City of Paris

To enjoy the wonders of Paris, make realistic plans. The amounts of attractions and landmarks is overwhelming; visiting only the most famous ones (which can be overcrowded during major holidays) takes more than a week.

Popular landmarks in the city centre included the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris (map); the Gothic royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle (map); the Eiffel Tower (map); the Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées (map) and Petit Palais (map); the *Arc de Triomphe (map), and the Basilica of Sacré-Coeur (map) on the hill of Montmartre (map).

⇒ Discovering • Plans and maps of Paris • Celebrations & festivals

For centuries, Paris has attracted artists from around the world, who arrive in the city to educate themselves and to seek inspiration from its vast pool of artistic resources and galleries. City was in its artistic prime in the 19th century and early 20th century, when it had a colony of artists established in the city and in art schools associated with some of the finest painters of the times.

Parisian examples of European architecture date back more than a millennium, including the Romanesque church of the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés (1014–1163, map), the early Gothic Architecture of the Basilica of Saint-Denis (1144, map), the Notre Dame Cathedral (1163–1345, map), the Flamboyant Gothic of Saint Chapelle (1239–1248, map), the Baroque churches of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis (1627–1641, map) and Les Invalides (1670–1708, map).

Catacombes de Paris (map). Used to store the exhumed bones from the overflowing Paris cemetery. The bones of more than 6 million bodies lie here.

The *French Riviera (Côte d’Azur, map), in southeastern France, is the second leading tourist destination in the country, after the Parisian region. Main cities on the French Riviera include Nice (map), Antibes (map) and Cannes (map); Cap Ferrat (map) is also a popular destination.

Provence – numerous famous natural sites can be found in the region, as the Gorges du Verdon (map), the Camargue (map), the Calanques National Park (map) and the typical landscape of *Luberon.

Loire Valley – This World Heritage Site is noteworthy for the quality of its architectural heritage, in its historic towns such as Amboise (map), Angers (map), Blois (map), *Chinon (map), *Orléans (map), and Saumur (map) >> +*Châteaux of the Loire Valley)

French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (map) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur regions. Notable towns in the French Alps include Grenoble (map), Chamonix (map), Annecy (map) is called “the Venice of Savoie”, Chambéry (map), Évian-les-Bains (map) and Albertville (map).

Corsica – is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea after Sicily, Sardinia and Cyprus. It is a popular attraction for tourists with both cultural aspects (cities *Ajaccio and *Bastia) and geographical features (Parc naturel régional de Corse, map).