THE MONUMENTS OF PARIS WALKING TOUR FROM OPERA TO NOTRE DAME – Paris, France

EXPERIENCE:

Starting fom the spectacular Paris Opera, the Opéra Garnier, you will discover the history of the buildings on foot. We will then continue to the “Café de la Paix” and to the Place Vendôme, one of the architectural jewels left by Louis XIV, the “Sun King”. We will walk on the square (Ritz hotel, Vendôme column…) then join the boulevard des Capucines to discover a very special building with its red iron façade, where the first impressionist exhibition took place. We will continue with the Palais Royal, built for the Cardinal de Richelieu by the architect Lemercier, builder of the Sorbonne, the main body (1634), facing the Louvre, became a royal residence (Regency of Anne of Austria) and later of the Orléans family from 1661. We next venture over to the Georges-Pompidou National Center for Art and Culture (CNAC) – commonly known as the “Pompidou Center”, or more colloquially “Beaubourg”. It is a multidisciplinary establishment born from the desire of President Georges Pompidou, a great lover of modern art, to create in the heart of Paris an original cultural institution entirely dedicated to modern and contemporary. We will next cross the Ile de la Cité: an island located on the Seine, in the heart of Paris. It is considered the ancient cradle of the city of Paris, formerly Lutèce. This will take us to La Conciergerie: The Palais de la Cité was the residence and seat of power of the kings of France from the 10th to the 14th century, while remaining the seat of the main courts of justice up to the present day. Part of the palace was converted into a state prison in 1370, after the palace was abandoned as a residence by Charles V and his successors. The Conciergerie prison occupied the ground floor of the building bordering the Quai de l’Horloge and the two towers; the upper floor was reserved for Parliament. Queen Marie-Antoinette was imprisoned here in 1793. We next cross to La Place Dauphine, 102 meters long and 67 meters wide, named in honor of the Dauphin, the future King Louis XIII. Our unique experience of Paris will end at the foot of the prestigious and unique Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris. Begun at the instigation of Bishop Maurice de Sully, its construction spanned approximately two centuries, from 1163 to the middle of the 14th century. Royal parish church in the Middle Ages, it hosted the arrival of the Holy Crown in 1239, then the coronation of Napoleon I in 1804, the baptism of Henri d’Artois, the Duke of Bordeaux, in 1821, as well as the funeral of several presidents of the French Republic (Adolphe Thiers, Sadi Carnot, Paul Doumer, Charles de Gaulle, Georges Pompidou, & François Mitterrand). It is also under its vaults that a Magnificat was sung during the liberation of Paris in 1944. The fire of April 15, 2019 sadly destroyed the spire and the entire roof covering the nave, the choir and the transept. Its identical reconstruction is in progress and its reopening to the public is scheduled for 2024.

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:

Opera Place Vendome
Comedie Francaise
Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris
Les Halles

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