Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [52]
English-language guided tours ( 01 40 20 52 63) lasting 1½ hours depart from the area under the Grande Pyramide, marked Acceuil des Groupes (Groups Reception), at 11am, 2pm and (sometimes) 3.45pm Monday to Saturday. Tickets cost €5 in addition to the cost of admission. Groups are limited to 30 people, so it’s a good idea to sign up at least 30 minutes before departure time.
Self-paced audioguide tours in six languages, with 1½ hours of commentary, can be rented for €5 under the pyramid at the entrance to each wing.
LES ARTS DÉCORATIFS Map
01 44 55 57 50; www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr; 107 rue de Rivoli, 1er; adult/18-25yr €8/6.50, under 18 free; 11am-6pm Tue, Wed & Fri, to 9pm Thu, 10am-6pm Sat & Sun; Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre
The Palais du Louvre contains three other museums collectively known as the Decorative Arts in its Rohan Wing. Admission, which may vary depending on the exhibitions, includes entry to all three.
The Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Applied Arts Museum), which begins on the 3rd floor, displays furniture, jewellery and such objets d’art as ceramics and glassware from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance through the Art Nouveau and Art Deco periods to modern times.
The Musée de la Publicité (Advertising Museum), which shares the 3rd floor, has some 100,000 posters in its collection dating as far back as the 13th century, and innumerable promotional materials touting everything from 19th-century elixirs and early radio advertisements to Air France as well as electronic publicity. Only certain items are exhibited at any one time; most of the rest of the space is given over to special exhibitions.
The Musée de la Mode et du Textile (Museum of Fashion & Textiles) on the 1st and 2nd floors has some 16,000 costumes dating from the 16th century to today, including haute couture creations by the likes of Chanel and Christian Lacroix. Most of the outfits are warehoused, however, and displayed during regularly scheduled themed exhibitions.
ARC DE TRIOMPHE DU CARROUSEL Map
place du Carrousel, 1er; Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre
Erected by Napoleon to celebrate his battlefield successes of 1805, this triumphal arch, which is set in the Jardin du Carrousel at the eastern end of the Jardin des Tuileries, was once crowned by the ancient Greek sculpture called The Horses of St Mark’s, ‘borrowed’ from the portico of St Mark’s Basilica in Venice by Napoleon but returned after his defeat at Waterloo in 1815. The quadriga (the two-wheeled chariot drawn by four horses) that replaced it was added in 1828 and celebrates the return of the Bourbons to the French throne after Napoleon’s downfall. The sides of the arch are adorned with depictions of Napoleonic victories and eight pink-marble columns, atop each of which stands a soldier of the emperor’s Grande Armée.
ÉGLISE ST-GERMAIN L’AUXERROIS Map
01 42 60 13 96; 2 place du Louvre, 1er; 8am-7pm; Louvre-Rivoli or Pont Neuf
Built between the 13th and 16th centuries in a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance styles and with similar dimensions and ground plans to those of Notre Dame, this once royal parish church stands on a site at the eastern end of the Louvre that has been used for Christian worship since about AD 500. After being mutilated in the 18th century by clergy intent on ‘modernisation’, and damaged during the Revolution, the church was restored by the Gothic Revivalist architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in the mid-19th century. It contains some fine Renaissance stained glass.