Top Attractions in Paris

Eiffel Tower

One of the most popular tourist attractions and famous buildings in the world is the Eiffel Tower. Built by the engineer Gustav Eiffel in 1889 for the Universal Exhibition, the Eiffel Tower with its three floors, is 317 meters high and carries the capital’s radio and television transmitters. From the Eiffel Tower an outstanding panoramic view of Paris can be seen both day and night.
Once the tallest structure in the world, the Eiffel Tower is Paris’s most famous symbol.
Even if you decide not to visit this world famous structure, you will see its top from all over Paris. The tower rises 300 meters tall (984 ft); when it was completed at the end of the 19th century it was at the time the tallest structure in the world.
The Eiffel Tower was built for the World Exhibition in 1889, held in celebration of the French Revolution in 1789.

Arc de Triomphe
Napoléon’s Triumphal Arch:

The Arc de Triomphe is engraved with names of      generals who commanded French troops during Napoleon’s regime.

The arch is located at the end of the Champs-Elysées, in the middle of the Place Charles de Gaulle

The Arc de Triomphe is a monument in Paris that stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle, also known as the Place de l’Étoile.^[1] Officially, it is the Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile, as a smaller Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel exists nearby. It is located at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. The triumphal arch honors those who fought for France, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. On the inside and the top of the arc there are all of the names of generals and wars fought. Underneath is the tomb of the unknown soldier from World War I.

The Arc is the linchpin of the historic axis (Axe historique) — a sequence of monuments and grand thoroughfares on a route which goes from the courtyard of the Louvre Palace to the outskirts of Paris. The monument was designed by Jean Chalgrin in 1806, and its iconographic program pitted heroically nude French youths against bearded Germanic warriors in chain mail. It set the tone for public monuments, with triumphant nationalistic messages, until World War I.

The monument stands 50 m (160 ft) in height, 45 m (148 ft) wide and 22 m (72 ft) deep. The large vault is -29.19 m (?95.8 ft) high and 14.62 m (48.0 ft) wide. The small vault is 18.68 m (61.3 ft) high and 8.44 m (27.7 ft) wide. It is the second largest triumphal arch in existence.^[2] Its design was inspired by the Roman Arch of Titus. The Arc de Triomphe is so colossal that three weeks after the Paris victory parade in 1919, marking the end of hostilities in World War I, Charles Godefroy flew his Nieuport biplane through it, with the event captured on newsreel

Champs Elysees

is a prestigious avenue in Paris, France. With its cinemas, cafés, luxury specialty shops and clipped horse-chestnut trees, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées is one of the most famous streets in the world, and with rents as high as €1.1 million (USD1.5 million) annually per 1,100 square feet (92.9 square metres) of space, it remains the most expensive strip of real estate in Europe.^[1][2] The name is French for Elysian Fields, the place of the blessed dead in Greek mythology.

Cafe tables along the Avenue des Champs-Elysees are the most well-known image of the City, it is a cultural phenomenon. Paris cafes are a meeting place, conversation matrix and rendez-vous spot.

It is a place to relax and you can get a quick snack on the run , but you will sit down and have it served. The food  may not compete with those gourmet restaurants, but there is no such a thing as a bad meal in Paris!

The Louvre,

Paris’ museum and royal palace is a must-see for anyone who has interest in art. Some of the most famous works of art in the museum are the Venus of Milo, the Nike of Samothrake, the Dying Slave by Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

The Musée du Louvre (French pronunciation: [myze dy luv?]), or officially the Grand Louvre — in English, the Louvre Museum or Great Louvre, or simply the Louvre — is one of the world’s largest museums, the most visited museum in the world, and a historic monument. It is a central landmark of Paris, France and is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement (district). Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 19th century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres (652,300 square feet).

The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre) which began as a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are still visible. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1672, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of antique sculpture.^[3] In 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years.^[4] During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum, to display the nation’s masterpieces.

The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being confiscated church and royal property. Because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The size of the collection increased under Napoleon when the museum was renamed the Musée Napoléon. After his defeat at Waterloo, many works seized by Napoleon’s armies were returned to their original owners. The collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and gifts since the Third Republic, except during the two World Wars. As of 2008, the collection is divided among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; Prints and Drawings.

Source: Wikipedia

Notre-Dame-de-Paris:

Another great is the Notre-Dame-de-Paris, built between 1163 and 1330. A masterpiece of French Gothic art.

Notre Dame (French pronunciation: [n?t? dam]; Our Lady) is a term referring to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In French place names, Notre-Dame is always hyphenated, as is a longer epithet of Our Lady (e.g. Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel). In the United States, Notre Dame is pronounced /?no?t?r ?de?m/ NOH-t?r-DAYM; in Britain, generally /?no?tr? ?dæm/ NOH-tr?-DAM. In church names with Notre-Dame followed by a place name, the remainder of the name is not hyphenated, if the place is where the church is located (e.g. Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica); however, it is hyphenated if the place is not where the church is located, but rather an epithet of Our Lady (e.g. Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, a church not in Lourdes, but name for Our Lady of Lourdes). source:Wikipedia

Musée Marmottan-Claude Monet

Musée Marmottan Monet is located at 2, rue Louis Boilly in the XVIe arrondissement of Paris. It features a collection of over three hundred Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works by Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas, Édouard Manet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. In addition it houses the Wildenstein Collection of illuminated manuscripts and the Jules and Paul Marmottan collection of Napoleonic era art and furniture.

Originally a hunting lodge for the Duke of Valmy, the house at the edge of the Bois de Boulogne was purchased by Jules Marmottan in 1882 who later left it to his son Paul Marmottan. Marmottan moved into the lodge and, with an interest in the Napoleonic era, he expanded his father’s collection of paintings, furniture and bronzes. Marmottan bequeathed his home and collection to the Académie des Beaux-Arts. The Académie opened up the house and collection as the Museum Marmottan in 1934.

Though originally a showcase for pieces from the First Empire, the nature of the museum’s collection began to change with two major donations. In 1957, Victorine Donop de Monchy gave the museum an important collection of Impressionist works that had belonged to her father, Doctor Georges de Bellio, physician to Manet, Monet, Pissaro, Sisley and Renoir, and an early supporter of the Impressionist movement. In 1966, Claude Monet’s second son, Michel Monet, left the museum his own collection of his father’s work, thus creating the world’s largest collection of Monet paintings.^[1]

Jacque Carlu, then curator of the museum, built a special exhibition space for the Monet collection in a lower level of the museum. Inspired by the hall designed for Monet’s Water Lilies murals in the Musée de l’Orangerie, the large, open room allows visitors to see a progression of Monet’s work, as well as to view his canvases both up close and from afar. One of the most notable pieces in the museum is Monet’s Impression, Sunrise (Impression, Soleil Levant), the painting from which the Impressionist movement took its name. The painting was stolen from the Musée Marmottan in 1985, but recovered five years later and returned to the permanent exhibit in 1991.

Source: Wikipedia

Sacré-Coeur

The Sacré-Coeur Basilica is one of Paris’s major tourist draws. The majestic building is located on top of the Montmartre hill.

Montmartre

Montmartre is known for its many artists. The name Montmartre, an area around a hill in the 18th arrondissement, north of downtown Paris, when the Sacré-Coeur was built on top of the hill, Montmartre was a small village.

Montmartre is a hill (the butte Montmartre) which is 130 meters high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18th arrondissement, a part of the Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for the white-domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit and as a nightclub district. The other, older, church on the hill is Saint Pierre de Montmartre, which claims to be the location at which the Jesuit order of priests was founded. Many artists had studios or worked around the community of Montmartre such as Salvador Dalí, Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh. Montmartre is also the setting for several hit films. This site is served by metro line 2 stations of Anvers, Pigalle and Blanche and the line 12 stations of Pigalle, Abbesses, Lamarck – Caulaincourt and Jules Joffrin.

The Basilica Project: The project to build the Sacré-Coeur Basilica (Basilica of the Sacred Heart) was initiated by a group of influential people. Their reasons to build this monument.

Place de la Concorde

The Place de la Concorde is one of the major public squares in Paris, France. In fact, in terms of area, its 86,400 square metres make it the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city’s eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.

La Défense

La Défense is a major business district for the city of Paris. With a population of 20,844^{[citation needed]}, it is centered in an oval freeway loop straddling the Hauts-de-Seine département municipalities of Nanterre, Courbevoie and Puteaux. The district is at the westernmost extremity of Paris’ 10 km long Historical Axis, which starts at the Louvre in Central Paris and continues along the Champs-Élysées, well beyond the Arc de Triomphe before culminating at La Défense.

Around its 110-metre (360 ft)-high Grande Arche and esplanade (“le Parvis”), the district holds many of the Paris urban area’s tallest high-rises. With its 77.5 acres (314,000 m²), its 72 glass-and-steel slick buildings including 14 high-rises above 150 metres (490 ft), its 150,000 daily workers and 3.5 million square metres (37.7 million sq ft) of office space, La Défense is Europe’s largest purpose-built business district.

La Défense is the prime high-rise office district of Paris.

Moulin Rouge

Moulin Rouge!

is a traditional cabaret and nightclub which began in 1889. It is situated near to the French quarter of Montmartre in the red-light district of Paris called Pigalle on Boulevard de Clichy in the 18th arrondissement. It can be recognized by the large red windmill it has on its roof.

The Moulin Rouge is where the famous French dance, the Can-can was first performed. It is also famous because many artists and writers have often gone there. Henri Toulouse-Lautrec designed many posters for the cabaret. Because of this, the management set aside a table where he could have a meal and watch the show every night.

Several movies have been made about the Moulin Rouge. The latest is Moulin Rouge! directed by Baz Luhrmann.

Centre Pompidou

It houses the Bibliothèque publique d’information, a vast public library, the Musée National d’Art Moderne which is the largest museum for modern art in Europe, and IRCAM, a centre for music and acoustic research. Because of its location, the Centre is known locally as Beaubourg.

Place des Vosges

Place des Vosges is the oldest square in Paris and is one of the most beautiful squares in the world.

Orsay Museum

The Musée d’Orsay is a museum housed in a grand railway station built in 1900. Home to many sculptures and impressionist paintings, it has become one of Paris’s most popular museums.

The Opera

The Opera de Paris Garnier is located at the Place de l’Opera, a square in the 9th arrondissement.

Hôtel de Ville

The Hôtel de Ville, Paris’s city hall, is the center of political Paris. The Hôtel de Ville is situated in the 4th arrondissement, near the Seine River.

Jardin du Luxembourg

The Jardin du Luxembourg is probably the most popular park in Paris. It is located in the 6th arrondissement, near the Sorbonne University.

Conciergerie

Once a royal palace and later a prison, the Conciergerie played a dark role in the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.

Place de la Bastille

The Place de la Bastille is a square in Paris, where the Bastille prison stood until the ‘Storming of the Bastille’ and its subsequent physical destruction.

Dôme des Invalides

The royal chapel of the Invalides complex is the location of the tomb of one of France’s favorite native sons.

Palais Royal

This Royal Palace is the first home to Cardinal Richelieu and later a childhood home of Louis XIV. You can enjoy the beautiiful garden with a lot of vintage and fashion shops in the arcades that go along the garden.

Château de Vincennes

Vincennes Castle
The Château de Vincennes is a castle at the eastern edge of central Paris. It was used as a royal residence from the 12th century until the 18th century, when the king moved to the Versailles Palace.

Jardin des Plantes

The Jardin des Plantes is the main botanical garden in France.

Versailles Palace

The Palace and its magnificent formal garden became the quintessential model for palaces in Europe.

La Madeleine

La Madeleine or ‘L’église de St-Marie-Madeleine is north of the Place the Concorde.

Grand Palais

Paris’ Grand Palais (Big Palace) was built for the World Fair of 1900. For more than 100 years, the Grand Palais has been a public exhibition hall and host to a variety of grand events.

Jardin des Tuileries
The Jardin des Tuileries is one of Paris’s most visited gardens.