A Walking Tour Paris

This ancient part of the city is full of Gothic architecture but is actually
dominated by two late 20th-century buildings: the ground-breaking
Pompidou Centre and the vast Forum des Halles. The former is an
industrial-looking museum that houses Paris’ collection of modern art.
Hulking over the quaint older buildings that surround it, the Pompidou
looks like nothing so much as an oil refinery. Les Halles is a 1980s’
shopping centre, most of which is underground. It replaced a wholesale
fruit, vegetable and meat market knocked down in the early 1970s
in an effort to improve the traffic circulation of the area. The original
market buildings were beautiful and have been replaced by a shopping
and leisure complex of somewhat less architectural merit, but the
Forum is still a popular hangout with young shoppers, particularly those
from the suburbs who can avail of the rapid rail links to this part of
the city. Beaubourg is also home to some lovely churches and squares,
as well as the Renaissance Fontaine des Innocents, the medieval
Tour de Jean Sans Peur and the oldest house in Paris, No. 51 rue de
Montmorency, which is now a restaurant.