Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [37]
Neoclassicism really came into its own, however, under Napoleon, who used it extensively for monumental architecture intended to embody the grandeur of imperial France and its capital. Well-known Paris sights designed (though not necessarily completed) under the First Empire (1804–14) include the Arc de Triomphe; the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel; Église de Ste-Marie Madeleine; the Bourse de Commerce; and the Assemblée Nationale in the Palais Bourbon. The climax of 19th-century classicism in Paris, however, is thought to be the Palais Garnier, designed by Charles Garnier to house the opera and to showcase the splendour of Napoleon III’s France.
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top picks
PARIS ARCHITECTURE BOOKS
Guide de l’Architecture Moderne á Paris/Guide to Modern Architecture in Paris, Hervé Martin (2001) – excellent and very complete guide to all types of architecture; includes walking tours of the city.
Paris: Architecture & Design, edited by Christian van Uffelen (2004) – a well-illustrated and very useful introduction to Paris’ new architecture, inside and out.
Paris 2000+: New Architecture, Sam Lubell & Axel Sowa (2007) – as new as tomorrow, this richly illustrated coffee-table book focuses on 30 buildings that have gone up since 2000.
Paris, Grammaire de l’Architecture: XXe-XXIe Siècles, Simon Texier (2007) – contemporaneous with the preceding title, this is a far more serious French-language tome examining late-20th- and early-21st-century structures.
Paris: A Guide to Recent Architecture, Barbara-Ann Campbell (1997) – dated, with B&W photos, this pocket-size book is for serious aficionados of the subject.
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ART NOUVEAU
Art Nouveau, which emerged in Europe and the USA in the second half of the 19th century under various names (Jugendstil, Sezessionstil, Stile Liberty) caught on quickly in Paris, and its influence lasted until about 1910. It was characterised by sinuous curves and flowing, asymmetrical forms reminiscent of creeping vines, water lilies, the patterns on insect wings and the flowering boughs of trees. Influenced by the arrival of exotic objets d’art from Japan, its French name came from a Paris gallery that featured works in the ‘new art’ style.
Paris is still graced by Hector Guimard’s Art Nouveau metro entrances (boxed text). There are some fine Art Nouveau interiors in the Musée d’Orsay; an Art Nouveau glass roof over the Grand Palais; and, on rue Pavée in the Marais, a synagogue designed by Guimard. The city’s main department stores, including Le Bon Marché Click here and Galeries Lafayette, also have elements of this style throughout their interiors.
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MODERN
France’s best-known 20th-century architect, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (better known as Le Corbusier), was born in Switzerland but settled in Paris in 1917 at the age of 30. A radical modernist, he tried to adapt buildings to their functions in industrialised society without ignoring the human element. Not everyone thinks he was particularly successful in this endeavour, however.
Most of Le Corbusier’s work was done outside Paris though he did design several private residences and the Pavillon Suisse, a dormitory for Swiss students at the Cité Internationale Universitaire (Map) in the southeastern 14e bordering the blvd Périphérique. Perhaps most interesting – and frightening – are Le Corbusier’s plans for Paris that never left the drawing board. Called Plan Voisin (Neighbour Project; 1925), it envisaged wide boulevards linking the Gare Montparnasse with the Seine and lined with skyscrapers. The project would have required bulldozing much of the Latin Quarter.
One of the best examples of modernist architecture in all of