seven cupolas, was then used for various purposes, including as an auction house and theater. The ceiling work illustrates the close partnership between construction workers and architects, and is characterised by a highly skilled system of roof timbers with no tie beams and monumental ornamentation, consisting of large caissons of molded plaster bound with vegetable fibres. Much of the original architecture was retained during the conversion from a railway station to a museum of note.

The facade that overlooks Rue de Bellechasse was the logical choice as the main entrance because of its peacefulness versus the windy quay that faces north. A canopy, the old entrance hall, and a café provide visitors with a warm welcome.

The new museum was set up to present each of the arts of the period from 1848 to 1914 in the context of the contemporary society and all the various forms of creative activity happening at the time. The museum sought to capture the full diversity of this unusually dense and prolific period by focusing not only on painting, sculpture, decorative, and graphic arts, but also on other visual arts, such as architecture, town planning, movies, posters, and press and illustrated books.

The vast collection is housed on three levels. The ground floor displays works from the mid- to late 19th century. The middle level features Art Nouveau decorative art and a range of paintings and sculptures from the second half of the 19th to 20th century. The upper level has an outstanding collection of art from the Impressionist and neo-Impressionist movement. A tour of the museum is chronological.

Personally, I find this to be more charming than Notre Dame, and every time I'm in Paris, I take a pilgrimage up the slopes of Montmartre.

A Romano-Byzantine church completed in 1914, it has quite a few treasures, including Eugène Benet's figure of Chirst.

At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, two Catholic businessmen made a private religious vow-that should France be spared the Prussian onslaught, they’d build a church and dedicate it to the Sacred Heart of Christ. The two men, Alexandre Legentil and Rohault de Fleury, lived to see Paris saved from invasion despite the war and a lengthy siege, and the beginnings of the Sacré-Coeur basilica project. Inspired by the church of St. Front in Périgueux, work began in 1875. Although completed in 1914, the German invasion forestalled its consecration until 1919.

Started by Paul Abadie, chief architect and designer,it took two other architects to complete it, 40 years after initiation. Construction was fraught with problems, starting with its foundations, which had to be dug deeper than anticipated because of the quarries under the hill-cost increased, work was delayed. Eighty-three pillars, 16 feet thick and standing on stone shafts, were driven into the hill to support the walls and columns. Because of this, it has been claimed that the basilica is the one that holds up the hill, not the other way around!

The facade is best viewed from the gardens that spread out below the church. One distinct feature is its ovoid dome, which is the second highest point in Paris after the Eiffel Tower. It boasts pristine white turrets and an 83m tall bell tower containing one of the world’s heaviest bells, the Savoyarde, weighing in at an enormous 18.5 tonnes with an 850 kilogram clapper. Relief sculptures adorn the bronze doors in the portico entrance, illustrating scenes from Christ’s life, such as the Last Supper. Above this main entrance, facing Place du Parvis du Sacré-Coeur, is the basilica’s most important statue, that of Christ, symbolically placed above two bronze saints by H Lefèbvre, one of whom is Joan of Arc, the other is Saint Louis.

Inside, Luc-Olivier Merson’s colossal mosaic of Christ dominates the chancel vault. Alongside the Virgin, the pope, and the saints of France, the mosaic depicts the Parisian cardinals, bishops, and the project’s initiators. A chapel in the basilica’s crypt also contains Legentil’s heart in a stone urn. The dome’s inner stone structure has a stained-glass gallery, with views of the whole interior; a climb up its spiral staircase offers a dizzying view of the square outside.

The best time to visit the Sacred Heart is either at sunrise or sunset. The basilica is not a parish church, but a place of pilgrimage, drawing Catholics from the world over. A continuous service is held here, manned at night by delegates from the Parisian parishes. It is open daily from 6:45am to 11pm. There is an admission charge for the dome and crypt.

Paris is a study in contrasts, and that’s what grabs me because I like both the ancient and the futuristic. As much as I admire the classical lines of the Arc de Triomphe, I also marvel at the magnitude of the Grande Arche de La Défense.

In 1962 former president François Mitterand started a programme to lovingly preserve and renovate rundown districts like Marais. Mitterand’s Grand Travaux, Great Works, also gave greater access to monuments and art collections and included plans to build monuments for the future, including Opéra de la Bastille, Cité des Sciences, and a national library, hence equipping Paris for the 21st century along with the "space-age" architecture of La Défense and its Grande Arche.

In 1664, Louis XIV commissioned Le Nôtre to redesign the gardens of the Tuileries. In doing so, the latter gave prominence to the central avenue, which he extended beyond the park up to today’s Rond-Point des Champs-Elysées and beyond to La Défense. The glorious vista created for a king’s view took on more functionality when La Défense was developed almost three centuries later. With isolated high-rise buildings on either side of an esplanade and traffic relegated to the outskirts or below the immense pedestrian podium, this subtle shift of perspective was appropriate, as the city centre now has fewer inhabitants than the suburbs. A realisation of modernity, although it was greatly criticised for its scale, it breaks away from traditional cityscape, but yet respects the vista from the west of Paris, which governs the central open space and position of the buildings and the Grande Arche, looking back towards the city from the height of its stone platform.

A century after the Eiffel Tower’s inauguration in 1889, at the time of the French Revolution’s Centenary, La Grande Arche was built to commemorate the Bicentennial. Inaugurated in 1989 at the Paris Summit, the Arche is an almost perfect cube, weighing 300,000 tons-30 times the mass of Eiffel Tower. Supported on 12 piers integrated into a transport network where it was impossible to dig foundations, its platforms and walls are held together by enormous frames. Measuring 361 feet high, wide, and deep, it can contain the Champs-Elysées in breadth and Notre Dame in height! Marble and glass panels cover its surface. Panoramic lifts pass through the nuage, cloud, on its way up to the Rooftop of Paris, which covers a hectare. Periodic exhibitions are held here, and there is a gallery showcasing scale models and plans of the structure’s architecture, along with a theatre, a restaurant, and bookshop. On a clear day, the terrace offers a magnificent view over the historic axis. In 1995 Martin Gray, celebrated author of Au Nom de Tous Les Miens, took over the operations of the Toit de la Grande Arche, turning it into an homage to human rights and a place for the Futur action, dedicated to youth worldwide.

Open daily (10am to 7pm); admission: 40FF per adult, 30FF per child (above 6); Tel: (33)(1)4907-2727.