Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [76]
Museum tickets are valid all day, meaning you can leave and re-enter the museum as you please. The reduced entrance fee of €5.50 applies to everyone after 4.15pm (6pm on Thursday). Those visiting the Musée Rodin (below) the same day save €2 with a combined ticket (€12).
MUSÉE RODIN Map
01 44 18 61 10; www.musee-rodin.fr; 79 rue de Varenne, 7e; adult/18-25yr/under 18yr permanent or temporary exhibition plus garden €6/4/free, both exhibitions plus garden €9/7/free, 1st Sun of the month free, garden only €1; 9.30am-5.45pm Tue-Sun Apr-Sep, to 4.45pm Tue-Sun Oct-Mar; Varenne
The Rodin Museum is one of the most relaxing spots in the city, with its garden bespeckled with sculptures and shade trees in which to contemplate The Thinker. Rooms on two floors of the 18th-century Hôtel Biron display vital bronze and marble sculptures by Auguste Rodin, including casts of some of his most celebrated works: The Hand of God, The Burghers of Calais, Cathedral, that perennial crowd-pleaser The Thinker and the sublime, the incomparable, that romance-hewn-in-marble called The Kiss. There are also some 15 works by Camille Claudel (1864–1943), sister to the writer Paul and Rodin’s mistress. The garden closes its gates later than the museum: at 6.45pm April to September and at 5pm October to March.
MUSÉE MAILLOL-FONDATION DINA VIERNY Map
01 42 22 59 58; www.museemaillol.com; 61 rue de Grenelle, 7e; adult/16-25yr/under 16yr €8/6/free; 11am-6pm Wed-Mon; Rue du Bac
This splendid little museum focuses on the work of sculptor Aristide Maillol (1861–1944) who died in a car crash. It also includes works by Matisse, Gauguin, Kandinsky, Cézanne and Picasso, all from the private collection of Odessa-born Dina Vierny (b 1915–), Maillol’s principal model for 10 years from the age of 15. The museum is located in the stunning 18th-century Hôtel Bouchardon.
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EIFFEL TOWER AREA & 16E ARRONDISSEMENT
Eating; Sleeping
Paris’ very symbol, the Eiffel Tower, is surrounded by open areas on both banks of the Seine, which take in both the 7e and the 16e arrondissements.
On the Right Bank, Passy is among the city’s most prestigious neighbourhoods. The wide avenues radiating out from the place du Trocadéro et du 11 November are lined with sober, elegant buildings from the Haussmann era. Luxury boutiques abound, frequented by posh customers who desert the area come nightfall. It’s here, on the banks of the Seine, that the architectural curiosity known as the ‘Maison Ronde’ – the Maison de Radio France – was constructed. Just north, the Maison de Balzac keeps alive the memory of the illustrious author of Le Père Goriot. Further north, the ultrabourgeois av Foch thumbs its nose at the restless av de la Grande Armée, teeming with motorbike fanatics. The 16e arrondissement also hosts football meets at the Parc des Princes and, as summer approaches, the thud of tennis balls on clay can be heard at Stade Roland Garros. There are some fabulous cultural institutions here, including the Musée du Quai Branly, Musée Guimet des Arts Asiatiques, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the three excellent museums of the Palais de Chaillot. At the same time there are lots and lots of smaller and lesser-known museums on such diverse subjects as wine, crystal and pens.
EIFFEL TOWER Click here
01 44 11 23 23; www.tour-eiffel.fr; lifts 9am-midnight mid-Jun–Aug, 9.30am-11pm Sep–mid-Jun; stairs 9am-midnight mid-Jun–Aug, 9.30am-6pm Sep–mid-Jun; Champ de Mars-Tour Eiffel or Bir Hakeim
La Tour Eiffel faced massive opposition from Paris’ artistic and literary elite when it was built for the 1889 Exposition Universelle (World Fair), marking the centenary of the Revolution.
The ‘metal asparagus’, as some Parisians snidely called it, was almost torn down in 1909 but was spared because it proved an ideal platform for the transmitting