Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [53]
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THE INS AND OUTS OF PARIS
When a building is put up in a location where they’ve run out of consecutive street numbers in Paris, a new address is formed by fusing the number of an adjacent building with the notation bis (twice), ter (thrice) or even quater (four times). In essence, the street numbers 17bis and 89ter are the equivalent of 17a and 89b in English.
The portes cochères (street doors) of most apartment buildings in Paris can be opened only by digicode (entry code), which is usually alphanumeric (eg 26A10) and changed periodically; the days of the concierges, who would vet every caller before allowing them in, are well and truly over.
The doors of many apartments are unmarked: the occupants’ names are nowhere in sight and there isn’t even an apartment number. To know which door to knock on, you’ll usually be given cryptic instructions, such as cinquième étage, premier à gauche (5th floor, first on the left) or troisième étage, droite droite (3rd floor, turn right twice).
In France (and in this book), the 1st floor is the floor above the rez-de-chaussée (ground floor).
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LOUVRE DES ANTIQUAIRES Map
01 42 97 27 27; www.louvre-antiquaires.com; 2 place du Palais Royal; 11am-7pm Tue-Sun Sep-Jun, to 7pm Tue-Sat Jul & Aug; Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre
A tourist attraction in itself, this extremely elegant ‘mall’ houses some 140 antique shops spread over three floors and is filled with objets d’art, furniture, clocks, classical antiquities and jewellery. Visit the place as you would the Louvre across the road, bearing in mind that all the stuff here is up for grabs.
JARDIN DES TUILERIES Map
01 40 20 90 43; 7am-9pm Apr, May & Sep, 7am-11pm Jun-Aug, 7.30am-7.30pm Oct-Mar; Tuileries or Concorde
The formal, 28-hectare Tuileries Garden, which begins just west of the Jardin du Carrousel, was laid out in its present form, more or less, in the mid-17th century by André Le Nôtre, who also created the gardens at Vaux-le-Vicomte and Versailles. The Tuileries soon became the most fashionable spot in Paris for parading about in one’s finery; today it is a favourite of joggers and forms part of the Banks of the Seine World Heritage Site as listed by Unesco in 1991. There are some lovely sculptures within the gardens, including Louise Bourgeois’ The Welcoming Hands (1996), which faces place de la Concorde.
The Voie Triomphale (Triumphal Way), also called the Axe Historique (Historic Axis), the western continuation of the Tuileries’ east-west axis, follows the av des Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe and, ultimately, to the Grande Arche in the skyscraper district of La Défense.
JEU DE PAUME Map
01 47 03 12 50; www.jeudepaume.org; 1 place de la Concorde, 8e; adult/senior, student & 13-18yr €6/3; noon-9pm Tue, to 7pm Wed-Fri, 10am-7pm Sat & Sun; Concorde
The Galerie du Jeu de Paume – Site Concorde (Jeu de Paume National Gallery at Concorde), which stages innovative exhibitions of contemporary art, is housed in an erstwhile jeu de paume (real, or royal, tennis court), built in 1861 during the reign of Napoleon III, in the northwestern corner of the Jardin des Tuileries. A branch of the gallery, the Jeu de Paume – Site Sully in the Hôtel de Sully in the Marais (4e) concentrates on top-notch photography. A joint ticket to both galleries costs €8/4 adult/concession.
MUSÉE DE L’ORANGERIE Map
01 44 77 80 07; www.musee-orangerie.fr; Jardin des Tuileries, 1er; adult/senior, student & 13-18yr €6.50/4.50, 1st Sun of the month free; 12.30-7pm Wed, Thu & Sat-Mon, to 9pm Fri; Concorde
This museum in the southwestern corner of the Jardin des Tuileries is, with the Jeu de Paume, all that remains of the once palatial Palais des Tuileries, which was razed during the Paris Commune in 1871. It exhibits important impressionist works, including an eight-panel series of Monet’s Decorations des Nymphéas (Water Lilies) in two huge oval rooms purpose-built in 1927 to the artist’s specifications, as well as paintings by Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, Sisley, Soutine and Utrillo.
PLACE VENDÔME Map
Tuileries