Notre-Dame guided visits. Check their website for any changes (look at Site Plan). Wednesday and Thursday 12 noon, Saturday at 2:30 p.m. For information call 01 42 34 56 10.

St Gervais – choir chants at 5:00 p.m.

concerts at churches

Hôtel de Ville exhibitions -- across from BHV. Did you know that you can take a virtual tour of the Paris city hall over the internet?

Arsenal – Metro Sully Morland (architecture around Paris)

Museums of Paris - (there is a charge for the Crypte Archéologique, Musée Galliera and the Catacombes).

• Petit Palais/Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, avenue Winston-Churchill 8th arrondissement, Metro: Champs-Elysées-Clémenceau, Bus: 42, 72, 73, 80, 83 - reopening Autumn 2005

  • The Petit Palais, built for the Universal Exhibition in 1900, shows a panorama of art ranging from Antiquity to the present century: antique and medieval art, inestimable pieces dating from the French and Italian Renaissance, Flemish and Dutch paintings, all bequeathed by the Dutuit brothers in 1902. The Tuck donation (18th century French painting) and 19th century French paintings by Ingres, Courbet, Odilon Redon, Monet, Cézanne, Vuillard, as well as Art Nouveau objects of art were added later.

• Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 11, avenue du Président-Wilson (16th arrondissement) Metro: Alma-Marceau, Iéna, Bus: 32, 42, 63, 72, 80, 92  - reopening Spring 2005

  • Situated in the Palais de Tokyo built for the international exhibition of 1937, the Museum was inaugurated in 1961. The collections (about 8000 works of art) show the different artistic movements of the 20th century: Fauvism, Cubism, School of Paris, Abstractions, Nouveau Réalisme, Support-Surface, Arte Povera… Exhibitions about the great art movements and figures which have marked this century and also exhibitions presenting artist or theme illustrating the current trends in art today.

• Musée Carnavalet/Histoire de Paris, 23 rue de Sévigné 3rd arrondissement, Metro: Saint-Paul, Bus: 29, 69 76, 96 - 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. (closed Monday and certain holidays)

  • Located in two private houses in the heart of the Marais district, the Musée Carnavalet, a museum of history in Paris, housing collections that show how the city has developed from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day with paintings, sculptures, furnitures and models… The museum also owns a graphic arts collection – drawings, engravings, photographs and posters – as well as a remarkable numismatic exhibition.

• Crypte Archéologique du Parvis de Notre-Dame, 1 place du parvis de Notre-Dame (4th arrondissement), Metro: Cité or Saint-Michel, Bus: 24, 25, 27, 96 - 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (closed Monday and holidays) Admission: 3,30/2,20 euros/1,60 euros

  • In the Crypt, can be seen some of the foundations of Paris, including some from Antiquity, the Medieval and the Classical Age: Gallo-roman rooms, a 4th Century enclosure wall, the crypt of the former chapel of the Hôtel-Dieu, medieval remains from the rue Neuve Notre-Dame,
    foundations of the foundlings Hospice, traces of Hausmann’s sewers.

• Musée Galliera/Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris 10, avenue Pierre-1er-de-Serbie (16th arrondissement) Metro: Iéna or Alma-Marceau, Bus: 32 42, 63, 72, 80, 92 - 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (closed Monday and holidays)

  Admission: 8 euros (includes adioguide)

  • The Palace of the Duchesse de Galliera, built in the 19th century, has been chosen to house the Museum since 1977, in order to show the history of fashion and costume. Prestigious temporary exhibitions display in turn different sections of a collection of around 100.000 items ranging from sumptuous costumes of the 18th century to the latest creations of famous couturiers and designers including jewelry, walking sticks, hats, shoes, fans, gloves, parasols, umbrellas.

• Maison de Victor Hugo - Hôtel de Rohan-Guéménée, 6 place des Vosges (4th arrondissement), Metro: Chemin-vert, Saint-Paul, Bastille, Bus: 20, 29, 65, 69, 96 - 10 a.m. to 5:40 p.m. (closed Monday and holidays)

  • The two houses in which Victor Hugo lived longest are both under the aegis of the City of Paris, the Rohan-Guéménée mansion in the place des Vosges from 1832 to 1848 and Hauteville House in Guernsey, the house of exile from 1855 to 1870.
    The house in the place des Vosges, which was turned into a museum in 1902 at the instigation of Paul Meurice, is redolent of souvenirs evoking the family, society, literary and political life of this exceptional figure.

• Musée Cognacq-Jay/Musée du XVIIIeme (18th) , Hôtel Donon 8 rue Elzévir (3rd arrondissement), Metro: Saint-Paul, Chemin-Vert, Bus: 29, 69, 76, 96 - 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (closed Monday and holidays)

  • In the heart of the Marais district, in the Hôtel de Donon, the Museum shows the collections gathered by Louise Jay and Ernest Cognacq who founded the large store, La Samaritaine. The finely panelled rooms set off to advantage a beautiful ensemble of 18th century works of art : drawings by Watteau, painting by Boucher, Chardin, Fragonard, Greuze and Canaletto, pastels by La Tour, Meissen porcelain and furniture stamped by the great cabinet-makers, all recreate the atmosphere of
    intimate refinement prevailing in a Parisian mansion in the Age of Enlightenment.

• Maison de Balzac, 47 rue Raynouard (16th arrondissement) Metro: Passy, La Muette, Bus: 32, 50, 70, 72 - 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (closed Monday and holidays)

  • Perched on the hills of Passy, this house is the only one of Balzac’s parisian homes to have survived. Here in his study, from 1840 to 1847, he corrected the whole of La Comédie humaine and wrote some of his masterpieces.The museum presents some of Balzac’s personal belongings, paintings, engravings and ornaments recalling his close friends and contemporaries, as well as a great number of original editions, manuscripts and illustrations of his works.

• Musée de la Vie Romantique, 16 rue Chaptal (9th arrondissement) Metro: Blanche, Saint-Georges - 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (closed Monday and holidays)

  • This museum of the Romantic period has kept all the charm of a private house in the Nouvelle Athènes district. Formerly the property of the painter Ary Scheffer and then of his nephew by marriage Ernest Renan, it has been devoted since 1987 to the memory of a great figure of Romanticism, George Sand. Across the courtyard, one can visit the artist’ studio, where he worked from 130 to 1858 and entertained Chopin, Liszt, Lamartine, Tourgueniev and Delacroix.

• Musée Bourdelle, 16 rue Antoine-Bourdelle (15th arrondissement) Metro: Montparnasse-Bienvenüe, Falguière, Bus: 28, 48, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96 - 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (closed Monday and holidays)

  • In the gardens and workshops, where Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929) lived and worked, the Musée Bourdelle now houses an exceptional collection of plaster, bronzes and marbles created by the man who was a pupil of Rodin, as well as teaching Giacometti, Germaine Richier and Vieira da Silva. The extension designed in 1992 by Christian de Portzamparc has the right dimensions to show off the sculptor’s work at its best.

• Musée Cernuschi/Musée des Arts de l'Asie de la Ville de Paris, 7 avenue Vélasquez (8th arrondissement), Metro: Monceau, Villiers - 10 a.m. to 5:40 p.m. (closed Monday and holidays)

  • In 1896, Henri Cernuschi, the financier, bequeathed to the City of Paris his house on the edge of the Parc Monceau and his collection of art from the Far East acquired during his world tour. The museum now owns a remarkable collection of ancient Chinese art (Neolithic pottery, archaic bronzes, statues of the Buddha and funeral statuettes) as well as fine Chinese
    paintings from the 20th Century.

• Musée Zadkine, 100 bis, rue d'Assas (6th arrondissement), Metro: Notre-Dame-des-Champs ou Vavin, Bus: 38, 82, 83 and 91 - 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (closed Monday and holidays)

  • Ossip Zadkine, an artist of Russian origin, who emigrated to Paris in 1908, lived and worked in this house-cum-workshop between 1928 and his death, in 1967. The collection with over 400 sculptures, and as many works on paper – both gouache and pencil drawings – and documentary photographs, covers all the sculptor’s creative periods. To foster a spirit of confrontation and exchange between Zadkine’s work and the developments in contemporary art, the museum has set up a programme of guest artists.

• Memorial du Marechal leClerc de Hauteclocque et de la Liberation de Paris/Musée Jean Moulin, 23, allée de la 2e (second) DB - Jardin Atlantique (15th arrondissement) Metro: Monparnasse-ienvenüe, Gaïté, Pasteur, Bus: 28, 48, 58, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96 - 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (closed Monday and holidays) Four ways to access the entrance:

  1. Place des Cinq Martyrs du Lycée Buffon and cross the garden

  2. Gare Monparnasse, take the escalator to the left of TGV platform number 3

  3. Take the glass elevator (either one) in front of No. 4, rue de CEmt René Mouchotte

  4. No. 25 boulevard de Vaugirard

  • These two museums, conceived by
    historians of the Second World War, also housing a research and documentation centre, aim to retrace the story of the French Resistance Movement and the Liberation of France, illustrated through the destiny of two exceptional characters, Général Leclerc de Hauteclocque and Jean Moulin. Audiovisual documents give a vivid picture of a crucial moment in the history of 20th century.

• Les Catacombes, Metro: Denfert-Rochereau, Bus: 38, 68; Admission: 5 euros/reduced: 3,30 euros/children: 2,50 euros - 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (last entry at 4 p.m.) In the catacombes, the visitor will find the former underground plaster quarries that since antiquity were used in construction. In addition, the catacombs became the final resting place for between 6 and 7 million Parisians since the 19th century when many of the cemeteries were closed and the renovations of Paris took place.

Films during the month August

Cinéma au clair de lune is an annual event held during the month of August. The Paris locations change for each film. Go to their website for a list of locations and films for 2005.

Maps

Summer 2005

Free Bike Tour

Paris Rando Vélo Join the cyclists on Friday nights for a free ride through the streets of Paris. Show up at 9:30 p.m. and the group departs at 10 p.m. and returns at 12:30 a.m.

For more information visit their website or take a look at the information that I have provided on my sports and entertainment page.