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pines, trucked in from the countryside. The towers have since been fitted with a complex (and expensive) shutter system and the basement is prone to flooding from the Seine. The national library contains around 12 million tomes stored on some 420km of shelves and can hold 2000 readers and 2000 researchers. Temporary exhibitions (entrance E) revolve around ‘the word’, focusing on everything from storytelling to bookbinding and French heroes. Using the study library costs €3.30/35 per day/year while the research library costs €7/53 for three days/year.

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TRANSPORT: 13E ARRONDISSEMENT & CHINATOWN

Bus Bibliothèque Nationale de France François Mitterrand for 62 through 13e along rue Tolbiac to rue d’Alésia (14e) & rue de la Convention (15e); porte d’Italie for 47 to place d’Italie, rue Monge, quai St Michel, Hôtel de Ville & Gare de l’Est; place d’Italie for 67 to Mosquée de Paris, Jardin des Plantes, Île de St-Louis, Hôtel de Ville & Pigalle; Olympiades & Place d’Italie for 83, to Jardin de Luxembourg, St-Germain & Invalides

Metro & RER Bibliothèque François Mitterrand, Porte de Choisy, Porte d’Italie, Place d’Italie, Tolbiac, Olympiades

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DOCKS EN SEINE Map

30 quai d’Austerlitz, 13e; Gare d’Austerlitz

Watch this space! One of Paris’ most exciting projects, Docks en Seine is a 20,000-sq-metre riverside warehouse – goods were once brought to it by barge – being transformed into a state-of-the-art cultural centre. Once complete in mid-2008, it will house a few shops, a restaurant etc and be renamed Cité de la Mode et du Design to reflect its principal inhabitant, the Institut Français de la Mode (French Fashion Institute), Paris’ fashion school. A panoramic terrace, sun deck and waterside promenades will add jollifying touches to the 1907 industrial complex. For the best view of the startling lime-green ‘wave’ that dances across its vast, water-facing glass façade, cross the Seine over Pont Charles de Gaulle or hop aboard a Voguéo river metro.

MANUFACTURE DES GOBELINS Map

01 44 08 52 00; 42 av des Gobelins, 13e; adult/7-25yr/under 7yr €8/6/free; tours 2pm & 3pm Tue-Thu; Les Gobelins

The Gobelins Factory has been weaving haute lisse (high relief) tapestries on specialised looms since the 18th century along with Beauvais-style basse lisse (low relief) ones and Savonnerie rugs. The visit, by guided tour, takes you through the ateliers (workshops) and exhibits of the thousands carpets and tapestries woven here.

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15E ARRONDISSEMENT

Drinking; Eating; Shopping; Sleeping

After the war, entire battalions of steelworkers were drawn into the orbit of the 15e arrondissement, clocking in every morning at the Citroën factory or one of the neighbourhood’s numerous aeronautical companies. Over the years, the area has become more gentrified and residential. Av de la Motte-Picquet, blvd Pasteur and av Félix Faure are peaceful places – too peaceful for some tastes. For Unesco, the area seemed just right, and not far away the republic’s future officers converge on the majestic École Militaire.

But the 15e offers much more than bourgeois homes and institutions. Parisians flock to the shops and restaurants that line rue de la Convention, rue de Vaugirard (the longest street in Paris), rue St-Charles and rue du Commerce. On the quays, the towers of the Centre Beaugrenelle have long since abandoned their monopoly on futurism to the stylish, functional buildings occupied by TV stations Canal+ and France Télévision, and Parisians with their heart in the country can enjoy the Parc André-Citroën, one of the capital’s most beautiful open spaces.

MUSÉE BOURDELLE Map

01 49 54 73 73; www.bourdelle.paris.fr in French; 18 rue Antoine Bourdelle, 15e; adult/14-25yr/under 14yr €7/3.50/free; 10am-6pm Tue-Sun; Falguière

The Bourdelle Museum contains monumental bronzes in the house and workshop where sculptor Antoine Bourdelle (1861–1929), a pupil of Rodin, lived and worked. The three sculpture gardens are particularly lovely and impart a flavour of belle époque and post-WWI Montparnasse.