Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [48]
1977 The Centre Pompidou, the first of a string of grands projets, huge public edifices through which French leaders seek to immortalise themselves, opens to great controversy near Les Halles.
1986 Victory for the opposition in the National Assembly elections forces President Mitterrand to work with a prime minister and cabinet from the right wing.
1989 President Mitterrand’s grand projet, Opéra Bastille, opens to mark the bicentennial of the French Revolution; IM Pei’s Grande Pyramide is unveiled at the Louvre.
1994 Eurostar trains link Waterloo station in London with the Gare du Nord in Paris in just over three hours.
1998 France beats Brazil to win the World Cup at the spanking-new Stade de France (Stadium of France) in St-Denis north of central Paris.
2001 Socialist Bertrand Delanoë becomes the first openly gay mayor of Paris (and of any European capital) but is wounded in a knife attack by a homophobic assailant the following year.
2002 President Jacques Chirac overwhelmingly defeats Front National leader Jean-Marie Le Pen to win second term.
2003 Hundreds of mostly elderly and housebound Parisians die from complications arising from an unusually hot summer; a review of the health and emergency-response systems gets under way.
2004 France bans the wearing of Muslim headscarves and other religious symbols in schools.
2005 The French electorate overwhelmingly rejects EU Constitution; the suburbs surrounding Paris are wracked by rioting by Arab and African youths.
2007 Pro-American pragmatist, Nicolas Sarkozy, Interior Minister under Chirac, beats Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal to become France’s new president.
2008 Mayor Bertrand Delanoë wins re-election to a second term of office.
Return to beginning of chapter
NEIGHBOURHOODS
* * *
ITINERARY BUILDER
LOUVRE & LES HALLES
MARAIS & BASTILLE
THE ISLANDS
ÎLE DE LA CITÉ
ÎLE ST-LOUIS
LATIN QUARTER & JARDIN DES PLANTES
ST-GERMAIN, ODÉON & LUXEMBOURG
MONTPARNASSE
FAUBOURG ST-GERMAIN & INVALIDES
EIFFEL TOWER AREA & 16E ARRONDISSEMENT
ÉTOILE & CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES
CLICHY & GARE ST-LAZARE
OPÉRA & GRANDS BOULEVARDS
GARE DU NORD, GARE DE L’EST & RÉPUBLIQUE
MÉNILMONTANT & BELLEVILLE
GARE DE LYON, NATION & BERCY
13E ARRONDISSEMENT & CHINATOWN
15E ARRONDISSEMENT
MONTMARTRE & PIGALLE
LA VILLETTE
BEYOND CENTRAL PARIS
BOIS DE VINCENNES & SURROUNDS
BOIS DE BOULOGNE & SURROUNDS
LA DÉFENSE
ST-DENIS
MONTMARTRE ART ATTACK
PARISIAN ROUND-THE-WORLD TOUR
RIGHT BANK TIME PASSAGES
MEDIEVAL MEANDERINGS IN THE MARAIS
LATIN QUARTER LITERARY LOOP
* * *
* * *
top picks
Centre Pompidou Architecturally phenomenal and the world’s most successful cultural centre.
Ste-Chapelle Sway with the wall of stained glass as it shimmers in the sun.
Musée du Louvre View (and view and view again) the world’s greatest and most famous works of art.
Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine Take a tour of the greatest monuments in France.
Cathédrale de Notre Dame de Paris Ogle at the organ in this grandiose monument to Gothic architecture.
Musée Rodin Ponder The Thinker or re-enact The Kiss at the sculptor’s home (and garden).
Musée de l’Orangerie ’Swim’ among the fragrant blossoms of Monet’s sublime Water Lilies.
Eiffel Tower Climb, circle or just look at the icon that is more Parisian than Paris itself.
* * *
What’s your recommendation? www.lonelyplanet.com/paris
Paris is a compact, easily negotiated city. Some 20 arrondissements (city districts) spiral clockwise from the centre and are important locators; their numbers are always included in addresses.
Each of Paris’ arrondissements has a distinct personality. The 1er has plenty of sights but few residents, the 5e is studenty, the 7e full of ministries and embassies; the 10e was traditionally working-class but is now a trendy district in which to live, while the 16e is a bastion of the well-heeled. But the profiles are not