On Thursday I’m making my first trip to Paris*, and I’ll be spending about 8 days there. That’s plenty of time for me to cover the major tourist destinations and also make it to a few off-the-beaten tracks places. And that’s where I’m turning to you SDMBers. What Parisian oddities do you love?
I’ll be staying in the Marais, which is pretty convenient to a lot, and my French is decent enough that at least as of now (;)) I’m not intimidated by dealing with trains and such.
I’m especially interested in hearing about good day trips other than Versailles (which I may do depending on the weather but I won’t feel exactly crushed to skip this time around).
I also love finding small, off-the-beaten track things inside the major tourist destinations. For instance, one of the most wonderful bits at the Metropolitan Museum here in NYC is the Islamic art collection, which hardly anybody ever goes to. It’s gorgeous and incredibly peaceful.
*(I’m almost afraid to say that out loud. 20 years ago I was supposed to go bicycling through France and North Africa with my school, but my family moved, and then for years and years France got put off for one reason or another…)
Well, just because people may ask, go to the Per le chaise (sp?) and find Jim Morrison’s grave. It now has a simple headstone, and I believe they keep the area pretty clean. I went in 1982, and the gravemarker was a marble bust. Stoners had defaced his grave and many others. Be prepared for people to take an instant dislike to you when you mention Jim Morrison.
The Pompidou centre has an excellent collection of modern art, and a wonderful bar/restaurant on the top floor. Leave a couple of hours to wander round the fourth and fifth floor galleries, then order a cocktail in time to watch the sun sink slowly behind Sacre Coeur.
Take a tour of the Paris Catacombs. This was the only link I could find with opening hours and that sort of practical information, but there were some other sites just about the catacombs.
You must look at Notre Dame des Champs on Boulevard du Montparnasse. The chapel was built by Mr. Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame and painted by a famous French painter whose name escapes me at the moment.
It’s a beautiful church, though I’m biased because that is where I am going to be married this summer.
Also, the Jardin du Luxembourg is great. Next to the Senate is the Fountaine de Medicis, built by Marie de Medicis. I go there in the summer and feed the ducks.
Of course, there is the Pantheon that is a must. And, if you can, try to see how many metro stations you can stop off at. Each one is different, with its own history. Concorde is my favorite (Line 12 and 1, I think) because it has quotes from the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen all over the walls of the Line 12 debarkment.
I second the Catacombs as one of the more interesting sights under the city.
There’s a very good museum of Natural History at the Jardin des Plantes.
To continue the underground theme, make sure you ride at least once on Metro line 14 (Madeleine to Bibliotheque Francois Mitterand). This is the newest metro line, and features completely unmanned, computer-controlled, rubber-tired trains. The trains have huge picture windows at the front and rear, and appear to go about 3 million miles per hour as they hurtel through the tunnels.
If you are into that sort of thing, one of the world’s great air museums is located just outside the city at Le Bourget airport. Take the RER line B, then look for the 152 bus just outside the station.
The cemetary monuments of: Oscar Wilde (a big angel, often with lipstick on the naughty bits) and Victor Noir (life size, lying on his back, naughty pits rubbed shiny). Both in Pere-Lachaise. Skip Morrison. Stupid stoner vandals have pointed the way on other headstones. Go see Edith Piaf, instead.
Montparnasse has Simone Beauvoir and Samuel Beckett.
There is a big, boxy Islamic Arts museum that has adjustible apertures in the squares of it’s facade to let in different aounts of light.
The Rue de Rosiers- part of Paris that Hauseman missed, and which retains tiny, cobblestone streets instead of being ploughed over for boulevards. Historically Jewish, and has lots of nice little bakeries and bookshops.
There was world’s smallest museum, devoted to the work of avant-garde composer Erik Satie. Usually just one piece of music displayed in a small closet. But it has closed for an indefinate period of time.
The medieval arts museum- has the Unicorn and the Maiden tapestries, assorted architectural oddities, relics from the papacy in Avignon and gory religious things! (Look for John the Baptist.)Almost completely deserted.
If you’re literary, don’t bother with Shakespeare and Co. It’s a revival, dingy and the staff (made up of people staying in the upstairs apartments in exchange for them promising to write and be a clerk) is unreasonably mean.
The naughty bits on the Oscar Wilde memorial are long gone…chiseled off by a souvenir hunter back before the Great War. Don’t go looking around the Oscar Wilde memorial if you want to see naughty bits, lipstick-marked or otherwise.
Should you find yourself in need of renting a stuffed gorilla or ostrich (or Limousin bull), or simply in the mood for perusing some vintage scientific posters, you must steer yourself to:
Les Fils d’Emile Deyrolle (now just Deyrolle)
46 rue du Bac
Paris 7:e
(just a few steps north or the Blvd. St. Germain)
It is a science store with the one of the largest private taxidermy collections in the world. They also prepare butterflies for most of the world’s major museums. It is one of the most wondrous places in the world. Coming up the staircase is like entering a different era.
It should be on the must-do list of every doper.
Bjorn240
PS: Please email me when you return and let me know what you thought.
You can get great info. on day trips from the Paris Tourist Office on the Champs Elysees near the Arc de Triomphe. They speak Anglais. I recommend a visit to the marvelous medieval Belgian city, Brugges. You leave early in the morning and get back at night.
The catacombs and sewer tours are fun. You can get a museum pass at the tourist office. It includes those two, as well as the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, and a bunch of other sites. I believe the Chateau de Versailles is included, and the pass allows you to skip the lines (if any) at the attractions.
If you’re up for some stairclimbing, the view from the top of the Sacre Coeur is pretty spectacular.
I also recommend stopping in at Angelina’s on the Rue de Rivoli (across from the Tuileries) for some amazing hot chocolate, if you’re into that sort of thing. A little touristy, but the chocolate is worth it. Molten chocolate diluted with whipped cream…
You can take a drive out to Epernay for the day and taste some lovely champers. It’s worth hiring a car and seeing a bit of the countryside. You can do it easily in one day, as long as you have a designated driver, that is.
I understand Jim Morrison’s grave has been moved OUT of Pere Lachaise - too much traffic, too many bongs, etc. This happened about 3 years ago.
If you like beetles, the collection in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris is one of the best in the world.
Van Gogh’s grave is about 35 minutes outside of Paris in a small cemetary in Auvers-sur-Oise. It is on the hill above the church that he painted so many times.
Balzac’s house is suppsed to be pretty cool - it was closed when I went to visit it.
The collection of uniforms in the museum part of the Pantheon in Paris is teriffic. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Morrison is still in Pere Lachaise, but there’s a permanent security guard on duty.
I’d recommend a visit to the cemetery even if you aren’t a celebrity grave-hunter. It’s got some very ornate, cool tombs and is a nice respite from the city hustle & bustle.
To escape from the crowds milling round Notre-Dame try the garden of the Hotel Dieu , which is almost next door to the cathedral. This is a working hospital but you are allowed to enter the central courtyard with its wonderful serene garden. At the entrance to this building is a monument to the police officers who were killed in the liberation of Paris in August 1944.
To get up high , without having to wait in line to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower, try the Tour Montparnasse. This 1970’s office block is 700 ft high with an observatory on the 56th. floor and access to the roof. We were there at sunset in August and saw the sun go down over Montmartre and the " city of light " live up to its name.
I recommend a visit to the marvelous medieval Belgian city, Brugges. You leave early in the morning and get back at night.