Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [75]
Metro & RER Assemblée Nationale, École Militaire, Invalides, Musée d’Orsay, Rue du Bac, Solférino, La Tour Maubourg
Boat Musée d’Orsay Batobus stop (quai de Solférino); Paris Canal Croisières pier at quai Anatole France (7e) near the Musée d’Orsay for canal boat to stop Bassin de la Villette (19-21 quai de la Loire)
* * *
HÔTEL DES INVALIDES Map
Invalides, Varenne or La Tour Maubourg
A 500m-long expanse of lawn known as the Esplanade des Invalides separates Faubourg St-Germain from the Eiffel Tower area. At the southern end of the esplanade, laid out between 1704 and 1720, is the final resting place of Napoleon, the man many French people consider to be the nation’s greatest hero.
Hôtel des Invalides was built in the 1670s by Louis XIV to provide housing for 4000 invalides (disabled war veterans). On 14 July 1789, a mob forced its way into the building and, after fierce fighting, seized 32,000 rifles before heading on to the prison at Bastille and the start of the French Revolution.
North of Hôtel des Invalides’ main courtyard, in the so-called Cour d’Honneur, is the Musée de l’Armée (Army Museum; 01 44 42 38 77; www.invalides.org; 129 rue de Grenelle, 7e; adult/18-25yr/under 18yr €8/6/free; 10am-6pm Apr-Sep, to 5pm Oct-Mar, closed 1st Mon of the month) – the nation’s largest collection on French military history.
South is Église St-Louis des Invalides, once used by soldiers, and Église du Dôme ( 10am-7pm mid-Jun–mid-Sep, to 6pm Apr–mid-Jun & Sep, to 5pm mid-Sept–Mar) which, with its sparkling golden dome (1677–1735), is one of the finest religious edifices erected under Louis XIV. It received the remains of Napoleon in 1840. The very extravagant Tombeau de Napoléon 1er (Napoleon’s Tomb; 10am-6pm Apr-Sep, to 5pm Oct-Mar, closed 1st Mon of the month), in the centre of the church, comprises six coffins fitting into one another like a Russian matryoshka doll.
Admission to the Army Museum includes entry to all the sights in Hôtel des Invalides, including the Musée des Plans-Reliefs ( 01 45 51 95 05; 10am-6pm Apr-Sep, to 5pm Oct-Mar, closed 1st Mon of the month), an esoteric museum full of scale models of towns, fortresses and chateaux across France.
MUSÉE DES ÉGOUTS DE PARIS Click here
01 53 68 27 81; place de la Résistance, 7e; adult/student & 6-16yr €4.20/3.40, under 6yr free; 11am-5pm Sat-Wed May-Sep, to 4pm Sat-Wed Oct-Dec & Feb-Apr; Pont de l’Alma
The Paris Sewers Museum is a working museum whose entrance, a rectangular maintenance hole topped with a kiosk, is across the street from 93 quai d’Orsay, 7e. Raw sewage flows beneath your feet as you walk through 480m of odoriferous tunnels, passing artefacts illustrating the development of Paris’ waste-water disposal system. The sewers keep regular hours except – God forbid – when rain threatens to flood the tunnels, and in January, when it is closed.
MUSÉE D’ORSAY Map
01 40 49 48 14; www.musee-orsay.fr; 62 rue de Lille, 7e; adult/18-30yr/under 18yr €8/5.50/free, 1st Sun of the month free; 9.30am-6pm Tue, Wed, Fri-Sun, to 9.45pm Thu; Musée d’Orsay or Solférino
In a former train station (1900) facing the Seine, this museum displays France’s national collection of paintings, sculptures, objets d’art and other works produced between the 1840s and 1914, including the fruits of the impressionist, postimpressionist and Art Nouveau movements.
Many visitors head straight to the upper skylight-lit level to see the impressionist paintings by Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Degas and Manet and the postimpressionist works by Van Gogh, Cézanne, Seurat and Matisse. But there’s a great deal to see on the ground floor, too, including early works by Manet, Monet, Renoir and Pissarro. The middle level has some magnificent Art Nouveau rooms.
English-language guided tours (information 01 40 49 48 48; adult/13-17yr €7.50/5.70 plus admission fee), last 1½ hours and include ‘Masterpieces of the Musée d’Orsay’, departing 11.30am Tuesday to