Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [55]
CENTRE POMPIDOU Map
01 44 78 12 33; www.centrepompidou.fr; place Georges Pompidou, 4e; Rambuteau
The Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou (Georges Pompidou National Centre of Art & Culture), also known as the Centre Beaubourg, has amazed and delighted visitors since it was inaugurated in 1977, not just for its outstanding collection of modern art but for its radical architectural statement Click here.
The Forum du Centre Pompidou (admission free; 11am-10pm Wed-Mon), the open space at ground level, has temporary exhibits and information desks. The 4th and 5th floors of the centre exhibit a fraction of the 50,000-plus works of the Musée National d’Art Moderne (MNAM; National Museum of Modern Art; adult €10-12, senior & 18-25yr €8-10, under 18yr free, 6-9pm Wed free for 18-25yr, 1st Sun of the month free; 11am-9pm Wed-Mon), France’s national collection of art dating from 1905 onward, and including the work of the surrealists and cubists as well as pop art and contemporary works.
The huge Bibliothèque Publique d’Information (BPI; 01 44 78 12 33; www.bpi.fr; noon-10pm Mon & Wed-Fri, 11am-10pm Sat & Sun), entered from rue du Renard, takes up part of the 1st as well as the entire 2nd and 3rd floors of the centre. The 6th floor has two galleries for temporary exhibitions (usually now included in the higher entrance fee) and a restaurant from the trendy Costes stable called Georges, with panoramic views of Paris. There are cinemas (adult/senior & 18-25yr €6/4) and other entertainment venues on the 1st floor and in the basement.
West of the centre, Place Georges Pompidou and the nearby pedestrian streets attract buskers, musicians, jugglers and mime artists, and can be a lot of fun. South of the centre on place Igor Stravinsky, the fanciful mechanical fountains (Map) of skeletons, hearts, treble clefs and a big pair of ruby-red lips, created by Jean Tinguely and Niki de St-Phalle, are a positive delight.
The Atelier Brancusi (Map; 55 rue Rambuteau, 4e; admission free; 2-6pm Wed-Mon), across place Georges Pompidou to the west of the main building, was designed by Renzo Piano and contains almost 160 examples of the work of Romanian-born sculptor Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957) as well as drawings, paintings and glass photographic plates.
FORUM DES HALLES Map
01 44 76 96 56; www.forum-des-halles.com; 1 rue Pierre Lescaut, 1er; shops 10am-7.30pm; Les Halles or Châtelet les Halles
Les Halles, the city’s main wholesale food market, occupied the area just south of the Église St-Eustache from the early 12th century until 1969, when it was moved lox, stock and lettuce leaf to the southern suburb of Rungis, near Orly. In its place, this unspeakably ugly, four-level, underground shopping centre with 180 shops was constructed in the glass-and-chrome style of the late 1970s; it’s slated to be gutted and rebuilt by 2010. Topping the complex on the street level is a popular garden with a rather stunning sculpture by Henri de Miller (1953–99) called Listen. In the warmer months, street musicians, fire-eaters and other performers display their talents here, especially at place Jean du Bellay, which is adorned by a multi-tiered Renaissance fountain, the Fontaine des Innocents (1549). It is named after the Cimetière des Innocents, a cemetery formerly on this site from which two million skeletons were disinterred after the Revolution and transferred to the Catacombes.
ÉGLISE ST-EUSTACHE Map
01 42 36 31 05; www.saint-eustache.org in French; 2 impasse St-Eustache, 1er; audioguide €3; 9.30am-7pm Mon-Fri, 10am-7pm Sat, 9am-7.15pm Sun; Les Halles
This majestic church, one of the most beautiful in Paris, is just north of the gardens next to the Forum des Halles. Constructed between 1532 and 1637, St-Eustache is primarily Gothic, though a neoclassical façade was added on the western side in the mid-18th century. Inside, there are some exceptional Flamboyant Gothic arches holding