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Photo: via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Soaring stained glass windows beaming ample light onto the rich primary colours of the tile mosaics on the floor, this photogenic church was built by the French kings to house the relics of the Crown of Thorns. Make sure you go on a sunny day, as the highlight of this small chapel in Rayonnante Gothic style are the large stained-glass windows which soar up to near the vaulted ceiling. Also of interest is the extremely ornate lower level. If it happens to be rainy or cloudy, give Sainte-Chapelle a miss, as the play of coloured lights on the floor is well worth the wait for a sunnier day. As the chapelle is inside the Courts of Justice, there will thus be a security check. Note: you may have to book a week in advance.
The Sainte-Chapelle is a royal chapel located on the Île de la Cité in the middle of the River Seine in Paris. It was part of the medieval Palais de la Cité, the main residence of the Kings of France until the 14th century. Built between 1238 and 1248, the chapel was commissioned by King Louis IX of France to house his collection of relics of the Passion, including one of the most important relics in medieval Christendom: the Crown of Thorns. During the French Revolution, the relics were removed from the Sainte-Chapelle, later to be given to the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, where they continue to be displayed.
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The ancient medieval fortress and prison of the city's island, site of some remarkable medieval royal architecture and the scene of Marie Antoinette's imprisonment in the period leading to her execution in 1793; lots of revolutionary associations.
La Samaritaine is one of Paris's greatest department stores located in a spectacular art nouveau building dating back to 1870. It reopened on June 23, 2021 after a 16-year closure for renovations.
This Gothic church functioned until the 19th century as the parish church of the kings of France. In this role, the church has sometimes played a gruesome part in history. Its bell called 'Marie' sounded on the night of 23 August 1572, to launch the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, in which thousands of Huguenots were killed by Catholic mobs. Nowadays, the church is peaceful and an active parish church for commoners (the monarchy having long since given way to the Republic), and well worth visiting.
Commodities Exchange Building
Since 2021 the 18th-century former Bourse de Commerce building has been the Paris home of the art collection of the French business magnate François Pinault, showing a rotating selection of contemporary artworks either newly commissioned or taken from his collection.
The massive parish church of the Les Halles area is a notable example of late Gothic interspersed with Renaissance details (including the entire front façade), as it was only completed in the 17th century. Its unique form results from a combination of relatively short length and impressive height of over 30 metres inside. The latter allows room not only for an array of stained glass windows and paintings, but also France's largest church organ of 8,000 pipes. The sculpture Écoute, depicting an oversized human head, was placed in front of the church's southern facade and has become a favourite photo spot.
Its exhibits come from such diverse origins as ancient Egypt, classical Greece and the Roman Empire, medieval Europe, and Napoleonic France, but controversially including many items that were looted from their places of origin. Its most famous exhibit, of course, is Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the Mona Lisa (French: La Joconde, Italian: La Gioconda), generally to be found surrounded by hordes of camera-flashing tourists. The Louvre poses many of the same challenges to the visitor as Paris itself; overwhelming in size, crowded in high seasons, and much information available only in French. If you want to see everything in the Louvre, plan at least two full days. However, it is better to pick and choose, as the collection was assembled with an eye to completeness rather than quality. As of July 2019, due to intense crowding and reports of ticket fraud, entry now almost always requires a pre-booked timed ticket, even for holders of the Paris Museum Pass.