Day
| Versailles Palace Eiffel Tower Invalides Musée d' Orsay Middle Age museum Notre-Dame Sainte Chapelle Tour St Jacques Musée du Louvre Palais Royal Le Marais Musée Picasso Père Lachaise Cemeterry Montmartre Pigalle  |
Morning
5- Middle-Age Museum Hotel de Cluny
Metro : "Cluny la Sorbonne" line 10 or R.E.R. B.
Built on the ruins of a roman public bath, this XVI th century mansion is housing the famous XV th century tapestry "Lady with unicorn".
6- Notre-Dame
15 mn. by walk, located on the Ile de la Cité, Paris Cathedral stands both as the center of Paris throughout centuries and the geographical center of France from which every distance is calculated.
7- Sainte Chapelle
Still on the Ile de la Cité, 10 mn. walk will take you to this jewel of gothic style consecrated in 1248 to exhibit some Jesus-Christ relics bought for an orageous price by Philippe Auguste to the Byzantine Empire. Let's cross to the right bank toward the Tour St Jacques.
8- Tour St Jacques
5 mn. walk. This magnificent bell tower is the only remain of a former church built in the "Gothique flamboyant" style. It used to be a protected halt on the pilgrimage way to St Jacques de Compostelle at a time when travelling wasn't a safe experience .
For your lunch there are many brasseries, restaurants and cafés rue de Rivoli on your way to the Louvre, unless you prefer to wait until you get to the museum offering a choice of cafés and restaurants.
Afternoon
9- Musée du Louvre
Métro: "Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre".
A15 mn. walk along rue de Rivoli will lead you to one of the former royal palaces built on the ruins of the old Philippe Auguste defensive wall converted into the largest museum throughout the world. Start with the visit of the Aile Richelieu covering a range of collections going from the Antiquity to the XIX th century. After this art history class you deserve a break in the Palais Royal garden on the other side of Rue de Rivoli.
10- Palais Royal
Métro : "Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre" line1
The calm of the gardens and the peaceful charm of the shops under the arcades doesn' t reflect the atmosphere of what the Palais Royal used to be during the XVIII th century before the Revolution: a haunt of plotters and prostitutes acting freely under the protection of the king's cousin Philippe d'Orléans. This so called "Philippe Egalité" voted for Louis XVI death penalty but got himself "shortened"as well!