< Beaubourg & the Marais
Centre Pompidou and Around
The interesting and colourful façade of the Centre Pompidou
Children love the buzz of the piazza in front of the Centre Pompidou. Full of street entertainers, the square is pedestrianized and safe for running around. Then there is the thrill of riding on the crazy escalators to admire the stunning view from the roof, which tops off the fantastic art on offer inside. There is a good mix of indoor and outdoor activities to suit all weathers, such as shopping in the bustling Rue Montorgueil or climbing the historic Tour de Jean Sans Peur. The sights in this area are all close together and easily explored on foot.
1. Centre Pompidou
2. Place Igor Stravinsky
3. Les Halles
4. Tour de Jean Sans Peur
Children playing on L’Ecoute, a sculpture by Henri de Miller in Place Rene Cassin
1. Centre Pompidou
Cubes, views and tubes
Street entertainer
Georges Pompidou, French president from 1969 to 1974, loved all things modern, and chose architects Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano to create a dazzling new cultural centre. The result is the crazy glass building – with its escalators, air-conditioning shafts and utilities pipes on the outside – that is the Centre Pompidou. It houses a huge public library as well as the Musée National d’Art Moderne, with cutting-edge modern art that is always on the move (its 60,000 pieces are rotated), in addition to temporary exhibitions.
Key Features
2. Level 6 The highest level houses galleries for temporary exhibitions. Kids will love the views of Paris from the panoramic terrace on top.
5. Level 1 La Galerie des Enfants exhibits art chosen for children, and has interactive installations and games. Its cinema, Ecran des Enfants, sometimes shows English films.
6. Level 4 Explore permanent collections of the most exciting post-1960s modern art, and the New Media centre.
8. Level 5 Enjoy a chronological overview of art from 1905 to 1960, including works by the Fauvists, the Cubists, the Dadaists and the Surrealists.
• Escalator Ride up the glassed-in escalators for a fun inside-out experience and great views of the buzzing piazza below.
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Escalator Middle Level 0
Right View from the terrace on Level 6
Kids’ Corner
Look out for…
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Something surreal. Surrealists paintings are bizarre, dreamlike and out-of-the-ordinary. Take a baguette, tie a piece of string around it then tie the string under your chin – you’ve got a Surrealist hat! Any other crazy ideas?
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A painting by the Russian-Jewish artist Marc Chagall. He loved to paint his home town of Vitebsk after he left his homeland in the 1920s – especially the oniondomed church. What image would you paint of your home?
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Pop Art. Andy Warhol, known as the father of Pop Art, painted a lot of everyday things. He chose cans of Campbell’s Soup and Coca-Cola because those were things he liked to eat and drink. What would you choose?
Fabled art
Marc Chagall drew illustrations for the famous fables written by the French writer Jean de la Fontaine. Among them were stories such as The Ant and the Grasshopper and The Fox and the Stork.
Colour coding
The pipes on the outside of the building are all colour coded – the air-conditioning ducts are blue, the water pipes are green, the electricity lines are yellow and the ventilation shafts are white. The undersides of pipes in which people move about, such as the escalators, are painted red. The architects wanted to make people think more about how a building actually works.
2. Place Igor Stravinsky
A Firebird drenched in water
Next to the Centre Pompidou, this bustling square enchants children and grownups alike with its colourful mechanical fountain. Opened in 1982, it was named after composer Igor Stravinsky. The Stravinsky Fountain has 16 moving, water-spraying sculptures inspired by his music. Niki de St-Phalle’s bold, colourful shapes look good enough to eat, while her husband Jean Tinguely’s creaking metal structures are darkly humoristic. Take time to stroll around the rectangular pool to see all of them, and especially look out for the splendid, golden-crested Firebird and the quirky figure of La Mort – or Death – with its grinning skull.
Kids’ Corner
Look out for…
1. The sculptures of Death and of Love in the Stravinsky Fountain. Which is which?
2. The Défenseur du Temps (the defender of time) on Rue Bernard de Clairvaux. This mechanical clock fights the elements of Air, Earth and Water, which come in the shape of savage beasts. Every hour they attack him, to the sound of earthquakes, hurricanes and pounding seas.
3. Les Halles
A belly full of shops
Rows of attractively decorated cakes and pastries in La Maison Stohrer
Émile Zola called Les Halles the belly of Paris because of its once sprawling food market, created in 1181 by King Philippe-Auguste. In 1969, the beautiful 19th-century glass pavilions were knocked down, also removing the last traditional working-class district from the city centre. The focus of the present Les Halles is a giant underground shopping centre, the Forum des Halles, which is taking on a new lease of life in a renovation program that is due for completion in 2016. It is a good, if rather austere, place to shop – there are branches of all the main international and French chain shops here, but it can feel rather dreary.
There is also a swimming pool, the Piscine Suzanne Berlioux, and cinema complexes, among them the Forum des Images, where it is possible to watch thousands of films and archive footage in a multiscreen cinema.
The nearby Bourse du Commerce has an interesting fresco, painted in 1886 by Alexis-Joseph Mazerole, showing the four corners of the world, from the freezing cold of the Russian north to the jungles of Africa.
It is not advisable to visit the Les Halles area at night.
Kids’ Corner
Look out for…
The 30-m (99-ft) astrological column on Rue de Viarmes. Superstitious Queen Catherine de Medici would climb the steps to the top with her astrologer, who would try to read her future in the stars.
Gory fact
On 30 May 1780, the cellar walls collapsed in a restaurant on Rue de la Lingerie, next to the Cimetière des Innocents. Rotting bodies, old bones and rats fell in. A builder who placed his hand on the wall caught a terrible disease and died soon after. The bodies were reburied in abandoned underground quarries known today as the Catacombes.
Well of love
At La Maison Stohrer, on Rue Montorgueil, try a puits d’amour or “well of love”. Made here since 1730, this small round of puff pastry filled with vanilla cream and caramel recalls the sad story of a young girl who drowned herself in a well in the northeastern corner of Les Halles, when her father refused to let her marry her lover.
4. Tour de Jean Sans Peur
Scared – no kidding
The 27-m (88-ft) tall Tour de Jean Sans Peur, a remnant of medieval Paris
This tower is a rare remnant of medieval Paris. Jean sans Peur, the Duke of Burgundy, had his cousin Louis d’Orléans killed, which helped spark off the Hundred Years’ War. Burgundy joined the English. Not exactly “sans peur”, or fearless, as he claimed, the duke built an elaborate tower on top of his house to keep him safe from Louis’ family and supporters, known as the Armagnacs. In spite of this, he was murdered in 1419. Children like the winding staircase, the beautiful carved, vaulted ceiling and Paris’s oldest toilet. It is, however, not easy to negotiate the 140 steps to the top with smaller kids.
< Beaubourg & the Marais
Musée des Arts et Métiers and Around
Porcelain dolls on display at the Musée de la Poupée
Housed in an old abbey, the Musée des Arts et Métiers is a temple to science. Its pretty, enclosed courtyard is an ideal spot to unwind over a cold drink in summer. The area also has a lot of history to offer and, for Harry Potter fans, Paris’s oldest house was once home to book-keeper and alchemist
Nicolas Flamel. Sightseeing is concentrated in a very small area, and it is easy to get around on foot. The restaurants serve some of the city’s best ethnic cuisine. The museum is 10 minutes on foot from the Centre Pompidou.
1. Musée des Arts et Métiers
2. 51 Rue de Montmorency
3. Musée de la Poupée
4. Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme
Alfresco dining at Le Studio
1. Musée des Arts et Métiers
A temple to invention
Statue of Liberty outside Musée des Arts et Métiers
A refreshing alternative to Paris’s many art museums and palaces, this museum was founded in 1794 to showcase new and useful inventions. Housed in the old abbey of St-Martin-des-Champs, it is home to more than 3,000 inventions, chronologically organized into seven sections. There are explanations in English and interactive screens, but the majority of the museum is charmingly old-fashioned. Do not miss the church full of cars and planes.
Key Features
1. Foucault’s Pendulum This instrument proved the rotation of the earth on its axis in 1851. See how it was done at noon and 5pm daily.
2. Avion 3 French inventor Clément Ader designed the Avion 3, a plane inspired by a bat, first tried in 1897. Ader also invented the V8 Engine for the Paris–Madrid rally of 1903.
3. Theâtre des Automates Some of the mechanical toys here once belonged to Marie Antoinette. Catch a demonstration to see mechanical robots in motion.
4. Machine de Marly An engineering masterpiece, this machine was created in 1684 to bring water 162 m (532 ft) uphill to the fountains and lake at Versailles.
5. Television Receiver René Barthélémy, a pioneer of French television, invented one of the first television receivers in 1931.
6. Otto Safety Bicycle Invented in 1879, with wheels side by side instead of one behind the other, this bicycle is only one among an extraordinary collection.
7. Mechanical calculator The mathematician Blaise Pascal invented the first mechanical calculator in 1642, while he was still a teenager.
8. Lavoisier’s Laboratory French chemist Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (1743–94) is known as the father of modern chemistry. He was guillotined during the Revolution, but his discoveries led to the birth of the chemical industry. His laboratory is reconstructed inside the museum.
Left
Avion 3 Middle Theâtre des Automates Right Lavoisier’s Laboratory
Kids’ Corner
Look out for…
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Hidden towers. Near the museum are two medieval towers on Rue de Vertbois and Rue St-Martin.
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The first plane to cross the English Channel. Flown by Louis Blerìot in 1909, it hangs from the ceiling of the chapel in Musée des Arts et Métiers.
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A racing car driven by a propeller in the Musée des Arts et Métiers’ transportation gallery. Imagine the whooshing noise it would make!
French calendar
The Revolutionaries invented a new calendar, the French Revolutionary Calendar. Year III, or 1794, the year the Musée des Arts et Métiers was founded, is engraved over the door of the courtyard and can be seen from the entrance.
Templar kingdom
The Knights Templar were a crusading order of knights who settled and built a massive fortress in the Marais area in the 12th century. A law unto themselves, they amassed a huge fortune and became some of Europe’s first bankers. Their enemies started spreading rumours that they were involved in heresy and corruption. In 1307, King Philip IV, who was heavily indebted to the Knights, took advantage of the allegations to arrest their leaders, and tortured them to extract confessions. Before being burnt at the stake, one leader, Jacques de Morlay, cursed the king, saying he would die that year. Philip was indeed killed soon after in a hunting accident.
2. 51 Rue de Montmorency
At the alchemist’s table
The oldest stone house in Paris, at 51 Rue de Montmorency
Professor Dumbledore’s friend, Nicolas Flamel, who puts in an appearance in the first Harry Potter book, was an alchemist who, according to legend, owned the Philosopher’s Stone, a magical treasure that could turn base metals into gold and silver. Flamel lived at No. 51 Rue de Montmorency in the city’s oldest surviving stone house, which now houses a restaurant that bears his name.
Flamel is also said to have discovered the elixir of life but, although he lived into his early eighties there is no evidence that he achieved immortality, and he had the foresight to design his own tombstone. Covered in strange signs and symbols, it is now on show in the
Musée de Cluny. In real life, Flamel made a fortune – not in a secret laboratory, but by buying and selling rare manuscripts. Rich and generous, he gave his fortune to the poor, who he and his wife Perenelle cared for and fed at No. 51. Somewhat ironically, the restaurant located here today is far too expensive for any needy Parisian.
Kids’ Corner
Look out for…
Strange signs and symbols on the façade of L’Auberge Nicholas Flamel.
Bon appétit
Guimauve, or marshmallow, is an important French word to know, and the chocolate marshmallows at Pain de Sucre on Rue Rambuteau are to die for. Look out for the état de choc (state of shock). Dare to try one!
Magic with metals
The story goes that one night, a poor man knocked on Nicholas Flamel’s door and offered to sell him a magical book, Abraham the Jew. He told Flamel that if he deciphered the strange symbols in the book it would show him how to turn ordinary metals into gold and silver – and, more importantly, how to create a potion that would make him live for ever. Not surprisingly, Flamel bought the content and became a very wealthy man. Strangely, when treasure-hunters dug up his grave, it was found to be empty. There have been reported sightings of him over the years. Look out for a very, very old man!
3. Musée de la Poupée
Magical miniatures
Paris was once famous for its dolls, and this tiny museum is set in an area where they used to be made. This lovely collection of dolls’ houses and hand-made dolls from 19th-century France and around the world will delight little girls in particular. There is also a doll’s hospital in the event of an emergency. Guido and Samy Odin, the father-and-son duo who own the museum, are available if any doll needs attention. A really well-stocked shop sells charming dolly clothes and toys. There are plenty of activities for children that transcend the language barrier.
Kids’ Corner
Look out for…
Dolls – not just Barbies and cuddly babies, but dolls made of wood, china, wax and paper. They all live in the Musée de la Poupée.
4. Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme
Hanukkah lamps and festivals
Model of a synagogue, Jewish museum
Housed in a fabulous mansion typical of the Marais and close to the historic Jewish quarter around
Rue des Rosiers, this museum celebrates the culture of French Jewry. France has the biggest Jewish population in Europe, and the collection traces its history from the Middle Ages to the present day. Children will be intrigued by the old-fashioned radio that plays the declaration of the foundation of the State of Israel in 1947, at the United Nations (in English). It is fun to visit during the big Jewish holidays, especially the festivals of Purim and Hanukkah, which are particularly celebrated with children in mind.
Some of the greatest painters of the early 20th century were Jewish, and the museum has a fine collection of the works of Expressionist artists such as Amedeo Modigliani, Chaim Soutine and Marc Chagall.
Kids’ Corner
Look out for…
Hanukkah candles. They come in all shapes and sizes at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme. Candles are lit every night during the eight-day festival to remember the Jewish uprising against the Greeks in the 2nd century BC. Lucky kids get a gift every time they are lit.
< Beaubourg & the Marais
Place des Vosges and Around
Place des Vosges, the oldest planned square in Paris
Sunday is a lovely day to visit the Marais. The shops are open and many of the streets north of Rue du Roi de Sicile are closed to traffic and safe for kids. A little world of its own, the area is easy to get around on foot and bursting with cafés for a light snack and a rest, and a good deal of people-watching. It has three museums for rainy-day entertainment and many squares, including Place des Vosges, that are popular with local children.
1. Place des Vosges
2. Musée Carnavalet
3. Musée Picasso
4. Rue des Rosiers
5. Mémorial de la Shoah
6. Place de la Bastille
Façade of the Hôtel de Sully, on Rue St-Antoine
1. Place des Vosges
All for one and one for all
Inkwell in Maison de Victor Hugo
One of the world’s most beautiful squares, the perfectly symmetrical Place des Vosges is lined with rose-coloured houses with steep slate roofs and atmospheric vaulted arcades. At its heart is a tree-shaded square with a fountain and a play area where children can let off steam while families picnic. But it is also Three Musketeers territory – laid out by Henri IV in 1606, as the centre of a new district built on the marshes (les marais), it became the place to live during the era in which Dumas’ book is set.
Key Features
2. Maison de Victor Hugo Author Victor Hugo lived at No. 6 with his wife and four children. He wrote a large part of his masterpiece Les Misérables here.
4. Hôtel de Sully Henri IV’s former minister of finance, the Duc de Sully, lived in this beautiful mansion in the southwestern corner of the square. A hidden door located in the same corner leads to the mansion’s delightful garden.
6. No. 21 Cardinal Richelieu, once the most powerful man in France and the ultimate bad guy in The Three Musketeers, is a former resident. Centuries later, writer Alphonse Daudet (1840–97), author of the classic Letters from My Windmill, also stayed here.
• Pavillon de la Reine and Pavillon du Roi The square is flanked by 36 identical houses, nine on each side. Two larger houses, the King’s Pavilion and the Queen’s Pavilion, sit on its northern and southern sides.
• Statue of Louis XIII This statue of Henri IV’s son sits at the centre of the square surrounded by lime and chestnut trees.
Left
Pavillon de la Reine and Pavillon du Roi Middle Hôtel de Sully Right Statue of Louis XIII
Kids’ Corner
Things to do…
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Pretend to be d’Artagnan and his fellow musketeers in the square or in the arcades. En Garde!
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Do as the French school kids do and read Alphonse Daudet’s Letters from my Windmill, or get a grown-up to read it aloud.
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The hunchback of Notre-Dame, Quasimodo was the creation of Victor Hugo. Find the inkwell in Hugo’s house, now a museum, at No. 6 Place des Vosges. Afterwards, get a pen and practice swirly handwriting. Perhaps you might even write an exciting story.
Blogger tales
The 17th-century socialite Madame de Sevigné wrote over a 1,000 letters to her daughter. Full of witty gossip and descriptions of events, these were copied and circulated among friends. She was born at No. 1 Place des Vosges.
Squid crazy
A fiercely Republican opponent of Napoleon III, Victor Hugo spent 18 years in exile, 15 of them on the British island of Guernsey, just off the French coast. His novel Toilers of the Sea was set on the island. In it the hero, Gilliatt, battles underwater with a giant octopus or squid – the Guernsey name, pieuvre, could mean either. When the novel came out, in 1866, Paris went squid mad. The creatures were displayed in tanks on the Champs-Élysées and even set a fashion trend in squid-shaped hats, as well as becoming the fashionable thing to eat. The author Alexandre Dumas hosted a squid-tasting party in honour of the novel. Try some for dinner!
2. Musée Carnavalet
A house full of history
Imposing façade of Musée Carnavalet, set in lovely gardens
This museum tells the story of Paris and how it grew from a tiny village on an island in the river Seine to a city of more than 2 million people. It is a massive collection housed in two sumptuous mansions – the Hôtel Carnavalet and the Hôtel Le Peletier, which are among the grandest in the Marais.
Head for the Art Deco ballroom from the Hôtel Wendel and then head up to the second floor where the Revolutionary galleries are situated. There is a model of the Bastille made from the original prison stones, one of 83 that were sent to every part of the country. Also on show are Napoleon’s tooth brush, some of the most famous Revolutionary proclamations and a fascinating collection of personal belongings used by the royal family during their captivity.
On the ground floor, do not miss the models of medieval Paris and the ancient Roman city of Lutetia. There is a mammoth’s tooth found in northern Paris and Neolithic canoes, some of the oldest boats in the world, in the orangerie.
Kids’ Corner
In the Musée Carnavalet, look out for…
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Louis XVI’s chess set, the dauphin’s tin soldiers and bingo game, and a curl of Marie Antoinette’s hair.
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Long, narrow canoes made from a single tree trunk. These canoes date back to way before Julius Caesar wrote the first description of the village of Lutetia (now Paris) in AD 52.
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Writer Marcel Proust’s bedroom. He wrote mostly in bed at night.
3. Musée Picasso
Crazy pots and funny faces
Light falling through stained-glass windows in the Musée Picasso
The dominant artist of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso was one of the greatest creative geniuses of all time. Born in Málaga, he lived and studied in Barcelona, Spain, before moving to France, where he spent most of his life. This collection of his work is the finest in the world, and was inherited by the state in lieu of the $50 million in death duties the family owed the state. The collection is housed in the beautiful Hôtel Salé, which was originally built for a salttax collector. The light and airy museum spans Picasso’s lifetime and covers paintings, sculpture, ceramics and textiles. The collection begins with the artist’s self portrait in blue. Painted in 1901, it shows how the poverty and loneliness that Picasso experienced during his early years in Paris had made his life hard. This is an excellent museum to visit with kids, as they find Picasso’s work intriguing and funny. Most kids really enjoy the crazy pots with funny faces in the basement and the vast array of mediums that he worked in.
The museum has been enlarged and modernized to exhibit more of the collection. Picasso enthusiasts can visit the Musée National d’Art Moderne in
Centre Pompidou, as well as the
Musée de l’Orangerie, the
Musée d’Art Moderne and other institutions in Paris, to see important works by Pablo Picasso and other modern art.
Kids’ Corner
Toast to his health
According to his mother, Pablo Picasso’s first words were “piz, piz”, which is short for lapiz – Spanish for “pencil”. His final words were “drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink anymore”. Toast the master the next time you sit down for a drink.
Cubed up
Picasso was one of the inventors of a new form of art called Cubism. In his paintings, he reduced the objects he saw to simple shapes like triangles and squares. Make your own Cubist artwork by cutting up photos from magazines or newspapers into angular shapes. Arrange them in different ways and glue them down on a piece of paper.
4. Rue des Rosiers
Falafels, bagels and poppy-seed cake
Restaurants and shops in Rue des Rosiers, heart of the city’s Jewish Quarter
There is nothing nicer on a sunny Sunday afternoon than a stroll down Rue des Rosiers, the hub of Paris’s most traditional Jewish quarter. Kids love it, as its all about eating. The street is lined with bakeries selling bagels and cakes from Eastern Europe, and restaurants serving great Jewish fare, which are not to be missed, as well as shops full of candlesticks and other Jewish artifacts and antiques. At the end of the 19th century, Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe fled from the Russian Empire and settled in the run-down, ramshackle area around Rue des Rosiers. In the 1950s and 1960s, Jews from North Africa joined them, bringing a completely different cuisine of falafels, hummus and tabbouleh, giving the place a deliciously cosmopolitan flavour. The street is immortalized in the hilarious, cult French comedy film, The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (1973).
Kids’ Corner
Things to do along Rue des Rosiers…
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Can you find the shop that sells dreidels and other Jewish knickknacks?
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Try latke (potato pancakes) or pletzels (onion- and poppy-seed covered flatbreads).
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Sample the delicious gefilte fish and cheesecake from Florence Kahn.
5. Mémorial de la Shoah
France’s darkest hour
Stone wall engraved with the names of 76,000 Jews at the Mémorial de la Shoah
For a long time, the fate of the 76,000 Jews deported from France during World War II was largely ignored by the official historians and school textbooks, so the opening of this memorial and museum in 2005 was of major importance.
In the basement there is an eternal flame, a simple memorial to an unknown victim of the Holocaust – the Hebrew name for which is Shoah. The memorial provides fascinating details about the lives of victims under the Occupation. On a wall in the garden are the names of those who were murdered in Nazi death camps, among them 11,000 children. It is deeply moving.
Kids’ Corner
Rachel’s escape
When Rachel, who was Jewish, was just six years old, WWII broke out. Jewish children were forced to wear a yellow star and not allowed inside playgrounds or parks. When the police arrived on 16 July 1942 to arrest them, Rachel and her sister escaped. Find out how, and similar stories, on
www.grenierdesarah.org
6. Place de la Bastille
Something missing?
The imposing Colonne de Juillet on Place de la Bastille
The giant fortress prison that once stood at the Place de la Bastille was stormed by the people on 14 July 1789 and torn to pieces. Originally built in the 14th century, it was converted in the 17th century into a prison for political prisoners, who were usually held without trial. Despite the bad press, the prison was actually not that terrible by contemporary standards. At the centre of the square there now stands a tall green column commemorating a completely different Revolution, that of 1830. Napoleon planned to build a giant bronze elephant here but only a plaster model was ever put up, and that too was destroyed in 1846. The square is also home to the modern Opéra Bastille, and the area east of the Place is very trendy, with lots of interesting boutiques, shops and cafés, as well as lovely 19th-century courtyards and the new marina, the Port de Plaisance de l’Arsenal, also known as Bassin de l’Arsenal.
Kids’ Corner
Bastille’s mummies
When the Pasha of Egypt gave Charles X the obelisk that now stands in Place de la Concorde, he also gave him 12 mummies. They were put on show in the Louvre but the damp climate did not suit them. Soon they turned stinky and were quickly buried in a ditch in front of the Louvre. In 1830, many of the Revolutionaries of that year also ended up there. When the Revolution was over, the fallen heroes were given a state funeral and buried under the column in Place de la Bastille along with at least two of the mummies!
