It's little wonder that so many
wistful songs have been penned over
the years about France's capital,
Paris
. Few cities leave the visitor with
such vivid impressions, whether it's
the drifting cherry blossoms in the
tranquil gardens of Notre-Dame, the
riverside quais on a summer evening,
the sound of blues in atmospheric
cellar bars, or the ancient
alleyways and cobbled lanes of the
historic Latin Quarter and villagey
Montmartre.
Paris has no problem living up to
the painted images and movie myths
with which we're all familiar.
Indeed, the whole city is something
of a work of art. Two thousand years
of shaping and reshaping have
resulted in monumental building,
sweeping avenues, grand esplanades
and celebrated bridges. Many of its
older buildings have survived
intact, having been spared the
ravages of flood and fire and saved
from Hitler's intended destruction.
Moreover, they survive with a sense
of continuity and homogeneity, as
new sits comfortably against a
backdrop of old - the glass Pyramid
against the grand fortress of the
Louvre, the Column of Liberty
against the Opéra Bastille. Time
has acted as judge, as buildings
once surrounded in controversy - the
Eiffel Tower, the Sacré-Coeur, the
Pompidou Centre - have in their turn
become well-known symbols of the
city. Yet for all the tremendous
pomp and magnificence of its
monuments, the city operates on a
very human scale, with exquisite,
secretive little nooks tucked away
off the Grands Boulevards and very
definite little communities
revolving around games of boules and
the local boulangerie and café.
Architecturally, the Cathédrale
de Notre-Dame, Sainte-Chapelle
and the Palais du Louvre , in
the city's centre, provide a
constant reminder of Paris's
religious and royal past. The
backdrop of the streets is
predominantly Neoclassical, the
result of nineteenth-century
development designed to reflect the
power of the French state. Each
period since, however, has added,
more or less discreetly, novel
examples of its own styles - with Auguste
Perret, Le Corbusier, Mallet-Stevens
and Eiffel among the early
twentieth-century innovators. In
recent decades, the architectural
additions have been more dramatic in
scale, producing new and major
landmarks, and recasting
down-at-heel districts into
important centres of cultural and
consumer life. New buildings such as
La Villette, La Grande Arche de
la Défense , the Opéra
Bastille , the Institut du
Monde Arabe and the Bibliothèque
Nationale have expanded the
dimensions of the city, pointing it
determinedly towards the future.
Paris's museums and galleries
, not least the mighty Louvre
, number among the world's finest.
The tradition of state cultural
endowment is very much alive in the
city and collections are exceedingly
well displayed and cared for. Many
are also housed in beautiful
locations, such as old mansions and
palaces, others in bold conversions,
most famously the Musée d'Orsay
, which occupies a former train
station. The Impressionists here and
at the Musée Marmottan , the
moderns at the Palais de Tokyo
, the smaller Picasso and Rodin
museums - all repay a visit. In
addition, the contemporary scene is
well represented in the commercial
galleries that fill the Marais,
St-Germain, the Bastille and the
area around the Champs-Élysées,
and there's an ever-expanding range
of museums devoted to other areas of
human endeavour - science, history,
decoration, fashion and performance
art.
Few cities can compete with the
thousand-and-one cafés, bars
and restaurants that line
every Parisian street and boulevard.
The variety of style and décor,
cuisine and price is hard to beat
too. Traditional French food has
become increasingly innovative and
the many ethnic origins represented
among the city's millions have
opened eateries providing a range of
gastronomic options for every palate
and pocket.
The city entertains best at
night, with a deserved reputation
for outstanding film and music
. Paris's cinematic prowess is
marked by annual film festivals,
with a refreshing emphasis on art,
independent and international films.
Music is equally revered, with
nightly offerings of excellent jazz,
top-quality classical, avant-garde
experimental, international rock,
West African soukous and
French-Caribbean zouk ,
Algerian raï , and
traditional chansons .
If you've time, you should
certainly venture out of the city.
The region surrounding the capital -
the Île de France - is dotted with
cathedrals and châteaux as stunning
and steeped in history as the city
itself - Chartres, Versailles
and Fontainebleau , for
example. An equally accessible
excursion from the capital is that
most un-French of attractions, Disneyland
Paris .
