Paris_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 7th Edition) - Lonely Planet [94]
MUSÉE DE LA HALLE ST-PIERRE Map
01 42 58 72 89; www.hallesaintpierre.org in French; 2 rue Ronsard, 18e; adult/student, senior & under 26yr €7.50/6; 10am-6pm daily Sep-Jul, noon-6pm Mon-Fri Aug; Anvers
Founded in 1986, this museum and gallery is in the lovely old covered St Peter’s Market across from square Willette and the base of the funicular. It focuses on the primitive and Art Brut schools; there is no permanent collection as such but the museum stages some three temporary exhibitions a year. There’s a decent café on site.
MUSÉE DE L’ÉROTISME Map
01 42 58 28 73; www.musee-erotisme.com; 72 blvd de Clichy, 18e; adult/senior & student €8/5; 10am-2am; Blanche
The Museum of Erotic Art tries to put some 2000 titillating statuary, stimulating sexual aids and fetishist items from days gone by on a loftier plane, with antique and modern erotic art from four continents spread over seven floors and lots of descriptive information. But most of the punters know why they are here. Still, some of the exhibits are, well, breathtaking, to say the least.
MUSÉE DE LA VIE ROMANTIQUE Map
01 55 31 95 67; www.vie-romantique.paris.fr, in French; 16 rue Chaptal, 9e; temporary exhibitions adult/14-26yr/student & senior €7/3.50/5.50; permanent collection free, under 14yr free; 10am-6pm Tue-Sun; Blanche or St-Georges
One of our favourite small museums in Paris, the Museum of the Romantic Life is in a splendid location at the lovely Hôtel Scheffer-Renan in the centre of the district once known as ‘New Athens’. The museum, at the end of a film-worthy cobbled lane, is devoted to the life and work of Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin Baronne (1804–76) – better known to the world as George Sand – and her intellectual circle of friends and is full of paintings, objets d’art and personal effects. Don’t miss the tiny but delightful garden.
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LA VILLETTE
The Buttes-Chaumont, the Canal de l’Ourcq and the Parc de la Villette, with its wonderful museums and other attractions, create the winning trifecta of the 19e arrondissement. Combining the traditional with the innovative, the old-fashioned with the contemporary, this district makes a virtue of its contradictions. It may not possess the beauty of central Paris, but it is nonetheless full of delightful surprises. An aimless stroll or leisurely bike ride uncovers narrow streets lined with small houses. The Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, with its unusual rocky promontory, attracts local inhabitants at dawn, who run, cycle or do t’ai chi exercises. The quays along the Canal de l’Ourcq have been transformed over the past several years and have become one of the district’s main attractions. But the centrepiece is the Parc de la Villette, the former abattoirs of which have made way for a cultural centre (Cité de la Musique), a concert hall (Zénith) and the impressive Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie and its museums.
PARC DE LA VILLETTE Map
01 04 03 75 75; www.villette.com, in French; Porte de la Villette or Porte de Pantin
This large park in the city’s far northeastern corner, which opened in 1993, stretches from the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie (below) southwards to the Cité de la Musique (opposite). Divided into two sections by the Canal de l’Ourcq, the park is enlivened by shaded walkways, imaginative street furniture, a series of themed gardens and fanciful, bright-red pavilions known as folies. At 35 hectares it is the largest open green space in central Paris and has been called ‘the prototype of the urban park of the 21st century’.
Of the 10 themed gardens/playgrounds for kids, the best are the Jardin du Dragon (Dragon Garden), with an enormous dragon slide between the Géode and the nearest bridge, and the Jardin des Dunes (Dunes Garden) and Jardin des Miroirs (Mirror Gardens), which are across Galerie de la Villette (the covered walkway) from the Grande Halle, a wonderful old abattoir of wrought iron and glass now used for concerts, theatre performances, expos and conventions.
CITÉ DES SCIENCES ET DE L’INDUSTRIE Map
01 40 05 80 00, reservations