Paris Travel & Holiday Guide

This cathedral was built by orders of Bishop Maurice Sully, in dedication to the Virgin Mary. The cathedral was completed about one hundred eighty years later, the construction for this cathedral started in 1163 and was completed in 1345. This is considered as one of the best French Gothic architecture in the world. You will find this outstanding structure; the Notre Dame Cathedral is situated in the Ile dela Cite, Paris. This is still the seat of the Archbishop of Paris.

The cathedral was restored after the French Revolution. This cathedral have had been a crucial part of the crusaders before, the crusaders come here to pray before they go out to their holy wars. The cathedral has a museum inside and there is also this crypt that has been discovered during the 1960s and has had some relics that were found in the demolished plaza that was in front of the cathedral. The crypt was of the Gallo-Roman to the 19^th century. 

If you want to visit the cathedral, it is open daily from seven forty five in the morning to six forty five in the evening.  It only opens twelve thirty in the afternoon until two in the morning. You can visit the museum only on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays at two thirty in the afternoon to six in the evening. You can only visit the crypt from April to September from ten in the morning to six in the evening and on the months of October to March; they are only open ten in the morning to five in the afternoon. There are also mass that are being held on Sundays, there are six masses and on weekdays they only have four masses and on Saturdays they only have one mass. When you come here in groups you will pay a cheaper price.

The Louvre Musuem in Paris is one of the best museums and one of the most visited in the world. The Louvre Museum is a palace and a museum at the same time. This was also the home of the kings of France and now a museum. The art lovers, painters, artists and plainly tourists, visit museum because this is the home of some of the famous art works in the world, namely the Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo da Vinci and the statue, Venus de Milo. This museum is situated at the 1st arrondissement in Paris.

 

In 1793, this was first opened and they had exhibits of the royal paintings. Now the museum has the exhibits of the following collections; they have included the Oriental, Greek and Egyptian relics. They have the art works that goes all the way from the Renaissance period up to the modern times. They have a part in the museum that is dedicated to the Islamic art. Aside from the Mona Lisa painting and the statue of Venus de Milo, you can find here the statuette of Gudea, which is the Sumerian ruker of trh ancient times. You can also find here the work of Michelangelo, the Slaves, the Embarkation for Cythera by Watteau and the Wedding of Cana by Veronese. All in all the museum has 1,500 art works and masterpieces, they also hold the record of having the most largest collection of the Egyptian relics.

 

 

The Louvre Museum is open everyday; it is only closed during January 1, May 1. November 11 and December 25. The opening hours in during Mondays to Wednesdays are from nine in the morning to nine forty-five in the evening and during Thursdays to Sundays; it opens nine in the morning to six in the evening. When it is the first Sunday of the month, the children below 17 years old are free of admission in the museum.

Paris is famous for this landmark, the Eiffel Tower. This is Paris tallest landmark. This is situated beside the Seine River; the tower was named after the engineer, Gustave Eiffel. The structure was completed in 1889. This has been marked as the most visited when it went to a number of 6,719,200 tourists who visited the Eiffel Tower in 2006.

The Eiffel Tower has the ground floor, first floor, second floor and the top part. On the ground floor you will find here the statue of Gustave Eiffel, and you can also buy some of your souvenirs at its shop and you can get a snack at its cafe. At the first floor, you will also find a café and a souvenir shops but here you will find here a gallery that have the exhibits about the tower, and also there is a cinema that has short film that tells the history about the Eiffel Tower. This is the part of the tower where you can stroll around. This also the floor where you will find the Gustave Eiffel Room which has a view of the city of Paris, here you can rent this space to cater conferences, seminars and so on. The second floor of the tower you will find the Les Jules Verne Restaurant, some souvenir shops, internet stations and the windows with animated scenes. And finally on the top, you will find there the office of Gustave Eiffel, and there are wax statues that represent him and the other engineers who helped built the tower. This is the best floor to take a look at the city of Paris in a 360 degrees view.

There are guided tours inside the Eiffel Tower; they have these 15-20 persons guided tour and also individual tours. The tour can take you an hour to thirty minutes. The guided tours are available from ten in the morning to seven thirty in the evening and the individual tours are available from ten in the morning to five thirty in the afternoon. You must book in advance when you want to avail for these guided tours. They are always fully booked.

Paris with many bars and clubs to go to, its nightlife is as fascinating and as vibrant as its historical and cultural sites. With its numerous cafes and places to see, it is advisable for a tourist to try its nightlife once they are in Paris. The bars and clubs in Paris are for everyone, there are also bars and clubs for gays and lesbians. You can find all of these in the city center of Paris, you can choose to which place you like and what mood are you in when it comes to clubbing. Mostly the bars and clubs in Paris doest not have a strict dress code; you can actually go into its clubs in a casual like jeans and sweaters, there are some who would really dress up nicely.

 

Here are some of the best clubs and bars that you will find in Paris. These bars are the most recommended ones by the locals and tourists who have been to Paris.

The Barrio Latino which is open daily from eleven in the morning until two in the morning, this is a very relaxed place. The crowd is a mixture of students and some people who just came from work. The Les Bains on the other hand has a restaurant upstairs and it is open only from Wednesdays to Sundays only. This is a gay and lesbian club. The club itself is open from Tuesdays to Sundays, midnight to eight in the morning and they play all the different genres such as house, techno, rock, R and B and many others. This is the place where mostly the world famous, models and celebrities come. One of the famous bars also is the Buddha Bar; this is an Asian influenced bar with an Asian inspired cuisines, though this bar is a bit expensive but it is worth the visit since you are in Paris. There are plenty of bars and clubs in Paris that you will surely enjoy and have a grand time; you just have to know what club and most especially you must have enough time to enjoy the nightlife of Paris. 

The Orsay Museum or the Musee d’Orsay in France is dramatically a museum located particularly in Paris France.  The museum can be headed on the left bank of Seine which is accommodated in the previous railway station which was the “Gare d’Orsay”.  Most of the remarks being displayed here are the collections of arts since 1848 to 1914.  Including in the collections are sculptures, paintings, photography and furniture.  Orsay Museum is quiet particular of the place because of its unique antique collections which was indeed made by some of the prominent artists in Paris such like Renoir and Monet.  Most of these remarks were particularly launch at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume which accordingly prior to the museum’s inauguration in 1986. 

 

Orsay Museum became one of the most significant places which can be seen in Paris, which is worth to visit.  Its history was once became the bases why this area of Paris is really that significant amongst the local folks living in here.  It has been said that Orsay Museum was once a railway station.  Its name was in fact Gare d’Orsay which was established noticeably for the Chemin de Fer de Paris a Orleans.  This was then finished precisely for the 1900 Exposition Universelle.  Three renowned and prominent architects were the ones who designed it; they are Emile Benard, Lucien Magne, and lastly Victor Laloux.  In 1939 the station was no longer suitable for the trains, until this area was then made as mainline services.  Eventually, the place as well became suburban services which its part as well became main mailing centre during the period of World War II. 

 

Until the year 1977 came, the French administration decided to make this part of Paris as a museum.  There are three prominent ACT architectures being hired in making this huge edifice.  They are Jean-Paul Philippon, Pierre Colboc and Renaud Bardon, inline with that it was by Bouygues who was doing the construction work.  This edifice is quite huge which features of about 20, 000 sq. m. with four floors on it.  It was President Francois Mitterand who assisted and indeed made the opening of the museum which was on December 1986.  Tourists can expect a number of fascinating collections inside Orsay Museum.  There are many things to discover around the museum, upon discovering tourists can also learn about the exhibits displays inside. 

 

The museums major painters are Jean-Francois Millet of the “Spring, The Gleaners”, Gustave Courbet of “The Artist’s Studio, Young Man Sitting, L’Origine du monde”, Alexandre Cabanel of “The Birth of Venus, The Death of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta”, and many more to mention.  While it’s major sculptors are Jules Cavelier, Francois Rude, Auguste Rodin, Jean Baptiste Carpeaux, Paul Gauguin, Honore Daumier and Camille Claudel.  These people are prominent as well as famous in Paris regarding on the skills and talents that they have shared within Paris.  Now their memories are still reigning due to its great contribution, their awesome talents and skills are truly amazing that made the country particularly the Orsay Museum popular not only in the country itself but as well as through whole world. 

The famous Opera of Paris or the Palais Garnier is the prominent theatre in Paris which served as the main venue by the Parisian Opera as well as the Ballet since it was being established.  This gigantic Opera housed caters of about 2, 200 seats which was dramatically designed by the prominent figure Charles Garnier in his Neo-Baroque style.  Since it’s founding, the edifice was then appointed as one of the fascinating architectural design belonged to Paris.  When it was launched in 1875, this magnificent and gigantic Opera House was then named as the “Academie Nationale de Musique-Theatre de l’Opera de Paris”.  There are in fact great historical events in this Opera before it became renowned in Paris and to the whole world. 

This Opera House feature of about 11, 000 square metres or 118, 404 square feet.  Aside from that, its 2, 200 seats ornamented above with those huge awesome chandeliers that weighs of about over six tons.  Additionally, the Opera House as well has a sizeable stage having 450 artists to accommodate with. Its façade is ornamented with the monumental style, its vibrant multicoloured marble, columns and bountiful statuary shows off the divinities from the Greek mythology.  Aside from that, entering the house will also show you the bronze kaput of the many great and renowned composers such like the great Beethoven and Mozart.  You will never imagine the captivating design as well of its interior which composed of intertwining corridors, alcoves, stairwells and more. 

If you were one of the tourists in Paris, you should not also miss the opportunity of exploring as well the Theatre de l’Academie Royale de Musique, the Opera National de Paris, Paris Opera Ballet, and then the Phantom of the Opera.  Recently, this astounding edifice in Paris has been abounding with tourists the whole year round, in fact this is one of the tourist’s destination in Paris aside from its other captivating landscapes.