Paris main page

Louvre museum

Tuileries

Jeu de Paume
Jardins du Palais Royal

Place Vendome Place des Victoires

Les Halles

Ile de la Cité Sainte-Chapelle
Conciergerie

Pont Neuf-Saint Germain l'Auxerrois 

Quai de la Megisserie
Chatelet

Paris 1st arr-Jeu de Paume-Jardins du Palais Royal

Paris main page

1st arr

2nd arr

3rd arr

4th arr

5th arr

7th arr

9th arr

10th arr

11th arr
Bastille and area
Rue de Charonne
Faubourg St. Honore

12th arr
Opera Bastille
Marche Aligre
Train Bleu
Promenade Plantee
Picpus
Bercy-Vincennes
Musee Africain

13th arr
Gobelins
Chinatown

14th arr
Montparnasse
Cemetery
Musee Bourdelle
Catacombs
Vanves

15th arr
Parc Citroen
Parc Brassens
Ruche-Pasteur

16th arr
Musee Vin
Maison Balzac
Guimard-Castel Beranger
Sewer-Modern Art
Dapper museum
New Guimet museum
Marmottan
Bois Boulogne
Defense

17th arr
Parc Monceau

18th arr
Montmartre walk
Fleamarket St.Ouen

19th arr
La Vilette
Cite Musique
Cite Sciences

20th arr
Cemetery Pere Lachaise

Paris dining world!!!!

Book a Paris hotel on line

Let's have a look at other building at the exit of the jardin des Tuileries, to the right, bordering the rue de Rivoli: the musee du Jeu de Paume also called GALERIES NATIONALES DU JEU DE PAUME. Before it turned to a center of contemporary art, this museum housed principally the Impressionist and 19th century paintings. The museum became too small, dusty and badly maintained, so they decided to move everything to the musee d’Orsay, closed down in 1986 was renovated and reopened to become what you see now. A superb facade, the original entrance and a glass-stand looking out on the gardens and a cozy cafeteria.  Avant-garde and very contemporary exhibitions take place here all year. Walk back the rue de Rivoli towards the Louvre and make a left at the place du Palais Royal.  Enter the jardins through any entrance at the other side of the square. This place, dating probably from the Roman period and was the first thermal station of Paris. In 1786 the famous Comedie Francaise was built and around the square under the vaulted arcades a lot of small specialty shops opened.  But it's in this very poplar and poor neighborhood behind the Comedie Francaise at that time that the French revolution had its most bloody days. Quoting the Routard 1998: “It's in one of these shops that Charlotte Cordier bought the knife that stabbed Marat. Even after the Revolution it stayed a "hot " quarter, had very bad reputation.  Everybody who wanted to fornicate, gamble and feast came to this quarter. Under the open galleries (still visible today) cafes and gambling places attracted the crowd.”(unquote) Take now the very serious looking building at no. 6 rue des Moulins (metro: Pyramide) being a brothel until 1946 and where Toulouse-Lautrec painted his famous "Au Salon de la rue des Moulins "in 1894. On the second floor to be more precise. The atmosphere in this house was a popular literary subject: "La Maison Tellier" by Guy de Maupassant or "Nana" by Emile Zola. Here erotic and revolutionary plays were performed, there a group of intellectuals had a discussion on Voltaire or Victor Hugo. It was really the place to gather, meet people and ...play money games.  But times changed.
 The jardins du palais-Royal turned finally into a quiet city garden where the wealthy could sit very near to the buzzing rue de Rivoli and still feel as in a village.  Children at play, accompanied by their nannies or old "retired " men trying to catch some sun ray in the nice season and office clerks eating their home made lunch. A very controversial project is to see at the south side of the garden:  the colonnes de Buren, a modern feature or sculpture (just pillars). Sticking out of the ground in different heights they make by passers and tourist wonder what this is all about. I reserve my opinion, you all know what that means.  

In front of the Theatre Francais, rue St.Honore 157, the cigar amateurs will find happiness in one of the oldest tobacco shops of town, " La Civette" (address also gracefully indicated by the Routard). And another attraction may be to have a look at the "Grand Vefour", beacon restaurant of the 18th century where Voltaire was a regular customer.
Another attraction is still worth staying and waiting a bit at the Jardins du Palais-Royal:

THE CANON OF THE PALAIS-ROYAL

At noon, the exact time to go to the Palais-Royal (on the central lawn, on the side of the Buren columns) a guard fires every day a small canon.....originating from the first canon-chronometer installed here for the first time in 1786 by a certain Rousseau, on the meridian of Paris. Through an ingenious ignition system, the sun played artificer from May to October and provoked the firing through a magnifying glass connected to a fuse. It’s only since a few years that a guard ignites manually the small canon every day. The abbe Delille, reminding when the Palais-Royal was very dedicated to the selling of female charms had these delicious little rimes in accordance to the daily canon firing:

"Dans ce jardin on ne rencontre
Ni champs, ni pres, ni bois, ni fleurs.
Et si l'on y deregle ses moeurs,
Au moins on y regle sa montre."

Which is in good English (by courtesy of Mrs.Anne Forrest):
No fields, no meadows and no flowers
In this garden, no shady bowers,
And if your morals you forget,
At least your watch can be re-set.

Just a reminder for the unconcerned walkers: two other meridians in Paris will indicate you the hour at noon: the obelisk of Saint-Sulpice and the pyramid of the hotel des Monnaies.