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It is a sprawling park area with amazing outdoor play facilities and a huge children's museum and science museum. You could easily spend 2-3 days just exploring this area. There are theatres and restaurants as well.
'Nuit Blanche' is an annual event in Paris, whereby (so rumour would have it) everything stays open all night for revelry and awe. Imagine touring the Louvre at 2am, followed by a quiet 4am brunch in a streetside cafe watching the crowds walk past, and the carnival-like atmosphere.
It would be great - if it were true!
Last year's was a shambles. The authorities didn't (wouldn't) release guides until the night itself (and then didn't explain how to get them) and most Parisians had no idea what was open, or where.
We joined the crowds milling outside the Louvre (closed), tried the Musee d'Orsay (closed) and settled for a Bateau Mouche - which turned out to provide the long awaited guidebook once you'd bought your ticket.
The boat trip itself was pleasant, during which we could read the guide - to discover few places indeed were open at all, and the promised 'all night opening' of the Metro only applied to certain lines in certain directions.
The only bar we could find open and not crammed with similarly baffled tourists was Australian (not very Parisian). When we finally gave up, we joined the thousands of others equally trying to desperately get a taxi home in the sub-zero temperatures, and ended up huddled in a Metro entrance (closed) for warmth until the hordes had thinned enough for us to try and get back.
It can't be blamed on our being tourists - as we have French friends who live in Paris and who we'd joined to spend the 'event' with!
Hopefully this year's will be better, but I'd definitely check every detail out in advance, just in case!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuit_Blanche
www.paris.fr/portail/Culture/Portal.lut?page_id=6806
goparis.about.com/od/events/p/Nuit_Blanche.htm
Escape the culture vultures at the Louvre or Musee d'Orsay - head out to the 16th district for the Musee Marmottan.
There, in a peaceful mansion, you'll find the largest Monet collection anywhere. See the entire range of his work, culminating in the Giverny Nympheas, displayed in a wonderful circular gallery.
Admire works of many other Impressionists, including one of the few women, Berthe Morisot, Manet's sister-in-law. Easy to get to (four buses, metro), opposite a delightful park, near good, cheap restaurants - a day out of Paris, in Paris!
If you are under 26, you can visit the Louvre for free on Friday evenings. In an expensive city, this is more than just helpful euro-pinching.
You can arrive as the setting sun catches the top of the glass pyramid (making for the perfect ‘I heart Paris’ portrait) then dash to all the best bits while everyone is making their way out.
As you stand tête-à-tête with the Mona Lisa, you might finally realise what all the fuss is about.
This little gem which chronicles the lives of George Sand and Chopin is tucked away from the hustle and bustle of the capital. Lovely autre epoque atmosphere with a delightful period tea room. Worth discovering.
16 rue Chaptal , Metro St. Georges
If you are tired of traipsing around the Louvre and Quai d'Orsay head for the Rodin museum and garden.
Have a good look around the main house museum then head out to the lovely gardens. At the very bottom you will find some shaded sun loungers where you can catch your breath and even be sketched by the life drawing class that goes there most afternoons.
Visit the 'Salon Du Chocolat' at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles Oct 19-22. It provides insight into the world of chocolate, tasting, purchasing, seeing how it's made, a fashion show where all clothes created are made from chocolate and this year they are creating a life-size wall of chocolate graffiti. A must see.
The baccarat glass museum near metro Chateau d'eau is a gem. Wonderful exhibits and, if you can't afford the original baccarat paperweights (they're expensive!), you can buy fine glassware at discount prices in the shops in the quartier.
I hate wearing glasses but my eyes have a Norman Tebbit-like intolerance of foreign bodies, including contact lenses. But on visiting this museum I felt proud to be a speccie.
Glasses going back 800 years, including some (eg Elton John's) that are positively architectural. You tell me that a museum of contact lenses would look this good!
Musée des lunettes et lorgnettes, Pierre Marly.
The Espace Dali at 11 Rue Poulbot, Montmartre, is hard to find but a suitably surreal experience. I love to spend hours at a time there, looking at paintings, sculpture and live shows.
11 Rue Poulbot, Montmartre
Take the metro to Boulogne Pont de St-Cloud, and take a short walk to the Jardin Albert Kahn.
There are very attractive gardens and a little museum which has exhibitions of the photographs and films that he commissioned between 1909 - 1931. This remarkable man sent photographers to remote areas of the world to record the people and how they lived. There has recently been a documentary on television about him and the amazing collection.
It is possible to purchase postcards and posters in the small shop. Unfortunately, the salon de the in the Palm house is not open because the building needs urgent renovation, but there are bars and brasseries next to the metro entrances. This was a fascinating place to visit and is off the usual tourist trail. Highly recommended.
Inspring images from European masters of photographic art. A variety of exhibitions in a stunning building in the Marais district.
The Carnavalet museum in the heart of the Marais not only has a magnificent collection of Parisian history, from medieval shop signs to stylish art deco exhibits, set in a most beautiful sixteenth century palace but is, unbelievably, free. It is closed on Mondays, and open 10am to 5.40pm.
The Priory is a former hospital dating from the end of the 17th century. It was later used as a religious retreat. In 1913 the painter, Maurice Denis, who was deeply religious, as well as being a leading theorist of Post Impressionism, acquired the building and its grounds.
The Priory now houses a small but good collection of French art from the period 1880 to 1940, including Symbolism and Post Impressionism, especially the work of the Pont Aven artists and the Nabis.
The gardens are very beautiful and show sculpture by Bourdelle and Maillol. It's a quiet and contemplative sort of place except when the primary schools are in for an afternoon of art.
2 Rue Maurice Denis, 78100 St Germaine-en-Laye, west of Paris. Metro/RER from Chatelet to St Germaine-en-Laye. Then 10 minute walk through the town. There is said to be a bus but I never saw it.
Albert Kahn was a 19th and 20th century businessman who decided to use his wealth to create an 'Archive of the Planet' at the turn of these centuries in a world being irrevocably changed by the industrial revolution.
He did this by hiring a number of photographers, equipping them with the Lumiere brothers' autochrome colour photography cameras and despatching them to all corners of the globe. The result became a unique archive of 72,000 images and 600,000 feet of film taken between 1900 and 1930.
A selection of the autochromes, as well as clips of film footage, are now on display in the museum, the selections change on an annual basis.
The entry fee also includes access to Kahn's gardens which also reflect his internationalist philosophy. The gardens are a mixture of Japanese, French and English and also include three ‘mini-forests’ with terrain that you might find in any one of the African, Asian or American continents. There is also a ‘Palmarium’ that houses a café as well as some more exotic plant life.
The museum is modern, having opened only in 1986, and also includes computer booths where you’ll find an interactive map of the whole complex, inside and out.
Viewers of the BBC’s ‘Edwardians in Colour’ series will have had a preview of what the museum has to offer, and it’s well worth the 30 minute Metro ride to see it for yourself.
14 Rue du Port in the Boulogne-Billancourt district.
Metro: Pont de Saint Cloud (the museum is literally around the corner and is signposted).
Phone: 01 55 19 28 00
The Musée d'Orsay is open until 9.45pm on Thursday nights. It is *really quiet* and the museum has a totally different atmosphere than in the day. A very relaxing way spend an evening.
I recently had the opportunity to visit the new (or renovated) Musée des Arts Decoratifs here in Paris. Set just next to the Louvre on the rue du Rivoli, it has taken the arts & crafts movement to the next level.
Next to 14th century glassware or pottery, you'll see exhibited a similar item made last year. But it's not just about pottery and chairs, the toy exhibit is incredible!
The museum is really well laid out to keep one's interest - is small enough that it doesn't take you all day - and close to many of the other "must see" sights of Paris to make it worth the visit. To get a feel of the variation of the museum, go here: www.parisdailyphoto.com/2007/04/muse-des-arts-dcoratifs.html
Les Arts Décoratifs
107, rue de Rivoli
75001 Paris France
Official Website: www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/index_gb.html
I really like the Pompidou Centre as a building. It's so unusual and high-tech it's worth visiting just to walk around the outside. Also home of the Beaubourg Museum. There's always something interesting on there.
Place Georges Pompendeau, Paris 75004.
Telephone: +33 01-44-78-12-33
Open every day from 11am to 10pm, except Tuesdays and May 1.
Prices : 10 euros - Free of charge for under 18s, members, disabled visitors, unemployed people . Proof of status required.
Metro/Bus : M° Rambuteau (lines 11), M° Hôtel de Ville (lines 1 et 11) - RER Châtelet les Halles (lines A et B) - Bus: 21, 29, 38, 47, 58, 69, 70, 72, 74, 75, 76, 81, 85, 96
Contemporary art gallery with great exhibitions - opens from noon to midnight and has a nice bar and restaurant and a great book shop. In summer there are seats outside and you can sip beer and look straight across at the Eiffel Tower. Sometimes bongo-players and fire blowers converge provide impromptu and frantic dancing opportunities.
Nearest metro: Iena
Old station beautifully converted into a museum of art on the banks of the Seine, taking the place of the old Jeu de Paume where the Impressionist paintings used to be.
Fantastic cafes and restaurant too.
Quai d'Orsay
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