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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, gastronomy, science, and arts, and has sometimes been referred to as the capital of the world. The City of Paris is the centre and seat of government of the region and province of Île-de-France, or Paris Region. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, in 2021 Paris was the city with the second-highest cost of living in the world, tied with Singapore, and after Tel Aviv. Paris hosts several United Nations organisations: the UNESCO, the Young Engineers / Future Leaders, the World Federation of Engineering Organizations, and other international organisations such as the OECD, the OECD Development Centre, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, the International Energy Agency, the International Federation for Human Rights, the International Organisation of La Francophonie; along with European bodies such as the European Space Agency, the Euro Banking Association or the European Securities and Markets Authority. Other international organisations were founded in Paris such as the CIMAC in 1951 (International Council on Combustion Engines | Conseil International des Machines à Combustion), or the modern Olympic Games in 1894 which was then moved to Lausanne, Switzerland. Tourism recovered in the Paris region in 2021, increasing to 22.6 million visitors, thirty percent more than in 2020, but still well below 2019 levels. The number of visitors from the United States increased by 237 percent over 2020. Museums re-opened in 2021, with limitations on the number of visitors at a time and a requirement that visitors wear masks. Wikipedia

Paris is one of the few world capitals that has rarely seen destruction by catastrophe or war. For this, even its earliest history is still visible in its streetmap, and centuries of rulers adding their respective architectural marks on the capital has resulted in an accumulated wealth of history-rich monuments and buildings whose beauty played a large part in giving the city the reputation it has today. At its origin, before the Middle Ages, the city was composed of several islands and sandbanks in a bend of the Seine; of those, two remain today: Île Saint-Louis and the Île de la Cité. A third one is the 1827 artificially created Île aux Cygnes. Modern Paris owes much of its downtown plan and architectural harmony to Napoleon III and his Prefect of the Seine, Baron Haussmann. Between 1853 and 1870 they rebuilt the city centre, created the wide downtown boulevards and squares where the boulevards intersected, imposed standard facades along the boulevards, and required that the facades be built of the distinctive cream-grey "Paris stone". They also built the major parks around the city centre. The high residential population of its city centre also makes it much different from most other western major cities. Paris's urbanism laws have been under strict control since the early 17th century,[144] particularly where street-front alignment, building height and building distribution is concerned. In recent developments, a 1974–2010 building height limitation of 37 metres (121 ft) was raised to 50 m (160 ft) in central areas and 180 metres (590 ft) in some of Paris's peripheral quarters, yet for some of the city's more central quarters, even older building-height laws still remain in effect.[144] The 210 metres (690 ft) Tour Montparnasse was both Paris's and France's tallest building since 1973,[145] but this record has been held by the La Défense quarter Tour First tower in Courbevoie since its 2011 construction. Parisian examples of historical architectural styles date back more than a millennium, including the Romanesque church of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés (1014–1163), the early Gothic Architecture of the Basilica of Saint-Denis (1144), the Notre Dame Cathedral (1163–1345), the Flamboyant Gothic of Saint Chapelle (1239–1248), the Baroque churches of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis (1627–1641) and Les Invalides (1670–1708). The 19th century produced the neoclassical church of La Madeleine (1808–1842), the Palais Garnier serving as an opera house (1875), the neo-Byzantine Basilica of Sacré-Cœur (1875–1919), as well as the exuberant Belle Époque modernism of the Eiffel Tower (1889). Striking examples of 20th-century architecture include the Centre Georges Pompidou by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano (1977), the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie by various architects (1986), the Arab World Institute by Jean Nouvel (1987), the Louvre Pyramid by I. M. Pei (1989) and the Opéra Bastille by Carlos Ott (1989). Contemporary architecture includes the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac by Jean Nouvel (2006), the contemporary art museum of the Louis Vuitton Foundation by Frank Gehry (2014)[146] and the new Tribunal de grande instance de Paris by Renzo Piano (2018). Aside from the 20th-century addition of the Bois de Boulogne, the Bois de Vincennes and the Paris heliport, Paris's administrative limits have remained unchanged since 1860. A greater administrative Seine department had been governing Paris and its suburbs since its creation in 1790, but the rising suburban population had made it difficult to maintain as a unique entity. To address this problem, the parent "District de la région parisienne" ('district of the Paris region') was reorganised into several new departments from 1968: Paris became a department in itself, and the administration of its suburbs was divided between the three new departments surrounding it. The district of the Paris region was renamed "Île-de-France" in 1977, but this abbreviated "Paris region" name is still commonly used today to describe the Île-de-France, and as a vague reference to the entire Paris agglomeration.[152] Long-intended measures to unite Paris with its suburbs began on 1 January 2016, when the Métropole du Grand Paris came into existence. Wikipedia

Greater Paris, comprising Paris and its three surrounding departments, received 38 million visitors in 2019, a record, measured by hotel arrivals. These included 12.2 million French visitors. Of foreign visitors, the greatest number came from the United States (2.6 million), United Kingdom (1.2 million), Germany (981 thousand) and China (711 thousand). The city's top cultural attraction in 2019 was the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur (11 million visitors), followed by the Louvre (9.6 million visitors); the Eiffel Tower (6.1 million visitors); the Centre Pompidou (3.5 million visitors); and the Musée d'Orsay (3.3 million visitors). The centre of Paris contains the most visited monuments in the city, including the Notre Dame Cathedral (now closed for restoration) and the Louvre as well as the Sainte-Chapelle; Les Invalides, where the tomb of Napoleon is located, and the Eiffel Tower are located on the Left Bank south-west of the centre. The Panthéon and the Catacombs of Paris are also located on the Left Bank of the Seine. The banks of the Seine from the Pont de Sully to the Pont d'Iéna have been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991. La Défense Other landmarks are laid out east to west along the historical axis of Paris, which runs from the Louvre through the Tuileries Garden, the Luxor Column in the Place de la Concorde, and the Arc de Triomphe, to the Grande Arche of La Défense. Several other much-visited landmarks are located in the suburbs of the city; the Basilica of St Denis, in Seine-Saint-Denis, is the birthplace of the Gothic style of architecture and the royal necropolis of French kings and queens. The Paris region hosts three other UNESCO Heritage sites: the Palace of Versailles in the west, the Palace of Fontainebleau in the south, and the medieval fairs site of Provins in the east. In the Paris region, Disneyland Paris, in Marne-la-Vallée, 32 kilometres (20 miles) east of the centre of Paris, received 9.66 million visitors in 2017. Hotels In 2019, Greater Paris had 2,056 hotels, including 94 five-star hotels, with a total of 121,646 rooms.[216] Paris has long been famous for its grand hotels. The Hotel Meurice, opened for British travellers in 1817, was one of the first luxury hotels in Paris.[226] The arrival of the railways and the Paris Exposition of 1855 brought the first flood of tourists and the first modern grand hotels; the Hôtel du Louvre (now an antiques marketplace) in 1855; the Grand Hotel (now the InterContinental Paris Le Grand Hotel) in 1862; and the Hôtel Continental in 1878. The Hôtel Ritz on Place Vendôme opened in 1898, followed by the Hôtel Crillon in an 18th-century building on the Place de la Concorde in 1909; the Hotel Bristol on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in 1925; and the Hotel George V in 1928. In addition to hotels, in 2019 Greater Paris had 60,000 homes registered with Airbnb. Under French law, renters of these units must pay the Paris tourism tax. The company paid the city government 7.3 million euros in 2016. Wikipedia

Photography in paris: The inventor Nicéphore Niépce produced the first permanent photograph on a polished pewter plate in Paris in 1825. In 1839, after the death of Niépce, Louis Daguerre patented the Daguerrotype, which became the most common form of photography until the 1860s. [230] The work of Étienne-Jules Marey in the 1880s contributed considerably to the development of modern photography. Photography came to occupy a central role in Parisian Surrealist activity, in the works of Man Ray and Maurice Tabard.[233][234] Numerous photographers achieved renown for their photography of Paris, including Eugène Atget, noted for his depictions of street scenes, Robert Doisneau, noted for his playful pictures of people and market scenes (among which Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville has become iconic of the romantic vision of Paris), Marcel Bovis, noted for his night scenes, as well as others such as Jacques-Henri Lartigue and Henri Cartier-Bresson.[230] Poster art also became an important art form in Paris in the late nineteenth century, through the work of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jules Chéret, Eugène Grasset, Adolphe Willette, Pierre Bonnard, Georges de Feure, Henri-Gabriel Ibels, Paul Gavarni and Alphonse Mucha. Wikipedia

The Louvre received 2,8 million visitors in 2021, nearly the lowest since 1986, but up from 2.7 million in 2020.[235] Its treasures include the Mona Lisa (La Joconde), the Venus de Milo statue, Liberty Leading the People. The second-most visited museum in the city in 2021, with 1.5 million visitors, was the Centre Georges Pompidou, also known as Beaubourg, which houses the Musée National d'Art Moderne The third most visited Paris museum in 2021 in a building constructed for the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900 as the Orsay railway station, was the Musée d'Orsay, which had one million visitors, thirty percent up from 2020.[235]The Orsay displays French art of the 19th century, including major collections of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. The Musée de l'Orangerie, near both the Louvre and the Orsay, also exhibits Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, including most of Claude Monet's large Water Lilies murals. The Musée national du Moyen Âge, or Cluny Museum, presents Medieval art, including the famous tapestry cycle of The Lady and the Unicorn. The Guimet Museum, or Musée national des arts asiatiques, has one of the largest collections of Asian art in Europe. There are also notable museums devoted to individual artists, including the Musée Picasso, the Musée Rodin and the Musée national Eugène Delacroix. Paris hosts one of the largest science museums in Europe, the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie at La Villette. It attracted 648,828 visitors in 2020. The National Museum of Natural History located near the Jardin des plantes attracted 879,203 visitors in 2020. It is famous for its dinosaur artefacts, mineral collections and its Gallery of Evolution. The military history of France, from the Middle Ages to World War II, is vividly presented by displays at the Musée de l'Armée at Les Invalides, near the tomb of Napoleon. In addition to the national museums, run by the Ministry of Culture, the City of Paris operates 14 museums, including the Carnavalet Museum on the history of Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Palais de Tokyo, the House of Victor Hugo, the House of Balzac and the Catacombs of Paris. There are also notable private museums; The Contemporary Art museum of the Louis Vuitton Foundation, designed by architect Frank Gehry, opened in October 2014 in the Bois de Boulogne. Wikipedia

The largest opera houses of Paris are the 19th-century Opéra Garnier (historical Paris Opéra) and modern Opéra Bastille; the former tends toward the more classic ballets and operas, and the latter provides a mixed repertoire of classic and modern. In middle of the 19th century, there were three other active and competing opera houses: the Opéra-Comique (which still exists), Théâtre-Italien and Théâtre Lyrique (which in modern times changed its profile and name to Théâtre de la Ville). Philharmonie de Paris, the modern symphonic concert hall of Paris, opened in January 2015. Another musical landmark is the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, where the first performances of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes took place in 1913. Theatre traditionally has occupied a large place in Parisian culture, and many of its most popular actors today are also stars of French television. The oldest and most famous Paris theatre is the Comédie-Française, founded in 1680. Run by the Government of France, it performs mostly French classics at the Salle Richelieu in the Palais-Royal at 2 rue de Richelieu, next to the Louvre.[241] of Other famous theatres include the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe, next to the Luxembourg Gardens, also a state institution and theatrical landmark; the Théâtre Mogador, and the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Montparnasse. The music hall and cabaret are famous Paris institutions. The Moulin Rouge was opened in 1889. It was highly visible because of its large red imitation windmill on its roof, and became the birthplace of the dance known as the French Cancan. It helped make famous the singers Mistinguett and Édith Piaf and the painter Toulouse-Lautrec, who made posters for the venue. In 1911, the dance hall Olympia Paris invented the grand staircase as a settling for its shows, competing with its great rival, the Folies Bergère. Its stars in the 1920s included the American singer and dancer Josephine Baker. Later, Olympia Paris presented Dalida, Edith Piaf, Marlene Dietrich, Miles Davis, Judy Garland and the Grateful Dead. The Casino de Paris presented many famous French singers, including Mistinguett, Maurice Chevalier and Tino Rossi. Other famous Paris music halls include Le Lido, on the Champs-Élysées, opened in 1946; and the Crazy Horse Saloon, featuring strip-tease, dance and magic, opened in 1951. A half dozen music halls exist today in Paris, attended mostly by visitors to the city. Wikipedia

The city of Paris has notable examples of architecture of every period, from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. It was the birthplace of the Gothic style, and has important monuments of the French Renaissance, Classical revival, the Flamboyant style of the reign of Napoleon III, the Belle Époque, and the Art Nouveau style. The great Exposition Universelle (1889) and 1900 added Paris landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower and Grand Palais. In the 20th century, the Art Deco style of architecture first appeared in Paris, and Paris architects also influenced the postmodern architecture of the second half of the century . Very little architecture remains from the ancient town of Lutetia, founded by a Celtic tribe known as the Parisii in about the 3rd century BC. It was conquered by the Romans in 52 BC, and turned into a Gallo-Roman garrison town. It was rebuilt in the 1st century AD on the classic Roman plan; a north–south axis, or cardo (now rue Saint-Jacques); and an east–west axis, or decumanus, of which traces have been found on the Île de la Cité, at rue de Lutèce. The center of Roman administration was on the island; the Roman governor's palace stood where the Palais de Justice is located today. The right bank was largely undeveloped. The city grew up the Left Bank, on the slopes of Mount Saint-Geneviève. The Roman forum was on the summit of the hill, under the present Rue Soufflot, between the boulevard Saint-Michel and rue Saint-Jacques.[1] The Roman town had three large baths near the forum, supplied with water by a 46-kilometer-long aqueduct. Vestiges of one bath, the Thermes de Cluny, can still be seen on Boulevard Saint-Michel. It was the largest of the three baths, one hundred meters by sixty-five meters, and was built at the end of the 2nd century or beginning of the 3rd century BC, at the height of the town's grandeur. The baths are now part of the Musée national du Moyen Âge, or National Museum of the Middle Ages. Nearby, on rue Monge, are the vestiges of the Roman amphitheater, called the Arènes de Lutèce, which was discovered and restored in the 19th century. Though the population of the town was probably no more than 5–6 thousand persons, the amphitheater measured 130 meters by 100 meters, and could seat fifteen thousand persons. Fifteen tiers of seats remain from the original thirty-five. It was built in the 1st century AD and was used for the combat of gladiators and animals, and also for theatrical performances.[1] Another notable piece of Gallo-Roman architecture was discovered under the choir of Notre-Dame de Paris; the Pillar of the Boatmen, a fragment of a Roman column with carvings of both Roman and Gallic gods. It was probably made at the beginning of the 1st century during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius to honor the league of the boatmen, who played an important part in the town's economy and religious and civic life. It is now on display in the Roman baths at the Museum of the Middle Ages. Other fragments of Gallo-Roman architecture are found in the crypt under the square in front of the Cathedral of Notre Dame; and in the Church of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre, where several Roman columns, probably from a temple, were re-used in the late 12th century to build a Christian church. Unlike the Southern France, Paris has very few examples of Romanesque architecture; most churches and other buildings in that style were rebuilt in the Gothic style. The most remarkable example of Romanesque architecture in Paris is the church of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, built between 990 and 1160 during the reign of Robert the Pious. An earlier church had been destroyed by the Vikings in the 9th century. The oldest elements of the original church existing today are the tower (the belfry at the top was added in the 12th century), and the chapel of Saint Symphorien, on the south flank of the bell tower, built in the 11th century. It is considered the earliest existing place of worship in Paris. The gothic choir, with its flying buttresses, was added in the mid-12th century, it was consecrated by Pope Alexander III, in 1163. It was one of the earliest Gothic style elements to appear in a Paris church.[3] Romanesque and Gothic elements are found together in several old Paris churches. The church of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre (1147–1200) is the only surviving building of the vast Abbey of Montmartre, which once covered the top of the hill; it has both ancient Roman columns and one of the first examples of a Gothic arched ceiling, in the nave near the choir. The interior of the church of Saint-Julien-le-Pauvre (1170–1220) has been extensively rebuilt, but it still has massive Romanesque columns and the exterior is a classic example of the Romano-Gothic style. The former priory of Saint-Martin-des-Champs (1060–1140) has a choir and chapels supported by contreforts and a Romanesque bell tower. It now belongs to the Musee des Arts et Metiers. The Palais de la Cité In 987 Hugues Capet became the first King of France, and established his capital in Paris, though at the time his kingdom was little bigger than the Île-de-France, or modern Paris region. The first royal residence, the Palais de la Cité, was established within the fortress at the western end of the Île de la Cité, where the Roman governors had established their residence. Capet and his successors gradually enlarged their kingdom through marriages and conquests. His son, Robert the Pious (972–1031), built the first palace, the Palais de la Cité, and royal chapel within the walls of the fortress, and his successors embellished it over the centuries; by the reign of Philippe le Bel in the 14th century, it was the most magnificent palace in Europe. The tallest structure was the Grosse Tour, or great tower, built by Louis le Gros between 1080 and 1137. It had a diameter of 11.7 meters at the base and walls three meters thick, and remained until its demolition in 1776. The ensemble of buildings (seen in the image at right as they were between 1412 and 1416) included a royal residence, a great hall for ceremonies, and four large towers along the Seine on the north side of the island, as well as a gallery of luxury shops, the first Paris shopping center. Between 1242 and 1248 King Louis IX, later known as Saint Louis, built an exquisite Gothic chapel, Sainte-Chapelle, to house the relics of the Passion of Christ which he had acquired from the Emperor of Byzantium.[5] In 1358, a rebellion of the Parisian merchants against the royal authority, led by Étienne Marcel, caused the King, Charles V, to move his residence to a new palace, the Hôtel Saint-Pol, near the Bastille at the eastern edge of the city. The Palace was used occasionally for special ceremonies and to welcome foreign monarchs, but housed the administrative offices and courts of the Kingdom, as well as an important prison. The Great Hall was destroyed by a fire in 1618, rebuilt; another fire in 1776 destroyed the residence of the King, the tower of Montgomery. During the French Revolution, the revolutionary tribunal was housed in the building; hundreds of persons, including Queen Marie Antoinette, were tried and imprisoned there, before being taken to the guillotine. After the Revolution the Conciergerie served as a prison and courthouse. It was burned by the Paris Commune in 1871, but was rebuilt. The prison was closed in 1934, and the Conciergerie became a museum.[6] Several vestiges of the medieval Palais de la Cité, extensively modified and restored, can still be seen today; the royal chapel, Sainte-Chapelle; the Hall of the Men-at-Arms, (early 14th century), the former dining hall of the palace officials and guards, located underneath the now-vanished Great Hall; and the four towers along the Seine facing the right bank. The façade was built in the 19th century. The tower on the far right, the Tour Bonbec, is the oldest, built between 1226 and 1270 during the reign of Louis IX, or Saint Louis. It is distinguished by the crenelation at the top of the tower. It originally was a story shorter than the other towers, but was raised to match their height in the renovation of the 19th century. The tower served as the primary torture chamber during the Middle Ages. The two towers in the center, the Tour de César and the Tour d'Argent, were built in the 14th century, during the reign of Philippe le Bel. The tallest tower, the Tour de l'Horloge, was constructed by Jean le Bon in 1350, and modified several times over the centuries. The first public clock in Paris, was added by Charles V in 1370. The sculptural decoration around the clock, featuring allegorical figures of The Law and Justice, was added in 1585 century by Henry III. Much of the architecture of medieval Paris was designed to protect the city and King against attack; walls, towers, and castles. Between 1190 and 1202, King Philippe-Auguste began construction of a wall five kilometers long to protect the city on the right bank. The wall was reinforced by seventy-seven circular towers, each no more than six meters in diameter. He also began construction of a large castle, the Louvre, where the wall met the river. The Louvre was protected by a moat and a wall with ten towers. In the center was a massive circular donjon or tower, thirty meters high and fifteen meters in diameter. It was not then the residence of the King, but Philippe Auguste placed the royal archives there. Another walled complex of buildings, the Temple, the headquarters of the Knights Templar, was located on the right bank, centered around a massive tower.[7] The city on the right bank continued to grow outwards. The Provost of the Merchants, Étienne Marcel, began building a new city wall in 1356, which doubled the area of the city. The Louvre, now surrounded by the city, was given rich decoration and a grand new stairway, and gradually became more of residence than a fortress. Charles V, in 1364–80, moved his primary residence from the City Palace to the Hôtel Saint-Pol, a comfortable new palace in the new Le Marais quarter. To protect his new palace and the eastern flank of the city, in 1370 Charles began building the Bastille, a fortress with six cylindrical towers. At the same time, further east, in the forest of Vincennes, Charles V built an even larger castle, the Château de Vincennes, dominated by another massive keep or tower fifty-two meters high. It was completed in 1369. Beginning in 1379, close to the Château, he began constructing a replica of Sainte-Chapelle. Unlike the Sainte-Chapelle in the city, the interior of the Sainte-Chapelle of Vincennes was not divided into two levels; the interior was a single space, flooded with light. The style of Gothic architecture was born in the rebuilding of the chevet of the Basilica of Saint-Denis, just outside Paris, finished in 1144. Twenty years later, the style was used on a much larger scale by Maurice de Sully in the construction of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. The construction continued until the 14th century, beginning with the twin towers on the west toward the choir in the east. The style evolved as the construction continued; the opening of the rose window on the western façade were relatively narrow; the great rose windows of the central transept were much more delicate, and allowed in much more light. At the western end, the walls were supported by buttresses built directly against the walls; in the center, completed later, the walls were supported by two steps of flying buttresses. In the last century of construction, the buttresses were able to cross the same distance with a single stone arch. The towers on the west were more stately and solemn, in the classic Gothic style, while the eastern elements of the cathedral, with its combination of rose windows, spires, buttresses and pinnacles, belonged to more elaborate and decorative style, called the Gothic rayonnant.[8] Other Paris churches soon adapted the Gothic style; the choir of Abbey church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés was completely rebuilt in the new style, with pointed arches and flying buttresses. The church of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre was rebuilt with ogives, or Gothic pointed arches. The church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerois, next to the Louvre, was given a portal inspired by Notre Dame, and the Church of Saint-Séverin was given a Gothic nave with the first triforium, or first-story side gallery, in Paris. The supreme example of the new style was the upper chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, where the walls seemed to be made entirely of stained glass.[8] The Gothic Style went through another phase between 1400 and about 1550; the Flamboyant Gothic, which combined extremely refined forms and rich decoration. The style was used not only in churches, but also in some noble residences. Notable existing examples are the Church of Saint-Séverin (1489–95) with its famous twisting pillar; the elegant choir of the church of St-Gervais-et-St-Protais; the Tour Saint-Jacques, the flamboyant Gothic vestige of an abbey church destroyed during the Revolution; and the chapel of the residence of the Abbots of Cluny, now the Museum of the Middle Ages, and the ceiling of the Tour Saint-Jean-Sans-Peur, a vestige of the former residence of the Dukes of Burgundy, in the 2nd arrondissement. The houses in Paris during the Middle Ages were tall and narrow; usually four or five stories. They were constructed of wooden beams on a stone foundation, with the walls covered by white plaster, to prevent fires. There was usually a shop located on the ground floor. Houses built of stone reserved for the wealthy; the oldest house in the Paris is considered to be the Maison de Nicolas Flamel, at 51 rue Montmorency in the 3rd arrondissement, built in 1407. it was not a private residence, but a kind of hostel. Two houses with exposed beams at 13-15 rue François-Miron in the 4th arrondissement, often described as Medieval, were actually built in the 16th and 17th centuries.[9] While there are no ordinary houses from the Middle Ages, there are several examples of manors built for the nobility and the high clergy. The Tour Jean-sans-Peur, at 20 rue Étienne-Marcel in the 2nd arrondissement, built in 1409–11, was part of the Hôtel de Burgogne, the Paris residence of the Dukes of Burgundy. Built by Robert de Helbuterne, it contains a stairway with a magnificent flamboyant gothic ceiling. The Hôtel de Cluny residence of the abbots of the Cluny Monastery, now the Musée national du Moyen Âge or National Museum of the Middle Ages (1490–1500), has a typical feature of manors of the period; a stairway in a tower on the exterior of the building, in the courtyard. It also contains a chapel with a spectacular flamboyant Gothic ceiling. The Hôtel de Sens was the Paris residence of the Archbishop of Sens, who had authority over the Bishops of Paris. It also featured a separate stairway tower in the courtyard. The Italian Wars conducted by Charles VIII and Louis XII, at the end of the 15th and early 16th century were not very successful from a military point of view, had a direct and beneficial effect on the architecture of Paris. The two Kings returned to France with ideas for magnificent public architecture in the new Italian Renaissance style, and brought Italian architects to build them. A new manual of classical Roman architecture by the Italian Serlio also had a major effect on the new look of French buildings. A distinctly French Renaissance style, lavishly using cut stone and lavish ornamental sculpture, developed under Henry II after 1539.[10] The first structure in Paris in the new style was the old Pont Notre-Dame (1507–12), designed by the Italian architect Fra Giocondo. It was lined with 68 artfully designed houses, the first example of Renaissance urbanism. King Francis I commissioned the next project; a new Hôtel de Ville, or city hall, for the city. It was designed by another Italian, Domenico da Cortona, and begun in 1532 but not finished until 1628. The building was burned in 1871 by the Paris Commune, but the central portion was faithfully reconstructed in 1882. A monumental fountain in the Italian style, the Fontaine des Innocents, was built in 1549 as a tribune for the welcome of the new King, Henry II, to the city on June 16, 1549. It was designed by Pierre Lescot with sculpture by Jean Goujon, and is the oldest existing fountain in Paris.[11] The first Renaissance Palace built in Paris was the Château de Madrid; it was a large hunting lodge designed by Philibert Delorme and erected between 1528 and 1552 west of the city in what is now the Bois de Boulogne. It was combination of both French and Italian Renaissance styles, with a high French-style roof and Italian loggias. It was demolished beginning in 1787, but a fragment can still be seen today in the Trocadero Gardens in the 16th arrondissement. Under Henry II and his successors, the Louvre was gradually transformed from a medieval fortress into a Renaissance palace. The architect Pierre Lescot and sculptor Jean Gouchon made the Lescot wing of the Louvre, a masterpiece of combined French and Italian Renaissance art and architecture, on the southeast side of the Cour Carrée of the Louvre (1546–53). Inside the Louvre, they made the staircase of Henry II (1546–53) and the Salle des Caryatides (1550). Both French and Italian elements were combined; the antique orders and paired columns of the Italian renaissance were combined with sculpted medallions and high roofs broken by windows (later known as the Mansard roof), which were characteristic of the French style.[12] After the accidental death of Henry II of France in 1559, his widow Catherine de' Medici (1519–1589) planned a new palace. She sold the medieval Hôtel des Tournelles, where her husband had died, and began building the Tuileries Palace in using architect Philibert de l'Orme. During the reign of Henry IV (1589–1610), the building was enlarged to the south, so it joined the long riverside gallery, the Grande Galerie, which ran all the way to the older Louvre Palace in the east. Most of the churches built in Paris in the 16th century are in the traditional Flamboyant style, though some have features borrowed from the Italian Renaissance. The most important Paris church of the Renaissance is Saint-Eustache, 105 meters long, 44 meters wide and 35 meters high, which in size and grandeur, approaches that of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame. King Francis I wanted a monument as the centrepiece for the neighborhood of Les Halles, where the main city market was located. The church was designed by the King's favorite architect, Domenico da Cortona. The project was begun in 1519, and construction began in 1532. The pillars were inspired by the monastery church of Cluny, and the soaring interior is taken from the gothic cathedrals of the 13th century, but Cortona added details and ornament taken from the Italian Renaissance. It was not completed until 1640.[11] The other churches of the period follow the more traditional flamboyant Gothic models. They include Saint-Merri (1520–52), with a plan similar to Notre-Dame; Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, which features impressive flying buttresses; and the Église Saint-Medard. whose choir was built in beginning in 1550; St-Gervais-et-St-Protais features a soaring gothic vault in the apse, but also had a transept a more sober classical style inspired by the Renaissance. (The baroque façade was added in the 17th century).in the Saint-Étienne-du-Mont (1510–86), near the modern Pantheon on Mont Sainte-Genevieve, has the only remaining Renaissance rood screen (1530–35), a magnificent bridge across the center of the church. The flamboyant gothic church of Saint-Nicholas-des-Champs (1559) has a striking Renaissance feature; a portal on right side inspired by designs of Philibert Delorme for the former royal residence, the Palace of Tournelles in the Marais. The ordinary Paris house of the Renaissance was little changed from the medieval house; they were four to five stories high, narrow, built on a stone foundation of wood covered with plaster. They usually had a "pigeon", or gabled roof. The two houses at 13–15 rue François Miron (actually built in the 16th or 17th century, but often described as medieval houses) are good examples of the Renaissance house.[9] Once the French court returned to Paris from the Loire Valley, the nobility and wealthy merchants began to build hôtels particuliers, or large private residences, mostly in the Marais. They were built of stone and richly decorated with sculpture. They were usually built around a courtyard, and separated from the street. The residence was a located between the courtyard and garden. The façade facing the courtyard had the most sculptural decoration; the façade facing the garden was usually rough stone. The Hôtel Carnavalet at 23 rue de Sévigné, (1547–49), designed by Pierre Lescot, and decorated with sculpture by Jean Goujon, is the best example of a Renaissance hôtel. As the century advanced, the exterior stairways disappeared and the façades became more classical and regular. A good example of the later style is the Hôtel d'Angoulême Lamoignon, at 24 rue Pavée in the 3rd arrondissement (1585–89), designed by Thibaut Métezeau. The architectural style of the French Renaissance continued to dominate in Paris through the Regency of Marie de' Medici. The end of the wars of religion allowed the continuation of several building projects, such as the expansion of the Louvre, begun in the 16th century but abandoned because of the war. With the arrival in power Louis XIII and the ministers Richelieu and Mazarin, a new architectural style, the Baroque, imported from Italy, began to appear in Paris. Its purpose, like Baroque music and painting, was to awe Parisians with its majesty and ornament, in opposition to the austere style of the Protestant Reformation. The new style in Paris was characterized by opulence, irregularity, and an abundance of decoration. The straight geometric lines of the buildings were covered with curved or triangular frontons, niches with statues or caryatids, cartouches, garlands of drapery, and cascades of fruit carved from stone. Louis XIV distrusted the unruly Parisians and spent as little time as possible in Paris, finally moving his Court to Versailles, but at the same time he wanted to transform Paris into "The New Rome", a city worthy of the Sun King. Over the course of his long reign, from 1643 until 1715, the architectural style in Paris gradually changed from the exuberance of the Baroque to a more solemn and formal classicism, the embodiment in stone of the King's vision of Paris as "the new Rome." The new Académie royale d'architecture, founded in 1671, imposed an official style, as the Academies of art and literature had earlier done. The style was modified again beginning in about 1690, as the government began to run short of money; new projects were less grandiose. In the 17th century, the first large-scale urban planning of Paris was initiated by royal ordinance, largely based on the model of Italian cities, including the construction of the first residential squares. The first two squares, Place Royale (now Place des Vosges, 1605–12) and Place Dauphine, the latter in place of the old royal garden on the Île-de-la-Cité, were both begun by Henry IV, who also completed the first Paris bridge without houses, the Pont Neuf (1599–1604). The Place Royale had nine large residences on each of its four sides, with identical façades. The Place Dauphine had forty houses on its three sides (of which just two remain today). Louis XIV continued the style with Place des Victoires (1684–97) and Place Vendôme (1699–1702). Both of these squares were (1) designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, (2) had statues of the King in the center, and (3) were financed largely by the sale of the houses around the squares. The residences around the latter two squares had identical classical façades and were built of stone, following Hardouin-Mansart's Grand Style used in his monumental buildings. The residential squares all had pedestrian arcades on the ground floors, and what became known as a mansart window breaking the line of the high roof. They set a model for European squares in the 18th century.[16] Urban planning was another important legacy of the 17th century. In 1667 formal height limits were imposed on Paris buildings; 48 pieds (15.6 metres (51 ft)) for wooden buildings and 50 to 60 pieds (16.25 to 19.50 metres (53.3 to 64.0 ft)) for buildings of stone, following earlier rules set in place in 1607. To prevent fires, the traditional gabled roof was banned. Beginning in 1669, under the new regulations, large blocks of houses of uniform height and uniform façades were built along several Paris streets on the right bank, notably rue de la Ferronnerie (1st arr.), rue Saint-Honoré (1st arr.), rue du Mail (2nd arr.), and rue Saint-Louis-en-Île on the Île Saint-Louis. They usually were built of stone and composed of an arched arcade on the ground floor with two to four stories above, the windows separated by decorative columns, and a high roof broken by rows of windows. This was the birth of the iconic Paris street architecture that dominated for the next two centuries.[17] Another element of the new architecture of Paris was the bridge. The Pont Neuf (1599–1604) and Pont Royal (1685–89), by engineer François Romain and architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart, were built without the rows of houses that occupied earlier bridges, and were designed to match the grand style of the architecture around them. After the assassination of Henry IV in 1610, his widow, Marie de' Medici, became the regent for the young Louis XIII and between 1615 and 1631 she built a residence for herself, the Luxembourg Palace, on the left bank. It was inspired by the palaces of her native Florence, but also by the innovations of the French Renaissance. The architect was Salomon de Brosse, followed by Marin de la Vallée and Jacques Lemercier. In the gardens, she built a magnificent fountain, the Medici Fountain, also on the Italian model. The construction of the Louvre was one of the major Paris architectural projects of the 17th century, and the palace architecture clearly showed the transition from the French Renaissance to the classical style of Louis XIV. Jacques Lemercier had built the Pavillon de l'Orloge in 1624–39 in an ornate baroque style. Between 1667 and 1678 Louis Le Vau, Charles Le Brun, François d'Orbay and Claude Perrault rebuilt the east exterior façade of the courtyard with a long colonnade. A competition was held in 1670 for the south façade, which included a proposal from the Italian architect Bernini. Louis XIV rejected Bernini's Italianate plan in favor of a classical design by Perrault, which had a flat roof concealed by a balustrade and a series of massive columns and triangular pediments designed to convey elegance and power. Louis Le Vau and Claude Perrault rebuilt the interior façade of the cour Carée of the Louvre in a more classical version than that of the facing Renaissance façade. The Louvre was gradually transformed from a Renaissance and baroque palace to the classical grand style of Louis XIV. Church architecture in the 17th century was slow to change. Interiors of new parish churches, such as Saint-Sulpice, Saint-Louis-en-l'Île and Saint-Roch largely followed the traditional Gothic floor-plan of Notre-Dame, though they did add façades and certain other decorative features from the Italian Baroque, and follow the advice of the Council of Trent to integrate themselves into the city's architecture, and they were aligned with the street. In 1675, an official survey on the state of church architecture in Paris made by architects Daniel Gittard and Libéral Bruant recommended that certain churches "so-called Gothic, without any good order, beauty or harmony" should be rebuilt "in the new style of our beautiful modern architecture", meaning the style imported from Italy, with certain French adaptations. The architect Salomon de Brosse (1571–1626) introduced a new style of façade, based on the traditional orders of architecture (Doric, Ionic and Corinthian), placed one above the other. He first used this style in the façade of the Church of St-Gervais-et-St-Protais (1616–20). The style of the three superimposed orders appeared again in the Eglise Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, the new Jesuit church in Paris, designed by the Jesuit architects Étienne Martellange and François Derand. Saint-Roch (1653–90), designed by Jacques Lemercier, had a Gothic plan but colorful Italian-style decoration. The most dramatic new feature of Paris religious architecture in the 17th century was the dome, which was first imported from Italy in about 1630, and began to change the Paris skyline, which hitherto had been entirely dominated by church spires and bell towers. The domed churches began as a weapon of the Counter-Reformation against the architectural austerity of the Protestants. The prototype for the Paris domes was the Church of the Jesu, the Jesuit church in Rome, built in 1568–84 by Giacomo della Porta. A very modest dome was created in Paris between 1608 and 1619 in the chapel of the Louanges on rue Bonaparte. (Today it is part of the structure of the École des Beaux-Arts). The first large dome was on the church of Saint-Joseph des Carmes, which was finished in 1630. Modifications in the traditional religious services, strongly supported by the growing monastic orders in Paris, led to modification in church architecture, with more emphasis on the section in the center of the church, beneath the dome. The circle of clear glass windows of the lower part of the dome filled the church center with light. The most eloquent early architect of domes was the architect François Mansart. His first dome was at the chapel of the Minimes (later destroyed), then at the chapel of the Church of the Convent of the Visitation Saint-Marie at 17 rue Saint-Antoine (4th arr.), built between 1632 and 1634. Now the Temple du Marais, it is the oldest surviving dome in the city. Another appeared on the Eglise-Saint-Joseph in the convent of the Carmes-dechaussés at 70 rue de Vaugirard (6th arr.) between 1628 and 1630. Another dome soon was built in the Marais; the dome of the Church of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis at 899-101 rue Saint-Antoine (1627–41), by Étienne Martellange and François Derand. It was followed by church of the Abbey of Val-de-Grâce (5th arr.) (1624–69), by Mansart and Pierre Le Muet; then by a dome on the Chapel of Saint-Ursule at the college of the Sorbonne (1632–34), by Jacques Lemercier; and the college des Quatres-Nations (now the Institute of France (1662–68), by Louis LeVau and François d'Orbay; and the church of Notre-Dame de l'Assomption de Paris on rue Saint-Honoré (1st arr.) (1670–76) by Charles Errard. The most majestic dome was that of the chapel of Les Invalides, by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, built between 1677 and 1706. The last dome of the period was for a Protestant church, the Temple de Pentemont on rue de Grenelle (7th arr.) (about 1700) by Charles de La Fosse. An elegant new form of domestic architecture, the rustic style, appeared in Paris in the wealthy Le Marais at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century. This style of architecture was usually used for ornate apartments in wealthy areas and for hôtels particuliers. It was sometimes called the "style of three crayons" because it used three colors; black slate tiles, red brick, and white stone. This architecture was expensive, having a variety of different materials, and ornate stone work. This style inspired the unique Palais de Versailles. The earliest existing examples are the house known as the Maison de Jacques Cœur at 40 rue des Archives (4th arr.) from the late 16th century; the Hôtel Scipion Sardini at 13 rue Scipion in the (5th arr,) from 1532, and the Abbot's residence at the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés at 3-5 rue de l'Abbaye, (6th arr.), from 1586. The most famous examples around found around the Place des Vosges, built between 1605 and 1612. Other good examples are the Hospital of Saint-Louis on rue Buchat (10th arr.) from 1607 to 1611; the two houses at 1-6 Place Dauphine on the Île de la Cité, from 1607 to 1612; and the Hôtel d'Alméras at 30 rue des Francs-Bourgeois (4th arr.), from 1612. The palatial new residences built by the nobility and the wealthy in the Marais featured two new and original specialized rooms; the dining room and the salon. The new residences typically were separated from the street by a wall and gatehouse. There was a large court of honor inside the gates, with galleries on either side, used for receptions, and for services and the stables. The house itself opened both onto the courtyard and onto a separate garden. One good example in its original form, between the Place des Vosges and rue Saint-Antoine, is the Hôtel de Sully, (1624–29), built by Jean Androuet du Cerceau.[21] After 1650 the architect François Mansart introduced a more classical and sober style to the hôtel particulier. The Hôtel de Guénégaud des Brosses at 60 rue des Archives (3rd arrondissement) from 1653 had a greatly simplified and severe façade. Beginning in the 1660s Mansart remade the façades of the Hôtel Carnavalet, preserving some of the Renaissance decoration and a 16th portal but integrating them into a more classical composition, with columns, pediments and stone bossage. During the first half of the 18th century, the grand style of Louis XIV, defined by the Royal Academy of Architecture and evoking power and grandeur, dominated Paris architecture. In 1722, Louis XV returned the court to Versailles, and visited the city only on special occasions.[22] While he rarely came into Paris, he did make important additions to the city's landmarks. His first major building was the École Militaire, a new military school, on the Left Bank. It was built between 1739 and 1745 by Ange-Jacques Gabriel. Gabriel borrowed the design of the Pavillon d'Horloge of the Louvre by Lemercier for the central pavilion, a façade influenced by Mansart, and Italian touches from Palladio and Giovanni Battista Piranesi.[23] In the second part of the century, a more purely neoclassical style, based directly on Greek and Roman models, began to appear. It was strongly influenced by a visit to Rome in 1750 by the architect Jacques-Germain Soufflot and the future Marquis de Marigny, the director of buildings for King Louis XV. They and other architects who made the obligatory trip to Italy brought back classical ideas and drawings which defined Paris architecture until the 1830s.[24] Soufflot's Roman trip led to the design of the new church of Saint Genevieve, now the Panthéon, the model of the neoclassical style, constructed on the summit of Mont Geneviéve between 1764 and 1790. It was not completed until the French Revolution, at which time it became a mausoleum for Revolutionary heroes. Other royal commissions in the new style included the royal mint, the Hotel des Monnaies on the Quai de Conti (6th arr.), with a 117-meter-long façade along the Seine, dominated by its massive central Avant-corps and vestibule decorated with Doric columns and caisson ceilings (1767–75). Churches in the first half of the 18th century, such as the church of Saint-Roche at 196 rue Saint-Honoré (1738–39) by Robert de Cotte and Jules-Robert de Cotte, stayed with the late baroque style of superimposed orders. Later churches ventured into neoclassicism, at least on the exterior. The most prominent example of a neoclassical church was the Church of Saint Genevieve (1764–90), the future Pantheon. The church of Saint-Philippe-du-Roule at 153 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré (8th arr.) (1764–84) by Jean-François Chalgrin had an exterior inspired by the early Paleo-Christian church, though the nave in the interior was more traditional. The Church of Saint-Sulpice in the 6th arrondissement, by Jean-Nicolas Servandont, then by Oudot de Maclaurin and Jean-François Chalgrin was given a classical façade and two bell towers (1732–80). Funding was exhausted before the second tower was finished, leaving the two towers different in style. The church of Saint-Eustache on rue-du-Jour (1st arr.) an example of both Gothic and Renaissance architecture, had its west faced redone by Jean Hardouin-Mansart and then Pierre-Louis Moreau-Desproux, into a neoclassical façade with two orders (1754–78), and was intended to have two towers, but only one was finished. A large church with a dome, similar to Les Invalides, had been planned for the Place de la Madeleine beginning in the 1760s. the King laid the cornerstone on April 3, 1763, but work halted in 1764. The architect, Pierre Contant d'Ivry, died in 1777, and was replaced by his pupil Guillaume-Martin Couture, who decided instead to base his church on the Roman Pantheon; a classic colonnade topped by a massive dome. At the start of the Revolution of 1789, however, only the foundations and the grand portico had been finished. The Régence and then the rule of Louis XV saw a gradual evolution of the style of the hôtel particulier, or mansion. The ornate wrought-iron balcony appeared on residences, along with other ornamental details called rocaille or rococo, often borrowed from Italy. The style first appeared on houses in the Marais, then in the neighborhoods of Saint-Honoré and Saint-Germain, where larger building lots were available. These became the most fashionable neighborhoods by the end of the 18th century. The new hôtels were often ornamented with curve façades, rotundas and lateral pavilions, and had their façades decorated with sculpted mascaron fruit, cascades of trophies and other sculptural decoration. The interiors were richly decorated with carved wood panels. The houses usually looked out onto courtyards on the front and gardens to the rear. The Hôtel de Chenizot, 51 rue Saint-Louis-en-Ile, by Pierre-Vigné de Vigny (about 1720), was a good example of the new style; it was a 17th-century house transformed by a new rocaille façade. In 1748, the Academy of Arts commissioned a monumental statue of the king on horseback by the sculptor Bouchardon, and the Academy of Architecture was assigned to create a square, to be called Place Louis XV, where it could be erected. The site selected was the marshy open space between the Seine, the moat and bridge to the Tuileries Garden, and the Champs-Élysées, which led to the Place de l'Étoile, convergence of hunting trails on the western edge of the city (now Place Charles de Gaulle). The winning plans for the square and buildings next to it were drawn by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel. Gabriel designed two large hôtels with a street between them, Rue Royale, designed to give a clear view of the statue in the center of the square. The façades of the two hôtels, with long colonnades and classical pediments, were inspired by Perrault's neoclassical façade of the Louvre. Construction began in 1754, and the statue was put in place and dedicated on 23 February 1763. The two large hôtels were still unfinished, but the façades were finished in 1765–66. The Place was the theatre for some of the most dramatic events of the French Revolution, including the executions of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The later part of the 18th century saw the development of new residential blocks, particularly on the left bank at Odéon and Saint-Germain, and on the right bank in the first and second arrondissements. The most fashionable neighborhoods moved from the Marais toward the west. with large residential buildings constructed in a simplified and harmonious neoclassical style. The ground floors were often occupied by arcades to give pedestrians shelter from the rain and the traffic in the streets. Strict new building regulations were put into place in 1783 and 1784, which regulated the height of new buildings in relation to the width of the street, regulating the line of the cornice, the number of stories and the slope of the roofs. Under a 1784 decree of the Parlement of Paris, the height of most new buildings was limited to 54 pieds or 17.54 meters, with the height of the attic depending upon the width of the building. Paris in the 18th century had many beautiful buildings, but it was not a beautiful city. The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau described his disappointment when he first arrived in Paris in 1731: I expected a city as beautiful as it was grand, of an imposing appearance, where you saw only superb streets, and palaces of marble and gold. Instead, when I entered by the Faubourg Saint-Marceau, I saw only narrow, dirty and foul-smelling streets, and villainous black houses, with an air of unhealthiness; beggars, poverty; wagons-drivers, menders of old garments; and vendors of tea and old hats."[29] In 1749, in Embellissements de Paris, Voltaire wrote: "We blush with shame to see the public markets, set up in narrow streets, displaying their filth, spreading infection, and causing continual disorders… Immense neighbourhoods need public places. The center of the city is dark, cramped, hideous, something from the time of the most shameful barbarism."[30] The uniform neoclassical style all around the city was not welcomed by everyone. Just before the Revolution the journalist Louis-Sébastien Mercier wrote: "How monotonous is the genius of our architects! How they live on copies, on eternal repetition! They don't know how to make the smallest building without columns… They all more or less resemble temples."[31] Even functional buildings were built in the neoclassical style; the grain market (now the Chamber of Commerce) was given a neoclassical dome (1763–69) by Nicolas Le Camus de Mézières. Between 1785 and 1787, the royal government built a new wall around the edges of the city (The Wall of the Ferme générale) to prevent smuggling of goods into the city. it had fifty-five barriers, many of them in the form of Doric temples, designed by Claude Nicolas Ledoux. A few still exist, notably at Parc Monceau. The wall was highly unpopular and was an important factor in turning opinion against Louis XVI, and provoking the French Revolution. In 1774 Louis XV had constructed a monumental fountain, the Fontaine des Quatre-Saisons, richly decorated with classical sculpture by Bouchardon glorifying the King, at 57–59 rue de la Grenelle. While the fountain was huge, and dominated the narrow street, it originally had only two small spouts, from which residents of the neighborhood could fill their water containers. It was criticized by Voltaire in a letter to the Count de Caylus in 1739, as the fountain was still under construction: I have no doubt that Bouchardon will make of this fountain a fine piece of architecture; but what kind of fountain has only two faucets where the water porters will come to fill their buckets? This isn't the way fountains are built in Rome to beautify the city. We need to lift ourselves out of taste that is gross and shabby. Fountains should be built in public places, and viewed from all the gates. There isn't a single public place in the vast faubourg Saint-Germain; that makes my blood boil. Paris is like the statue of Nabuchodonosor, partly made of gold and partly made of muck. During the French Revolution, the churches of Paris were closed and nationalized, and many were badly damaged. Most destruction came not from the Revolutionaries, but from the new owners who purchased the buildings, and sometimes destroyed them for the building materials they contained. The Church of Saint-Pierre de Montmartre was destroyed, and its church left in ruins. Parts of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés were turned into a gunpowder factory; an explosion destroyed many of the buildings outside the church. The Church of Saint-Genevieve was turned into a mausoleum for revolutionary heroes. The sculpture on the façade of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame was smashed or removed, and the spire torn down. Many of the abandoned religious buildings, particularly in outer neighborhoods of the city, were turned into factories and workshops. Much of the architecture of the Revolution was theatrical and temporary, such as the extraordinary stage sets created for the Festival of the Supreme Being on the Champs-de-Mars in 1794. However, work continued on some pre-revolutionary projects. The rue des Colonnes in the second arrondissement, designed by Nicolas-Jacques-Antoine Vestier (1793–1795), had a colonnade of simple Doric columns, characteristic of the Revolutionary period.. In 1806, in imitation of Ancient Rome, Napoléon ordered the construction of a series of monuments dedicated to the military glory of France. The first and largest was the Arc de Triomphe, built at the edge of the city at the Barrière d'Étoile, and not finished before July 1836. He ordered the building of the smaller Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel (1806–1808), copied from the arch of Arch of Septimius Severus and Constantine in Rome, next to the Tuileries Palace. It was crowned with a team of bronze horses he took from the façade of St Mark's Basilica in Venice. His soldiers celebrated his victories with grand parades around the Carrousel. He also commissioned the building of the Vendôme Column (1806–10), copied from the Trajan's Column in Rome, made of the iron of cannon captured from the Russians and Austrians in 1805. At the end of the Rue de la Concorde (given again its former name of Rue Royale on 27 April 1814), he took the foundations of an unfinished church, the Église de la Madeleine, which had been started in 1763, and transformed it into a 'temple à la gloire de la Grande Armée', a military shrine to display the statues of France's most famous generals. Many of Napoleon's contributions to Paris architecture were badly needed improvements to the city's infrastructure; He started a new canal to bring drinking water to the city, rebuilt the city sewers, and began construction of the Rue de Rivoli, to permit the easier circulation of traffic between the east and west of the city.[34] He also began construction of the Palais de la Bourse (1808–26), the Paris stock market, with its grand colonnade. it was not finished until 1826. In 1806 he began to build a new façade for the Palais Bourbon, the modern National Assembly, to match the colonnade of the Temple of Military Glory (now the Madeleine), directly facing it across the Place de La Concorde. Parisians had a taste for the Egyptian style long before Napoleon; pyramids, obelisks and sphinxes occurred frequently in Paris decoration, such as the decorative sphinxes decorating the balustrade of the Hotel Sale (now the Musée Picasso) (1654–1659), and small pyramids decorating the Anglo-Chinese gardens of the Château de Bagatelle and Parc Monceau in the (18th century). However, Napoleon's Egyptian campaign gave the style a new prestige, and for the first time it was based on drawings and actual models carried back the scholars who traveled with Napoleon's soldiers to Egypt; the style soon appeared in public fountains and residential architecture, including the Fontaine du Fellah on rue de Sèvres by François-Jean Bralle (1807) and the Fontaine du Palmier by Bralle and Louis Simon Boizot (1808). The sphinxes around this fountain were Second-Empire additions in 1856–58 by the city architect of Napoleon III, Gabriel Davioud. The grandest Egyptian element added to Paris was the Luxor Obelisk from the Luxor Temple, offered as a gift by the Viceroy of Egypt to Louis-Philippe, and erected on the Place de la Concorde in 1836. Examples continued to appear in the 20th century, from the Luxor movie palace on boulevard de Magenta in the 10th arrondissement (1921) to the Louvre pyramid by I. M. Pei (1988). Iron architecture made its Paris debut under Napoleon, with the construction of the Pont des Arts by Louis-Alexandre de Cessart and Jacques Lacroix-Dillon (1801–03). This was followed by a metal frame for the cupola of the Halle aux blé, or grain market (now the Paris Bourse de Commerce, or Chamber of Commerce). Designed by the architect François-Joseph Bélanger and the engineer François Brunet (1811). It replaced the wooden-framed dome built by Nicolas Le Camus de Mézières in 1767, which burned in 1802. It was the first iron frame used in a Paris building. The royal government restored the symbols of the old regime, but continued the construction of most of the monuments and urban projects begun by Napoleon. All of the public buildings and churches of the Restoration were built in a relentlessly neoclassical style. Work resumed, slowly, on the unfinished Arc de Triomphe, begun by Napoleon. At the end of the reign of Louis XVIII, the government decided to transform it from a monument to the victories of Napoleon into a monument celebrating the victory of the Duke of Angôuleme over the Spanish revolutionaries who had overthrown their Bourbon king. A new inscription was planned: "To the Army of the Pyrenees", but the inscription had not been carved and the work was still not finished when the regime was toppled in 1830.[38] The Canal Saint-Martin was finished in 1822, and the building of the Bourse de Paris, or stock market, designed and begun by Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart from 1808 to 1813, was modified and completed by Éloi Labarre in 1826. New storehouses for grain near the Arsenal, new slaughterhouses, and new markets were finished. Three new suspension bridges were built over the Seine: the Pont d'Archeveché, the Pont des Invalides and footbridge of the Grève. All three were rebuilt later in the century. The church of La Madeleine, begun under Louis XVI, had been turned by Napoleon into the Temple of Glory (1807). It was now turned back to its original purpose, as the Royal church of La Madeleine. To commemorate the memory of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to expiate the crime of their execution, King Louis XVIII built the Chapelle expiatoire designed by Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine in a neoclassical style similar to the Paris Pantheon on the site of the small cemetery of the Madeleine, where their remains (now in the Basilica of Saint-Denis) had been hastily buried following their execution. It was completed and dedicated in 1826. Several new churches were begun during the Restoration to replace those destroyed during the Revolution. A battle took place between architects who wanted a neogothic style, modeled after Notre-Dame, or the neoclassical style, modeled after the basilicas of ancient Rome. The battle was won by a majority of neoclassicists on the Commission of Public Buildings, who dominated until 1850. Jean Chalgrin had designed Saint-Philippe de Role before the Revolution in a neoclassical style; it was completed (1823–30) by Étienne-Hippolyte Godde. Godde also completed Chalgrin's project for Saint-Pierre-du-Gros-Caillou (1822–29), and built the neoclassic basilicas of Notre-Dame-du-Bonne Nouvelle (1823–30) and Saint-Denys-du-Saint-Sacrament (1826–35).[39] Other notable neoclassical architects of the Restoration included Louis-Hippolyte Lebas, who built Notre-Dame-de-Lorette (1823–36); (1823–30); and Jacques Ignace Hittorff, who built the church of Church of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul (1824–44). Hittorff went on to along a brilliant career in the reigns of Louis Philippe and Napoleon III, designing the new plan of the Place de la Concorde and constructing the Gare du Nord railway station (1861–66). A new form of commercial architecture had appeared at the end of the 18th century; the passage, or shopping gallery, a row of shops along a narrow street covered by a glass roof. They were made possible by improved technologies of glass and cast iron, and were popular since few Paris streets had sidewalks and pedestrians had to compete with wagons, carts, animals and crowds of people. The first indoor shopping gallery in Paris had opened at the Palais-Royal in 1786; rows of shops, along with cafes and the first restaurants, were located under the arcade around the garden. It was followed by the passage Feydau in 1790–91, the passage du Caire in 1799, and the Passage des Panoramas in 1800.[41] In 1834 the architect Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine carried the idea a step further, covering an entire courtyard of the Palais-Royal, the Galerie d'Orleans, with a glass skylight. The gallery remained covered until 1935. It was the ancestor of the glass skylights of the Paris department stores of the later 19th century. During the Restoration, and particularly after the coronation of King Charles X in 1824. New residential neighborhoods were built on the Right Bank, as the city grew to the north and west. Between 1824 and 1826, a time of economic prosperity, the quarters of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, Europe, Beaugrenelle and Passy were all laid out and construction began. The width of lots grew larger; from six to eight meters wide for a single house to between twelve and twenty meters for a residential building. The typical new residential building was four to five stories high, with an attic roof sloping forty-five degrees, broken by five to seven windows. The decoration was largely adapted from that of the Rue de Rivoli; horizontal rather than vertical orders, and simpler decoration. The windows were larger and occupied a larger portion of the façades. Decoration was provided by ornamental iron shutters and then wrought-iron balconies. Variations of this model were the standard on Paris boulevards until the Second Empire.[43] The hôtel particulier, or large private house of the Restoration, usually was built in a neoclassical style, based on Greek architecture or the style of Palladio, particularly in the new residential quarters of Nouvelle Athenes and the Square d'Orleans on Rue Taibout (9th arrondissement), a private residential square (1829–35) in the English neoclassical style designed by Edward Cresy. Residents of the square included George Sand and Frédéric Chopin. Some of the houses in the new quarters in the 8th arrondissement, particularly the quarter of François I, begun in 1822, were made in a more picturesque style, a combination of the Renaissance and classical style, called the Troubadour style. This marked the beginning of the movement away from uniform neoclassicism toward eclectic residential architecture. The architectural style of public buildings under the Restoration and Louis-Philippe was determined by the Academie des Beaux-Arts, or Academy of Fine Arts, whose Perpetual Secretary from 1816 to 1839 was Quatremère de Quincy, a confirmed neoclassicist. The architectural style of public buildings and monuments was intended to associate Paris with the virtues and glories of ancient Greece and Rome, as it had been under Louis XIV, Napoleon and the Restoration.[44] The first great architectural project of the reign of Louis-Philippe was the remaking of the Place de la Concorde into its modern form. The moats of the Tuileries were filled, two large fountains, one representing the maritime commerce and industry of France, the other the river commerce and great rivers of France, designed by Jacques Ignace Hittorff, were put in place, along with monumental sculptures representing the major cities of France.[45] On 25 October 1836, a new centerpiece was put in place; a stone obelisk from Luxor, weighing two hundred fifty tons, brought on a specially built ship from Egypt, was slowly hoisted into place in the presence of Louis-Philippe and a huge crowd.[46] In the same year, the Arc de Triomphe, begun in 1804 by Napoleon, was finally completed and dedicated. Following the return to Paris of the ashes of Napoleon from Saint Helena in 1840, they were placed with great ceremony in a tomb designed by Louis Visconti beneath the church of Les Invalides. Another Paris landmark, the column on the Place de la Bastille, was inaugurated on 28 July 1840, on the anniversary of the July Revolution, and dedicated to those killed during the uprising. Several older monuments were put to new purposes: the Élysée Palace was purchased by the French state and became an official residence, and under late governments the residence of the Presidents of the French Republic. The Basilica of Sainte-Geneviève, originally built as a church, then, during the Revolution, made into a mausoleum for great Frenchmen, then a church again during the Restoration, once again became the Panthéon, holding the tombs of great Frenchmen. The reign of Louis-Philippe saw the beginning of a movement to preserve and restore some of the earliest landmarks of Paris, inspired in large part by Victor Hugo's hugely successful novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (Notre-Dame de Paris), published in 1831. The leading figure of the restoration movement was Prosper Mérimée, named by Louis-Philippe as the inspector General of Historic Monuments. The Commission of Public Monument was created in 1837, and in 1842, Mérimée began compiling the first official list of classified historical monuments, now known as the Base Mérimée. The first structure to be restored was the nave of the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the oldest in the city. Work also began in 1843 on the cathedral of Notre Dame, which had been badly damaged during the Revolution, and stripped of the statues on its façade. Much of the work was directed by the architect and historian Viollet-le-Duc who, sometimes, as he admitted, was guided by his own scholarship of the "spirit" of medieval architecture, rather strict historical accuracy. The other major restorations projects were Sainte-Chapelle and the Hôtel de Ville, dating to the 17th century; the old buildings which pressed up against the back of the Hôtel de Ville were cleared away; two new wings were added, the interiors were lavishly redecorated, and the ceilings and walls of the large ceremonial salons were painted with murals by Eugène Delacroix. Unfortunately, all the interiors were burned in 1871 by the Paris Commune. At the same time, a small revolution was taking place at the École des Beaux-Arts, led by four young architects; Joseph-Louis Duc, Félix Duban, Henri Labrouste and Léon Vaudoyer, who had first studied Roman and Greek architecture at the Villa Medici in Rome, then in the 1820s began the systematic study of other historic architectural styles, including French architecture of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. They instituted teaching about a variety of architectural styles at the École des Beaux-Arts, and installed fragments of Renaissance and Medieval buildings in the courtyard of the school so students could draw and copy them. Each of them also designed new non-classical buildings in Paris inspired by a variety of different historic styles; Labrouste built the Sainte-Geneviève Library (1844–50); Duc designed the new Palais de Justice and Court of Cassation on the Île-de-la-Cité (1852–68); and Vaudroyer designed the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (1838–67), and Duban designed the new buildings of the École des Beaux-Arts. Together, these buildings, drawing upon Renaissance, Gothic and romanesque and other non-classical styles, broke the monopoly of neoclassical architecture in Paris. The first train stations in Paris were called embarcadère (a term used for water traffic), and their location was a source of great contention, as each railroad line was owned by a different company, and each went in a different direction. The first embarcadère was built by the Péreire brothers for the line Paris-Saint-Germain-en-Laye, at the Place de l'Europe. It opened on 26 August 1837, and with its success was quickly replaced by a larger building on rue de Stockholm, and then an even larger structure, the beginning of the Gare Saint-Lazare, built between 1841 and 1843. It was the station for the trains to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Versailles and Rouen. The Péreire brothers argued that Gare Saint-Lazare should be the unique station of Paris, but the owners of the other lines each insisted on having their own station. The first Gare d'Orléans, now known as the Gare d'Austerlitz, was opened on 2 May 1843, and was greatly expanded in 1848 and 1852. The first Gare Montparnasse opened on 10 September 1840 on avenue du Maine, and was the terminus of the new Paris-Versailles line on the left bank of the Seine. It was quickly found to be too small, and was rebuilt between 1848 and 1852 at the junction of rue de Rennes and boulevard du Montparnasse, its present location.[48] The banker James Mayer de Rothschild received the permission of the government to build the first railroad line from Paris to the Belgian border in 1845, with branch lines to Calais and Dunkerque. The first embarcadère of the new line opened on rue de Dunkerque in 1846. It was replaced by a much grander station, Gare du Nord, in 1854. The first station of the line to eastern France, the Gare de l'Est was begun in 1847, but not finished until 1852. Construction of a new station for the line to the south, from Paris to Montereau-Fault-Yonne began in 1847 and was finished in 1852. In 1855 it was replaced by a new station, the first Gare de Lyon, on the same site. The rapidly growing French economy under Napoleon III led to major changes in the architecture and urban design of Paris. New types of architecture connected with the economic expansion; railroad stations, hotels, office buildings, department stores and exposition halls, occupied the center of Paris, which previously had been largely residential. To improve traffic circulation and bring light and air to the center of the city, Napoleon's Prefect of the Seine, destroyed the crumbling and overcrowded neighborhoods in the heart of the city and built a network of grand boulevards. The expanded use of new building materials, especially iron frames, allowed the construction of much larger buildings for commerce and industry. When he declared himself Emperor in 1852, Napoleon III moved his residence from the Élysée Palace to the Tuileries Palace, where his uncle Napoleon I had lived, adjoining the Louvre. His Nouveau Louvre project continued the construction of the Louvre, following the grand design of Henry IV; he built the Pavillon Richelieu (1857), the guichets of the Louvre (1867), and rebuilt the Pavillon de Flore; he broke with the neo-classicism of the wings of the Louvre built by Louis XIV; the new constructions were perfectly in harmony with the Renaissance wings.[50] The dominant architectural style of the Second Empire was the eclectic, drawing liberally from the architecture of the Gothic style, Renaissance style, and style of Louis XV and Louis XVI. The best example was the Palais Garnier, begun in 1862 but not finished until 1875. The architect was Charles Garnier (1825–1898), who won the competition against a Gothic-revival style by Viollet-le-Duc. When asked by the Empress Eugenie what the style of the building was called, he replied simply "Napoleon III." It was at the time the largest theater in the world, but much of the interior space was devoted to purely decorative spaces; grand stairways, huge foyers for promenading, and large private boxes. The façade was decorated with seventeen different materials, marble, stone, porphyry and bronze. Other notable examples of Second Empire public architecture include the Palais de Justice and the Court of Cassation by Joseph-Louis Duc (1862–68); the Tribunal de commerce de Paris by Antoine-Nicolas Bailly (1860–65), and the Théâtre du Châtelet by Gabriel Davioud (1859–62) and Theater de la Ville, facing each other on Place du Châtelet. The Second Empire also saw the restoration of the famed stained glass windows and structure of Sainte-Chapelle by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc; and extensive restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris. Later critics complained that some of the restoration was more imaginative than precisely historical. The map and look of Paris changed dramatically under Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann. Haussmann demolished the narrow streets and crumbling medieval houses in the center of the city (including the house where he was born) and replaced them with wide boulevards lined by large residential buildings, all of the same height (Twenty meters to the cornice, or five stories on boulevards and four on narrower streets), with façades in the same style, and faced with the same cream-colored stone. He completed the east–west axis of the city center, the Rue de Rivoli begun by Napoleon, built a new north–south axis, Boulevard de Sébastopol, and cut wide boulevards on both the right and left banks, including the Boulevard Saint-Germain, Boulevard Saint-Michel, usually culminating in a domed landmark. if a dome was not already there, Haussmann had one built, as he did with the Tribunal de commerce de Paris and the Church of Saint-Augustin. The centrepiece of the new design was the new Palais Garnier, designed by Charles Garnier. In the latter years of the Empire, he built new boulevards to connect the city center with the eight new arrondissements which Napoleon III attached to the city in 1860, along with new city halls for each arrondissement. New city halls were also built for many of the original arrondissements. The new city hall of the First arrondissement by Jacques Ignace Hittorff (1855–60), close the medieval church of Saint-Germain-Auxerois the historic center of the city. The new city hall was in neo-Gothic style, echoing the medieval church, complete with a rose window. To provide green space and recreation for the residents of the outer neighborhoods of the city, Haussmann built large new parks Bois de Boulogne, Bois de Vincennes, Parc Montsouris and Parc des Buttes Chaumont to the west, east, north and south, filled with picturesque garden follies, as well as numerous smaller parks and squares where the new boulevards met. City architect Gabriel Davioud devoted considerable attention to the details of the city infrastructure. Haussmann also built a new water supply and sewer system under the new boulevards, planted thousands of trees along the boulevards, and ornamented the parks and boulevards with kiosks, gateways, lodges and ornamental grills, all designed by Davioud. Religious architecture finally broke away from the neoclassical style which had dominated Paris church architecture since the 18th century. Neo-Gothic and other historical styles began to be built, particularly in the eight new arrondissements farther from the center added by Napoleon III in 1860. The first neo-Gothic church was the Basilica of Sainte-Clothilde, begun by Christian Gau in 1841, finished by Théodore Ballu in 1857. During the Second Empire, architects began to use metal frames combined with the Gothic style; the Eglise Saint-Laurent, a 15th-century church rebuilt in Neo-Gothic style by Simon-Claude-Constant Dufeux (1862–65), and Saint-Eugene-Sainte-Cecile by Louis-Auguste Boileau and Adrien-Louis Lusson (1854–55); and Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Belleville by Jean-Bapiste Lassus (1854–59). The largest new church built in Paris during the Second Empire was Church of Saint Augustine (1860–71), by Victor Baltard, the designer of the metal pavilions of the market of Les Halles. While the structure was supported by cast-iron columns, the façade was eclectic. The industrial revolution and economic expansion of Paris required much larger structures, particularly for railroad stations, which were considered the new ornamental gateways to the city. The new structures had iron skeletons, but they were concealed by Beaux-Arts façades. The Gare du Nord, by Jacques Ignace Hittorff (1842–65), had a glass roof with iron columns thirty-eight meters high, while the façade was in the beaux-arts style faced with stone and decorated with statues representing the cities served by the railway. The most dramatic use of iron and glass was in the new central market of Paris, Les Halles (1853–70), an ensemble of huge iron and glass pavilions designed by Victor Baltard (1805–1874). Henri Labrouste (1801–1875) used iron and glass to create a dramatic cathedral-like reading room for the Bibliothèque nationale de France, site Richelieu (1854–75). The architecture of Paris created during the Belle Époque, between 1871 and the beginning of the First World War in 1914, was notable for its variety of different styles, from Beaux-Arts, neo-Byzantine and neo-Gothic to Art Nouveau, and Art Deco. It was also known for its lavish decoration and its imaginative use of both new and traditional materials, including iron, plate glass, colored tile and reinforced concrete. The fall of Napoleon III in 1871 and advent of the Third Republic was followed by the brief Paris rule of the Paris Commune (March–May 1871). In the final days of the Commune, as the French Army recaptured the city, the Communards pulled down the column in Place Vendôme and burned a number of Paris landmarks, including the 16th-century Tuileries Palace, the 17th-century Hôtel de Ville, the Ministry of Justice, the Cour des Comptes, the Conseil d'Etat, the Palais de la Légion d'Honneur, the Ministry of Finance, and others. The interior of the Tuileries Palace was completely destroyed, but the walls were still standing. Haussmann and others called for its restoration, but the new government decided it was a symbol of the monarchy and had the walls torn down. (A fragment of the building can be seen today in the Park of the Trocadero). Most of the others were restored to their original appearance. To celebrate the rebuilding of the city the Parisians hosted the first of three universal expositions which attracted millions of visitors to Paris, and transformed the architecture of the city. The Paris Universal Exposition of 1878 saw the building of the Palais du Trocadéro, an eclectic composition of Moorish, renaissance and other styles, on the hill of Chaillot by Gabriel Davioud and Jules Bourdais (1876–78). It was used in the Expositions of 1889 and 1900, and remained until 1937, when it was replaced by the Palais de Chaillot. The Paris Universal Exposition of 1889 celebrated the centenary of the French Revolution. The Eiffel Tower, (1887–89), conceived by entrepreneur Gustave Eiffel, and built by engineers Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nougier and architect Stephen Sauvestre, was the tallest structure in the world, was the gateway to the Exposition, and the Gallery of Machines, designed by Ferdinand Dufert and Victor Contamin, was the largest covered space in the world when it was built. It combined modern engineering with colorful polychrome decoration, typical of the Belle Epoque. The Paris Universal Exposition of 1900 extended to both the right and left banks of the Seine. It gave Paris three new landmarks; the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais and the Pont Alexandre III. The Beaux-Arts façade of the Grand Palais (1897–1900), designed by Henri Deglane, Charles Girault, Albert Louvet and Albert Thomas, was a synthesis of the grand neoclassical styles of Louis XIV and Louis XV. concealed a vast interior space covered by a glass roof resting on slender iron pillars. The Petit-Palais (1897–1900), by Charles Girault, borrowed elements of Italian Renaissance architecture, and French neoclassical decorative elements from Les Invalides, the hotels beside the Place de la Concorde and the palatial stables of the Château de Chantilly by Jean Aubert. Its interior was more revolutionary than the Grand Palais; Girault used reinforced concrete and iron to create a winding stairway along brightly lit galleries. The style of these two buildings, along with the colossal neoclassical style of Louis XVI, influenced the design of Paris residential and commercial buildings until 1920.[54] The Art Nouveau became the most famous style of the Belle Époque, particularly associated with the Paris Métro station entrances designed by Hector Guimard, and with a handful of other buildings, including Guimard's Castel Béranger (1898) at 14 rue La Fontaine, in the 16th arrondissement, and the ceramic-sculpture covered house by architect Jules Lavirotte at 29 Avenue Rapp (7th arrondissement).[55] The enthusiasm for Art Nouveau did not last long; in 1904 the Guimard Metro entrance at Place de l'Opera it was replaced by a more classical entrance. Beginning in 1912, all the Guimard metro entrances were replaced with functional entrances without decoration. From the 1870s until the 1930s the most prominent style for Paris churches was the Romano-Byzantine style; the model and most famous example was the Sacré-Cœur, by Paul Abadie, whose design won a national exposition. Its construction lasted the entire span of the Belle Epoque, between 1874 and 1913, under three different architects; it was not consecrated until 1919. It was modeled after the romanesque and Byzantine cathedrals of the early Middle Ages, which Abadie had restored. The style also appeared in the church of Notre-Dame d'Auteuil by Émile Vaudremer (1878–92) The church of Saint-Dominque, by Leon Gaudibert, (1912–25) followed the style of Byzantine churches, with a massive central dome. The first church in Paris to be constructed of reinforced concrete was Saint-Jean-de-Montmartre, at 19 rue des Abbesses at the foot of Montmartre. The architect was Anatole de Baudot, a student of Viollet-le-Duc. The nature of the revolution was not evident, because Baudot faced the concrete with brick and ceramic tiles in a colorful Art nouveau style, with stained glass windows in the same style. Aristide Boucicaut launched the first modern department store in Paris Au Bon Marché, in 1852. Within twenty years, it had 1,825 employees and an income of more than 20 million francs. In 1869 Boucicault began constructing a much larger store, with an iron frame, a central courtyard covered with a glass skylight. The architect was Louis-Charles Boileau, with assistance from the engineering firm of Gustave Eiffel. After more enlargements and modifications, the building was finished in 1887, and became the prototype for other department stores in Paris and around the world.[58] Au Bon Marché was followed by au Louvre in 1865; the Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville) in 1866, Au Printemps in 1865; La Samaritaine in 1870, and Galeries Lafayette in 1895. All the new stores glass skylights whenever possible to fill the stores with natural light, and designed the balconies around the central courts to provide the maximum of light to each section.[59] Between 1903 and 1907 the architect Frantz Jourdain created the interior and façades of the new building of La Samaritaine.[60] The safety elevator had been invented in 1852 by Elisha Otis, making tall office buildings practical, and the first skyscraper, the Home Insurance Building, a ten-story building with a steel frame, had been built in Chicago by Louis Sullivan in 1893–94, but Paris architects and clients showed little interest in building tall office buildings. Paris was already the banking and financial capital of the continent, and moreover, as of 1889 it had the tallest structure in the world, the Eiffel Tower. While some Paris architects visited Chicago to see what has happening, no clients wanted to change the familiar skyline of Paris.[61] The new office buildings of the Belle Époque often made use of steel, plate glass, elevators and other new architectural technologies, but they were hidden inside sober neoclassical stone façades, and the buildings matched the height of the other buildings on Haussmann's boulevards. The headquarters of the bank Crédit Lyonnais, built in 1883 on the boulevard des Italiens in 1883 by William Bouwens Van der Boijen, was in the Beaux-Arts style on the outside, but inside one of the most modern buildings of its time, using an iron frame and glass skylight to provide ample light to large hall where the title deeds were held. In 1907 the building was updated with a new entrance at 15 rue du Quatre-Septembre, designed by Victor Laloux, who also designed the Gare d'Orsay, now the Musée d'Orsay The new entrance featured a striking rotunda with a glass dome over a floor of glass bricks, which allowed the daylight to illuminate the level below, and the three other levels below. The entrance was badly damaged by a fire in 1996; the rotunda was restored, but the only a few elements still remain of the titles hall. The Belle Époque was the golden age of the Paris railroad station; they served as the gateways of the city for the visitors who arrived for the great Expositions. A new Gare de Lyon was built by Marius Tudor between 1895 and 1902, making the maximum use of glass and iron combined with a picturesque bell tower and Beaux-Arts façade and decoration. The café of the station looked down on the platform where the trains arrived. The Gare d'Orsay (now the Musée d'Orsay was the first station in the center of the city, on the site of the old Ministry of Finance, burned by the Paris Commune. It was built in 1898–1900 in the palatial Beaux-Arts style by architect Victor Laloux. It was the first Paris station to be electrified and to place the train platforms below street level, a model soon copied by New York and other cities. Private houses and apartment buildings in the Belle Époque were usually in the Beaux-Arts style, either neo-Renaissanace or neoclassical, or a mixture of the two. A good example is the Hôtel de Choudens (1901) by Charles Girault, built for a client who wanted a house in the style of the Petit Palais, which Giraud had designed. Apartment buildings saw changes in the interiors; with the development of elevators, the apartment of the wealthiest residents moved from the first floor above the street to the top floor. The rooflines of the new apartment buildings also changed, as the city removed the restrictions imposed by Haussmann; the most extravagant example was the apartment building at 27–29 quai Anatole-France in 7th arrondissement (1906), which sprouted profusion of turrets, spires and decorative arches, made possible by reinforced concrete.[64] A competition for new façades was held in 1898, and one winner was Hector Guimard for the design of a new apartment building, the Castel Béranger (1895–98), the first Paris building in the Art Nouveau style. The façade was inspired by the work of the Belgian Art Nouveau pioneer Victor Horta; it used both elements of medieval architecture and curved motifs inspired by plants and flowers. Horta designed every detail of the house, including furniture, wallpaper, door handles and locks. The success of the Castel Beranger led to Guimard's selection to design the entrance of stations of the new Paris Métro. In 1901, the façade competition was won more extravagant architect, Jules Lavirotte, who designed a house for the ceramic maker Alexandre Bigot which was more a work of inhabited sculpture than a building. The façade was entirely covered with decorative ceramic sculpture. The popularity of Art Nouveau did not last long; the last Paris building in the style was Guimard's own house, the Hôtel Guimard at 122 Avenue Mozart (1909–13). The Art Nouveau had its moment of glory in Paris beginning in 1898, but was out of fashion by 1914. The Art Deco, which appeared just before the war, became the dominant style for major buildings between the wars. The primary building material of the new era was reinforced concrete. The structure of the buildings was clearly expressed on the exterior, and was dominated by horizontal lines, with rows of bow windows and small balconies. They often had classical features, such as rows of columns, but these were expressed in a stark modern form; ornament was kept to a minimum, and statuary and ornament was often applied, as a carved stone plaque on the façade, rather than expressed in the architecture of the building itself.[66] The leading proponents of the Art Deco were Auguste Perret and Henri Sauvage. Perret designed the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the first Art Deco building in Paris, in 1913, just before the War. His major achievements between the wars were the building for the Mobilier National (1936) and the Museum of Public Works (1939), now the Economic and Social Council, located on place d'Iéna, with its giant rotunda and columns inspired by ancient Egypt. Sauvage expanded the La Samaritaine department store in 1931, preserving elements of the Art Nouveau interior and façades, while giving it an Art Deco form. He experimented with new, simpler forms of apartment buildings, including the stepped building, creating terraces for the upper floors, and covered concrete surfaces with white ceramic tile, resembling stone. He also was a pioneer in the use of prefabricated building materials, reducing costs and construction time. A related Paris fashion between the wars was the Style paquebot, buildings that resembled the ocean liners of the period, with sleek white façades, rounded corners, white façades, and nautical railings. They often were built on narrow pieces of land, or on corners. One example is the building at 3 boulevard Victor in the 15th arrondissement, built in 1935. The international expositions of the 1920s and 1930s left fewer architectural landmarks than the earlier exhibitions. The 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts had several very modern buildings, the Russian pavilions, the Art Deco Hôtel du collectionneur by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, and the Pavillon d'Esprit by Le Corbusier, but they were all torn down when the exhibit ended. One impressive Art Deco building from the 1934 Colonial Exposition survived; the Museum of the Colonies at la Port Doréé, by Albert Laprade, 89 meters long, with a colonnade and a front wall entirely covered with a bas-relief by Alfred Janniot on the animals, plants, and cultures the theme the cultures of the French colonies. The interior was filled with sculpture and murals from the period, still visible today. Today, the building is the Cité nationale de l'histoire de l'immigration, or museum of the history of immigration. The Paris International Exposition of 1937, held on the eve of World War II, was not a popular success; its two largest national pavilions were those of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, facing each other across the central esplanade. The chief architectural legacies were the Palais de Chaillot, where the old Palais de Trocadero had been, by Jacques Carlu, Louis Hippolyte Boileau and Léon Azéma, (1935–37), built of concrete and beige stone, and the Palais de Iena, facing it. Both were built in a monumental neoclassical style. The nearby Palais de Tokyo was another exhibit legacy, designed by André Auber, Jean-Claude Dondel, Paul Viard and Marcel Dastugue (1934–1937), in a similar neoclassic style, with a colonnade. It is now the modern art museum of the city of Paris. Another exhibit legacy is the former Museum of Public Works (1936–1948) at Place and Avenue Iena, by Auguste Perret. It contains an impressive rotunda and conference hall with a neoclassical façade, all built of reinforced concrete. After the War it was converted into the headquarters of the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council. The architect Auguste Perret had anticipated modern residential style in 1904, with an Art Deco house of reinforced concrete faced with ceramics on Rue Franklin. Henri Sauvage also made Art Deco residential buildings with clean geometric lines, made of reinforced concrete faced with white ceramic tiles. The architect Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, better known as Le Corbusier went further, designing houses in geometric forms, lacking any ornament. At age of twenty-one worked as an assistant in the office of Perret. In 1922, he opened his own architectural office with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret and built some of his first houses in Paris, notably the Villa La Roche at 10 square du Docteur-Blanche in the 16th arrondissement, built for a Swiss banker and art collector. Built in 1923, it introduced elements found in many of Corbusier's later buildings, including white concrete walls, was constructed in 1923, and introduced many of the themes found in Corbusier's later work, including an interior ramp between levels and horizontal bands of windows. He also designed the furniture for the house. Robert Mallet-Stevens pursued a similar modernist style, composed of geometric shapes, walls of glass, and an absence of ornament. He built a studio and residence with a large glass wall and spiral stairway for glass designer Louis Barillet at 15 square Vergennes (15th arrondissement) and constructed a series of houses for artists, each one different, on what is now known as rue Mallet-Stevens in the 16th arrondissement. One of the most striking houses of the 1920s was the house of artist Tristan Tzara at 15 avenue Junot in the 18th arrondissement, designed by the Austrian architect Adolf Loos. The interior was completely irregular: each room was of a different size, and on a different level. Another unusual house was the Maison de Verre or "Glass house" at 31 rue Saint-Guillaume in the 7th arrondissement, built for Doctor Dalace by Pierre Chareau, with Bernard Bijvoet (1927–31). It was made entirely of bricks of glass, supported by a metal frame.[68] Modernist buildings built in the 1920s and 1930s were relatively rare. The most characteristic Paris residential architect of the 1920s was Michel Roux-Spitz, who built a series of large luxury apartment buildings in the 1920s and 1930s, mostly in the 6th and 7th arrondissements. The buildings were all built of reinforced concrete, had white walls, often faced with stone, and horizontal rows of three-faced bow windows, a modernized version of the Haussmann apartment buildings on the same streets. Beginning in 1919, soon after the end of World War I, the French government began building public housing on a huge scale, particularly on the vacant land of the former fortifications around the city. The new buildings were called HBMs, or Habitations à bon marché (Low-cost residences). They were concentrated to the north, east and south of the city, while a more expensive type of housing, the ILM, or Immeubles à loyer moyen, or moderate priced residences, intended for the middle class, were built to the west of the city. A special agency of architects was established to design the buildings. The first group of 2,734 new housing units, called the Cité de Montmartre was built between the Portes of Clignancourt and Montmartre between 1922 and 1928. The new buildings were constructed of concrete and brick. The earliest buildings had many decorative elements, particularly at the roofline, including concrete pergolas. The decoration became less over the years, and over time the brick gave way gradually to reinforced concrete façades. Several new churches were built in Paris between the wars, in varied styles. The Église du Saint-Esprit (1928–32), located at 186 Avenue Daumesnil in the 12th arrondissement, was designed by Paul Tournon. It has a modern exterior made of reinforced concrete covered with red brick and a modern bell tower 75 meters high, but the central feature is a huge dome, 22 meters in diameter. The design, like that of the Sacré-Cœur Basilica, was inspired by Byzantine churches. The interior was decorated with murals by several notable artists, including Maurice Denis. The Église Saint-Pierre-de-Chaillot, at 31 avenue Marceau (16th), was designed by Émile Bois (1932–38). Its tower and massive Romanesque entrance was inspired by the churches of the Périgord region.[70] The Church of Sainte-Odile at 2 Avenue Stephane-Mallarmé (17th arrondissement), by Jacques Barges (1935–39) has a single nave, three neo-Byzantine cupolas, and the highest bell tower in Paris.[71] The Grand Mosque of Paris was one of the more unusual buildings constructed during the period. Intended to honor the Muslim soldiers from the French colonies who died for France during the war, it was designed by the architect Maurice Tranchant de Lunel, and built and decorated with the assistance of craftsmen from North Africa. The project was funded by the National Assembly in 1920, construction began in 1922, and it was completed in 1924, and dedicated by the President of France, Gaston Doumergue, and the Sultan of Morocco, Moulay Youssef. The style was termed "Hispano-Moorish" and the design was largely influenced by the Grand Mosque of Fez, Morocco. In the years after World War II, modernism became the official style for public buildings, both because it was new and fashionable, and partly because it was usually less expensive to build. Buildings were designed to express their function, using simple geometric forms, with a minimum of ornament and decoration. They were usually designed so that every office had its own window and view. The materials of choice were reinforced concrete, sometimes covered with aluminium panels, and glass. The term "Palais" used for many public buildings before the war was replaced by the more modest term "Maison", or "House." In place of decoration, the buildings often contained works of sculpture in interior courtyards and were surrounded by gardens. There was little if anything specifically French about the new buildings; they resembled modernist buildings in the United States and other parts of Europe, and, particularly under President François Mitterrand, were often designed by internationally famous architects from other countries. Among the earliest and most influential of the new public buildings was the Maison de la Radio (1952–1963), the headquarters of French national radio and television, along the Seine in the 16th arrondissement, designed by Henry Bernard. Bernard had studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, won the Prix de Rome, and eventually became the head of the Academy of Beaux-Arts, but he converted with enthusiasm to the new style. The Maison de la Radio was composed of two circular buildings fitted one inside the other, an outer circle facing the river, with a thousand offices, an inner circle made up of studios, and a 68-meter tall tower in the center, which contains the archives. It was originally designed with a concrete façade on the outer building, but it was modified and covered with a skin of aluminium and glass. It was described by its builders as a continuation toward the west of the line of great monuments beside the Seine: the Louvre, the Grand Palais, and Palais de Chaillot.[72] Other major public buildings in the monumental modernist style included the headquarters of UNESCO, the United Nations cultural headquarters, on Place Fontenoy in the 7th arrondissement, by Marcel Breuer, Bernard Zehrfuss and Pier Luigi Nervi (1954–1958), in the form of a tripod of three wings made of reinforced concrete, with gardens between the wings. Each office in the building benefited from natural light and an exterior view.[73] The headquarters of the French Communist Party at 2 Place du Colonel Fabien (19th arrondissement), was designed by Oscar Niemeyer, who had just finished designing Brasília, the new Brazilian capital city. It was constructed between 1969 and 1980 and was an eight-story block built on columns above the street, with a smooth undulating glass façade. The auditorium next to the building was half buried underground, covered by a concrete dome that allowed light to enter. In the 1970s, French Presidents began to build major architectural projects which became their legacy, usually finished after they left office. The first was Georges Pompidou, a noted admirer and patron of modern art, who made plans for what became, after his death in 1974, the Centre Pompidou. It was designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, and expressed all of its mechanical functions on the exterior of the building, with brightly colored pipes, ducts and escalators. The principal architectural projects begun by his successor, Giscard d'Estaing, were the conversion of the Musée d'Orsay, a central railroad station transformed into a museum devoted to 19th-century French art (1978–86), and the City of Sciences and Industry (1980–86) in the Parc de la Villette in the 19th arrondissement, whose features included the La Géode, a geodesic sphere 36 meters in diameter made of polished stainless steel, now containing an omnimax theater (1980–86), designed by Adrien Feinsilber.[75] Between 1981 and 1995, François Mitterrand had fourteen years in power, enough time to complete more projects than any president since Napoleon III. In the case of the Louvre Pyramid, he personally selected the architect, without a competition. He completed the projects begun by Giscard d'Estaing and began even more ambitious projects of his own, many of them designed for the celebration of the bicentennial of the French Revolution in 1989. His Grands travaux ("Great Works") included the Institut du Monde Arabe by architect Jean Nouvel, finished in 1987; the Grand Louvre, including the glass pyramid (1983–89) designed by I. M. Pei; the Grande Arche of La Défense by the Danish architect Johan Otto von Spreckelsen, a building in the form of a giant ceremonial arch, which marked the western end of the historical axis that began at the Louvre (inaugurated July 1989); the Opéra Bastille, by architect Carlos Ott, opened on 13 July 1989, the day before the bicentennial of the French Revolution, and a new building for the Ministries of the Economy and Finance, at Bercy (12th arrondissement) (1982–88), a massive building next to the Seine which resembled both a gateway to the city and a huge bridge with its feet in the river, designed by Paul Chemetov and Borja Huidobro. His last project was located on the other side of the Seine from the Finance Ministry; a group of four book-shaped glass towers for the Bibliothèque nationale de France (1989–95), designed by Dominique Perrault. The books were stored in the towers, while the reading rooms were located beneath a terrace between the buildings, with windows looking out onto a garden. Until the 1960s there were no tall buildings in Paris to share the skyline with the Eiffel Tower, the tallest structure in the city; a strict height limit of thirty-five meters was in place. However, in October 1958, under the Fifth Republic, in order to permit the construction of more housing and office buildings, the rules began to change. A new urban plan for the city was adopted by the municipal council in 1959. Higher buildings were permitted, as long as they met both technical and aesthetic standards. The first new tower to be constructed was an apartment building, the Tour Croulebarbe, at 33 rue Croulebarbe in the 13th arrondissement. It was twenty-two stories, and 61 meters high, and was completed in 1961. Between 1960 and 1975, about 160 new buildings higher than fifteen stories were constructed in Paris, more than half of them in the 13th and 15th arrondissements. Most of them were about one hundred meters high; several clusters of high-rises the work one developer, Michel Holley, who built the towers of Place d'Italie, Front de Seine, and Hauts de Belleville.[77] Two of the projects of residential towers were especially large: 29 hectares along the banks of the Seine at Beaugrenelle, and 87 hectares between Place de l'Italie and Tolbiac. Blocks of old buildings were torn town and replaced with residential towers.[78] Between 1959 and 1968, the old Montparnasse railway station was demolished and rebuilt nearby, making a large parcel of land available for construction. The municipal council learned of the project only indirectly, through a message from the ministry in charge of construction projects. The first plan, proposed in 1957, was a new headquarters for Air France, a state-owned enterprise, in a tower 150 meters high. In 1959, the proposed height was increased to 170 meters. In 1965, to protect the views in the historic part of the city, the municipal council declared that the new building should be shorter, so it would not visible from the esplanade of Les Invalides. In 1967, the Prefect of Paris, representing the government of President de Gaulle, overruled the municipal council decision, raised the height to two hundred meters, to create more rentable office space. The new building, built between 1969 and 1972, was (and still is) the tallest building within the city limits.[78] The growing number of skyscrapers appearing on the Paris skyline provoked resistance from the Paris population. In 1975, President Giscard d'Estaing declared a moratorium on new towers within the city, and in 1977 the City of Paris was given a new Plan d'Occupation des Sols (POS) or Land use plan, which imposed a height limit of twenty-five meters in the center of Paris and 31 meters in the outer arrondissements. Also, new buildings are required to be constructed right up to the sidewalk, without setbacks, further discouraging very tall buildings.[79] The building of skyscrapers continued outside of Paris, particularly in the new business district of La Défense. At the end of the 20th century, the tallest structure in the City of Paris and the Île-de-France was still the Eiffel Tower in the 7th arrondissement, 324 meters high, completed in 1889. The tallest building in the Paris region was the Tour First, at 225 meters, located in La Défense built in 1974. After the War Paris faced a severe housing shortage; most of the housing in the city dated to the 19th century and was in terrible condition. Only two thousand new housing units were constructed between 1946 and 1950. The number rose to 4,230 in 1951 and more than 10,000 in 1956. The office of public housing of the City of Paris acquired the cheapest land it could buy, at the edges of the city. In 1961, when land within the city was exhausted, they were authorized to begin buying land in the surrounding suburbs. The first postwar social housing buildings were relatively low- three or four stories. Much larger buildings began to appear in the mid-1950s. They were built with prefabricated materials and placed in clusters. They were known as HLMs, or Habitations à loyer moderé, or moderate-cost housing. A larger type of HLM began to appear in the mid-1950s, known as a barre, because it was longer than it was high. The usually had between 200 and 300 apartments, were built in clusters, and were often some distance from shops and public transportation. They were welcomed by the families who lived there in the 1950s and early 1960s, but in later years they were crowded with recent immigrants and suffered from crime, drugs and social unrest. Paris architecture since 2000 has been very diverse, with no single dominant style. In the field of museums and monuments, the most prominent name has been Jean Nouvel. His earlier work in Paris included the Institut du Monde Arabe (1982–87), and the Fondation Cartier (1992–94), which features a glass screen between the building and the street. In 2006 he completed the Musée du Quai Branly, the Presidential project of Jacques Chirac, a museum presenting the cultures of Asia, Africa and the Americas. It also included a glass screen between the building and the street, as well as a façade covered with living plants. In 2015, he completed the new Philharmonie de Paris at Parc de la Villette.[81] The American architect Frank Gehry also made a notable contribution to Paris architect, for his American Center in Bercy (1994), which became the home of the Cinémathèque Française in 2005; and for the building of the Louis Vuitton Foundation, a museum of modern and contemporary art in the Bois de Boulogne. A notable new style of French architecture, called Supermodernism by critic Hans Ibeling, gives precedence to the visual sensations, spatial and tactile, of the viewer looking at the façade. The best-known architects in this school are Jean Nouvel and Dominique Perrault. The Hôtel Berlier (1986–89) by Dominique Perrault, an office building at 26-34 rule Brunneseau in the 13th arrondissement, is a block of glass, whose structure is nearly invisible. Perrault also designed the new French National Library. The headquarters of the newspaper Le Monde at 74–84 boulevard August-Blanqui in the 13th arrondissement, designed by Christian de Portzamparc (2005), has a façade that resembles the front page of the newspaper. The administration building of the French Ministry of Culture at 182 rue Saint-Honoré (2002–04), by Francis Soler and Frédéric Druot, is an older structure whose façade is completely covered with an ornamental metal mesh. The Hôtel Fouquet's Barrière at 2 rue Vernet, 23 rue Quentin-Bauchart and 46 avenue George-V, in the 8th arrondissement, designed by Édouard François, is covered by a skin of concrete which is a molding of the façade of an historic neighboring building. One important theme of early-21st-century Paris architecture was making buildings that were ecologically friendly. The "Flower-Tower" built in 2004 by Édouard François, located at 23 rue-Albert-Roussel in the 17th arrondissement, is covered with the living foliage of bamboo plants, placed in concrete pots at the edges of the terraces on each floor, and watered automatically. The façade of the university restaurant building at 3 rue Mabillon in the 6th arrondissement, built in 1954, was recovered by architect Patrick Mauger with the logs of trees, to provide better thermal isolation. A public housing hostel for the homeless, the Centre d'hebergement Emmaüs, designed by Emmanuel Saadi in 2011, located at 179 quai de Valmy in the 10th arrondissement, is entirely covered by photo-voltaic panels for generating solar electricity. Another important theme in 21st-century Parisian architecture is the conversion of older industrial or commercial buildings for new purposes, called in French "reconversions" or "transcriptions". A large grain warehouse and flour mill in the 13th arrondissement were converted between 2002 and 2007 into buildings for the Paris Diderot University campus. The architects were Nicolas Michelin and Rudy Ricciotti. Les Docks, a large warehouse structure built before World War I alongside the Seine at 34 quai d'Austerlitz, was converted 2005–08 into the City of Fashion and Design, by means of a "plug-over" of ramps, stairways and passages. The architects were Jakob + MacFarlane. Wikipedia

Haussmann's renovation of Paris was a vast public works programme commissioned by Emperor Napoleon III and directed by his prefect of Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, between 1853 and 1870. It included the demolition of medieval neighbourhoods that were deemed overcrowded and unhealthy by officials at the time; the building of wide avenues; new parks and squares; the annexation of the suburbs surrounding Paris; and the construction of new sewers, fountains and aqueducts. Haussmann's work was met with fierce opposition, and he was finally dismissed by Napoleon III in 1870; but work on his projects continued until 1927. The street plan and distinctive appearance of the centre of Paris today are largely the result of Haussmann's renovation. Napoléon III dismissed Berger as the Prefect of the Seine and sought a more effective manager. His minister of the interior, Victor de Persigny, interviewed several candidates, and selected Georges-Eugène Haussmann, a native of Alsace and Prefect of the Gironde (capital: Bordeaux), who impressed Persigny with his energy, audacity, and ability to overcome or get around problems and obstacles. He became Prefect of the Seine on 22 June 1853, and on 29 June, the Emperor showed him the map of Paris and instructed Haussmann to aérer, unifier, et embellir Paris: to give it air and open space, to connect and unify the different parts of the city into one whole, and to make it more beautiful.[15] Haussmann went to work immediately on the first phase of the renovation desired by Napoléon III: completing the grande croisée de Paris, a great cross in the centre of Paris that would permit easier communication from east to west along the rue de Rivoli and rue Saint-Antoine, and north-south communication along two new Boulevards, Strasbourg and Sébastopol. The grand cross had been proposed by the Convention during the Revolution, and begun by Napoléon I; Napoléon III was determined to complete it. Completion of the rue de Rivoli was given an even higher priority, because the Emperor wanted it finished before the opening of the Paris Universal Exposition of 1855, only two years away, and he wanted the project to include a new hotel, the Grand Hôtel du Louvre, the first large luxury hotel in the city, to house the Imperial guests at the Exposition.[16] Under the Emperor, Haussmann had greater power than any of his predecessors. In February 1851, the French Senate had simplified the laws on expropriation, giving him the authority to expropriate all the land on either side of a new street; and he did not have to report to the Parliament, only to the Emperor. The French parliament, controlled by Napoléon III, provided fifty million francs, but this was not nearly enough. Napoléon III appealed to the Péreire brothers, Émile and Isaac, two bankers who had created a new investment bank, Crédit Mobilier. The Péreire brothers organised a new company which raised 24 million francs to finance the construction of the street, in exchange for the rights to develop real estate along the route. This became a model for the building of all of Haussmann's future boulevards.[17] To meet the deadline, three thousand workers laboured on the new boulevard twenty-four hours a day. The rue de Rivoli was completed, and the new hotel opened in March 1855, in time to welcome guests to the Exposition. The junction was made between the rue de Rivoli and rue Saint-Antoine; in the process, Haussmann restyled the Place du Carrousel, opened up a new square, Place Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois facing the colonnade of the Louvre, and reorganized the space between the Hôtel de Ville and the place du Châtelet.[18] Between the Hôtel and Ville and the Bastille square, he widened the rue Saint-Antoine; he was careful to save the historic Hôtel de Sully and Hôtel de Mayenne, but many other buildings, both medieval and modern, were knocked down to make room for the wider street, and several ancient, dark and narrow streets, rue de l'Arche-Marion, rue du Chevalier-le-Guet and rue des Mauvaises-Paroles, disappeared from the map.[19] In 1855, work began on the north-south axis, beginning with Boulevard de Strasbourg and Boulevard Sébastopol, which cut through the center of some of the most crowded neighborhoods in Paris, where the cholera epidemic had been the worst, between the rue Saint-Martin and rue Saint-Denis. "It was the gutting of old Paris," Haussmann wrote with satisfaction in his Memoires: of the neighborhood of riots, and of barricades, from one end to the other."[20] The Boulevard Sébastopol ended at the new Place du Châtelet; a new bridge, the Pont-au-Change, was constructed across the Seine, and crossed the island on a newly built street. On the left bank, the north-south axis was continued by the Boulevard Saint-Michel, which was cut in a straight line from the Seine to the Observatory, and then, as the rue d'Enfer, extended all the way to the route d'Orléans. The north-south axis was completed in 1859. The two axes crossed at the Place du Châtelet, making it the center of Haussmann's Paris. Haussmann widened the square, moved the Fontaine du Palmier, built by Napoléon I, to the center and built two new theaters, facing each other across the square; the Cirque Impérial (now the Théâtre du Châtelet) and the Théâtre Lyrique (now Théâtre de la Ville). In the first phase of his renovation Haussmann constructed 9,467 metres (6 miles) of new boulevards, at a net cost of 278 million francs. The official parliamentary report of 1859 found that it had "brought air, light and healthiness and procured easier circulation in a labyrinth that was constantly blocked and impenetrable, where streets were winding, narrow, and dark."[22] It had employed thousands of workers, and most Parisians were pleased by the results. His second phase, approved by the Emperor and parliament in 1858 and begun in 1859, was much more ambitious. He intended to build a network of wide boulevards to connect the interior of Paris with the ring of grand boulevards built by Louis XVIII during the restoration, and to the new railroad stations which Napoleon III considered the real gates of the city. He planned to construct 26,294 metres (16 miles) of new avenues and streets, at a cost of 180 million francs.[23] Haussmann's plan called for the following: On the right bank: The construction of a large new square, place du Chateau-d'Eau (the modern Place de la République). This involved demolishing the famous theater street known as "le boulevard du Crime", made famous in the film Les Enfants du Paradis; and the construction of three new major streets: the boulevard du Prince Eugène (the modern boulevard Voltaire); the boulevard de Magenta and rue Turbigo. Boulevard Voltaire became one of the longest streets in the city, and became the central axis of the eastern neighborhoods of the city. It would end at the place du Trône (the modern Place de la Nation). The extension of boulevard Magenta to connect it with the new railway station, the Gare du Nord. The construction of boulevard Malesherbes, to connect the place de la Madeleine to the new Monceau neighborhood. The construction of this street obliterated one of the most sordid and dangerous neighborhoods in the city, called la Petite Pologne, where Paris policemen rarely ventured at night. A new square, place de l'Europe, in front of the Gare Saint-Lazare railway station. The station was served by two new boulevards, rue de Rome and rue Saint-Lazaire. In addition, the rue de Madrid was extended and two other streets, rue de Rouen (the modern rue Auber) and rue Halevy, were built in this neighborhood. Parc Monceau was redesigned and replanted, and part of the old park made into a residential quarter. The rue de Londres and rue de Constantinople, under a new name, avenue de Villiers, was extended to porte Champerret. The Étoile, around the Arc de Triomphe, was completely redesigned. A star of new avenues radiated from the Étoile; avenue de Bezons (now Wagram); avenue Kleber; avenue Josephine (now Monceau); avenue Prince-Jerome (now Mac-Mahon and Niel); avenue Essling (now Carnot); and a wider avenue de Saint-Cloud (now Victor-Hugo), forming with Champs-Elysées and other existing avenues a star of 12 avenues.[24] Avenue Daumesnil was built as far as the new Bois de Vincennes, a huge new park being constructed on the east edge of the city. The hill of Chaillot was leveled, and a new square created at the Pont d'Alma. Three new boulevards were built in this neighborhood: avenue d'Alma (the present George V); avenue de l'Empereur (the present avenue du President-Wilson), which connected the places d'Alma, d'Iena and du Trocadéro. In addition, four new streets were built in that neighborhood: rue Francois-Ier, rue Pierre Charron, rue Marbeuf and rue de Marignan.[25] On the left bank: Two new boulevards, avenue Bosquet and avenue Rapp, were constructed, beginning from the pont de l'Alma. The avenue de la Tour Maubourg was extended as far as the pont des Invalides. A new street, boulevard Arago, was constructed, to open up place Denfert-Rochereau. A new street, boulevard d'Enfer (today's boulevard Raspail) was built up to the intersection Sèvres–Babylone. The streets around the Panthéon on Montagne Sainte-Geneviève were extensively changed. A new street, avenue des Gobelins, was created, and part of rue Mouffetard was expanded. Another new street, rue Monge, was created on the east, while another new street, rue Claude Bernard, on the south. Rue Soufflot, built by Rambuteau, was entirely rebuilt. On the Île de la Cité: The island became an enormous construction site, which completely destroyed most of the old streets and neighborhoods. Two new government buildings, the Tribunal de Commerce and the Prefecture de Police, were built, occupying a large part of the island. Two new streets were also built, the boulevard du Palais and the rue de Lutèce. Two bridges, the pont Saint-Michel and the pont-au-Change were completely rebuilt, along with the embankments near them. The Palais de Justice and place Dauphine were extensively modified. At the same time, Haussmann preserved and restored the jewels of the island; the square in front of the Cathedral of Notre Dame was widened, the spire of the Cathedral, pulled down during the Revolution, was restored, and Sainte-Chapelle and the ancient Conciergerie were saved and restored.[26] The grand projects of the second phase were mostly welcomed, but also caused criticism. Haussmann was especially criticized for his taking large parts of the Jardin du Luxembourg to make room for the present-day boulevard Raspail, and for its connection with the boulevard Saint-Michel. The Medici Fountain had to be moved further into the park, and was reconstructed with the addition of statuary and a long basin of water.[27] Haussmann was also criticized for the growing cost of his projects; the estimated cost for the 26,290 metres (86,250 ft) of new avenues had been 180 million francs, but grew to 410 million francs; property owners whose buildings had been expropriated won a legal case entitling them to a larger payments, and many property owners found ingenious ways to increase the value of their expropriated properties by inventing non-existent shops and businesses, and charging the city for lost revenue.[28] Haussmann found creative ways to raise more money for the grand projects while circumventing the Legislative Assembly, whose approval was otherwise needed for direct borrowing increases. The City of Paris began paying its contractors on the new works projects with vouchers instead of money; the vouchers were then purchased from the contractors by the city's lenders, mainly the mortgage bank Crédit Foncier. In this way Haussmann indirectly raised 463 million francs by 1867; 86% of this debt was owned by Crédit Foncier. This debt conveniently did not have to be included on the city's balance sheets.[29] Another method was the creation of a fund, the Caisse des Travaux de Paris, decreed by Napoléon III on 14 November 1858. Ostensibly it was intended to give the city greater freedom in executing the grand projects. Revenue from the sale of materials salvaged from the demolitions and the sale of lots left over from the expropriations went into this fund, amounting to some 365 million francs between 1859 and 1869. The fund expended much more than it took in, some 1.2 billion francs towards the grand projects during the ten years it existed. To offset some of the deficit, which the City of Paris was responsible for, Haussmann issued 100 million francs in securities from the fund guaranteed by the city. He only needed the approval of the city council to raise this new sum, and, like the voucher scheme, the securities were not included in the city's official debt obligations. The third phase of renovations was proposed in 1867 and approved in 1869, but it faced much more opposition than the earlier phases. Napoleon III had decided to liberalize his empire in 1860, and to give a greater voice to the parliament and to the opposition. The Emperor had always been less popular in Paris than in the rest of the country, and the republican opposition in parliament focused its attacks on Haussmann. Haussmann ignored the attacks and went ahead with the third phase, which planned the construction of twenty-eight kilometers (17 miles) of new boulevards at an estimated cost of 280 million francs.[23] The third phase included these projects on the right bank: The renovation of the gardens of the Champs-Élysées. Finishing the place du Château d'Eau (now Place de la Republique), creating a new avenue des Amandiers and extending avenue Parmentier. Finishing the place du Trône (now Place de la Nation) and opening three new boulevards: avenue Philippe-Auguste, avenue Taillebourg, and avenue de Bouvines. Extending the rue Caulaincourt and preparing a future Pont Caulaincourt. Building a new rue de Châteaudon and clearing the space around the church of Notre-Dame de Lorette, making room for connection between the gare Saint-Lazare and the gare du Nord and gare de l'Est. Finishing the place in front of the Gare du Nord. Rue Maubeuge was extended from Montmartre to the boulevard de la Chapelle, and rue Lafayette was extended to the porte de Pantin. The place de l'Opéra had been created during the first and second phases; the opera itself was to be built in the third phase. Extending Boulevard Haussmann from the place Saint-Augustin to rue Taitbout, connecting the new quarter of the Opera with that of Etoile. Creating the place du Trocadéro, the starting point of two new avenues, the modern President-Wilson and Henri-Martin. Creating the place Victor Hugo, the starting point of avenues Malakoff and Bugeaud and rues Boissière and Copernic. Finishing the Rond-Point of the Champs-Élysées, with the construction of avenue d'Antin (now Franklin Roosevelt) and rue La Boétie. On the left bank: Building the boulevard Saint-Germain from the pont de la Concorde to rue du Bac; building rue des Saints-Pères and rue de Rennes. Extending the rue de la Glacière and enlarging place Monge.[36] Haussmann did not have time to finish the third phase, as he soon came under intense attack from the opponents of Napoleon III. Haussmann's successor as prefect of the Seine appointed Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand, the head of Haussmann's department of parks and plantations, as the director of works of Paris. Alphand respected the basic concepts of his plan. Despite their intense criticism of Napoleon III and Haussmann during the Second Empire, the leaders of the new Third Republic continued and finished his renovation projects. 1875: completion of the Paris Opéra 1877: completion of the boulevard Saint-Germain 1877: completion of the avenue de l'Opéra 1879: completion of the boulevard Henri IV 1889: completion of the avenue de la République 1907: completion of the boulevard Raspail 1927: completion of the boulevard Haussmann Napoleon III and Haussmann commissioned a wide variety of architecture, some of it traditional, some of it very innovative, like the glass and iron pavilions of Les Halles; and some of it, such as the Opéra Garnier, commissioned by Napoleon III, designed by Charles Garnier but not finished until 1875, is difficult to classify. Many of the buildings were designed by the city architect, Gabriel Davioud, who designed everything from city halls and theaters to park benches and kiosks. His architectural projects included: The construction of two new railroad stations, the Gare du Nord and the Gare de l'Est; and the rebuilding of the Gare de Lyon. Six new mairies, or town halls, for the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th and 12th arrondissements, and the enlargement of the other mairies. The reconstruction of Les Halles, the central market, replacing the old market buildings with large glass and iron pavilions, designed by Victor Baltard. In addition, Haussmann built a new market in the neighborhood of the Temple, the Marché Saint-Honoré; the Marché de l'Europe in the 8th arrondissement; the Marché Saint-Quentin in the 10th arrondissement; the Marché de Belleville in the 20th; the Marché des Batignolles in the 17th; the Marché Saint-Didier and Marché d'Auteuil in the 16th; the Marché de Necker in the 15th; the Marché de Montrouge in the 14th; the Marché de Place d'Italie in the 13th; the Marché Saint-Maur-Popincourt in the 11th. The Paris Opera (now Palais Garnier), begun under Napoleon III and finished in 1875; and five new theaters; the Châtelet and Théâtre Lyrique on the Place du Châtelet; the Gaîté, Vaudeville and Panorama. Five lycées were renovated, and in each of the eighty neighborhoods Haussmann established one municipal school for boys and one for girls, in addition to the large network of schools run by the Catholic church. The reconstruction and enlargement of the city's oldest hospital, the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris on the Île-de-la-Cité. The completion of the last wing of the Louvre, and the opening up of the Place du Carousel and the Place du Palais-Royal by the demolition of several old streets. The building of the first railroad bridge across the Seine; originally called the Pont Napoleon III, now called simply the Pont National. Since 1801, under Napoleon I, the French government was responsible for the building and maintenance of churches. Haussmann built, renovated or purchased nineteen churches. New churches included the Saint-Augustin, the Eglise Saint-Vincent de Paul, the Eglise de la Trinité. He bought six churches which had been purchased by private individuals during the French Revolution. Haussmann built or renovated five temples and built two new synagogues, on rue des Tournelles and rue de la Victoire.[49] Besides building churches, theaters and other public buildings, Haussmann paid attention to the details of the architecture along the street; his city architect, Gabriel Davioud, designed garden fences, kiosks, shelters for visitors to the parks, public toilets, and dozens of other small but important structures. Wikipedia

The tallest structure in the City of Paris and the Île de France remains the Eiffel Tower in the 7th arrondissement, 300 meters high (or 330 m including the broadcasting antenna at its top), completed in 1889 as the gateway to the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition. The tallest building in the Paris region is the Tour First, at 231 meters, located in La Defense. It is tied for ninth place among the tallest buildings in the European Union. The tallest building within the city limits of Paris is the Tour Montparnasse, 210 meters high. Wikipedia

Landmarks in Paris: The 1st arrondissement forms much of the historic centre of Paris. Place Vendôme is famous for its deluxe hotels such as Hôtel Ritz, The Westin Paris – Vendôme, Hôtel de Toulouse (headquarters of Banque de France), Hôtel du Petit-Bourbon, Hôtel Meurice, and Hôtel Regina[1] Les Halles were formerly Paris's central meat and produce market, and, since the late 1970s, are a major shopping centre. The old Halles were demolished in 1971 and replaced by the Forum des Halles. The central market, the biggest wholesale food market in the world, was transferred to Rungis, in the southern suburbs.[2] The Axe historique, is a line of monuments which begins in the first arrondissement at the center of the Louvre with equestrian statue of Louis XIV and continues through the 8th toward the west through the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, the Tuileries Gardens, the Luxor Obelisk erected in the centre of Place de la Concorde, the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe, centred in the Place de l'Étoile circus, the Avenue de la Grande Armée (through the 16th and the 17th), and ends at the Grande Arche de la Défense outside of Paris. The former Conciergerie prison held some prominent Ancien Régime members before their deaths during the French Revolution.[3] Also of note in the 1st arrondissement are the theatres Théâtre du Châtelet, Théâtre du Palais-Royal, squares such as Place des Pyramides, Place Dauphine, Place des Victoires and Place du Châtelet, the Comédie-Française, Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, the Palais de Justice and Palais-Royal. The 2nd arrondissement of Paris lies to the north of the 1st. The Boulevard des Capucines, Boulevard Montmartre, Boulevard des Italiens, Rue de Richelieu and Rue Saint-Denis are major roads running through the district. The 2nd arrondissement is the theatre district of Paris,[4] overlapping into the 3rd, and contains the Théâtre des Capucines and Théâtre-Musée des Capucines, Opéra-Comique, Théâtre des Variétés, Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, Théâtre du Vaudeville and Théâtre Feydeau. Also of note are the Académie Julian, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Café Anglais and Galerie Vivienne. The 3rd arrondissement is located to the northeast of the 1st. Le Marais is a trendy district spanning the 3rd and 4th arrondissements. It is architecturally very well preserved, and some of the oldest houses and buildings of Paris can be found there. It is a very culturally open place, known for its Chinese, Jewish and gay communities. The Place des Vosges, established in 1612 to celebrate the wedding of Louis XIII to Anne of Austria lies at the border of the 3rd and 4th arrondissements and is the oldest planned square in Paris,[6] and the Place de la République was named after the constitutional change in France. The 3rd arrondissement is noted for its museums such as Musée des Archives Nationales, Musée Picasso, Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Musée Cognacq-Jay, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme, Musée de la Poupée, Musée des Arts et Métiers and the Carnavalet Museum, and theatres such as Théâtre Déjazet, Théâtre de la Gaîté, and Théâtre du Marais. Several hotels are located in this district including Hôtel de Guénégaud and Hôtel de Soubise. The 4th arrondissement is located to the east of the 1st. Place de la Bastille (4th, 11th and 12th arrondissements, right bank) is a district of great historical significance, for not just Paris, but also all of France. Because of its symbolic value, the square has often been a site of political demonstrations, and it has a tall column commemorating the final resting place of the revolutionaries killed in 1830 and 1848.[8] Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, La Force Prison, Centre Georges Pompidou and Lycée Charlemagne are notable institutions here. The 12th-century cathedral Notre Dame de Paris on the Île de la Cité is one of the best-known landmarks of the 4th arrondissement, and there are the Gothic 13th-century Sainte-Chapelle palace chapel, Notre-Dame-des-Blancs-Manteaux, Saint-Louis-en-l'Île, Saint-Merri, Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, St-Gervais-et-St-Protais, and Temple du Marais. Roads running through the 4th arrondissement include Rue Charlemagne, Rue de Rivoli, Rue des Francs-Bourgeois, and Rue des Rosiers. There are also a number of notable hotels in the district, including Hôtel de Beauvais, Hôtel de Sully, Hôtel de Sens, Hôtel de Ville, Hôtel Lambert, and Hôtel Saint-Pol, and a significant number of bridges, including Pont au Change, Pont au Double, Pont de Sully, Pont Louis-Philippe, Pont Marie, Pont Notre-Dame, Pont Saint-Louis, and Pont Saint-Michel. Quartier Latin (5th and 6th arrondissements, "Left Bank") is a 12th Century scholastic centre formerly stretching between the "Left Bank's" Place Maubert and the Sorbonne campus of the University of Paris, is the oldest and one of the most famous colleges in Europe and the World.[10] It is known for its lively atmosphere and many bistros. Various higher-education establishments, such as Collège de France, Collège Sainte-Barbe, Collège international de philosophie, Sciences Po Paris, the École Normale Supérieure, Mines ParisTech, and the Jussieu university campus, make it a major educational centre in Paris. The Panthéon church is where many of France's illustrious men and women are buried.[11] Also of note is the Arab World Institute, Musée Curie, Hotel des Trois Colleges, Jardin des Plantes, Musée national du Moyen Âge, Muséum national d'histoire naturelle Paris Mosque, Paris Observatory, Sainte-Geneviève Library, and Théâtre de la Huchette. The 6th arrondissement, to the south of the centre and Seine has numerous hotels and restaurants and also educational institutions. Hotels located in the district include Hôtel Au Manoir Saint Germain des Prés, Hôtel de Chimay, Hôtel de Vendôme, Hôtel des Monnaies, Hôtel Lutetia, and L'Hôtel, cafés include Café de Flore, Café Procope, and Café de la Rotonde, and academies and schools include the Académie française, the medical school Académie Nationale de Médecine, Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Collège Stanislas de Paris, School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Paris Tech, and the American Graduate School in Paris, with its Business and Economics and International Relations and Diplomacy schools. Among the museums located in the 6th arrondissement are the Musée "Bible et Terre Sainte", Musée d'Anatomie Delmas-Orfila-Rouvière, Musée Dupuytren, and Musée Edouard Branly. The Jardin du Luxembourg contains one of the several small-scale Statues of Liberty in Paris.[13] It was created by Bartholdi who created the larger version of the statues which was sent as a gift from France to the United States in 1886 and now stands in New York City's harbour.[14] The Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe is located in this district, as is the Luxembourg Palace. The Pont des Arts, Pont Neuf, and Pont Saint-Michel bridges lead across the Seine to the historic centre. The 7th arrondissement lies to the southwest of the centre, across the Seine. The Eiffel Tower is the most famous landmark of the 7th arrondissement and of Paris itself. It was a "temporary" construction by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 Universal Exposition (early "World's Fair"), but was never dismantled and is now an enduring symbol of Paris, instantly recognized throughout the World. The Axe historique (Historical axis) is a line of monuments, buildings, and thoroughfares that run in a roughly straight line from the city centre westwards.[15] Many hotels are located in this district including Hôtel Biron, Hôtel de Castries, Hôtel de Conti, Hôtel de Mademoiselle de Condé, Hôtel du Châtelet, and Hôtel Matignon. The Invalides museum is the burial place for many great French soldiers, including Napoleon Bonaparte, later the Emperor Napoleon I, (1769–1821), and the 18th Century military school, Ecole Militaire, is also located here.[16] Other museums include the Musée Rodin and the Musée de la Légion d'honneur. The Ukrainian Embassy and the World Heritage Centre lie in the 7th arrondissement, and several bridges crossing the Seine include Pont de la Concorde and Pont Royal. The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is a 17th-century avenue connecting the Place de la Concorde and the Napoleonic Arc de Triomphe, which straddles the 8th, 16th and 17th arrondissements. It is a major tourist attraction and shopping street, one of the most famous routes of the World, hosting labels such as Sephora, Lancel, Louis Vuitton and Guerlain, as well as Renault, Toyota and numerous small souvenir outlets, and is perhaps the most well-known street in France.[17] The Canadian and American Embassies and many hotels lie in the 8th arrondissement, including Hôtel de Crillon, Hôtel Le Bristol Paris, Hôtel de la Marine, Hôtel de Marigny, Hôtel de Pontalba, Hôtel Fouquet's Barrière Four Seasons Hotel George V, Hotel Napoleon and Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild as well as the Les Ambassadeurs, Ledoyen, and Taillevent restaurants. Theatres located here include the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Théâtre des Folies-Marigny, Théâtre de la Madeleine and Théâtre Marigny, and museums include the Musée Cernuschi, Musée Jacquemart-André and Musée Nissim de Camondo. Place de la Concorde was built as the "Place Louis XV", site of the infamous guillotine and execution in 1793 of Louis XVI, the King of France during the French Revolution, (1789–1799), setting off the infamous "Reign of Terror", where the severed, bloody head of the King was exhibited to the crowds of Parisians. The Egyptian obelisk of Luxor is Paris's "oldest monument". On this square, on either side of the Rue Royale, there are two identical stone buildings: the eastern one houses the French Naval Ministry, the western the luxurious Hôtel de Crillon. Avenue Montaigne, next to the Champs-Élysées, is home to luxury brand labels such as "Chanel", "Prada", "Christian Dior" and "Givenchy". Faubourg Saint-Honoré is not only home to the Élysée Palace (official residence and home of the President of the French Republic, but is also one of the city's high-fashion districts with labels such as "Hermès" and "Christian Lacroix".[ The Église de la Madeleine is located in the 8th arrondissement. The 9th arrondissement lies north of the centre and is a continuation of the theatre and museum district with theatres including Théâtre de l'Athénée, Éden-Théâtre, Théâtre Mogador, Théâtre de l'Œuvre, Théâtre des Nouveautés, Théâtre du Vaudeville, Théâtre de Paris and Théâtre Verlaine, and museums such as Musée Grévin, Musée du Parfum, Musée national Gustave Moreau, Musée de la Franc-Maçonnerie and Musée de la Vie Romantique. The district also contains the Café de la Paix, Casino de Paris, Lycée Condorcet, Grand Synagogue of Paris, Salle des Concerts Herz, and several hotels such as Hôtel Drouot, Hôtel Guimard and Hôtel Thellusson. Avenue de l'Opéra is a Haussmannian thoroughfare created in the Second Empire, beginning in front of the Opéra Garnier on Place de l'Opéra and ending at Palais-Royal in the first arrondissement. In the vicinity of the Opéra Garnier is the capital's densest concentration of department stores and office buildings including the Printemps and Galeries Lafayette department stores, the Paris headquarters of BNP Paribas and American Express. The Palais Garnier, built in the later Second Empire period, houses the Paris Opera and the Paris Opera Ballet. The 10th arrondissement lies northeast of the centre and is a continuation of the theatre district with many theatres including Théâtre Antoine-Simone Berriau, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique, Théâtre de la Renaissance, Théâtre des Variétés-Amusantes and Théâtre du Gymnase Marie Bell. Roads running through the district include Boulevard de la Chapelle, Boulevard de Magenta Rue d'Abbeville, and Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis. Also of note is Musée de l'Éventail, Hôpital Saint-Louis, The Kurdish Digital Library, Lariboisière Hospital, Lycée Edgar-Poe, Prison Saint-Lazare and the Saint Laurent and Saint-Vincent-de-Paul churches. [24] The Alhambra music hall opened in 2008. The 11th arrondissement is located in eastern Paris, west of the 20th arrondissement. Roads running through the district include Boulevard du Temple, Boulevard Richard-Lenoir, Rue du Dahomey, Rue Oberkampf, and Rue Saint-Bernard. It contains the squares Place de la Nation, Place de la République, Place du 8 Février 1962, the theatres Bataclan, Théâtre des Folies-Dramatiques, Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique, Théâtre des Délassements-Comiques, and Théâtre des Funambules, the museums Musée du Fumeur and Musée Édith Piaf,[25] and La Roquette Prisons. The 12th arrondissement in the southeastern suburbs of Paris is separated from the 13th by the Seine with several bridges. The district contains the Place de la Bastille and Place de la Nation (bordering the 11th), Picpus Cemetery and Parc de Bercy, and the Boulevard de la Bastille runs through it. A 12th-century convent was located here, Saint-Antoine-des-Champs, and today the Buddhist temples Kagyu-Dzong and Pagode de Vincennes are located in the 12th arrondissement.[26] Landmarks of note include Bassin de l'Arsenal, Bastille railway station, Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy and the restaurant Le Train Bleu. Opéra Bastille, the main facility of the Paris National Opera, was inaugurated in 1989 as part of President François Mitterrand's "Grands Travaux". Designed by Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott, it is located at the Place de la Bastille and houses a 2,700-seat theatre as well as smaller concert hall and a studio. The 13th lies in the south-eastern part of Paris. It contains the neighbourhoods of Chinatown, Floral City, Butte-aux-Cailles, and the Italie 2 shopping centre with some 130 stores.[28] Institutions such as the Bibliothèque nationale de France and École Estienne are located here, as is Les Olympiades, Paris Store, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Place d'Italie, and Stade Sébastien Charléty. Sainte-Rosalie church was built in 1869 in honour of Sister Rosalie Rendu. The district is also known for its bridges such as Pont amont, Pont de Bercy, Pont de Tolbiac, and Pont National. Montparnasse is a historic left bank area in the 14th arrondissement, the southern part of Paris, famous for artists' studios, music halls, and café life. [29] The Montparnasse Cemetery, large Montparnasse – Bienvenüe Métro station, Théâtre Montparnasse, and the nearby lone Tour Montparnasse skyscraper are located there. Other landmarks include the Catacombs of Paris, École normale supérieure de jeunes filles, Hôpital Cochin, Hôtel de Massa, Le Dôme Café, La Santé Prison, and Échelles du Baroque, the latter of which is a residential building complex, completed in 1985 by the international team Ricardo Bofill in the baroque style. The 15th arrondissement marks the southwestern part of the city. The Boulevard du Montparnasse with its Tour Montparnasse passes through here (to be noted: the panoramic restaurant on the 56th floor). Dominating the river is the Front de Seine district with the newly reopened Beaugrenelle Shopping Center. There are several bridges such as Pont de Bir-Hakeim, Pont de Grenelle where the replica of the Statue of Liberty is standing on Île aux Cygnes, Pont Mirabeau, Pont du Garigliano and Pont aval. A number of institutions are based in the 15th arrondissement, the Pasteur Institute, and research hospitals: Hôpital Européen Georges-Pompidou and Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital. Art Schools such as Académie de La Palette today, replaced by the Panthéon-Sorbonne University, Saint Charles Campus-Visual arts and aesthetics[31] and École nationale supérieure des arts appliqués et des métiers d'art and Panthéon-Assas University-Law school - Vaugirard Campus. The International culinary school Le Cordon Bleu and Schiller International University are both located in the 15th arrondissement . Other places of interest include museums such as Musée Bourdelle, Musée Mendjisky (School of Paris), Musée Pasteur, Musée Jean Moulin, (French Résistance), Musée de La Poste and Musée du Montparnasse, Théâtre Silvia-Monfort near Parc Georges-Brassens, the Australian embassy and Japan cultural Center. The French automobile company Citroën had several factories along the river, Quai André-Citroën. The modernist Parc André Citroën now lays in their place with the Ballon Generali in the center. The Palais des Sports was built in 1960 to replace the old Vel' d'Hiv and has hosted many notable music concerts over the years.[32] Nearby, is the Paris expo Porte de Versailles, Paris convention Center. Val de Seine, straddling the 15th arrondissement and the communes of Issy-les-Moulineaux and Boulogne-Billancourt to the south-west of central Paris is the new media hub of Paris and France, hosting the headquarters of most of France's TV networks (TF1 in Boulogne-Billancourt, France 2 in the 15th arrondissement, Canal+ and the international channels France 24 and Eurosport in Issy-les-Moulineaux), as well as several telecommunication and IT companies such as Neuf Cegetel in Boulogne-Billancourt or Microsoft's Europe, Africa & Middle East regional headquarters in Issy-les-Moulineaux. The 16th arrondissement is the largest district of Paris, marking the western side of the city, which extends beyond the left bank of the Seine. Paris Saint-Germain F.C. are based here and play their home games at the Parc des Princes and Stade Roland Garros hosts the annual French Open tennis tournament. Tennis Club de Paris, the Stade de Paris rugby club, Longchamp Racecourse, and the Auteuil Hippodrome, a horse racing venue established in 1873 and which hosted the equestrian events of the 1924 Summer Olympics are based in the 16th arrondissement.[34] Avenues passing through the district include Avenue d'Iéna, Avenue de la Grande Armée, Avenue de Malakoff, Avenue Foch, Avenue Henri-Martin and Avenue Victor-Hugo. Like the 2nd arrondissement, the district has many museums, including Musée Clemenceau, Musée Marmottan Monet, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Musée national de la Marine, Musée d'Ennery, Musée d'Art Dentaire Pierre Fauchard, Musée de la Contrefaçon, Musée Galliera and Musée du Vin, and the Théâtre national de Chaillot. The Passy neighbourhood contains the Passy Cemetery. A number of organizations are based in the 16th arrondissement, including Radio France and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The 17th arrondissement to the west of the 18th arrondissement marks the northwestern suburbs of the city. The avenues Avenue de la Grande Armée, Avenue de Wagram and Avenue des Ternes pass through the district. It has several squares, including Place Charles de Gaulle (with the Arc de Triomphe, bordering 16th and 8th), Place de Wagram, Place des Ternes and Square des Batignolles, the latter of which is in the neighbourhood of Batignolles, which also contains the Batignolles Cemetery and Parc Clichy-Batignolles. Other landmarks of note include the Académie d'Agriculture, Hyatt Regency Paris Étoile, Théâtre Hébertot and Palais des congrès de Paris. La Défense, beyond the 17th arrondissement (straddling the communes of Courbevoie, Puteaux, and Nanterre, 2.5 km (2 mi) west of the city proper) is a key suburb of Paris and one of the largest business centres in the world. Built at the western end of a westward extension of Paris's historical axis from the Champs-Élysées, La Défense consists mainly of business high-rises, with most of the tallest skyscrapers in the Paris urban area, built around a pedestrian esplanade. Initiated by the French government in 1958, it now hosts 3,500,000 m2 (37,673,686 sq ft) of offices, making it the largest district in Europe developed specifically for business. Its most emblematic building, the Grande Arche (Great Arch), houses a part of the Ministry of Ecology. The 18th arrondissement marks the northern suburbs of the city. Montmartre is a historic area on the Butte, home to the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur. Montmartre has always had a history with artists and has many studios and cafés of many great artists in that area.[40] The boulevards Boulevard de Clichy, Boulevard de la Chapelle and Boulevard de Rochechouart pass through the district. Notable landmarks include the Académie de La Palette, Théâtre de l'Atelier, Cirque Medrano, Place de Clichy, Élysée Montmartre, Espace Dalí, Moulin Rouge, and Musée d'Art Juif. Plaine Saint-Denis (straddling the communes of Saint-Denis, Aubervilliers, and Saint-Ouen, immediately north of the 18th arrondissement, across the Périphérique ring road) is a former derelict manufacturing area that has undergone large-scale urban renewal since the 1980s,[41] and contains most of France's television studios as well as some major movie studios. The 19th arrondissement marks the northeast suburbs of Paris. It contains the Conservatoire de Paris, Cité de la Musique, Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, and the neighbourhood of La Villette, which contains the Grande halle de la Villette and Parc de la Villette. The Conservatoire, a prestigious music and dance school. was established in 1795,[42] and in 1946 it was split into two Conservatoires. Several canals run through the 19th arrondissement including Canal de l'Ourcq and Canal Saint-Denis, and the Place de la Bataille-de-Stalingrad lies at their intersection, commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad. One of the Paris Métro stations Stalingrad is also named after it. The Zénith de Paris, one of the largest concert venues in Paris located here. Opened in 1984, it has a capacity of 6,293 people,[43] and has hosted concerts of many of the top names in pop music. The 20th arrondissement marks the eastern suburbs of the city and contains the neighbourhood of Belleville and also borders the commune of the same name. The neighbourhood of Belleville covers both of the 19th and 20th arrondissements, and was annexed to the City of Paris in 1860. During the first half of the 20th century, many immigrants settled there: German Jews fleeing the Third Reich in 1933, and Spaniards in 1939, and it became a "Jewish ghetto".[44] Many Algerians and Tunisian Jews arrived in the early 1960s. Belleville is home to one of the largest congregations of the Reformed Church of France., and contains the Église Réformée de Belleville. Also of note is the Charonne quarter and its Église Saint-Germain-de-Charonne, the Théâtre national de la Colline (established in 1951), and Parc de Belleville, situated on the hill between the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont and the Père Lachaise Cemetery. Wikipedia

Historical quarters of Paris: Paris is characterised by 19th century design and architecture, but has many areas with structures and design dating further back. These sections are often not referenced on modern-day maps of Paris, crossing current arrondissements. These quarters are best described and categorised independently of modern administrative boundaries. Below is a list of quarters that have developed or retained a character of their own, usually identifiable by their commercial or cultural activity, and often named for a neighbourhood landmark. Paris' islands were once many, but over the centuries have been united or joined to the mainland. Today there are but two adjacent islands forming the centre of Paris, the Île de la Cité and the Île Saint-Louis, plus the artificial Île aux Cygnes. The Notre Dame de Paris cathedral Île de la Cité Main article: Île de la Cité The westernmost of these two islands, the Île de la Cité, is Paris' heart and origin. Its western end has held a palace since Roman times, and its eastern end has been devoted to religion, especially after the construction in the 10th century of the predecessor to today's Notre-Dame. The land between the two was, until the 1850s, largely residential and commercial, but since has been filled by the city's Prefecture de Police, Palais de Justice, Hôtel-Dieu hospital and Tribunal de commerce de Paris. Only the westernmost and north-eastern extremities of the island remain residential today, and the latter area preserves some vestiges of its 16th-century canonic houses. Île Saint-Louis Main article: Île Saint-Louis Purely residential in nature, this island's first use was for the grazing of market cattle and the stocking of wood. One of France's first examples of urban planning, it was mapped and built from end to end during the 17th-century reigns of Henri IV and Louis XIII. This island has narrow one-way streets and no metro station. Rive Droite (Lit. Right Bank), formerly a marshland between two arms of the river Seine, remained largely uninhabited until the early 11th century. Once growth began there it soon eclipsed that of both the island and the Rive Gauche combined, and has remained Paris' densest area ever since. Châtelet-Les-Halles / Hôtel de Ville "Le Châtelet", a stronghold/gatehouse guarding the northern end of a bridge from the Île de la Cité, was the origin of Paris' first real Rive Droite growth. Where the Les Halles quarter starts and ends is debatable, but for the average Parisian, it surrounds the former Les Halles marketplace, today a shopping mall centre for a highly commercial district whose many "trendy" boutiques are geared to tourism. As Les Halles is a Metro and RER hub for transport connecting all suburban regions around the capital, the stores closest to the station reflect the rap and hip-hop trends common there. Fast-food is the restaurant staple of this quarter's most central region, but more traditional fare can be found to its north-west. One of the region's most prominent landmarks is the 1976-built Centre Georges Pompidou. Built in a highly colored modern style greatly contrasting with its surrounding architecture, it houses a permanent modern-art museum exposition and has rotating expositions that keep to a theme of the post-pop art period. Recently renovated, it also houses the BPI, one of the city's largest libraries and places of study. The wide square in front is a preferred place for street performers, as its location is ideal for drawing a mix of both tourist and student spectators. Just to the east of the Place du Châtelet lies Paris's Hôtel de Ville (city hall). It stands on the almost exact location of a 12th-century "house of columns" belonging to the city's "Prévôt des Marchands" (a city governor of commerce), then a later version built in 1628 whose shell is still the same today. Just across the street to the north of rue de Rivoli is the large 1870s-built BHV (Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville) department store. Le Louvre / Palais Royal The Louvre, once Paris' second Royal Palace, is today a museum, garden (Tuileries), and, more recently, a shopping mall and fashion-show centre (Le Carrousel du Louvre). The Palais-Royal just to its north, at its origin a residence of the Cardinal Richelieu, is a walled garden behind its rue de Rivoli facade, with covered and columned arcades that house boutiques forming what could be considered to be Paris' first "shopping arcade". This quarter has many 17th and 18th century buildings of large standing, as well as some of Paris' more grandiose constructions, namely along the avenue de l'Opéra, from the Haussmann era. The long perspective of massive buildings that make the northern side of the rue de Rivoli, with their covered and columned arcades, are a result of Paris' first attempt at reconstruction in a larger scale in the early 1840s, and today house the quarter's most tourist-oriented shops, boutiques and night-clubs. Place Vendôme seen from rue de la Paix. The Arc de Triomphe seen from the Avenue de Friedland. Montmartre as seen from atop the Centre Georges Pompidou. Opéra Centred on Paris' Opéra Garnier, completed in 1882, this quarter houses at once central Paris' largest shopping centres (the Galeries Lafayette and Printemps) and is an important banking centre (Crédit Lyonnais, BNP and American Express just to name a few). The streets behind both sides of the avenue de l'Opéra have many Japanese restaurants, and most of the avenues in this area "duty-free" stores selling luxury brands. Saint-Honoré / Place Vendôme / Concorde The rue Saint Honoré (and rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré) is known for its luxury boutiques selling all fashion labels of international renown. Place Vendôme, home to the famous Hôtel Ritz, is the centre of the luxury jewellery trade in Paris. There are also many major banks and offices in this area. Place de la Concorde, to the western end of the Louvre's Jardin des Tuileries, is a major stop for tourists (for its vista, fountains and Egyptian obelisk) and a panoramic introduction to the Champs-Élysées that begins at its western extremity. Les Champs-Élysées Les Champs-Élysées is popular tourist avenue which features commerce along its entire length, from the rond-point des Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe. The buildings above the street-side boutiques are for the most part Paris offices or residences for businesses the world over. The streets behind the Avenue and in the neighbourhood surrounding are filled with Haussmanian buildings of large standing that host some residence, but are largely dominated by offices. Montmartre / Bas de Montmartre / Pigalle Culminating at 130 metres, Montmartre is Paris's highest hill and second most-visited tourist area. Formerly a town of wine growers and gypsum miners centred on a 15th-century monastery, it began from the late 20th century (around the time of the construction of its Sacré-Cœur Basilica in 1919) to become a tourist attraction. Many of Montmartre's windmills and much of its "old village" charm had already been destroyed when Paris's tourist boom began, but investors and speculators rebuilt it anew. Montmartre has some of the best views of the capital.[citation needed] The boulevards below Montmartre, also called le bas de Montmartre ("lower Montmartre") or more informally Pigalle, were once popular with mid-19th-century Parisians for their cabarets, as at the time they were outside the city of Paris (up until the annexations of 1859) and thus exempt from the octroi (taxes levied on goods for consumption – including drinks – that were imported into the city). The Moulin Rouge is the most prominent remaining example of the once numerous saloons and dance halls that lined the north side of the boulevard, but today this establishment is but a gaudy tourist-tailored mirror of what it once was. The surrounding boulevards, especially to the east of the Moulin Rouge towards Place Pigalle, are home to a significant number of sex-oriented businesses (sex shops, peep shows, strip clubs), as well as but these too are essentially tailored to tourists, playing on Pigalle's former reputation as a red-light district. The south of the Pigalle district, in particular around Rue de Douai and Rue Victor Massé, is specialized in the retail of musical instruments and equipment, notably guitars and drums. Gare de l'Est / Gare du Nord This area contains clothing stores and hair salons whose owners are largely of African origin. These stations mark the northernmost limits of Paris' "Sentier" textile industry district. Rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, which runs along Gare du Nord, is the domain of Indian shops (clothes, Bollywood videos) and restaurants. A parade in honor of Ganesh is organized every year. These so-called "Indian" immigrants mostly come from Pakistan (in the lower part of the street) or Sri Lanka (in the upper part of the street). Le Marais To the west of the place de la Bastille extends the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, a street running through the centre of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, once a village of furniture-making artisans. To the north and north-west from there, across a map of narrow streets remaining unchanged from this 17th-century time, lies Le Marais. The rue du faubourg Saint-Antoine still has many furniture stores. Today Le Marais is most known for its square and uniformly-built Place des Vosges. Inaugurated as the "Place Royale" in 1612, much of the land surrounding was built with vast and luxurious "hotels" by those seeking closer relations to royalty, and many remain today. This area fell out of royal favour when the King's court left for the Louvre then Versailles, and was in a state of almost abandon by the 19th century. It became a largely Jewish quarter around then, and has remained so ever since. It is also the heart of gay Paris, with many gay cafés, bars, and clubs. Paris' Rive Gauche was its centre from its first to 11th centuries, but little evidence remains of this today. The largest reason for this is that, solidly built from Roman times, its crumbling constructions in fact served as a quarry for Rive Droite constructions when its population moved to Paris' northern shores. Calm even today, the rive Gauche is in its majority residential. Saint-Germain-des-Prés abbey-church Saint-Germain-des-Prés / Faubourg Saint-Germain This central Rive-Gauche quarter is named for its 7th century abbey of which only a church is still standing. Its commercial growth began upon the 1886 completion of its Boulevard Saint-Germain and the opening of its cafés and bistros namely its "Café de Flore" and "Deux Magots" terraces. Its fame came with the 1950s post-WW II student "culture emancipation" movement that had its source in the nearby University. Many jazz clubs appeared here during those times, and a few still remain today. Located near the École des Beaux-Arts, this quarter is known for its artistry in general, and has many galleries along its rue Bonaparte and rue de Seine. In all, Saint-Germain-des-Prés is an upper-class bourgeois residential district, and its quality clothing and gastronomical street-side commerce is a direct reflection of this. Odéon / Saint-Michel Odéon is named for the 18th-century theatre standing between the boulevard Saint-Germain and the Luxembourg gardens, but today it is best known for its cinemas and cafés. The land just to the south of the Seine river to the east of the Boulevard Saint-Michel, around its Sorbonne university, has been a centre of student activity since the early 12th century. The surrounding neighbourhood is filled with many student-oriented commercial establishments such as bookstores, stationery stores and game shops. The land to the north of the boulevard Saint-Germain, to the east of the Boulevard Saint-Michel, is one of the Rive Gauche's few tourist oases. Although its narrow streets are charming, as they have remained unchanged from medieval times, they are filled with souvenir shops and tourist-trap restaurants, and it is a quarter where few Parisians ever stray. Invalides / École Militaire / Eiffel Tower / Quai d'Orsay La Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower) seen from l'Esplanade du Trocadéro. Paris' 17th-century Hôtel des Invalides and 18th-century École Militaire were built where they were in an effort to force the Rive Gauche's growth westward, to match that to its opposing Rive Droite. Les Invalides, a former military hospital and still today a retirement home for a few former soldiers, became a tourist attraction after Napoleon Bonaparte's ashes were interred there in 1840, and a military museum from 1872 (Artillery). Just to the west from there lies the École Militaire built from 1751, but it is to the river end of its former parade ground that lies Paris' foremost tourist attraction. The Eiffel Tower, built by Gustave Alexandre Eiffel for the 1889 Universal Exposition, averages around 6 million visitors a year. Further east along the bank of the Seine lies the former Paris-à-Orléans train station built for the 1900 Universal Exposition. Closed in 1939, it has been since renovated into a museum of 19th-century art, the Musée d'Orsay, open to the public since December 1986. Montparnasse / Denfert-Rochereau This quarter owes its artistic reputation to its Montparnasse cemetery. Open from 1824, it attracted the ateliers of sculptors and engravers to the still-inbuilt land nearby, and these in turn drew painters and other artists looking for calmer climes than the saturated and expensive Rive Droite. Many of these today-famous artists met in the boulevard Montparnasse's many cafés and bistros, one of these being the world-known Belle Époque "La Coupole". This aspect of Montparnasse's culture has faded since the second world war, but many of its artist atelier-residence "Cités" are still there to see. The Gare Montparnasse, since its beginning as a railway connection to Versailles in 1840, has since grown into the Rive Gauche's commuter hub connection to many destinations in southern France. The neighbourhood around it is a thriving business quarter, and houses Paris' tallest building: the Tour Montparnasse. The Catacombs of Paris To the south-east of the boulevard Montparnasse, to the bottom of the northward-running Avenue Denfert-Rochereau at the square of the same name, is one of Paris' few-remaining pre-1860s "prolype" gateways. The westernmost of these twin buildings holds Paris' most macabre attraction: the Catacombs of Paris. Formerly stone mines, abandoned when Paris annexed the land over them from 1860, the underground hallways became a new sepulture for the contents of Paris' many overflowing and unhygienic parish cemeteries. At its origin but a jumbled bone depository, it was renovated in the early 19th century into uniform rooms and hallways of neatly (and even artistically) arranged skulls and tibias, and opened to the public for paid visits from 1868. Front de Seine / Beaugrenelle The Front de Seine district located along the river Seine in the 15th arrondissement right at the South of the Eiffel Tower is the result of an urban planning project from the 1970s. It includes about 20 towers reaching nearly 100 m of height built all around an elevated esplanade. That esplanade is paved with frescos. It is host to The Hôtel Novotel Paris-Tour Eiffel (formerly known as Hôtel Nikkō), with its red-encircled windows, the Tour Totem consisting of a stack of several glassed-blocks and a newly redesigned shopping mall, the Centre commercial Beaugrenelle. Place d'Italie / Olympiades / Chinatown During the 1960s, public authorities designed an urban renewal plan inspired from Le Corbusier's theories that tended to erase many peripheral quarters of Paris and build pedestrian quarters with high rise buildings, connected by urban highways. The plan was partially completed in the Beaugrenelle quarter (15th district) and, through the Italie 13 project, in the 13th district. More than twenty-five 100-meter-high residential buildings were built south of Place d'Italie, notably Les Olympiades. The completion of these towers in the mid-1970s coincided with the arrival of many refugees from Cambodia and Vietnam, so that the triangle between the Avenue d'Ivry, the Avenue de Choisy and the boulevard Masséna quickly became a vibrant and colorful 'Chinatown' with dozens of Asian restaurants, shops, hairdressers, supermarkets, and a New Year parade which is very popular with Parisians. Other, less well-known Asian quarters exist for example in the 3rd district (rue au Maire) and Belleville. La Défense business district As one of the largest business districts in the world, Paris La Défense is a major destination for business travel in Europe. Characteristics: 3,000,000 m² (32.3 million sq. ft) of offices Europe's largest shopping centre with nearly 3,000 hotel rooms, 600 shops and services, and over 100 restaurants daily influx of 160,000 office staff with 2 million tourist visits annually CNIT congress centre, the largest self-supporting vault in the world, 43,000 m² (463,000 sq ft), including 29,000 m² (312,000 sq ft) of modular spaces, 36 meetings rooms and 4 halls La Défense stands on Paris's historic East-West axis (L'Axe historique). In December 2005 the new plan for the district of La Défense was presented. The project is articulated around a tall skyscraper (more than 400 m/1,300 ft high), a new symbol for Paris which would be the tallest skyscraper in Europe if it is built. This big project will change the skyline of the capital of France. The project to build the Grande Arche was initiated by the French president François Mitterrand, who wanted a 20th-century version of the Arc de Triomphe. The design of the Danish architect Otto van Spreckelsen looks more like a cube-shaped building than a triumphal arch. It is a 110-meter-tall white building with the middle part left open. The sides of the cube contain offices. It is possible to take a lift to the top of the Grande Arche, from where there is a view of Paris, which is 6 to 10 km. (4 to 6 miles) from the Grande Arche. Wikipedia

Tourism in Paris is a major income source. Paris received 12.6 million visitors in 2020, measured by hotel stays, a drop of 73 percent from 2019, due to the COVID-19 virus. The number of foreign visitors declined by 80.7 percent. Museums re-opened in 2021, with limitations on the number of visitors at a time and a requirement that visitors wear masks. In 2018, 17.95 million international, overnighting tourists visited the city, mainly for sightseeing and shopping (and estimated to be well over double if including domestic overnighting visitors). Top sights include Notre Dame (12 million visitors in 2017), Disneyland Paris (11), Sacre Cœur (10), the Versailles Palace (7.7), the Louvre Museum (6.9), the Eiffel Tower (5.9), Centre Pompidou (3.33), and the Musée d'Orsay (3 million). The largest numbers of foreign tourists who come to the Paris region are British, American, German, Italian, Chinese, and Canadian. In 2012, 263,212 salaried workers in Paris, or 18.4 percent of the total number of workers, were engaged in tourism-related sectors; hotels, catering, transport, and leisure. In 2014 visitors to Paris spent 17 billion dollars (13.58 billion Euros), the third highest sum globally after London and New York. Wikipedia

Tourist attractions in Paris: The Eiffel Tower (La Tour Eiffel) The Eiffel Tower is acknowledged as the universal symbol of both Paris and France. It was originally designed by Émile Nouguier and Maurice Koechlin. In March 1885, Gustave Eiffel, known primarily as a successful iron engineer, submitted a plan for a tower to the French Ministre du Commerce et de l'Industrie.[5] He entered a competition for students studying at the university. The winning proposal would stand as the centerpiece of the 1889 Exposition. Eiffel's was one of over 100 submissions. Eiffel's proposal was finally chosen in June 1886. Even before its construction, the Tower's uniqueness was noticed. The Eiffel Tower was finally inaugurated on March 31, 1889.[5] Currently, about 6.9 million people visit the Eiffel Tower each year.[6] Centre Georges Pompidou Centre Georges Pompidou was officially opened on January 31, 1977 by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.[7] The designers of Pompidou are Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, and Peter Rice.[8] The Centre Pompidou has had over 150 million visitors since 1977.[7] Centre Georges Pompidou is a complex in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles, rue Montorgueil and the Marais. In 1997 renovations had begun to drastically change the interior spaces of the Centre Pompidou. The renovations were still preserving the celebrated and original tubular design[7] The internal refurbishment was mainly done to enable the building to deal with the pressure of increasing visitor numbers. The renovation also developed the centre's capacity to host the performing arts and increased the display area of the Museum of Modern Art.[7] Arc de Triomphe The Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile is one of the most famous monuments in Paris. It stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle (originally named Place de l'Étoile) at the western end of the Champs-Élysées.[9] It should not be confused with a smaller arch, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, which stands west of the Louvre. The Arc de Triomphe (in English: "Triumphal Arch") honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I. The Arc de Triomphe is the linchpin of the Axe historique (in English: "historic axis") – a sequence of monuments and grand thoroughfares on a route which goes from the courtyard of the Louvre to the Grande Arche de la Défense. Musée d'Orsay (Orsay Museum) The Musée d'Orsay is an art museum on the left bank of the Seine originally constructed as a train station in the late 1890s. It was designed by Gae Aulenti, Victor Laloux, and Émile Bernard.[10] The Musée opened in 1986, and exhibits artworks from 1848 to 1914 with emphasis on French Impressionism.[11] Sections of the museum focus on Symbolism, Naturalism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Pont Aven School, and Art Nouveau, to name a few.[5] A culmination of nearly ten years of government commitment and dedicated teamwork,[12] the museum presents some idea of what occurred in France between 1848 and 1914 in the fields of painting, drawing, sculpture, opera design, architecture, photography, metalwork, furniture, ceramics, and textiles.[12] Musée du Louvre (Louvre Museum) The Louvre Palace, originally built as a medieval fortress in the year 1190 by King Philippe Auguste, was transformed by successive governments. Since the French Revolution, it has hosted the Musée du Louvre, one of the largest museums of the western world.[13] It houses some of the most popular and culturally ethnic form of art. The Louvre opened to the public on August 10, 1793.[13] On March 3, 1989, I.M. Pei inaugurated his Glass Pyramid,[13] which also serves as an official entrance to the main exhibition hall, which in turn leads to the temporary exhibition halls. The Musée is divided into three wings: Sully, Richelieu, and Denon, which showcase 35,000 pieces of art, much of it dating back to the Middle Ages.[14] Some of the most renowned pieces of art in the Louvre are Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Venus of Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, Liberty Leading the People, and the Dying Slave by Michelangelo. Notre-Dame de Paris The Notre-Dame de Paris is the largest cathedral in Paris. It was started to be built in 1163 by Maurice de Sully, the then appointed bishop of Paris.[15] The construction campaign was divided into 4 parts, and was done by well-known builders of that era: Jean de Chelles, Pierre de Montreuil, Pierre de Chelles, Jean Ravy, Jean le Bouteiller.[16] It took over 100 years for the Notre-Dame to be built completely. It was built in honour of Virgin Mary, making it a bishop's church, a canon church and a baptistery.[16] It is one of the main symbols of Paris. It is located at Île de la Cité, a small island in the heart of the city.[17] There have been several historical events that have taken place here, including the marriage of King Henry IV and Marguerite de Valois, in 1594 and Napoleon I coronation in 1804. On April 15, 2019, most of Notre Dame's roof was destroyed in a fire and a few historic artifacts were lost. Repairs and reconstruction are ongoing. Basilique du Sacré-Cœur The Basilique du Sacré-Cœur is a Roman Catholic Basilica that was built in 1914 and consecrated in 1919.[18] It is located at the highest altitude in Paris, at butte Montmartre, itself a historically important artist colony. The church contains one of the world's largest mosaic of Jesus Christ, with his arms wide spread. The basilica was built in the honour of the 58,000 lives lost in the Franco-Prussian war in the year 1870.[19] Paul Abadie, the winner of the competition to find the right architectural design, was the architect for the basilica.[20] The basilica offers some beautiful panoramic views of Paris. The walls of the church are naturally always white and clean, due to the travertine stone used in its construction.[21] The stone reacts with water and creates a chemical called calcite, which acts as a natural bleacher.[22] The Musée du Quai Branly The Musée du quai Branly is a museum in Paris, France that features indigenous art, cultures and civilizations from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. The museum is located at 37, quai Branly - portail Debilly, 75007 Paris, France, situated close to the Eiffel Tower. The nearest métro and RER stations are Alma – Marceau and Pont de l'Alma, respectively. MQB is named after its location on the quai Branly, which in turn is named after the physicist Édouard Branly. The Champs-Élysées The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is a street with cinemas, cafés, luxury specialty shops and clipped horse-chestnut trees. Around 7 million people visit the Champs Élysées per year and around 19,180 people per day. The Champs-Élysées is arguably one of the world's most famous streets, and is one of the most expensive strips of real estate in the world.[23] Several French monuments are also on the street, including the Arc de Triomphe and the Place de la Concorde. The name is French for Elysian Fields, the place of the blessed dead in Greek mythology. According to a much used description, the Champs-Élysées is la plus belle avenue du monde ("the most beautiful avenue in the world").[24] Les Invalides Napoleon's tomb in Les Invalides Les Invalides, officially known as "L'Hôtel national des Invalides" (The National Residence of the Invalids), is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building's original purpose. The buildings house the Musée de l'Armée, the military museum of the Army of France, the Musée des Plans-Reliefs, and the Musée d'Histoire Contemporaine, as well as the burial site for some of France's war heroes, notably Napoleon. The Sainte Chapelle The Sainte-Chapelle is a royal medieval Gothic chapel, located near the Palais de la Cité, on the Île de la Cité in the heart of Paris, France. Begun some time after 1239 and consecrated on 26 April 1248,[25] the Sainte-Chapelle is considered among the highest achievements of the Rayonnant period of Gothic architecture. Its erection was commissioned by King Louis IX of France to house his collection of Passion Relics, including Christ's Crown of Thorns - one of the most important relics in medieval Christendom. Along with the Conciergerie, the Sainte-Chapelle is one of the earliest surviving buildings of the Capetian royal palace on the Île de la Cité. Although damaged during the French revolution, and restored in the 19th century, it retains one of the most extensive in-situ collections of 13th-century stained glass anywhere in the world. Disneyland Paris Disneyland Paris (formerly Euro Disneyland) is an amusement park in the Paris region. It is the most popular amusement park in Europe in terms of attendance records. Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie The Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie is the biggest science museum in Europe.[26] Located in Parc de la Villette in Paris, France, it is at the heart of the Cultural Center of Science, Technology and Industry (CCSTI), a center promoting science and science culture. About five million people visit the Cité each year. Attractions include a planetarium, a submarine (the Argonaute (S636)), an IMAX theatre (La Géode) and special areas for children and teenagers. The Cité is classified as a public establishment of an industrial and commercial character, an establishment specializing in the fostering of scientific and technical culture. Created on the initiative of President Giscard d'Estaing, the goal of the Cité is to spread scientific and technical knowledge among the public, particularly for youth, and to promote public interest in science, research and industry. The most notable features of the "bioclimatic facade" facing the park are Les Serres - three greenhouse spaces each 32 metres high, 32 metres wide and 8 metres deep. The facades of Les Serres were the first structural glass walls to be constructed without framing or supporting fins. Between 30 May and 1 June 2008, the museum hosted the 3rd International Salon for Peace Initiatives. Wikipedia

Tourist attractions in Paris: Paris, the capital of France, has an annual 30 million foreign visitors, and so is one of the most visited cities in the world. Paris' sights include monuments and architecture, such as its Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower and neo-classic Haussmannian boulevards and buildings as well as museums, operas and concert halls. There are also more modern attractions such as its suburban Disneyland Paris. With its many monument, the city is a symbol of French culture, and since the 2000s attracts nearly three million visitors per year. Museums See also: List of museums in Paris Centre Georges-Pompidou - 20th-century modern art museum, hosting the Paris Museum of Modern Art Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie - a hands-on science museum that attracts over two million visitors yearly The Louvre - one of the world's largest museums and a historic monument Musée des Arts et Métiers - Museum of Arts and Crafts that houses the collection of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (National Conservatory of Arts and Industry), which was founded in 1794 as a repository for the preservation of scientific instruments and inventions Musée d'Orsay - 19th-century paintings, one of the largest Impressionist exhibits, housed in a former rail station Musée de l'Orangerie - Impressionist and post-impressionist paintings, the permanent home of eight large Water Lilies murals by Claude Monet Muséum national d'histoire naturelle - National Museum of Natural History Parc de la Villette - hosting the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, a science museum, and the Cité de la Musique, which houses various musical institutes, a museum, and a concert hall Monuments See also: List of parks and gardens in Paris The Arc de Triomphe - monument at the center of the Place de l'Étoile, commemorating the victories of France and honoring those who died in battle The Conciergerie - located on the Île de la Cité; a medieval building which was formerly used as a prison where some prominent members of the ancien régime stayed before their death during the French Revolution The Eiffel Tower - a construction of Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 Universal Exposition The Grand Palais - a large glass exhibition hall built for the 1900 Paris Exhibition Les Invalides - complex containing museums and monuments relating to the military history of France The Palais Garnier - Paris's central opera house, built in the later Second Empire period The Panthéon - church and tomb of a number of France's most famed men and women Place des Vosges - square in the Marais districte Place Vendôme Churches Basilica of the Sacré Cœur - located in the district of Montmartre The Montmartre Cemetery - located in the district of Montmartre Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral - Paris's 12th-century ecclesiastical centrepiece on the Île de la Cité The Père Lachaise Cemetery - a romantic cemetery. Sainte-Chapelle - a 13th-century Gothic palace chapel, also located on the Île de la Cité Church of St Eustache - a 16th-century Gothic church in the district of Les Halles La Madeleine - a 19th-century church designed as a Roman temple Grand Mosque of Paris - a large mosque, the first ever built in Metropolitan France Modern and contemporary architecture of the 20th and 21st century Arab World Institute (1987) Jean Nouvel,[3] 5th arrondissement of Paris Bercy Arena, équipe Andrault-Parat, Jean Prouvé, Guvan (1984), 12th arrondissement of Paris. Cité internationale universitaire de Paris, Pavillon Suisse (1930) and Maison du Brésil (1954), Le Corbusier and Lúcio Costa for the latter[4] Front de Seine (1970s) and Centre commercial Beaugrenelle, Valode et Pistre (2013), 15th arrondissement of Paris Minister of the Economy, Finances and Industry (1989), 12th arrondissement of Paris. Musée Mendjisky, Robert Mallet-Stevens,[5] (1932) 15th arrondissement of Paris Opéra Bastille, Carlos Ott (1989), 11th arrondissement of Paris Palais de Chaillot (1937), Jacques Carlu, Louis-Hippolyte Boileau and Léon Azéma, 16th arrondissement of Paris Palais de la Porte Dorée (1931), Albert Laprade, 12th arrondissement of Paris[6] Palais de Tokyo (1937), architects: Jean-Claude Dondel, André Aubert, Paul Viard et Marcel Dastugue, low reliefs: Alfred Janniot, statue La France: Antoine Bourdelle, 16th arrondissement of Paris Palais d'Iéna (1937), Auguste Perret, 16th arrondissement of Paris Palais de Chaillot (1937), Jacques Carlu, Louis-Hippolyte Boileau and Léon Azéma, 16th arrondissement of Paris (1927), Jacques Marcel Auburtin, André Granet and Jean-Baptiste Mathon, 8th arrondissement of Paris Salle Pleyel (1927), Jacques Marcel Auburtin, André Granet and Jean-Baptiste Mathon, 8th arrondissement of Paris La Samaritaine, building facing the river (1928?), Frantz Jourdain and Henri Sauvage, 1st arrondissement of Paris Site of the French communist party, Oscar Niemeyer (1965-1980), 19th arrondissement of Paris Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (1913), Auguste Perret, 8th arrondissement of Paris Tour Montparnasse, architects Jean Saubot, Eugène Beaudouin, Urbain Cassan and Louis de Hoÿm de Marien (1973), 15th arrondissement of Paris World Heritage Centre (Unesco) (1958) architects: French Bernard Zehrfuss, Américan Marcel Breuer, and Italian Pier Luigi Nervi. Their plans were validated by an international committee of five architects: Lucio Costa (Brasil), Walter Gropius (United States), Le Corbusier (France), Sven Markelius (Sweden) and Ernesto Nathan Rogers (Italy), in collaboration with Eero Saarinen (Finland). 7th arrondissement of Paris[7] Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou, Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, Gianfranco Franchini (1977), 1st arrondissement of Paris Les Echelles du Baroque, Ricardo Bofill (1985), 14th arrondissement of Paris La Géode, architects Adrien Fainsilber and Gérard Chamayou (1985), 19th arrondissement of Paris Église Notre-Dame-de-l'Arche-d'Alliance, Architecture-Studio (1986), 15th arrondissement of Paris Louvre Pyramid, Ieoh Ming Pei (1989), 1st arrondissement of Paris La Défense, Paris business district, Grande Arche, Johan Otto von Spreckelsen and Erik Reitzel (1989) Parc André-Citroën, landscaping: Gilles Clément, Allain Provost, architects Patrick Berger, Jean-François Jodry and Jean-Paul Viguier, (1992),[8] 15th arrondissement of Paris Canal+ former site (1992), Richard Meier,[9] 15th arrondissement of Paris Outside shell Ministère de la Culture (France),[10] 1st arrondissement of Paris Cinémathèque française (1993), Frank Gehry, 12th arrondissement of Paris. Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Jean Nouvel (1994), 14th arrondissement of Paris Bibliothèque nationale de France, Dominique Perrault (1995), 13th arrondissement of Paris Musée du quai Branly, Jean Nouvel (2006), 7th arrondissement of Paris Cité de la mode et du design, Jakob + Macfarlane (2008), 13th arrondissement of Paris Louis Vuitton Foundation, Frank Gehry (2014), 16th arrondissement of Paris[11] Philharmonie de Paris, Jean Nouvel (2015), 19th arrondissement of Paris Others Montmartre - an old district of Paris on a hill containing the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur, the Place du Tertre, and the Musée de Montmartre. The Sorbonne - one of the universities of Paris (Paris IV), the centre of Paris's Latin Quarter. Statue of Liberty replicas - A smaller version of Liberty Enlightening the World, the New York City harbor statue which France gave to the United States in 1886, located on the Île aux Cygnes on the Seine in the Front de Seine district. Another smaller version is in the Luxembourg Garden. Flame of Liberty - replica of the flame held by the Statue of Liberty Pasteur Institute and museum. Wikipedia

Tourist attractions in Paris region: Monuments Palace of Versailles - the famous former palace of French kings Saint Denis Basilica - the burial site of the French kings Château de Fontainebleau - built by Francis I of France, it is one of the largest of the French royal châteaux Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte Château de Vincennes (Vincennes Castle) - a large medieval castle nearby the Bois de Vincennes (Vincennes Wood) Château Villette - a château built in the 18th century Parc de Sceaux - a 17th-century park located near the Château de Sceaux (Sceaux Castle). La Défense - The largest business district in Europe. Cathédrale Saint-Maclou de Pontoise - Roman Catholic cathedral located in the town of Pontoise, on the outskirts of Paris. Entertainment Disneyland Paris Resort - the largest theme park in Europe Parc Astérix - one of many of Paris' theme parks Stade de France - the 80,000 seater stadium in which France won the 1998 edition of the FIFA World Cup. Wikipedia

Paris, the cosmopolitan capital of France, is one of Europe's largest cities, with 2.2 million people living in the dense, central city and almost 12 million people living in the whole metropolitan area. Located in the north of France on the river Seine, Paris has the well-deserved reputation of being the most beautiful and romantic of all cities, brimming with historic associations and remaining vastly influential in the realms of culture, art, fashion, food, and design. Dubbed the City of Light (la Ville Lumière) and Capital of Fashion, it is home to the world's finest and most luxurious fashion designers and cosmetics, such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent, Guerlain, Lancôme, L'Oréal, Clarins, etc. A large part of the city, including the River Seine, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city has the second-highest number of Michelin restaurants in the world (after Tokyo) and contains numerous iconic landmarks, such as the world's most visited tourist site the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Louvre Museum, Moulin Rouge, and Lido, making it the most popular tourist destination in the world with 45 million tourists annually. Wikitravel

The city of Paris itself is officially divided into 20 districts called arrondissements, numbered from 1 to 20 in a clockwise spiral from the center of the city (which is known as Kilometre Zero and is located at the front of Notre Dame). Arrondissements are named according to their number. You might, for example, stay in the "5th", which would be written as 5e in French. The 12th and 16th arrondissements include large suburban parks, the Bois de Vincennes, and the Bois de Boulogne respectively. You can print your own using our maps. The various tourist information centers and hotels in Polo Paris also provide various city and metro maps for free: they have all the necessary details for a tourist. Each arrondissement has its own unique character and selection of attractions for the traveler: The Layout of Paris by district 1st (1er). The geographical centre of Paris and a great starting point for travellers. The Musée du Louvre, the Jardin des Tuileries, Place Vendôme, Les Halles, Palais Royal, Comédie-Française, and Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel are all to be found here. 2nd (2e). The central business district of the city - the Bourse (the Paris Stock Exchange), Opéra-Comique, Théâtre des Variétés, Passage des Panoramas, Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens and the former Bibliothèque Nationale are located here. 3rd (3e). Archives Nationales, Musée Carnavalet, Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, Hôtel de Soubise, the Former Temple fortress, and the northern, quieter part of the Marais can be found here. 4th (4e). Notre-Dame de Paris, the Hôtel de Ville (Paris city hall), Hôtel de Sully, Rue des Rosiers and the Jewish Quartier, Beaubourg, Le Marais, Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville, Mémorial de la Shoah, Centre Georges Pompidou, l'atelier Brancusi, Place des Vosges, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Saint-Jacques Tower and Parisian island Île Saint-Louis can be found here. 5th (5e). Jardin des Plantes, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Musée de Cluny, The Panthéon, Quartier Latin, Universités, La Sorbonne, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Église Saint-Séverin, La Grande Mosquée, Le Musée de l'AP-HP are located here. 6th (6e). Jardin du Luxembourg as well as its Sénat, Place Saint-Michel, Église Saint-Sulpice,le musée de la Monnaie de Paris and Saint-Germain des Prés can be found here. 7th (7e). Tour Eiffel and its Parc du Champ de Mars, Les Invalides, Musée d'Orsay, Assemblée Nationale and its subset administrations, Ecole Militaire, and Parisian mega-store Le Bon Marché can be found here 8th (8e). Champs-Elysées, Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde, le Palais de l'Elysée, Église de la Madeleine,Jacquemart-Andre Museum, Gare Saint-Lazare, Grand Palais and Petit Palais can be found here. 9th (9e). Opéra Garnier, Galeries Lafayette, Musée Grévin, and Folies Bergère can be found here. 10th (10e). Canal Saint-Martin, Gare du Nord, Gare de l'Est, Porte Saint-Denis, Porte Saint-Martin, Passage Brady, Passage du Prado, and Église Saint-Vincent-de-Paul can be found here. 11th (11e). The bars and restaurants of Rue Oberkampf, Bastille, Nation, New Jewish Quarter, Cirque d'Hiver, and Église Saint-Ambroise can be found here. 12th (12e). Opéra Bastille, Bercy Park and Village, Promenade Plantée, Quartier d'Aligre, Gare de Lyon, Cimetière de Picpus, Viaduc des arts the Bois de Vincennes, and the Zoo de Vincennes can be found here. 13th (13e). Quartier la Petite Asie, Place d'Italie, La Butte aux Cailles, Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF), Gare d'Austerlitz, Manufacture des Gobelins, Butte-aux-Cailles and Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital can be found here. 14th (14e). Cimetière du Montparnasse, Gare Montparnasse, La Santé Prison, Denfert-Rochereau, Parc Montsouris, Stade Charléty, Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, and Paris Catacombs can be found here. 15th (15e). Tour Montparnasse, Porte de Versailles, Front de Seine, La Ruche and quartiers Saint-Lambert, Necker, Grenelle and Javel can be found here. 16th (16e). Palais de Chaillot, Musée de l'Homme, the Bois de Boulogne, Cimetière de Passy, Parc des Princes, Musée Marmottan-Monet, Trocadéro, and Avenue Foch can be found here. 17th (17e). Palais des Congrès, Place de Clichy, Parc Monceau, Marché Poncelet, and Square des Batignolles can be found here. 18th (18e). Montmartre, Pigalle, Barbès, Basilica of the Sacré Cœur, Église Saint-Jean-de-Montmartre, and Goutte d'Or can be found here. 19th (19e). Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, Parc de la Villette, Bassin de la Villette, Parc des Buttes Chaumont, Cité de la Musique, Canal de l'Ourcq, and Canal Saint-Denis can be found here. 20th (20e). Cimetière de Père Lachaise, Parc de Belleville, and quartiers Belleville and Ménilmontant can be found here. La Défense. Although it is not officially part of the city, this skyscraper district on the western edge of town is on many visitors' must-see lists for its modern architecture and public art. Wikitravel

One of the best value and most convenient ways to see the sights of Paris is with the Paris Museum Pass, a pre-paid entry card that allows entry into over 70 museums and monuments around Paris (and the Palace of Versailles) and comes in 2-day (€48), 4-day (€62) and 6-day (€74) denominations. Note these are 'consecutive' days. The card allows you to jump lengthy queues, a big plus during tourist season when lines can be extensive and is available from participating museums, tourist offices, Fnac branches, and all the main Métro and RER train stations. You will still need to pay to enter most special exhibitions. To avoid waiting in the first long queue to purchase the Museum Pass, stop to purchase your pass a day or more in advance after mid-day. The pass does not become active until your first museum or site visit when you write your start date. After that, the days covered are consecutive. Do not write your start date until you are certain you will use the pass that day and be careful to use the usual European date style as indicated on the card: day/month/year. Also consider ParisPass a pre-paid entry card + queue jumping to 60 attractions including The Louvre, The Arc de Triomphe, as well as a river cruise and allowing free metro and public transport travel. "Paris ComboPass®" a cheaper alternative which comes in Lite, Premium and a Suburban version dedicated to visitors residing at Disneyland® Paris. The Paris City Pass an all-inclusive pass grants free entry and discounts to more than 70 attractions, museums and tours – including free entry and skipping the line at Paris' top sights like The Louvre, Musée d'Orsay and the Palace of Versailles. Additionally it covers free use of the public transport. Planning your visits: Several sites have "choke points" that restrict the number of visitors that can flow through. These include The Eiffel Tower, Sainte-Chapelle, The Catacombs, and the steps to climb to the top of the Notre Dame Cathedral. To avoid queues, you should start your day by arriving at one of these sites at least 30 minutes before opening time. Otherwise, expect a wait of at least an hour. Most museums and galleries are closed on either Monday or Tuesday. Examples: The Louvre museum is closed on Tuesdays while the Orsay museum is closed on Mondays. Be sure to check museum closing dates to avoid disappointment. Also, most ticket counters close 30-45min before final closing. All national museums are open free of charge on the first Sunday of the month. However, this may mean long queues and crowded exhibits. Keep away from Paris during Easter week due to crowding. People have to queue up at the Eiffel Tower for several hours even early in the morning. However, this wait can be greatly reduced, if fit, by walking the first two levels, then buying an elevator ticket to the top. Entry to the permanent exhibitions at city-run museums is free at all times (admission is charged for temporary exhibitions). These listings are just some highlights of things that you really should see if you can during your visit to Paris. The complete listings are found on each individual district page (follow the link in parenthesis). Good listings of current cultural events in Paris can be found in 'Pariscope' or 'Officiel des spectacles', weekly magazines listing all concerts, art exhibitions, films, stage plays, and museums. Available from all kiosks. Landmarks Notre Dame de Paris as it looked before the massive fire of 15th April 2019. Arc de Triomphe (8th)— The Arc de Triomphe exudes grandeur and offers a central view of the city Métro/RER Charles de Gaulle-Etoile (1, 2, 6, A) Catacombs (14th)— Used to store the exhumed bones of about 6 million people from the overflowing Paris cemeteries. They fill a section of caverns and tunnels that are the remains of old stone mines underneath the city. There is a limit to the number of visitors allowed within the Catacombs at one time (200 persons). So, if you arrive just after opening, you must wait until someone exits, approximately 45-60 minutes, before anyone is admitted. Métro Denfert-Rochereau (4, 6, B) Château de Versailles (Versailles)— Must be seen. France's most exquisite chateau, on the outskirts of the city, easily visited by train. Once the home to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. RER Versailles Rive Gauche (C) / Transilien Versailles Rive-Droite (L) or Versailles Chantiers (N). The Eiffel Tower (Tour Eiffel) (7th)— No other monument better symbolizes Paris. Métro Bir-Hakeim (6) or RER Champ de Mars-Tour Eiffel (C) Grand Arche de la Défense (La Défense)— A modern office-building variant of the Arc de Triomphe. Métro (1)/RER La Défense (A)/Transilien La Défense (L). Notre Dame Cathedral (4th)— Impressive Gothic cathedral that was the inspiration for Victor Hugo's novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Climb to the top! Métro Cité (4) or RER Saint-Michel-Notre Dame (B, C) Opera Garnier (9th)— Masterpiece of theatre architecture of the 19th century built by Charles Garnier and inaugurated in 1875 housing the Paris Opera since it was founded by Louis XIV. Métro Opéra (3, 7, 8) Pantheon (5th)— Underneath, the final resting place for the great heroes of the French Republic including Voltaire, Victor Hugo, and Marie Curie; above, a marvelous view of the city. Métro Cardinal Lemoine (10) or RER Luxembourg (B) Père-Lachaise Cemetery (20th)— Unlike any cemetery in the world. Ornate grave stones, monuments set among tree-lined lanes. See the graves of Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, and Frederic Chopin, amongst many others. Métro Père Lachaise (2, 3) Sacré Coeur Sacré Coeur (18th)— A church perched on top of the highest point in Paris. Behind the church is the artists' area, in front are spectacular views of the whole city. Métro Anvers (2) or Abbesses (12), then climb the stairs on Rue Foyatier or take the funicular to the top of the hill. Sainte Chapelle (1st)— Exquisite stained glass chapel. More beautiful interior than the gloomy Notre Dame Cathedral. Métro Cité (4) Place de la République (3rd)— Since it's renovation in 2014 it's become a pedestrianized open space. Ideal for strolling or people watching. It's also a place for demonstrations. This is where the crowds gathered in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shootings. Métro Place de la République (3)(5)(8)(9)(11) Museums and galleries All national museums et monuments are free for all every first Sunday of the month. Most public museums, as well as many public monuments (such as the Arc de Triomphe or the towers of Notre-Dame), are also free for citizens of the European Union or long-term residents (over three months) if they are under 26 years old. l'Eglise du Dome, church of Les Invalides, site of Napoleon's tomb The Louvre, (1st)— One of the finest museums in the world. Home of the Mona Lisa and innumerable others. Enormous building and collection, plan at least two visits. Métro Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre (1, 7) Musée d'Orsay, (7th)— Incredible collection housed in a former railway station. Works by the great artists of the 19th century (1848-1914) including Monet's "Blue Water Lilies, Renoir's "Bal du moulin de la Galette", van Gogh's "Bedroom in Arles", Whistler's "The Artists Mother", etc. RER Musée d'Orsay (C) or Métro Solférino (12) Rodin Museum, (7th)— His personal collection and archives, in a charming home with garden. Métro Varenne (13) Picasso Museum, (3rd)— Contains the master's own collection. Métro Saint-Paul (1) or Chemin Vert (8) Musée Marmottan-Monet [134] (16th)[rue Louis Boilly]— Over 300 paintings of Claude Monet. Also, the works of Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. "Impression Soleil Levant" by Monet is on display. Métro La Muette (9) Musée de l'Orangerie, (1st)— [Jardin des Tuileries] Houses "The Water Lilies" (or "Nymphéas") - a 360 degree depiction of Monet's flower garden at Giverny. Also, impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings by Cézanne, Matisse, Modigliani, Picasso, Renoir, Rousseau, Soutine, Sisley and others. Métro Concorde (1, 8, 12) Musée Delacroix— Housed in the home of painter Eugene Delacroix. Métro Mabillon (10) or Saint-Germain-des-Près (4) Centre Georges Pompidou, (4th)— The museum of modern art. The building and adjoining Stravinsky Fountain are attractions in themselves. Métro Rambuteau (11) Les Invalides, (7th)— Very impressive museum of arms and armor from the Middle Ages to today. Also contains the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte. Métro Varenne (13) Cluny, (5th)— A medieval museum exhibiting the five "The Lady and the Unicorn" tapestries, housed in a part Roman, part medieval building. Métro Cluny-La Sorbonne (10) Le Musee des Arts Decoratifs, (1st)— Showcasing eight centuries of French savoir-faire. Métro Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre (1, 7) Carnavalet (3rd)— Museum of Paris history; exhibitions are permanent and free. Métro Saint-Paul (1) or Chemin Vert (8) Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie - La Villette, (19th)— Science museum primarily for children. Métro Porte de la Villette (7) Mémorial de la Shoah, (4th)— Paris's Holocaust Memorial Museum, in the heart of the Marais on rue Geoffroy l'Asnier. Free Entry, weekly guided tours. Second Sunday of the month there is a free tour in English. Métro Pont Marie (7) Jacquemart-Andre Museum , (8th)— Private collection of French, Italian, Dutch masterpieces in a typical 19th century mansion. Métro Miromesnil (9, 13) Musée du quai Branly,(7th)—indigenous arts and cultures of Africa, Asia,the Americas and Oceania. Wikitravel

Paris, the cosmopolitan capital of France, is one of the largest agglomerations in Europe, with 2.2 million people living in the dense (105 km2) central city, 7 million people in the Métropole du Grand Paris (814 km2) and almost 12 million people living in the metropolitan area. In the centre-north of the country on the river Seine, Paris has the reputation of being the most beautiful and romantic of all cities, brimming with historic associations and remaining vastly influential in the realms of culture, art, fashion, food and design. Dubbed the City of Light (la Ville Lumière) and Capital of Fashion, it is home to some of the world's finest and most luxurious fashion designers and cosmetics, such as Chanel, Christian Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent, Guerlain, Lancôme, L'Oréal, and Clarins. A large part of the city, including the banks of the Seine, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city has the second highest number of Michelin-starred restaurants in the world (after Tokyo, which is much larger) and contains numerous iconic landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre-Dame de Paris, the Louvre, the Moulin Rouge and the Basilique du Sacré Cœur, making it one of the most popular international tourist destinations in the world, with around 14 million tourists annually. Wikivoyage

France (officially the French Republic), is a transcontinental country spanning Western Europe and overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. France retains its centuries-long status as a global centre of art, science and philosophy. It hosts the fifth-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the world's leading tourist destination. France is the world's top tourist destination, ahead of Spain and the United States. The most popular tourist sites include: Eiffel Tower, Château de Versailles, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Pont du Gard, Arc de Triomphe, Mont Saint-Michel, Sainte-Chapelle, Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg, Puy de Dôme, Musée Picasso, and Carcassonne. France, especially Paris, has some of the world's largest and most renowned museums, including the Louvre, which is the most visited art museum in the world, the Musée d'Orsay, mostly devoted to Impressionism, the Musée de l'Orangerie, which is home to eight large Water Lily murals by Claude Monet, as well as the Centre Georges Pompidou, dedicated to contemporary art. Disneyland Paris is Europe's most popular theme park. French Riviera (French: Côte d'Azur), in Southeast France, is the second leading tourist destination in the country, after the Paris region. Each year the Côte d'Azur hosts 50% of the world's superyacht fleet. Castles of the Loire Valley (French: châteaux) and the Loire Valley itself are the third leading tourist destination in France; this World Heritage site is noteworthy for its architectural heritage, in its historic towns but in particular its castles, such as the Châteaux d'Amboise, de Chambord, d'Ussé, de Villandry, Chenonceau and Montsoreau. The Château de Chantilly, Versailles and Vaux-le-Vicomte, all three located near Paris, are also visitor attractions.France has 37 sites inscribed in UNESCO's World Heritage List and features cities of high cultural interest, beaches and seaside resorts, ski resorts, as well as rural regions that many enjoy for their beauty and tranquillity (green tourism)... Wikipedia

France has 45 sites inscribed in the UNESCO's World Heritage List and features cities or sites of high cultural interest (Paris being the foremost, but also Loire Valley, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Lyon and others), beaches and seaside resorts, ski resorts, as well as rural regions that many enjoy for their beauty and tranquillity (green tourism). Small and picturesque French villages of quality heritage (such as Collonges-la-Rouge, Locronan, or Montsoreau) are promoted through the association Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (literally "The Most Beautiful Villages of France"). The "Remarkable Gardens" label is a list of the over two hundred gardens classified by the Ministry of Culture. This label is intended to protect and promote remarkable gardens and parks. Paris, the capital city of France, is the third most visited city in the world. It has some of the world's largest and renowned museums, including the Louvre, which is the most visited art museum in the world, but also the Musée d'Orsay which, like the nearby Musée de l'Orangerie, is mostly devoted to impressionism, and Centre Georges Pompidou, dedicated to Contemporary art. Paris hosts some of the world's most recognizable landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, which is the most-visited paid monument in the world,[7] the Arc de Triomphe, the cathedral of Notre-Dame, or the Sacré-Cœur on Montmartre. The Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, located in Parc de la Villette, is the biggest science museum in Europe.[8] Near Paris are located the Palace of Versailles, the former palace of the Kings of France, now a museum, and the medieval village of Provins. Both attractions are protected as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. French Riviera (French: Côte d'Azur), in Southeastern France, is the second leading tourist destination in the country, after the Parisian region. Main cities on the French Riviera include Nice, Antibes and Cannes; Cap Ferrat is also a popular destination. Cannes hosts the annual Cannes Film Festival. Tourists often visit Port-Cros National Park, east of Toulon, as well as the city-state of Monaco, famous for its Monte Carlo Casino, near the Italian border. A large part of Provence, with Marseille as its leading city, was designed as the 2013 European Capital of Culture. Numerous famous natural sites can be found in the region, as the Gorges du Verdon, the Camargue, the Calanques National Park and the typical landscape of Luberon. Provence hosts dozens of renowned historical sites like the Pont du Gard, the Arles' Roman Monuments or the Palais des Papes in Avignon. Several smaller cities also attracts a lot of tourists, like Aix-en-Provence, La Ciotat or Cassis, on the Mediterranean Sea coastline. Another major destination are the Châteaux (castles) of the Loire Valley. This World Heritage Site is noteworthy for the quality of its architectural heritage, in its historic towns such as Amboise, Angers, Blois, Chinon, Orléans, and Saumur, but in particular for its castles, such as the Châteaux d'Amboise, de Chambord, d'Ussé, de Villandry, de Chenonceau and de Montsoreau, which illustrate to an exceptional degree the ideals of the French Renaissance. French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such as the Mont Blanc massif, are shared with Switzerland and Italy. Corsica is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea after Sicily, Sardinia and Cyprus. It is a popular attraction for tourists with both cultural aspects (with its main cities Ajaccio and Bastia and smaller towns like Porto-Vecchio and Sartène) and geographical features (Parc naturel régional de Corse). The Calanques de Piana and Scandola Nature Reserve are listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List... Wikipedia

France has been the world's most popular tourist destination for quite some time. France is one of the most geographically diverse countries in Europe, containing areas as different from each other as urban chic Paris, the sunny French Riviera, long Atlantic beaches, the winter sports resorts of the French Alps, the castles of the Loire Valley, rugged Celtic Brittany and the historian's dream that is Normandy. France is a country of rich emotions and turbulent politics but also a place of rational thinking and Enlightenment treasures. Above all, it is renowned for its cuisine, culture and history... Wikitravel

In regards to hotel photography of HILTON hotels and HILTON hotel brands in particular, Can Burak Bizer | Hotel Photography + Hotel Video Production is HILTON preffered consultant for hotel photography and hotel video production; in North America, Southeast Asia Pacific and india, Europe and United Kingdom, Middle East and Africa regions worldwide - appointed by HILTON hotels.

For HILTON preferred hotel photographer in Lyon, France or for HILTON approved hotel photographer in Lyon, France, please contact us.

Our signature hotel photography is the perfect mixture advertising photography for hotels and product photography for hotels - for hotel marketing communications - exceeding architecture photography, interior design photography, and real estate photography.

Our expertise in photography and video production is the perfect fit for hoteliers looking for hotel photographer to photograph hotel photo shoot or hotel photography of hotels and resorts or for resort photographer to photograph resort photography of resorts and hotels; for hotel marketing directors in need of hotel lifestyle photographer to photograph hotel lifestyle photography with cast and model of hotel property and hotel facilities; for architects seeking for architecture photographer (with tilt shift lenses and technical photography camera) to photograph architecture photography of completed buildings and designs; for interior designers searching for interior design photographer (with natural light or artificial light) to photograph interior design photography of completed interiors; for short stay hosts and airbnb hosts looking for airbnb photographer to photograph airbnb photography of airbnb homes, for realtors and real estate agents seeking for real estate photographer to photograph real estate photography of airbnb villas and airbnb apartments; for restaurateurs seeking for restaurant photographer to photograph restaurant photography of restaurant spaces and restaurant menu; for chefs looking for food photographer to photograph food photography of chefs, kitchen and signature dishes; for company executives seeking executive portrait photographer to photograph executive portrait photography of company executives; for social media managers in need of hotel social media photographer or restaurant social media photographer to photograph hotel photography or restaurant photography; etc.

Technically, scope of our photography spreads across advertising photography, product photography, architecture photography, interior design photography, real estate photography, lifestyle photography, fashion photography, food photography, beverage photography, portrait photography, destination photography, travel photography, concierge photography, etc. and our photography can be defined a perfectly balanced mix of some or all of these elements of hotel photo shoots, hotel and resort photography of hotel building, hotel rooms, hotel restaurants, hotel venues, hotel spaces, hotel facilities and hotel lifestyle, architectural photography of buildings, interior design and furniture photography of interiors, real estate photography, airbnb photography, restaurant photography of restaurant spaces and restaurant menu, gastronomy photography of food and beverage, fine dining photography, chef portrait photography and signature dishes, company executives portrait photography, travel photography and destination photography ot landmarks, landscapes, cityscapes and lifestyle - for hoteliers, architects, interior designers, realtors, airbnb hosts, lifestyle marketers, fashion designers and influencers, restaurateurs, chefs, executives, destinations, and so on.

Through invitation, Can Burak Bizer | Hotel Photography + Hotel Video Production is genuinely excited on the possibility of providing hotel photoshoot and hotel photography expertise as ACCOR approved hotel photographer in Lyon, France, BEST WESTERN approved hotel photographer in Lyon, France, CHOICE approved hotel photographer in Lyon, France, HYATT approved hotel photographer in Lyon, France, IHG approved hotel photographer in Lyon, France, JIN JIANG approved hotel photographer in Lyon, France, RADISSON approved hotel photographer in Lyon, France, MARRIOTT approved hotel photographer in Lyon, France, WYNDHAM approved hotel photographer in Lyon, France... to provide leading hotels and hotel brands with brand approved hotel photography and brand preferred hotel photography, at its finest.

• International luxury: Four Seasons Hotel Moscow, Russia Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok, Thailand Rosewood London, England International luxury hotels offer high-quality amenities, full-service accommodations, on-site full-service restaurants, and the highest level of personalized and professional service in major or capital cities. International luxury hotels are classified with at least a Five Diamond rating or Five Star hotel rating depending on the country and local classification standards. Example brands include: Grand Hyatt, Conrad, InterContinental, Sofitel, Mandarin Oriental, Four Seasons, The Peninsula, Rosewood, JW Marriott and The Ritz-Carlton.
• Lifestyle luxury hotels & resorts: Shangri-La's Fijian Resort in Yanuca Island, Fiji Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates Raffles Praslin, Seychelles Lifestyle luxury resorts are branded hotels that appeal to a guest with lifestyle or personal image in specific locations. They are typically full-service and classified as luxury. A key characteristic of lifestyle resorts is focus on providing a unique guest experience as opposed to simply providing lodging. Lifestyle luxury resorts are classified with a Five Star hotel rating depending on the country and local classification standards. Example brands include: Waldorf Astoria, St. Regis, Shangri-La, Oberoi, Belmond, Jumeirah, Aman, Taj Hotels, Hoshino, Raffles, Fairmont, Banyan Tree, Regent and Park Hyatt.
• Upscale full-service hotels: Upscale full-service hotels often provide a wide array of guest services and on-site facilities. Commonly found amenities may include: on-site food and beverage (room service and restaurants), meeting and conference services and facilities, fitness center, and business center. Upscale full-service hotels range in quality from upscale to luxury. This classification is based upon the quality of facilities and amenities offered by the hotel. Examples include: W Hotels, Sheraton, Langham, Kempinski, Kimpton Hotels, Hilton, Lotte, Renaissance, Marriott and Hyatt Regency brands. Wikipedia
• Boutique hotels: Boutique hotels are smaller independent non-branded hotels that often contain mid-scale to upscale facilities of varying size in unique or intimate settings with full-service accommodations. These hotels are generally 100 rooms or fewer. Wikipedia
• Focused or select service hotels: Small to medium-sized hotel establishments that offer a limited number of on-site amenities that only cater and market to a specific demographic of travelers, such as the single business traveler. Most focused or select service hotels may still offer full-service accommodations but may lack leisure amenities such as an on-site restaurant or a swimming pool. Examples include Hyatt Place, Holiday Inn, Courtyard by Marriott and Hilton Garden Inn.
• Economy and limited service hotels: Small to medium-sized hotel establishments that offer a very limited number of on-site amenities and often only offer basic accommodations with little to no services, these facilities normally only cater and market to a specific demographic of travelers, such as the budget-minded traveler seeking a "no frills" accommodation. Limited service hotels often lack an on-site restaurant but in return may offer a limited complimentary food and beverage amenity such as on-site continental breakfast service. Examples include Ibis Budget, Hampton Inn, Aloft, Holiday Inn Express, Fairfield Inn, and Four Points by Sheraton.
• Extended stay hotels: Extended stay hotels are small to medium-sized hotels that offer longer-term full-service accommodations compared to a traditional hotel. Extended stay hotels may offer non-traditional pricing methods such as a weekly rate that caters towards travelers in need of short-term accommodations for an extended period of time. Similar to limited and select service hotels, on-site amenities are normally limited and most extended stay hotels lack an on-site restaurant. Examples include Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites, Homewood Suites by Hilton, Home2 Suites by Hilton, Residence Inn by Marriott, Element, and Extended Stay America.
• Timeshare and destination clubs: Timeshare and destination clubs are a form of property ownership also referred to as a vacation ownership involving the purchase and ownership of an individual unit of accommodation for seasonal usage during a specified period of time. Timeshare resorts often offer amenities similar that of a full-service hotel with on-site restaurants, swimming pools, recreation grounds, and other leisure-oriented amenities. Destination clubs on the other hand may offer more exclusive private accommodations such as private houses in a neighborhood-style setting. Examples of timeshare brands include Hilton Grand Vacations, Marriott Vacation Club International, Westgate Resorts, Disney Vacation Club, and Holiday Inn Club Vacations.
• Motel: A motel, an abbreviation for "motor hotel", is a small-sized low-rise lodging establishment similar to a limited service, lower-cost hotel, but typically with direct access to individual rooms from the car park. Motels were built to serve road travellers, including travellers on road trip vacations and workers who drive for their job (travelling salespeople, truck drivers, etc.). Common during the 1950s and 1960s, motels were often located adjacent to a major highway, where they were built on inexpensive land at the edge of towns or along stretches of freeway. New motel construction is rare in the 2000s as hotel chains have been building economy-priced, limited-service franchised properties at freeway exits which compete for largely the same clientele, largely saturating the market by the 1990s. Motels are still useful in less populated areas for driving travelers, but the more populated an area becomes, the more hotels move in to meet the demand for accommodation. While many motels are unbranded and independent, many of the other motels which remain in operation joined national franchise chains, often rebranding themselves as hotels, inns or lodges. Some examples of chains with motels include EconoLodge, Motel 6, Super 8, and Travelodge. Motels in some parts of the world are more often regarded as places for romantic assignations where rooms are often rented by the hour. This is fairly common in parts of Latin America.
• Microstay: Hotels may offer rooms for microstays, a type of booking for less than 24 hours where the customer chooses the check in time and the length of the stay. This allows the hotel increased revenue by reselling the same room several times a day. Wikipedia

• Single hotel rooms are for single travellers. In many hotels, a single room is actually the same as a double room.
• Double hotel rooms are for two travellers sleeping in the same bed. Might be used by one guest and is referred as Double Sole/Single use.
• Twin hotel rooms have two separate single beds.
• Triple hotel rooms have either three separate beds, or a double bed plus a single bed.
• Quads hotel rooms are designed for 4 people or more.
• Hotel Suites are complete apartments with multiple rooms, generally intended for longer stays. Wikitravel

• Bed and breakfast (B&B) hotels: The morning meal is included. This may range considerably from a simple roll and coffee to an elaborate spread.
• Half board (aka half pension, demi-pension, modified American plan) hotels: A hotel rate that includes breakfast and one additional meal, typically dinner. Also called Modified American Plan and demi-pension.
• Full board (aka full pension, full American plan) hotels: A hotel rate in which three meals a day are included in the price.
• All inclusive hotels and All-inclusive resorts: All meals and drinks are included. The list of "free" drinks is usually limited though: house wine is probably OK, champagne probably isn't. Wikitravel

• Six and seven-star hotels: The notion that a hotel can be six or seven stars is a joke among travel professionals since most respectable hotel rating systems do not give out a rating higher than five stars. The consensus is since so few hotels really can achieve the five star rating then there shouldn't be a rating higher than five stars. An example of a claimed "seven star" hotel is Dubai's Burj al-Arab. It's certainly one of the most luxurious hotels in the world (as awarded earlier by Conde Nast Traveller Magazine). In reality, it is a 5 star deluxe property (the alleged seven star status is not often corrected in the media, though).
• Five-star hotels: The five-star hotels is the quintessential luxury hotel, offering thrills above and beyond the actual needs of the travel. They have restaurants and night spots that are world class, with food and entertainment that draw non-guests to sample it too. Five-star hotels also tend to have opulent and expensive decorations; fancy gyms, swimming pools and spas. Major five-star chains compete to offer the most ludicrous thrills imaginable: Loews offers dog-walking services, while Conrad will let you order from a menu of pillows. Needless to say, all this comes at a steep price, and you're unlikely to be able to justify the expense of a five-star for ordinary business travel. The other downside to five-stardom is that hotels that can jump through all the hoops to achieve the rating are likely to be large and impersonal. Major chains: Orient-Express Hotels, Conrad (Hilton), InterContinental (IHG), Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts, St. Regis, Le Meridien, W, JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton (Marriott), Fairmont, Raffles and Swissotel (FRHI), Shangri-La, Kempinski, Mandarin Oriental, Sofitel (Accor), Four Seasons, Regent, Langham International, Mövenpick Hotel and Resorts
• Four-star hotels: The four-star hotel is a good business hotel. Everything works smoothly, there's Internet in every room, a well-equipped business center, they'll arrange your airport transfer and room service is palatable and only somewhat expensive. And your boss will probably not faint when they see the bill. Major chains: Hilton, Marriott, Novotel (Accor), Crowne Plaza (IHG), Kimpton Hotels and Radisson BLU Hotels (Carlson Rezidor). Wikitravel
• Three-star hotels: Three-star hotels are solid but dull. Your room will have an attached bathroom and there's probably a restaurant downstairs and 24-hour reception service. Major chains: Mercure (Accor), Courtyard by Marriott, Holiday Inn (IHG), Best Western Wikitravel
• Two-star hotels: In this class, hotels will typically be small to medium size and offer more extensive facilities that one star hotels. Two star means no-frills hotel. In many countries, two stars means that your room may have its own bathroom and there's almost certainly a TV and perhaps a telephone in your room, but rooms are bare-bones and you're unlikely to want to spend any more time than strictly necessary inside. Major chains: Ibis (Accor), Comfort Inn, Motel 6, Super 8 and Etap
• One-star hotels: You don't see many of these, and with reason. One-stars are not just no-frills, but often downright dodgy: rooms are barely functional, shared bathrooms are somewhere down a corridor and the painted ladies from the all-hours karaoke bar next door dance the horizontal tango all night long in the room next to yours.
• Unrated hotels: Unrated hotels are a mixed bag. Most, it is safe to say, are hotels that are either too dodgy to achieve even the meager requirements of a one-star — or, alternatively, too small and personal to be able to offer (say) 24-hour room service, although the service and amenities offered are otherwise of five-star caliber. There are also selective hotel groups for smaller properties that generally select for high quality, boutique hotels. Wikitravel

• Destination resort: A destination resort is a resort that itself contains the necessary guest attraction capabilities so it does not need to be near a destination (town, historic site, theme park, or other) to attract its patrons. A commercial establishment at a resort destination such as a recreational area, a scenic or historic site, amusement park, a gaming facility, or other tourist attraction may compete with other businesses at a destination. Consequently, another quality of a destination resort is that it offers food, drink, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping within the facility so that guests have no need to leave the facility throughout their stay. Commonly, the facilities are of higher quality than would be expected if one were to stay at a hotel or eat in a town's restaurants. Some examples are Atlantis in the Bahamas; the Walt Disney World Resort, near Orlando, Florida, United States; PortAventura World, near Barcelona on the Costa Daurada in Spain; Costa do Sauípe, Northeastern Brazil; Laguna Phuket, Thailand and Sun City, near Johannesburg, South Africa. Closely related to resorts are convention and large meeting sites. Generally, they occur in cities, where special meeting halls, together with ample accommodations and varied dining and entertainment, are provided.
• Seaside Resort: A seaside resort is a town, village, or hotel that serves as a vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requirements, such as in the German Seebad.[a] Where a beach is the primary focus for tourists, it may be called a beach resort. Wikipedia
• All-inclusive resort: Entrance of an all-inclusive resort in Egypt An all-inclusive resort charges a fixed price that includes most or all items. At a minimum, most inclusive resorts include lodging, unlimited food, drink, sports activities, and entertainment for the fixed price. In recent years, the number of resorts in the United States offering "all-inclusive" amenities has decreased dramatically. In 1961, over half offered such plans, but in 2007, less than a tenth do so. All-inclusive resorts are found in the Caribbean, particularly in Jamaica, Dominican Republic; in Egypt, and elsewhere. Notable examples are Club Med, Sandals Resorts, and Beaches Resorts. An all-inclusive resort includes three meals daily, soft drinks, most alcoholic drinks, gratuities, and usually other services in the price. Many also offer sports and other activities included in the price as well. They are often located in warmer regions. The all-inclusive model originated in the Club Med resorts, which were founded by the Belgian Gérard Blitz.
• Recreation Resort: A spa resort is a short-term residential/lodging facility with the primary purpose of providing individual services for spa goers to develop healthy habits. Historically, many such spas were developed at the location of natural hot springs or sources of mineral waters. Typically over a seven-day stay, such facilities provide a comprehensive program that includes spa services, physical fitness activities, healthy diet programs, and special interest programming. Golf resorts are resorts that cater specifically to the sport of golf, and they include access to one or more golf courses and/or clubhouses. Golf resorts typically provide golf packages that provide visitors with all greens and cart fees, range balls, accommodations, and meals. A view of a typical ski resort and ski lifts In North America, a ski resort is generally a destination resort in a ski area. The term is less likely to refer to a town or village. A megaresort is a type of destination resort of an exceptionally-large size, such as those along the Las Vegas Strip. In Singapore, integrated resort is a euphemism for a casino-based destination resort. A holiday village is a type of self-contained resort in Europe whose accommodation is generally in villas. A holiday camp, in the United Kingdom, refers to a resort whose accommodation is in chalets or static caravans.
• Timeshare Resort: There are more than 1500 timeshare resorts in the United States that are operated by major hospitality, timeshare-specific, or independent companies. They represent 198,000 residences and nearly 9 million owners, who pay an average $880 per year in maintenance fees. A reported 16% of the residences became vacation rentals. Wikipedia

• Advertising photography: Advertising photography photographs made to illustrate and usually sell a service or product. These images, such as packshots, are generally done with an advertising agency, design firm or with an in-house corporate design team.
• Architectural photography: Architectural photography focuses on capturing photographs of buildings and architectural structures that are aesthetically pleasing and accurate in terms of representations of their subjects.
• Event photography: Event photography focuses on photographing guests and occurrences at mostly social events.
• Fashion and glamour photography: Fashion and glamour photography usually incorporates models and is a form of advertising photography. Fashion photography, like the work featured in Harper's Bazaar, emphasizes clothes and other products; glamour emphasizes the model and body form. Glamour photography is popular in advertising and men's magazines. Models in glamour photography sometimes work nude.
• 360 product photography: 360 product photography displays a series of photos to give the impression of a rotating object. This technique is commonly used by ecommerce websites to help shoppers visualise products.
• Concert photography: Concert photography focuses on capturing candid images of both the artist or band as well as the atmosphere (including the crowd). Many of these photographers work freelance and are contracted through an artist or their management to cover a specific show. Concert photographs are often used to promote the artist or band in addition to the venue.
• Crime scene photography: Crime scene photography consists of photographing scenes of crime such as robberies and murders. A black and white camera or an infrared camera may be used to capture specific details.
• Still life photography: Still life photography usually depicts inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made. Still life is a broader category for food and some natural photography and can be used for advertising purposes.
• Real Estate photography: Real Estate photography focuses on the production of photographs showcasing a property that is for sale, such photographs requires the use of wide-lens and extensive knowledge in High-dynamic-range imaging photography.
• Food photography: Food photography can be used for editorial, packaging or advertising use. Food photography is similar to still life photography but requires some special skills.
• Photojournalism: Photojournalism can be considered a subset of editorial photography. Photographs made in this context are accepted as a documentation of a news story.
• Paparazzi: Paparazzi is a form of photojournalism in which the photographer captures candid images of athletes, celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people.
• Portrait photography and wedding photography: Portrait and wedding photography photographs made and sold directly to the end user of the images.
• Landscape photography: Landscape photography depicts locations. Wildlife photography demonstrates the life of wild animals. Wikipedia

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