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Travel to Paris - top attractions and sights

Visiting Paris you may often return to its main attractions and discover them again, in a new creative way. Paris city marvels have various different facets; you will certainly find many of your own.

Paris is the city you may constantly discover.

Eiffel Tower

Built in 1889 on the occasion of the World Exhibition, this high iron tower only purpose was to raise above the city and after 20 years to be dismantled. At first Parisians really hated it, describing as barbaric and utmost ugly. Cost of taking the construction apart as well as gradually growing admiration among the city inhabitants permitted the tower to stay and to become the symbol of Paris.

Notre-Dame Cathedral

This marvelous 12th c. gothic cathedral could be called the Mother of All Cathedrals. It has a long and rich history and until today astonishes with its beauty. Not many people know, that many of its attractive architectural decorations were added to the historical building during the cathedral major renovation in the middle of the 19th c.

The Sacré-Cœur Basilica

Two deeply religious, well off Parisians who survived the cruel Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 and the following Commune of Paris with its bloody executions, vowed to build a church in Paris dedicated to the Sacred Heart. Their idea would not have been possible without a massive support of the city population. Today the white stone basilica may be seen from the most distant places in the city.

Pont Alexander III

Named after the Russian Tsar to commemorate the Franc-Russian alliance against growingly aggressive Germany, this bridge over the River Seine was built between 1896 and 1900. Today it amazes with its architectural exuberance and its Art Nouveau beauty.

Orsay Museum

Long lines of visitors wait to get in to this museum located in the building of an old railway station adapted in 1986. Orsay Museum or in French Musée d'Orsay, exhibits artifacts from the 19th century until 1915. Surprisingly this realistic, often academic art of the period speaks in an unsurpassed way to the today's public.

Arc de Triomphe

Triumphal arch Built by the King of France Louis Philippe in 1833, this immense Roman-like arch celebrates French victories in wars between 1897 - 1812. Amazingly among the names of the battles placed on the monument, there is also the battle Napoleon actually lost. Today, a symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is located underneath its huge archway.

The Louvre Museum

Everything in Paris is monumental, so this former royal palace which is so big that throughout the history some parts of it were left in neglect and inhabited by squatters and homeless people, serves today as the world's biggest museum. A vast underground space a small glass pyramid above has been added to the Louvre in 1988, creating the contrast between old and new.

Montmartre district

In the 19th century still a village on a hill above Paris with a big windmill dominating it, later an area of the artists and their hangouts, today Montmartre is just one of many quarters of Paris, but its unique architecture remains. A square full of street painters waiting for the tourists, reminds a visitor of artistic past of the area.

Quartier Pigalle

There was a time before the cinema and television appeared, when the distirct of Pigalle has been the world famous centre of entertainment. The popularity of the cinema in the first half of the 20th c. took big part of this audience away. Today, with omnipresent television and growing mobile media's, Pigalle with is cabarets and cafés is more of an exotic tourist attraction, than a real entertainment centre.

The River Seine

The Seine brings to Paris fresh air and the feeling of freedom. Centuries ago, the city has been established on a few small islands in the middle of its waters. One of them is still called La Cité and although today Paris outreaches for tens of miles from The Seine, the river with its flows and turns remains the centre of it all. After the heavy rains the Seine smells badly, as it is not able to handle the overflow of water of this enormous agglomeration.

See: Pictures of Paris