Opéra
(Académie de musique), former chief opera house of
Paris, on the Place de l'Opéra, one of the main crossroads on the
right bank of the Seine. Designed by J. L. C. Garnier and also
called the Palais Garnier, it was built between 1861 and 1875. One
of the largest and most sumptuous theaters in the world, it has a
smaller seating capacity than many lesser houses, because its huge
stage and foyers and its famous grand staircase take up much of the
room. On the polychromed facade of the Opéra is the masterwork of
the sculptor J.-B. Carpeaux entitled The Dance. An opulently
ornamented neo-baroque style building, the Paris Opéra has been
copied, on a reduced scale, by many opera houses throughout the
world.
The home of grand opera in the 19th cent., it has retained its
musical reputation as one of the world's foremost houses. Its corps
de ballet is particularly famous. The Paris Opéra moved to the
large, newly constructed Bastille opera house in 1990. The old Opéra
building, used mainly for ballet performances for a few years, has
been undergoing refurbishment and restoration since the mid-1990s,
and both theaters now present opera and ballet.
Louvre ,
foremost French museum of art, located in Paris. The building was a
royal fortress and palace built by Philip II in the late 12th cent.
In 1546 Pierre Lescot was commissioned by Francis I to erect a new
building on the site of the Louvre. During his reign, several
paintings by Leonardo, including the Mona Lisa, and works of other
Italian masters came into the royal collections. In 1564, Catherine
de' Medici commissioned Philibert Delorme to build a residence at
the Tuileries and to connect it to the Louvre by a long gallery. The
Grande Galerie was completed in 1606 under Henri IV.
While Cardinal Richelieu collected art with state funds, work on the
buildings was continued under Louis XIII. Lescot's architectural
designs were expanded by Jacques Lemercier in 1624, and under Louis
XIV the magnificent colonnade was brought to completion (1670) by
Louis Le Vau and Claude Perrault. In 1750 part of the royal
collections was put on view in the Luxembourg palace. In 1793 the
Musée Central des Arts was created by decree and the Grande Galerie
of the Louvre was officially opened. For many years the area beneath
the Grande Galerie served as artists' studios and workshops.
Napoleon I added vastly to its collections by his conquests, and in
1803 the museum was proclaimed the Musée Napoléon. Many famous works
were returned after his downfall. The grand architectural scheme of
the Louvre was completed by Napoleon III. The museum is famous for
its enormous collection of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian antiquities,
and for its superb old masters, a collection especially rich in
works by Rembrandt, Rubens, Titian, and Leonardo. Its most famous
sculptures include the Nike, or Victory, of Samothrace and the Venus
of Milo. A part of the museum building houses the Museum of
Decorative Arts, a private institution.
In 1984 excavations began for the gradual expansion of the Louvre
underground; construction was completed in 1993. A glass pyramid,
designed by I. M. Pei and opened in 1989, sits atop the entrance to
this new space. At first the pyramid caused considerable controversy
between critics who considered it a defacement of the museum and
those who judged it a continuation of the eclecticism of Parisian
architecture; it has since become a nearly universally acclaimed
landmark. Pei has also overseen the extensive renovations and
expansions of exhibition space that have continued through the
1990s.
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Marais & Les Halles
Arrondissement 3 & 4
Marais,
old quarter of Paris, on the right bank of
the Seine. Until the 18th cent. it was the most aristocratic section
of Paris. The Hôtel des Tournelles, long the residence of the kings
of France (Henry II was killed in its court during a joust), was
replaced with the Place des Vosges. The Marais park, surrounded by
uniform houses in pink brick and gray slate, remains a perfect
ensemble of 17th-century architecture. Nearby is the Carnavalet,
once the home of Mme de Sévigné, which now houses the municipal
museum of Paris. During the 19th cent. it became a ghetto area for
Jewish refugees from E Europe. Since 1969 a major restoration
program has been underway, including the renovation of several
museums, mansions, and hotels, such as the 17th. cent. Hotel Sully.
Les Halles
is also a commune of the Rhône département. See Les Halles, Rhône.
Les Halles is an area of Paris, France, located in the 1er
Arrondissement. It is named for the large central wholesale
marketplace, which was demolished in 1971, to be replaced with an
underground modern shopping precinct, the Forum des Halles. It is
notable in that the open air center area is below street level, like
a pit and contains sculpture, fountains, and mosaics.
Beneath this lies the underground station Châtelet-Les-Halles,
central hub of Paris's express metro system, the RER.
History
Les Halles
was the central Market in Paris. In 1183, King Philippe II Auguste
enlarged the marketplace in Paris and built a shelter for the
merchants, who came from all over to sell their wares. Known as Les
Halles, in the 1850's they built the massive glass and iron
buildings that Les Halles is known for. Les Halles was known as the
"stomach of Paris".
Unable to compete in the new market economy and in need of massive
repairs, the colorful ambience once associated with the bustling
area of merchant stalls disappeared in 1971, when Les Halles was
dismantled; the wholesale market was relocated to the suburb of
Rungis.
The site was to become the point of convergence of the RER, a
network of new express underground lines which had been inaugurated
in the 1960s. Three lines leading out of the city to the south, east
and west were to be extended and connected in a new underground
station. For several years, the site of the markets was an enormous
open pit, nicknamed "le trou des Halles" (trou = hole), and a
considerable eyesore at the foot of the historic church of
Saint-Eustache.
Construction was completed in 1977 on Châtelet-Les-Halles, Paris's
new subway hub. The Forum des Halles, a partially underground
multiple story commercial and shopping center, opened in 1979.
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St Michel - St Germain
Notre Dame Arrondissement 5 & 6
 Saint-Germain,
Treaty of (săN-zhĕrmăN') , any of several
treaties signed at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris, France.
1 The Treaty of Saint-Germain of 1570 terminated the first phase of
the French religious wars (see Religion, Wars of).
2 The Treaty of Saint-Germain of 1679 made peace between France and
the elector of Brandenburg at the end of the third of the Dutch
Wars. Frederick William the Great Elector had to restore nearly all
his conquests in Pomerania to Charles XI of Sweden, who was allied
to France.
3 The Treaty of Saint-Germain of Sept. 10, 1919, was signed by the
victorious Allies of World War I on the one hand and by the new
republic of Austria on the other. Like the Treaty of Versailles with
Germany, it contained the Covenant of the League of Nations and as a
result was not ratified by the United States. The treaty declared
the Austro-Hungarian monarchy dissolved. The new republic of
Austria, consisting of most of the German-speaking part of the
former Austrian Empire, recognized the independence of Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Yugoslavia (then called the kingdom of
Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes). Austria was reduced not only by the
loss of crownlands incorporated into Czechoslovakia, Poland, and
Yugoslavia (the “successor states”) but by the cession of S Tyrol,
Trieste, Istria, several Dalmatian islands, and Friuli to Italy and
the cession of Bukovina to Romania. Burgenland, then a part of
Hungary, was awarded to Austria. Austria assumed the responsibility
of the imperial Austrian government for its share in bringing about
the war, but its reparations payments to the Allies actually were
never exacted because of the obvious insolvency of the Austrian
state. An important article of the treaty required Austria to
refrain from directly or indirectly compromising its independence,
which meant that Austria could not enter into political or economic
union (see Anschluss) with Germany without the agreement of the
council of the League of Nations. The Austrian army was limited to a
force of 30,000 volunteers. There were numerous provisions dealing
with Danubian navigation, the transfer of railroads, and other
details involved in the breakup of a great empire into several small
independent states. The Treaty of Trianon in 1920 between Hungary
and the Allies completed the disposition of the former Dual
Monarchy.
Notre Dame,
University of (nō'tər dām, nō'trə) , at Notre Dame, Ind., near South
Bend; Roman Catholic; coeducational; est. and opened 1842, chartered
1844. It has a noted law school and computing center as well as
laboratories for research in botany, radiation, geology, metallurgy,
and engineering. It also operates important research institutes in
the humanities; notable is the Jacques Maritain Philosophical Center.
The university maintains an outstanding library system.
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Auteuil & Tour Eiffel
Arrondissement 7, 15 & 16
Au·teuil
A former town between the Seine River and the Bois de
Boulogne, now part of Paris. It was a favorite gathering place for
French literary figures, including Molière and La Fontaine.
Eiffel Tower,
structure designed by A. G. Eiffel and erected in the Champ-de-Mars
for the Paris exposition of 1889. The tower is 984 ft (300 m) high
and consists of an iron framework supported on four masonry piers,
from which rise four columns uniting to form one shaft. Three
platforms at different heights (the intermediate platform just above
the junction of the columns is 644 ft/196 m high) are reached by
stairs and elevators. On the top of the tower are a meteorological
station, a wireless station, and a television transmission antenna.
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Champs Elysees
Arrondissement 8 & 17
Champs É·ly·sées
A tree-lined
thoroughfare of Paris, France, leading from the Place de la Concorde
to the Arc de Triomphe.
The Arc de Triomphe du
Carrousel is
richly decorated in
rose marble on the columns and the front paneling. It is part of the
so-called Grand Ax of Paris which consists of the Grande Arch de la
Defense, the Arc de Triomphe at Etoile, the Champs-Elysees, the
Obélisque de Luxor at the Place de la Concorde, the Arc de Triomphe
du Carrousel and continues on to the Louvre.
It is composed of threes arches: a big one and two little ones. The
arc is 63 feet high, 75 feet wide, and 24 feet deep. The two small
arches are 14 feet, 16 inches high and 9 feet wide. The big arch is
21 feet high and 9 feet wide. The arc is surmounted by a group of
men on horses underneath of which, one finds the names of the
battles and treaties of Napoleon.
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 Montmartre Sacre Coeur
Arrondissement 9 & 18
Mont·mar·tre A hill and district of northern
Paris, France, on the Right Bank. It is noted for its nightlife and
for its associations with artists such as Van Gogh,
Toulouse-Lautrec, and Utrillo. The original village of Montmartre
was annexed by Paris in 1860.
Sacré-Cœur,
basilica in Paris, dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is a
famous landmark atop the Montmartre, from which it dominates the
city. Built (1875–1914) by subscriptions as a votive offering after
the Franco-Prussian War, it was consecrated in 1919 after World War
I and has a patriotic as well as religious symbolic significance.
Designed by the architect Paul Abadie, the basilica is a huge
and harmonious edifice in the Byzantine-Romanesque style. Behind its
tall dome rises a bell tower 276 ft (84 m) high
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Buttes Chaumont
The Buttes Chaumont are an island of greenery in the middle of the
urban environment.The Buttes Chaumont is a public park in Paris,
France.
History
The Mont Chauve
Situated on an arid hill, it has been the scene of bloody fighting.
In 885, the Count Eudes de Paris et de Troyes drove back the Normans
at the battle of Montfaucon on the hillside
In 1814, at the end of the French campaign, the national guard and
the marine artillery fought a desperate battle against the assaults
of the Prussians before surrendering.
It has also witnessed some macabre scenes.
At the end of the Middle Ages, the infamous Montfaucon gallows,
immortalised by the poet François Villon in his famous Ballade des
pendus, were still to be seen on its western side. During the
Restoration, the hill, which had been occupied by lime quarries
since time immemorial, was turned into a vast public wasteground.
When the communes of Belleville and La Villette were absorbed into
the capital and the quarries were bought in 1862 by the City of
Paris, Napoléon III had the idea of creating the Butte-Chaumont park
which was to become a monument to plants.
The spirit of the Baroque
Situated on an immense steep and chaotic space, the park evokes the
magnificent Baroque spirit of the Second Empire.
Opened at the time of the 1867 Universal Exhibition, after four
years of titanic work, it became a popular park full of attractions,
"a magical place and good value which could rival Monceau".
All along its five kilometres of paths and walks, there are many
panoramic view points. The surprise effect is derived from the
unexpected spaces and from the dimensions, unusual for the 19th
century, of the components of the landscape.
- the temple of Sibylle, overhanging the cliffs, is perched on a
headland which plunges into the great central lake and its island,
30 metres below.
- the large 63-metre suspension bridge rivalling the pont des
Suicidés (suicide bridge)
- the grotto and its waterfall at the entrance of a former quarry.
The relief is all the more remarkable in that everything here, from
heath-peat plants to century-old trees, competes to exalt nature.
The park was the visionary project of Baron Haussmann and owes its
existence to the engineer Alphand and the architect Davioud. It
still enjoys the same success with visitorsAddress :
Rues Botzaris, Manin
75019 - PARI
How to get there :
Metro : Buttes-Chaumont
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 Pere Lachaise Nation
Arrondissement 11,12 & 20
Père Lachaise
Looking down the hill at the Père Lachaise
cemeteryThe Cimetière du Père Lachaise is the largest cemetery in
Paris, and one of the most famous cemeteries in the world. Located
in the 20th Arrondissement, Pere-Lachaise Cemetery is reputed to be
the most visited cemetery in the world, attracting hundreds of
thousands of visitors a year to the graves of the those who have
enhanced French life over the past 200 years. It is also the
location of five Great War memorials.
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 Grande
Bibliotheque - Cite Universitaire Arrondissement
13
Bibliothèque Nationale de France
This new national library, opened in 1996 and
nicknamed the TGB (Très Grande Bibliothèque), is the grandest of the
grand projets bestowed upon Paris by former president François
Mitterand. The sprawling 17-acre complex, with four looming glass
towers shaped like open books, was designed by Dominique Perrault.
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Mont·par·nasse
A district of south-central Paris, France, on the
Left Bank. Its cafés have long been famous as gathering places for
artists, writers, and intellectuals.
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