Paris information 2010-2011: (prices are student or “under 25” rates)

ART/HISTORY MUSEUMS:

Musée du Louvre: Mona Lisa. Winged Victory. More famous pieces from western art history than any other museum. A great collection of Greek and Roman actor figurines, too. This place is HUGE – plan to spend some time; a big food court underground. 9.5 euros, free 6-10 pm Fri for 18-25 yr old, free 1^st Sunday of the month. Closed 1/1. Open 9-10 Fri, 9-6 Sat-Sun. www.louvre.fr Metro: Palais Royale/Louvre

Centre Pompidou: Modern & contemporary art museum; in a famous post-modern building. Free first Sunday of the month; Student 8-9 euros, kids free. Open 1/1; open 11 am-9 pm Wed-Mon. www.centrepompidou.fr Metro: Rambuteau.

Musée D’Orsay: famous impressionist paintings and sculptures in an old train station. 9:30-6 Tues-Sun (til 9:45 Thursdays). Free first Sunday of the month, closed 1/1; 5.50 euros. www.musee-dorsay.fr. Metro: Musee D’Orsay or Solferino.

Musée Picasso: 9:30-5:30, 5.70 euros. Free first Sunday of month. www.musee-picasso.fr. Metro: St Paul or Chemin Vert.

Musée Rodin: Sculptures by him and Camille Claudel, including The Thinker. 4 euros; free first Sunday of the Month. 9:30-4:45 Tues-Sun. Metro: Varenne

Musée Bourdelle: Permanent collection mostly the famous sculptors work, inside and in 3 gardens; 3.50 euros; 10-6 Tues-Sun. www.bourdelle.paris.fr Metro: Falguiere

Musée Carnavalet: housed in 2 buildings, on the history of Paris, esp interesting are Roman origins, revolution, modern artists. Permanent collections FREE; 3.50 euros special exhibits. 10-6, Tues-Sun. Closed 1/1. www.carnavalet.paris.fr Metro: St Paul or Chemin Vert

Natural History Museum: left bank; housed in 3 bldgs, main one called “Evolution.” 8 euros main bldg; 10-6 Wed-Mon. Metro: Censier Daudbenton or Gare D’Austerlitz.

Museum of Middle Ages: left bank; actually has Roman baths through medieval architecture and artifacts. 5.50 euros; 1^st Sunday of the month free. 9:15-5:45 Wed-Mon. www.musee-moyenage.fr Metro: Cluny/La Sorbonne or St. Michel

THEATRES:

Palais Royal and Comédie Française, just north of the Louvre, are the old palace that contained a theatre and the oldest national theatre in the world (1680, www.comedie-francaise.fr ), respectively. Today the Comédie Française has three stages, including the main hall named for the company; A Feydeau farce, children’s fairy tale, Chekhov’s three Sisters, and Gogol’s The Wedding are currently playing.

Palais Garnier: Old Opera house, where Beaux Arts style meets Chagall and Modernism. Currently featuring a Ballets Russes exhibit celebrating the 100^th anniversary of their first Paris season. Currently dark. Closed 1/1. Group tour at 11:30 or 2:30 in English. www.opera-de-paris.fr (site for Garnier and Bastille) Metro: Opera.

Opera Bastille: New opera the French call “La Toilette,” opened at 200^th anniversary of Revolution. Tours are daily at 1:15, tickets on sale at 1 for 9 euros. The famous old prison, stormed at the start of the Revolution, is now a traffic circle. Metro: Bastille

SITES:

Tour of river Seine by Bateaux Mouches: from right bank near pont Alma. 70 min tours in many languages; 10 euros. Open 1/1; 11 am 10:15 wkends) -9 pm. If interested and not too cold I’ll pay for this for all of you. Metro: Alma Marceau

Walk #1: from Louvre through Tuilleries gardens where there are statues and at this time of year a ferris wheel, across the Place de la Concorde (means “peace” but this is where the guillotine stood from 1789 through the Reign of Terror. The obelisk in the middle is from Luxor, Egypt) down the Champs Elysées (famous shopping district) to the Arc de Triomphe (Napoleon erected in 1905). Pay 5.50 euros (or free Sunday) to climb for a great view from the center of l’Etoile 10am-10:30pm ; closed 1/1.

Walk #2: Take funiculaire either up or down to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur; the Paris Visite card covers the cost. Montmartre was an artist’s colony in the early 20^th century. There’s a museum to the region (5.50 Euros), a great Dali museum (6 Euros), plus restaurants, a vineyard, and a great view from Sacre Coeur (which is a 19^th c. church, just gothic in style). Place du Tertre has artists who will want to sketch you. Metro: Abbesses (base of hill; also cheap souvenirs) or Lamarck Coullaincourt (north of district)

Eiffel Tower: Artists and writers hated this massive tower built for the World’s Fair of 1886 and opposed it so strongly (“the asparagus”) it was almost torn down, though now it’s probably the best known visual symbol of Paris. Elevators 9:30am-11pm; stairs close at 6 in winter. 6.5 or 11.5 euros based on which platform you want to get to; stairs are 3.5 Euros. www.tour-eiffel.fr Open 1/1, Metro: Champs de Mars/Tour Eiffel or Bir Hakim

Notre Dame Cathedral: Amazing gothic cathedral, begun in 1163, on an island in the Seine, w/ beautiful crèche, 3 rose windows, flying buttresses galore, and you can pay to climb the bell tower like Quasimodo (10-4:45, free first Sunday of the month, otherwise 4.80 euros). 7:45am-8:45 pm for entry to nave, 2:30 free guided tour in English (inc. 1/1; but towers and crypt closed 1/1). Some may appreciate the Treasures, including the crown of thorns, admission 3 euros. Also a cool archeological site of roman walls under the square outside the cathedral. www.notredamedeparis.fr Metro: Cite.

Panthéon: On the left bank/latin quarter near the Sorbonne (founded 1253); built as a Neoclassical church then finished during the Revolution (oops) so made secular resting place of Voltaire, Rousseau, Helen Keller, Louis Braille, Marie & Pierre Curie. 5 Euros; 1^st Sunday of the month & kids free. 10-6, closed 1/1. Metro: Luxembourg

Moulin Rouge: still in the heart of Paris’s red light district, Blvd Clichy. Huge cost to eat & see a topless review. Nearby are working mills, the Romantic Life Museum (3.50 euros, focuses on Georges Sand) and Museum of Eroticism (5 euros). Metro: Blanche

Hotel des Invalides: Napoleon’s tomb and a few museums like one on French military. 10-5 to view Napoleon’s tomb (free).

CineAqua: new Aquarium. 19.50 euros. 10-8. Next to Hotel des Invalides.

CEMETARIES: These are full of famous people, under famous statuary, and kept up like parks. Père Lachaise (Isadora Duncan, Chopin, Sarah Bernhardt, Molière, Oscar Wilde, Piaf, Guillaume Apollinaire, Jim Morisson, Proust, Gertrude Stein. 8:30-5:30, Metro: Philippe Auguste or Père laChaise), Montparnasse (Beckett, Baudelaire, Sartre & de Beauvoir, de Maupassant, Man Ray; Metro: Edgar Quinet or Raspail) and Montmartre (Berlioz, Nijinsky, Degas, Zola, Stendahl, Dumas; Metro: Clichy). Panthéon above too. And the Catacombes (6 euros, Metro Denfert Rochereau), if you aren’t spooked by millions of bones in interesting patterns – path is just over a mile long. Catacombes were the headquarters of the French Resistance during WWII. Closed 1/1; Open Tues-Sat 10-5.

VERSAILLES: 35 minutes by train on RER line C5 to Versailles-Rive Gauche. 2.80 euros; every 15 minutes (NOT covered on Paris Visite card. The palace and gardens are equally stunning; there is beautiful court theatre and you must see the Hall of Mirrors. Seat of the monarchy from 1682 until the Revolution (1789). Versailles passeport, Sat-Sun in winter 16 euros. Open Tues-Sun 9-5:30. www.chateauversailles.fr