A little of History about Paris, its museums, monuments and important places. BRICENO VOYAGES

Page updated on 10/22/2009

A LITTLE of HISTORY about PARIS

Paris, Paris and Paris! Everybody dreams about Paris, from New York to Tokyo, from Sydney to Mexico, from Buenos Aires to Oslo! Paris, capital of France, also known as the "Ville Lumière", has a very rich and interesting History. It has the particularity of changing and improving itself every time, and offers an important number of museums, monuments and interesting places to visit.

Paris is equally a typical place, famous for its romantic atmosphere thanks to the river Seine with a lot of monuments at its both banks: the French Institute, the Louvre museum, the Orsay museum, the Chaillot Palace, the Trocadero esplanade, the smallest house where Delacroix and Corot painters lived, its 36 bridges, its old booksellers, its boats and barges along the banks, and its beautiful and color gardens such as the Tuileries garden, the Luxembourg garden, the Buttes Chaumont garden, the Botanic garden, the Monceau garden... All this, obviously, pleases to lovers. But, besides that Paris has also the Ile de la Cité with the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Sainte-Chapelle, both gothic master pieces, the Latin Quarter with the Sorbonne university; the Saint Michel fountain; and its small typical streets, the Montmartre area famous for its Sacre Coeur basilica, and frequented by impressionist and modern style painters.

Paris is composed of 20 "arrondissements" -districts- where each one has a different and particular atmosphere. Crafts or commercial activities bunched together and formed areas giving to them a very distinctive physiognomy. You will be able to discover the Cultural Paris, the Historical Paris, the Paris of fashion:
"Haute couture" and "Prêt-à-Porter", the Paris of writers and intellectuals, the Paris of luxiourus avenues and areas, the Medieval Paris, the amazing Paris, the Paris of administration and business, the underneath of Paris, the markets of Paris, the gourmand Paris, the Parisian Chinatown, the Russian Paris, the Egyptian Paris, the Maghreb Paris, the Indian Paris, the Paris of the Impressionists, the provincial Paris, the modern Paris and so many others Paris!

We may say that since 1945, thanks to Le Corbusier (French architect), the French architectural aesthetic has known a change with new forms inside the landscapes already existing : Pile foundations, vaults with a huge range... So, the aim is to integrate new areas in the traditional Paris. In the 80ies, Ricardo Boffil (Spanish architect) used classical elements as well as those of modern architecture (glass and cement...) to build pillars in the Royal Palace, but also on the Catalogne Square in the Montparnasse area.

Nowadays, the architectural art is growing and becomes town and landscapes-planing : areas are renewed, others are created... The glass covers many of new buildings : the hudge buildings of the Defense area built on the former areas of Puteaux, Nanterre and Courbevoie; the Arabian World Institute built in 1986 by Jean Nouvel (French architect) and which houses a museum, a library and many exhibition rooms; the National French Library François Mitterrand built by Dominique Perrault (French architect) in 1997, the Japanese Cultural Palace (1998), the Palais Omnisport of Paris-Bercy, the big-stores and commercial centres since the Samaritaine in 1928 to the commercial area of «Les Trois Quartiers» in the Defense area... These glass-façades allow reflection mouvements from a building to another one. All this new way of building leads to incredible technical achievements.

In spite of all these changes inside Paris, this city still preserves its specific atmosphere : a particular light of yesteryear, the subway stations created by Guimard (Abesses, Dauphine), the old reverberators, the Morris pillars, the Wallace fountains, the typical meandering paved streets bordered with houses and gardens which have a provincial aspect, the French old bars of Paris...

A few numbers:

Paris is: 12 kms from East to West, 9 kms from North to South, more than 2 million inhabitants, 12 000 bars, 400 parks and gardens, 65 museums, 36 bridges, 20 arrondissements, 14 subway lines, 10 cemeteries, 6 train stations, 3 islands, and
one Eifel Tower...!

A few dates of the history of Paris:

3rd century BC: the Celtic tribe of fishermen called "the Parisis" takes place on the City Island.
52 BC: Jules Caesar takes possession of this island and names it Lutetia.
508: The Francs defeats the Romans. Clovis occupies Lutetia and makes it the capital of his kingdom.
987: Since Hugues Capet, Paris has been the heart of what France is now and has got a real function as Capital.
1163: Maurice de Sully begins the construction of Notre Dame cathedral.
1364-1380: Charles V builts new ramparts, making Paris larger. The city contains at this time 150 000 inhabitants.
On August 26th, 1572: Massacre of the Holy Bartholomew, beguinning of the religion war between Catholics and Protestants.
1615-1626: Construction of the Luxembourg palace by Marie de Medicis.
1629: Construction by Richelieu of the Royal Palace, called at this time the Palais-Cardinal .
On July 14th, 1789: Fall of the Bastille and beguinning of the French Revolution.
On September 21st, 1792: Proclamation of the Republic by the new Assembly, «la Convention».
1806-1814: Napoleon enlarges the Louvre palace and sets up the Arches of the Carroussel, starts the construction of the Triumph arc as well as the Vendome column.
1852-1870: Huge urbanization works under the guidance of the Baron Haussman : Les Halles, the train stations, the Boulogne and Vincennes woods, the Opera House, the sewers, and the Grands Boulevards. Paris is divided into 20 districts (arrondissements).
1876-1914: Construction of the Sacré-Coeur basilica on the Montmartre hill, built by Abadie in a roman-byzantyne style.
1887-1889: The Eiffel tower is built by the engineer Gustave Eiffel for the World Fair of 1889. It celebrates the centenary of the French Revolution. It has to be noted that this is the unique monument to have received the Legion of Honour.
January 1959: Proclamation of the Fith Republic. After the change of Constitution made on January 10th 1959, Parisians deviate from the national politic and dedicate to the embellishment of their city.
1959-1963: Construction of the UNESCO, of the CNIT Palace, and the House of Radio-France which is built by Henri Bernard and houses a museum introducing the means of communication from the semaphore to our days and also the conception of French music programs.
May 1968: Students of the Sorbonne university revolt themselves and start a strike which spreads in a few days to the whole France. It was the biggest social movement in the country, never undergone before.
1969: «Les Halles», the Parisian market, considered as the «stomach of Paris» since the 12th century and which had become insufficient for the appetite of Parisians, was removed to Rungis in 1969. By now, it houses a commercial center, shops, cinemas and very lively galleries, and it is called «Le Forum des Halles».
1970: 13 self-governing universities are created in the Parisian region.
1973: Achievement of the peripheral boulevard and the Montparnasse tower. Originally, the Montparnasse area was as famous as Montmartre for its bars with music and dancing, and was haunted by artists such as Modigliani, Matisse, Henry Miller... Nowadays, Montparnasse is known for its cinemas on the boulevard, its bars, its railway-station and the Maine-Montparnasse building, a hudge construction of glass and steel with 56 floors.
1977: Creation of the «Centre d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou» by the architects Richard Rogers, Renzo Piano and Gianfranco Franchini. This Centre houses a Modern Art museum, a library and exhibition rooms. It's located in the Chatelet area.
On March 25th, 1977: Election of Jacques Chirac, the first Mayor of Paris.
1986: Inauguration of the Orsay museum. This one was a station built for the World Fair of 1889 and was transformed into a museum to house each of the arts since 1848 to 1914.
1989: Inauguration of the Louvre pyramide, of the Defense Arch, and of the Opera-Bastille for the Bicentenary of the French Revolution.
1995: Inauguration of the French National Library François Mittérand on the Tolbiac site.
On July 12th, 1998 : Parisians celebrate on the Champs Elysées the victory of France against Brazil, they become champions of the Football World Championship.
March 2001: Bertrand Delanoë is elected Mayor of Paris.
On July 6th, 2005 : For the third time in the last 20 years, Paris does not succeed in being the organizing city of the 2012 Olympic Games. Would Paris loose notoriety, charm? We invite you to judge it by yourself!

Museums, monuments and important places

Museums :
Carnavalet museum, Pompidou Centre, Cité of Sciences and Industry, Conciergerie, Art and History of Judaism museum, Orsay museum, Picasso museum, Louvre museum, Luxembourg museum, the Army museum in the Hotel des Invalides, Grand Palais museum, Petit Palais museum, Grévin museum, Marmottan-Monet museum, Rodin museum, and so on...
Monuments :
Arch of Triumph, Notre Dame cathedral, Palais de la Cité with the Conciergerie and the Sainte Chapelle, Opéra-Palais Garnier, Panthéon, Eiffel tower, Madeleine church, etc...
Places of interest :
the Concorde square, the French Parliement, the Vendôme square, the Trocadéro esplanade, the Tuileries gardens, the Botanic garden, the Alexander III bridge, the columns of Buren, and so on...

And after having seen all that, we only know a part of Paris.

And now, what can we do ?
There is also the possibility of shopping, of discovering cabarets and restaurants, and so on, which makes Paris being always Paris!

The big stores: the Printemps, the Lafayette Galleries, the Bon Marché and the Grand Bazar of the Hotel de Ville are the most famous ones.
The "Grand Couturiers": the most famous ones are Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Cartier for women and Lanvin, Pierre Cardin and Yves Saint Laurent for men.
Paris by Night: many cabarets open their doors at the beguinning of the night: the Moulin Rouge, the Lido, the Paradis Latin, the Folies Bergères,
the Crazy Horse...
Restaurants: the "Gastronomique" ones are often full booked, it is adviceable to book a long time in advance. To book a table there, as well
as in the other ones with good food and less expensive, please contact us...

We will not be able to make you discover all Paris in only one stay, but our varied offer will allow you to do it little by little, and in many times,... if you agree!

We invite you to have a look on our offer by visiting the following pages:
Apartments or Excursions or Packages or Transfers

and we wish you a very pleasant stay in the most beautiful city of the world... after your own city, of course !