Tara Paris Presentation

Pourquoi visiter Paris

Pourquoi visiter Paris

 Paris is the number one visited city in the world because it is a world center for culture, art, religion, and even food!

 The city has a rich history and amazing architecture dating back hundreds of years! There are world-class museums, monuments, and cultural centers.

 Paris is often called the “city of love” because of all the amazing sights and beautiful scenery (including the Seine).

 The French language is also lovely, and the city offers an endless supply of activities for tourists and locals alike!

 To illustrate this, I have planned a five-day itinerary describing some of the places I would visit!

Itinéraire

Itinéraire

 Day 1: La Tour Eiffel, Arc de Triomphe, et Les Invalides

 Day 2: Musée d'Orsay, Musée Rodin, et Les Catacombes de Paris

 Day 3: Place de la Bastille, Musée Grévin, et Centre Georges Pompidou

 Day 4: Musée de Louvre, Notre Dame, et Musée Picasso

 Day 5: Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, Palais Garnier, et Moulin Rouge

Faits intéressants

Faits intéressants

 La Tour Eiffel was built in 1889 for the Paris Exposition and was intended to be an entrance to the World Fair. It was never intended to be permanent.

 La Tour Eiffel was named after Gustave Eiffel, whose company was in charge of constructing the tower.

 La Tour Eiffel is 320 meters (1050 Feet) in height and was the tallest construction in the world before the Chrysler Building was built in NYC (in 1930)!

 The French nickname for La Tour Eiffel is “la dame de fer,” which means “the Iron Lady.”

 Millions of people visit the Eiffel Tower each year!!

La Tour Eiffel

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Faits intéressants

Faits intéressants

 The Arc de Triomphe was built in the early 19th century and Napoleon, the French Emperor, ordered its construction in 1806. The construction was completed in 1836, long after Napoleon’s death in 1821.

 The Arc De Triomphe was built to honor the Grande Armee (this was the name of the French army at the time).

 Napoleon had told his soldiers, who at the time were conquering vast lands in Europe, that they would return home victorious and pass through the Arc de Triomphe.

 It costed approximately 9.3 million French francs to build the Arc de Triomphe at the time, which was a huge sum of money!

Arc de Triomphe

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Faits intéressants

Faits intéressants

 Les Invalides was previously known as “Hôtel National des Invalides” (The National Residence of the Invalids), or also as Hôtel des Invalides. (An invalid is a person who is sick or weak because of illness or injury.)

 It is a group of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. It contains museums and monuments related to the military history of France.

 The complex operated as a hospital and retirement home for French war veterans up until the early 20th century.

 Les Invalides contains the Dôme des Invalides, a large church, the tallest in Paris (it is 107 meters) with the tombs of some of France's war heroes, including Napoleon.

Les Invalides

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Faits intéressants

Faits intéressants

 The Musée d'Orsay is a national museum in Paris on the left bank of the Seine and it is considered a “masterpiece of industrial architecture.”

 The Musée d'Orsay is located in the grand railway station (Gare d’Orsay), which was constructed by 3 architects (Lucien Magne, Émile Bénard and Victor Laloux) for the 1900 World Fair.

 In the 1970s, the French government decided to convert the station into a museum and French President François Mitterrand officially opened the museum in 1986.

 The museum contains some of Vincent van Gogh’s famous works including his self-portrait (1889) and Starry Night (1888), which I would like to see!

Musée d'Orsay

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Faits intéressants

Faits intéressants

 The Musée Rodin opened in 1919, and is dedicated to the works of the famous French sculptor Auguste Rodin.

 The Musée Rodin contains most of Rodin's significant creations, such as The Thinker, The Kiss, and the Gates of Hell. (This past summer I went to the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia and saw some versions of these sculptures, including The Thinker!)

 The museum has two sites including the Hôtel Biron (in central Paris) and the Villa des Brillants at Meudon (just outside Paris at Rodin’s old home).

 The museum has approximately 6,600 sculptures, 8,000 drawings, 8,000 old photographs, and 7,000 objects of art.

 Auguste Rodin lived from 1840 to 1917, and most of his notable sculptures were actually the subjects of criticism during his lifetime!

Musée Rodin

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Faits intéressants

Faits intéressants

 Les catacombes de Paris are underground ossuaries (rooms where bones are placed) in Paris which contain the remains of more than six million people!

 Some of these ossuaries were created in the late 1700s to help with the city’s overflowing cemeteries and the need for more space to place bodies!

 Although the catacombs solved the problem of providing space to bury the dead, they have also made it difficult for building structures and sometimes cave-ins have destroyed buildings because of Les Catacombes!

Les Catacombes de Paris

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Faits intéressants

Faits intéressants

 The Place de la Bastille is a square in Paris where the Bastille prison once stood until the “storming of the Bastille” in 1789 (this was a violent attack on the government by protestors), Between 1789 and 1790 the prison was destroyed during the French Revolution.

 No traces of the prison remain.

 The July Column (which is pictured in my image) commemorates the events of the July Revolution, which is also known as the 2nd French Revolution and commemorates the 3 glorious days (July 27-29 1830), which saw the fall of King Charles X of France.

Place de Bastille

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Faits intéressants

Faits intéressants

 The Musée Grévin is a famous wax museum in Paris.

 The museum was founded in 1882 by Arthur Meyer, who was a journalist for Le Gaulois, a daily newspaper.

 The museum is modeled on Madame Tussaud’s famous wax museum in London.

 The Musée Grévin is named for its first artistic director, the artist and caricaturist Alfred Grévin.

Musée Grévin

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Faits intéressants

Faits intéressants

 The Centre Georges Pompidou is a famous landmark in Paris known for its world-class collections of modern art.

 The museum was the brainchild of President Georges Pompidou and it was established to provide a cultural center focusing exclusively on modern art.

 Since it opened in 1977, it was decided it would be named after the French President George Pompidou who had thought of the idea for the museum.

 The architecture of the building has been very controversial and many people in France didn’t like it (and still don’t) and compare it to an oil refinery.

 It houses a painting by Picasso I like entitled “Femme à la tête rouge.”

Centre Georges Pompidou

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Faits intéressants

Faits intéressants

 The Musée de Louvre is the biggest museum in the world and it is estimated that it would take someone about 100 days to see every piece of art in the museum if they spent 30 seconds at each piece and never took any breaks.

 The Musée de Louvre started out as a fortress in the late 12th century (it was built in 1190) when Philip II (the first person to be known as the King of France) wanted to built a defensive outpost near the western border of Paris.

 The Mona Lisa is one of the most famous paintings in the Louvre and it is protected with bullet-proof glass!

 I am excited to see the Venus de Milo at the Musée de Louvre which is an ancient Greek statue and one of the most notable works of ancient Greek sculpture (created by Alexandros of Antioch between 130 and 100 BC).

Musée de Louvre

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Faits intéressants

Faits intéressants

 Notre-Dame de Paris (also known as Notre-Dame Cathedral) is a medieval Catholic Cathedral in Paris.

 Notre-Dame is often considered to be one of the best examples of French Gothic Architecture.

 The cathedral was built between 1160 and 1260.

 It is estimated that 12 million people visit Notre-Dame de Paris yearly, making it the most visited monument in all of Paris!

Notre-Dame de Paris

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Faits intéressants

Faits intéressants

 The Musée Picasso is an art museum focused on the work of the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973).

 The Musée Picasso opened in Paris in 1985 with a total of 228 paintings, 149 sculptures, and nearly 3,100 drawings and engravings.

 The artwork that makes up the collection was given after there were some changes in France’s inheritance laws which allowed Picasso’s inheritors to pay the taxes owed by his estate in art instead of money!

 At the Musée Picasso I am interested in viewing the expressionistic painting entitled “Massacre in Korea” (1951) in which Picasso expressed criticism of American involvement in the Korean War.

Musée Picasso

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Faits intéressants

Faits intéressants

 The Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, also known as Sacré-Cœur Basilica or Sacré-Cœur is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica (a minor basilica is a special honor given to some buildings by the Roman Catholic church) in Paris.

 The basilica was built between 1875 and 1914 by architect Paul Abadie in Romanesque-Byzantine style.

 ‘Sacré-Cœur’ means ‘Sacred-Heart’ in English and refers to the heart of Jesus, which is the representation of his divine love for humanity.

Basilique du Sacré-Cœur

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Faits intéressants

Faits intéressants

 The Palais Garnier is the most famous opera house in the world and was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera.

 The theater was commissioned by Emperor Napoleon III as part of his sweeping reconstruction of Paris.

 The opera house’s famous chandelier which hangs from the ceiling of the Opera Garnier weighs an amazing 7 tons of pure bronze and crystal, and was actually designed by Garnier!

 The opera building has 1,979 seating capacity which makes it one of the largest theaters in the world!

 Palais Garnier

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Faits intéressants

Faits intéressants

 Moulin Rouge is French for "Red Mill" and it is a cabaret (a form of theatrical entertainment featuring song, music and dance) house in Paris, France.

 Moulin Rouge is best known as the birthplace of the modern form of the can-can dance.

 The original Moulin Rouge burned down in 1915 – it had been co-founded in 1889 by Charles Zidler and Joseph Oller.

 Today the Moulin Rouge offers entertainment for visitors from around the world.

Moulin Rouge

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 Le café des chats (the Cats’ Café) opened September 21, 2013 and was the first cat café to be established in Paris.

 The idea for this café in France was put forward by Margauz Gadelon, with support from the Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).

 The café is located near la Place de la Bastille (and we will visit the day we go there).

Informations sur le café

Carte

Informations sur le café

 Ob-la-di is described as a café with “delicious coffee, great pastries, and a retro-cool atmosphere.”

 According to an online reviewer, “creative offerings include an affogato (a combination of expresso and gelato) made with cookie dough ice cream, horchata (a vegetarian burger), and avocado toast that is worth an eye-popping €9 price tag due to the homemade purple potato bread and chimichurri sauce, plus pomegranate seeds.”

 It is located near the Notre-Dame (and we will visit the day we go there).

Carte

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