The 1st arrondissement of Paris, Also known as the arrondissement of Louvre, is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. The 1st arrondissement is full of attractions for travellers of all inclinations, including some of the finest parks, museums, shops, and bars in the city. A significant part of the area is occupied by the Louvre Museum and the Tuileries Gardens. The Forum des Halles is the largest shopping mall in Paris. Much of the remainder of the arrondissement is dedicated to business and administration.
Historic heart of Paris, the 1st arrondissement is in essence the central arrondissement of Paris, boast of having such a concentration of historic buildings and works of art per square meter. For occupying such a compact space, the 1st arrondissement feels remarkably different from one end to the other. The 1st arrondissement is incredibly upscale and very affluent to the west, near Place Vendôme and the Ritz, the Louvre Museum, the Place du Châtelet and the Ile de la Cité. And it is more hustle and bustle to the east, the new center of Paris, the area around Les Halles and the Samaritaine, where full of tourists mix with local Parisiens.
It is one of the smallest arrondissements of Paris, covering an area of 1.83 km2. The arrondissement is situated principally on the right bank of the River Seine. It also includes the west end of the Île de la Cité. The locality is one of the oldest areas in Paris, the Île de la Cité having been the heart of the city of Lutetia, conquered by the Romans in 52 BC, while some parts on the right bank (including Les Halles) date back to the early Middle Ages.
The 1st arrondissement is one of the oldest in the French capital and was once the seat of royal power in Paris. The area contains many important monuments such as the Louvre palace, the Conciergerie and the Sainte-Chapelle, the Tuileries Garden, a number of historic churches and palaces, upscale squares.
At the time of Baron Hausmann in charge of modernizing Paris, it was decided that the 1st arrondissement would be located on these prestigious sites. As the new center of Paris, the public institutions located in the first arrondissement of Paris are the Banque de France, the Ministry of Justice, the Court of Auditors, the Constitutional Council, the Palace of Justice, the Hotel des Postes, the Council of State and the Stock Exchange of Commerce and Industry. Korean Air’s France office also is in the 1st arrondissement.
The district is one of the most active for business as much of its area is dedicated to tourism, business and administration. At the centre of the district are Les Halles, the central place is the large Forum des Halles, a modern and underground shopping mall. The 1st arrondissement is temple of shopping. From the prestigious jewelers of the Place Vendôme, to the recently renovated Samaritaine, passing by the long rue de Rivoli and the brand new forum des Halles…
In addition to its many magnificent monuments, a multitude of pedestrian streets in the historic district, which can take you anywhere in and out of Paris. One of the great joys of a visit to Paris is to simply walk around and explore to get the feel of the city. Having arrived in the 1st arrondissement walking will most likely suffice for transport. The 1st arrondissement is as good a place to start as any, with the largely car-free section around Les Halles, as well as the right bank of the river Seine. In summer, the express lanes at river level are converted to an all pedestrian road called “Paris Plage”.
Administrative districts
Paris 1st arrondissement is divided into four administrative districts: Quartier Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, Quartier des Halles, Quartier du Palais-Royal and Quartier de la Place Vendôme.
Quartier of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois
The Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois district is the heart of the French capital. Quartier Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois runs along the bank of the Seine across the district, encompassing the Tuileries gardens, the Louvre and the western part of Ile de la cité. It spreads from the western tip of Île de la Cité to the Jardin des Tuileries, the biggest, oldest garden in Paris. Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois surrounds the Louvre, whose buildings house a significant portion of French history.
The Church of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois, after which the district is named, adjoins the Louvre and can be visited outside service times. The grounds of the Jardin des Tuileries host three major Paris museums: the Musée de l’Orangerie, devoted to Monet’s Nymphéas and the Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume collections, the Musée du Jeu de Paume, which exhibits contemporary art and photography, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs with its significant fashion and textiles collection as well as a more recent section devoted to advertising.
Île de la Cité in the eastern part of the district also has some emblematic historical buildings such as the Conciergerie, the first royal residence in the city and later a forbidding prison under the Terror. It is a stone’s throw from Sainte-Chapelle, a masterpiece of the Gothic style with richly hued stained glass windows built by St Louis within the Palais de la Cité, now the Palais de Justice law courts.
Quartier of Les Halles
The district of Les Halles is the 2nd administrative district of Paris located in the 1st arrondissement. It takes its name from the Halles de Paris, a wholesale market for fresh food products, which was once established in its center. Les Halles was the traditional central market of Paris. Les Halles was known as the “Belly of Paris”, as it was called by Émile Zola in his novel Le Ventre de Paris. These halls were demolished in the 1970s to make way for the Forum des Halles, with a mainly pedestrian environment, which houses the largest urban station in Europe, Gare de Châtelet – Les Halles.
In 1183, King Philippe II Auguste enlarged the marketplace in Paris and built a shelter for the merchants, who came from all over to sell their wares. The church of Saint-Eustache was constructed in the 16th century. The circular Halle aux Blés (Corn Exchange), designed by Nicolas Le Camus de Mézières, was built between 1763 and 1769 at the west end of Les Halles. Its circular central court was later covered with a dome, and it was converted into the Bourse de Commerce in 1889. In the 1850s, Victor Baltard designed the famous glass and iron buildings, Les Halles, which would last until the 1970s.
The Forum des Halles has just been transformed in its aerial part, with the creation of a much more convivial canopy, and a large garden that leads to the old Bourse du Commerce. This in turn is in the middle of work, transformed into a museum by the Pinault Foundation, to house its collections. Thus the restaurants are becoming more chic, in the tradition of the famous brasserie Le Pied de Cochon, at the gates of the imposing Saint-Eustache Church. Rue Etienne Marcel, Renowned for its fashion and designer boutiques, it is the gigantic former Poste du Louvre which is under construction to open its facilities to the public.
Quartier of Palais-Royal
The Palais-Royal district is the 3rd administrative district of Paris located in the 1st arrondissement. Quartier Palais-Royal is dominated by the Palais Royal, and contains the larger part of the busy cosmopolitan Avenue de l’Opera. The Palais-Royal district is made up of a rectangle, limited to the west by rue Saint-Roch, to the east by rue de Marengo and rue de Croix-des-Petits-Champs, to the north by rue des Petits-Champs, and to the south by the rue de Rivoli. In addition to the sublime garden of the Royal Palace, from which it bears the name, this district extends along rue Saint-Honoré, towards place Vendôme, and via rue Croix des Petits Champs, towards place du Marché Saint Honoré.
The Royal Palace district is very popular for its tranquility. The gardens of the Royal Palace are a jewel of refinement and tranquility. The Banque de France has its headquarters there in a very discreet way, and neighborhood life is organized around rue Coquillère, rue Richelieu and Croix des Petits Champs. Thus the latter lists one of the oldest herbal shops in Paris, the Herboristerie du Palais Royal, where the whole of Paris comes to stock up. For shopping, rue Montorgueil is very close, a large open-air market is held several times a week around the Place du Marché Saint-Honoré.
Quartier of Place-Vendôme
The Place-Vendôme district is the 4th administrative district of Paris, located in the 1st arrondissement. This district takes its name from Place Vendôme. The district is order and beauty, luxury, calm and pleasure, full of prestigious jewelers, restaurants, cafes, bars, and many traders. The Place Vendôme district is the setting of the 1st arrondissement, a few streets from the Madeleine, the department stores, the Opéra Garnier… It runs along the Tuileries Garden, into which it plunges via the rue de Rivoli.
Quartier Place Vendôme characterized by a regular, 18th-century street grid. The quarter’s historic buildings house the most luxurious hotels and boutiques of famous fashion and jewellery brands. Homes and offices mingle in the Haussmann buildings that make it up at this level enjoy a magical view. In the rue Cambon. many luxury houses have their headquarters there. The shops in rue Saint-Honoré and rue de Rivoli is more chic and colorful. The proximity of the luxury hotels of the Ritz, Meurice, Costes and Crillon in this district with more accessible.
Main Attractions
Discover the 1st arrondissement of its royal palaces, its museums of art and antiquities, containing paintings. The 1st arrondissement includes some of Paris’ premier monuments and sites. The Historical Axis (Voie Triomphale) starts from the Cour Napoléon in the Louvre and crosses the Tuileries garden on its way to the Arc de Triomphe and La Défense. The rich heritage of the 1st arrondissement is definitely breathtaking. Between the Louvre, which is the most visited cultural site in the country, the Conciergerie where the kings of France lived, the Sainte-Chapelle which even dazzled the Revolutionaries to the point of being spared, or even the church of Saint- Eustache, which has witnessed the whole history of Les Halles since the 13th century…
Take a walk in the shaded paths of its elegant gardens. Stroll from the Stock Exchange Museum to the Théâtre de la Comédie Française, from the columns of Buren to the Museum of Decorative Arts, from the basins of the Tuileries to the chic tea rooms under the arcades of the rue de Rivoli… Splendid gardens that can accommodate walkers looking for a small bench to relax. The Tuileries gardens and its many sculptures, the flower gardens of the Palais-Royal, the romantic Vert-Galant square on the banks of the Seine, and of course the charming Place Dauphine.
Louvre Palace
The Louvre Palace has housed one of the most prestigious museums in the world since 1793 and is the major attraction of the 1st arrondissement. The exquisite architecture of this former royal residence contrasts with the modernity of Ieoh Ming Pei’s glass pyramid.
Louvre Museum
The Louvre is the world’s most-visited museum, and a historic landmark in Paris, France. The Louvre Museum is a Parisian art and archeology museum housed in the former royal palace of the Louvre. Opened in 1793, it is one of the largest and richest museums in the world, but also the busiest with nearly 9 million visitors a year. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo.
The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built in the late 12th to 13th century under Philip II. Remnants of the Medieval Louvre fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to urban expansion, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function, and in 1546 Francis I converted it into the primary residence of the French Kings. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace.
The Musée du Louvre contains more than 380,000 objects and displays 35,000 works of art in eight curatorial departments with more than 60,600 square metres (652,000 sq ft) dedicated to the permanent collection. The Louvre exhibits sculptures, objets d’art, paintings, drawings, and archaeological finds. The Louvre Museum presents very varied collections, with a large part devoted to the art and civilizations of Antiquity: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and RomeLogo indicating tariffs to quote that they; medieval Europe (setting around the ruins of the keep of Philippe-Auguste, on which the Louvre was built) and Napoleonic France are also widely represented.
The Louvre has a long history of artistic and historical conservation, from the Ancien Régime to the present day. Following the departure of Louis XIV for the Palace of Versailles at the end of the 17th century century, part of the royal collections of paintings and antique sculptures are stored there. After having housed several academies for a century, including that of painting and sculpture, as well as various artists housed by the king, the former royal palace was truly transformed during the Revolution into a “Central Museum of the Arts of the Republic”. It opened in 1793, exhibiting around 660 works, mainly from royal collections or confiscated from emigrant nobles or from churches. Subsequently, the collections will continue to be enriched by wartime spoils, acquisitions, sponsorships, legacies, donations, and archaeological discoveries.
Located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, between the right bank of the Seine and the rue de Rivoli, the museum is distinguished by the glass pyramid of its reception hall, erected in 1989 in the Napoleon courtyard and which has become emblematic, while the equestrian statue of Louis XIV constitutes the starting point of the Parisian historical axis. Among his most famous plays are The Mona Lisa, The Venus de Milo, The Crouching Scribe, The Victory of Samothrace, and The Code of Hammurabi.
Palais-Royal
The Palais-Royal is a former royal palace located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The screened entrance court faces the Place du Palais-Royal, opposite the Louvre. The Palais-Royal now serves as the seat of the Ministry of Culture, the Conseil d’État and the Constitutional Council. Originally called the Palais-Cardinal, it was built for Cardinal Richelieu from about 1633 to 1639 by the architect Jacques Lemercier. Richelieu bequeathed it to Louis XIII, and Louis XIV gave it to his younger brother, the Duke of Orléans. As the succeeding dukes of Orléans made such extensive alterations over the years, almost nothing remains of Lemercier’s original design.
Given as an appanage to Philippe d’Orléans in 1692, it became the Palais des Orléans. The Regent lives there. Louis-Philippe d’Orléans, who would become King of the French, was born there onOctober 6, 1773. The future Philippe Égalité carried out a grandiose real estate operation there in 1780 led by the architect Victor Louis, framing the garden with uniform constructions and galleries that were to become for half a century, with their cafes, restaurants, gaming rooms and other entertainment, the fashionable rendezvous of an elegant and often libertine Parisian society. The Palais-Royal was assigned from 1871 to various administrations of the Republic. It now houses the Council of State, the Constitutional Council, the Conflicts Tribunal and the Ministry of Culture. The central Palais-Royal Garden serves as a public park, and the arcade houses shops.The gardens of the Palais Royal, located between the buildings, are still of great beauty today and contain several restaurants.
Sainte-Chapelle
The Sainte-Chapelle is a royal chapel in the Gothic style, within the medieval Palais de la Cité, the residence of the Kings of France until the 14th century, on the Île de la Cité in the River Seine in Paris. Along with the Conciergerie, the Sainte-Chapelle is one of the earliest surviving buildings of the Capetian royal palace on the Île de la Cité. Although damaged during the French Revolution and restored in the 19th century, it has one of the most extensive 13th-century stained glass collections anywhere in the world. Construction began sometime after 1238 and the chapel was consecrated on 26 April 1248. The Sainte-Chapelle is considered among the highest achievements of the Rayonnant period of Gothic architecture. It was commissioned by King Louis IX of France to house his collection of Passion relics, including Christ’s Crown of Thorns, a piece of the True Cross, as well as various other relics of the Passion which he had acquired from 1239 onwards.
It is the first built of the Holy Chapels, designed as a vast shrinealmost entirely glazed, and is distinguished by the elegance and boldness of its architecture, which manifests itself in a significant elevation and the almost total removal of the walls at the level of the windows of the upper chapel. The decoration has not been neglected, in particular on sculpture, painting and the art of stained glass: it is its immense original historiated stained glass windows which today make the richness of the Sainte-Chapelle. The Sainte-Chapelle is no longer a church. It was secularised after the French Revolution, and is now operated by the French Centre of National Monuments, along with the nearby Conciergerie, the other remaining vestige of the original palace.
Palais de la Cité
The Palais de la Cité is a major historic building that was the residence of the Kings of France from the sixth century until the 14th century, and has been the center of the French justice system ever since, thus often referred to as the Palais de Justice. First royal palace and main fortress in Paris until the erection of the Louvre castle, place of archives then state prison under the Terror, the Conciergerie is a must-visit for all lovers of the Middle Ages. Its “hall of men-at-arms”, endowed with imposing vaults, is considered to be the largest surviving medieval hall in Europe. Regularly receiving temporary exhibitions, the Conciergerie also offers reconstructions of certain major episodes of the Terror that took place there. The reconstruction of cells is striking. A course with tablets to be able to “travel in time” is offered free of charge with admission.
The palace was built and rebuilt many times over the course of many centuries, including following major fires in 1618, 1776 and 1871. Its salient medieval remains are the Sainte-Chapelle, a masterpiece of Gothic architecture, and the Conciergerie, an early-14th-century palatial complex that served as a prison from 1380 to 1914. Most of its other current structures were rebuilt from the late 18th to early 20th centuries. The Conciergerie and Sainte-Chapelle can be visited via separate entrances.
From the 14th century until the French Revolution, it was the headquarters of the Parlement of Paris. During the Revolution it served as a courthouse and prison, where Marie Antoinette and other prisoners were held and tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal. Since the early 1800s it has been the seat of the Tribunal de grande instance de Paris, the Court of Appeal of Paris, and the Court of Cassation. The first of these moved to another Parisian location in 2018, while the other two jurisdictions remain located in the Palais de la Cité as of 2022.
Palais de Justice
The Palais de Justice is a judicial center and courthouse in Paris, located on the Île de la Cité. It contains the Court of Appeal of Paris, the busiest appellate court in France, and France’s highest court for ordinary cases, the Court of Cassation. It formerly housed the Tribunal de grande instance de Paris which was relocated in 2018 to a new high-rise building in Paris’s Batignolles neighborhood.
The Palais de Justice occupies a large part of the medieval Palais de la Cité, the former royal palace of the Kings of France. The formal entrance to the Palais de Justice is through the Cour de Mai, or “May Courtyard”. The lace-ike gilded iron gateway was part of the 19th century reconstruction. Inside, most of the space is occupied by the courtrooms, legal offices, and support functions, including a large law library. Together these occupy about 4500 square meters of the building. Each day the Palais receives about thirteen thousand persons. The Palais de Justice also includes Sainte Chapelle, the royal chapel, and the Conciergerie, a notorious former prison, which operated from 1380 to 1914.
Hotel de Bourvallais
The Hôtel de Bourvallais or Hôtel de la Grande-Chancellerie is a former private mansion, located at No. 13, Place Vendôme in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. Built from 1699 to 1702, by the architect Robert de Cotte, for the Marquis Joseph-Guillaume de La Vieuville, the hotel passed to the financier Guyon de Bruslon, then to the farmer general, Paul Poisson de Bourvallais. The minister’s office, originally the royal library, is one of the few rooms to escape the 1793 fire. It overlooks a long garden, bordered by two paths of rosebushes and ending with a pond. The incumbent works on Cambacérès ‘ desk and the sealing press (which is used to affix the seal of the Constitution) is present in room. In 1718, it was confiscated by the government of the Regent, and became, after merging with No. 11, the Hôtel de la Grande-Chancellerie, the seat of the French Ministry of Justice, which still occupies it today.
Cambon Palace
The Cambon Palace located at 13, rue Cambon in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, was built to house the French Court of Auditors. After the destruction of the Palais d’Orsay, which housed the Court of Auditors until 1871, and after a very long series of projects, work began on the site of the Convent of the Assumption in 1898 with Constant Moyaux as architect. The Court moved into the premises in 1912. The building has five floors, which develop around an interior courtyard. Subsequently, the Court of Auditors added adjoining or neighboring buildings. The Court of Budgetary and Financial Discipline is also located in the Cambon Palace. The facades and roofs of all the buildings, as well as the decorated rooms on the first floor and the main staircase with its wrought iron banister, have been listed as historical monuments.
Hôtel de Toulouse
The Hôtel de Toulouse is located at 1 rue de La Vrillière, in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. It was built between 1635 and 1640 by François Mansart, for Louis Phélypeaux, seigneur de La Vrillière. Originally, the mansion had a large garden with a formal parterre to the southwest. In 1712, Louis Alexandre de Bourbon, Count of Toulouse (son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan) acquired the Hôtel de La Vrillière and commissioned Robert de Cotte, Premier Architecte du Roi, to redesign it and bring important transformations to its interior. Confiscated as a bien national (“national property”) during the French Revolution, the Hôtel de Toulouse became the Imprimerie de la République in 1795. An imperial decree signed by Napoleon I on 6 March 1808, authorised the sale of the Hôtel de Toulouse to the Banque de France, which made it its official seat in 1811.
Religious heritage
The religious buildings in the 1st arrondissement include the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, the Sainte-Chapelle, the Protestant Temple of the Oratory of the Louvre, the Saint-Eustache Church, Saint-Roch Church and Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois Church.
Church of St. Eustache
The Church of St. Eustache, Paris is a church in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The present building was built between 1532 and 1632. The 2019 Easter Mass at Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris was relocated to Saint-Eustache after the Notre-Dame de Paris fire. The exterior of the church presents a mixture of Flamboyant Gothic, classical and Renaissance elements. The Gothic exterior elements are the elaborate flying buttresses, which receive the downward and outward thrust from the rib vaults in the interior. The most Gothic portion is the apse at the east end, where the buttresses surround semicircular group of chapels, located behind the altar.
The classical elements dominate the principal facade, which is unfinished, and different from the rest of the exterior. It is decorated with pairs of ionic columns with paired sets of Doric columns on the lower level, and Ionic columns on the upper level. The south portals primarily decorated in the Renaissance style, with a profusion of ornamental sculpture in the form of foliage and seashells. At the top of the pointed arch is a sculpture of a deer with a crucifix in its horns, depicting the vision of Saint Eustache.
The church is relatively short in length at 105m, but its interior is 33.45m high to the vaulting. The interior is given unity by the imposing verticality of its pillars and arches. The Flamboyant Gothic elements are primarily in the vaulted ceilings decorated with a network of ornamental ribs, and hanging keystones. Below them are the Renaissance elements, in the form of pillars and pilasters representing the classical orders of architecture, rounded arcades, and walls covered with elaborate decorative sculpture of seraphim and bouquets of flowers. The columns and pillars which support the vaults, following the Renaissance style, have Doric decoration on the lowest level, Ionic decorations on the columns above, and Corinthian decoration on the highest columns.
The nave is flanked by two collateral aisles, which give access to series of small chapels, each abundantly decorated with paintings and sculpture. One of the notable classical features of the nave is the Banc-oeuvre, a group of seats covered a Grecian portico and very ornate carvings. It was the seating reserved for the members of the lay committee which oversaw the finances of the church. Iy was made in 1720 by sculptor Pierre Lepautre, and is crowned by a statue representing “The Triumph of Saint Agnes”.
Much of the art and decoration is closely into the architure, such as the bas-relief medallions with carvings of the martyrdom of Saint Cecelia decorating the nave. Some is more contemporary. The L’écoute sculpture by Henri de Miller appears outside the church, to the south. A colourful sculpture in the nave depicts the delivery of produce to market of Les Halles in the 19th century, with the church in the background. The earliest windows are from the 17th century, and are largely the work of Antoine Soulignac, a master Paris glass artist. His windows are mostly found in the choir. They include a window in the choir depicting of Saint Jerome and Saint Ambroise in an architectural setting (1631). During that period the objective of stained glass in the clair-etage was to admit as much light as possible, so much of the windows were composed of white glass.
Church of Our Lady of the Assumption
Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption is a Roman Catholic church in the First arrondissement of Paris, France. The building was constructed between 1670 and 1676 when it was consecrated. Since 1844 it has been the main Polish church of Paris, situated at 263, Rue Saint-Honoré. The facade includes a peristyle with six Corinthian columns surmounted by a triangular pediment. It bears a certain resemblance to the north facade of the Sorbonne, which was built earlier. With its centered plan, the church is a rotunda 24 m in diameter, with simple pilasters in its lower part. It is surmounted by a dome, pierced with eight bays with, alternately, niches for statues.
Church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois
The Church of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois is a Roman Catholic church in the First Arrondissement of Paris, situated at 2 Place du Louvre, directly across from the Louvre Palace. It was named for Germanus of Auxerre, the Bishop of Auxerre (378-448), who became a papal envoy and who met Saint Genevieve, the patron Saint of Paris, on his journeys. Genevieve is reputed to have converted the queen Clotilde and her husband, French King Clovis I to Christianity at the tomb of Saint Germain in Auxerre. The current church was built in the 13th century, with major modifications in the 15th and 16th centuries. From 1608 until 1806, it was the parish church for inhabitants of the Palace, and many notable artists and architects, who worked on the Palace, have their tombs in the church. Since the 2019 fire which badly damaged Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral, the cathedral regular services have been held at Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois.
It now has construction in Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance styles. The most striking exterior feature is the porch, with a rose window. The exterior of he church, begun in the harmoniously blends elements of Romanesque architecture, Rayonnant Gothic, Flamboyant Gothic, and Renaissance architecture. The only existing Romanesque elements, dating from the 12th century, are found in the lower portion of the bell tower, where it is attached to the south transept. The Flamboyant Gothic porch on the west front, begun in 1435, is the only surviving example in Paris of this type of structure. It originally was the meeting place of the Canons of the cathedral, who held their ecclesiastical court there, and was the classroom where pupils were instructed in the cathechism. Above the rose window is a balustrade which encircles the whole church, a work of Jean Gaussel (1435–39).
The church has a standard plan: a long central nave, built in the 15th century, on the west for the parishioners; a short transept, or crossing: the choir, where the clergy worshipped during the service; the altar, and the apse, with a ring of chapels, on the east. It is crossed by a short transept between the choir and the nave. There are collateral aisles between the nave outer walls, and the church is ringed by small chapels, each decorated with paintings and sculpture. Much of the decor comes from the time of Louis XIV, and the interior is lighter and brighter than in Gothic churches. The additional light is contributed by the upper windows, which, under the influence of the Neo-classical style, have a majority of clear rather than coloured glass.
Church of Saint-Leu-Saint-Gilles
The Église Saint-Leu-Saint-Gilles de Paris is a Roman Catholic parish church in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. It has housed the relics of the Empress Saint Helena, mother of Constantine, since 1819, for which it remains a site of veneration in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. The church is built in the Gothic style. Its forward façade is surmounted by two turrets. The church’s single nave counts numerous stained-glass windows. It is flanked by aisles, but the church has no transept. In 1915 the French Ministry of Culture listed it as a monument of historical value.
Church of Saint-Roch
The Église Saint-Roch is a late Baroque 126 meter-long church in Paris, dedicated to Saint Roch. Located at 284 rue Saint-Honoré, in the 1st arrondissement, it was built between 1653 and 1740. The plan and the initial architectural principles of Saint-Roch are inspired by certain buildings established by the Jesuits, a Latin cross church, with a single nave, confined to communicating chapels and a slightly projecting transept, barrel-vaulted, high windows, dome at the crossroads, facade with two superimposed orders of unequal width crowned with a pediment. The church is aligned along a south-north axis derogating from the rule of west-east orientation, with a baroque facade rebuilt around 1730 to the south and a choir to which several aligned chapels were successively added, including that of the Virgin, at the north. The church is organized as a series of chapels. One of them is dedicated to Saint Susanna in memory of the church which used to stand in its place.
Protestant temple of the Oratory of the Louvre
The Temple protestant de l’Oratoire du Louvre, also Église réformée de l’Oratoire du Louvre, is a historic Protestant church located at 145 rue Saint-Honoré – 160 rue de Rivoli in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, across the street from the Louvre. It was founded in 1611 by Pierre de Bérulle as the French branch of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri. It was made the royal chapel of the Louvre Palace by Louis XIII on December 23, 1623, and was host to the funerals of both Louis and Cardinal Richelieu. Work on the church was suspended in 1625 and not resumed until 1740, with the church completed in 1745.
The church was built between 1621 and 1630 by Clément Métezeau and Jacques Lemercier for the southern part, up to the transept. Its construction was completed, along with the facade, by Pierre Caqué between 1740 and 1745. The church takes up the plan of the churches of the Counter-Reformation, the prototype of which is the Church of the Gesù, built by Vignole for the Jesuits in Rome. It was suppressed in 1792 during the French Revolution, looted, stripped of its decor, and used to store theater sets. In 1811, it was given by Napoleon to the Protestant congregation of Saint-Louis-du-Louvre when that building was demolished to make way for the expansion of the Louvre. A statue and monument of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, the great Huguenot leader of the 16th century, was built on the rue de Rivoli end of the church in 1889. It continues as one of the most prominent Reformed congregations in Paris, noted for its liberal theology. A decree of 1907 classifies the temple as a historical monument.
Cultural spaces
The 1st arrondissement of Paris with many cultural infrastructures: Louvre Museum, Chatelêt Theater, Comédie-Française, Museum of Decorative Arts, National Gallery of the Jeu de Paume, Orangerie Museum.
Comédie-Française
The Comédie-Française is one of the few state theatres in France. Founded in 1680, it is the oldest active theatre company in the world. Established as a French state-controlled entity in 1995, it is the only state theatre in France to have its own permanent troupe of actors. The company’s primary venue is the Salle Richelieu, which is a part of the Palais-Royal complex and located at 2, Rue de Richelieu on Place André-Malraux in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The theatre has also been known as the Théâtre de la République and popularly as “La Maison de Molière” (The House of Molière). It acquired the latter name from the troupe of the best-known playwright associated with the Comédie-Française, Molière. He was considered the patron of French actors.
The Comédie-Française has had several homes since its inception in 1680 in the Salle Guénégaud. In 1689, it was established in a theatre across from the Café Procope. From 1770 to 1782, the Comédie performed in the theatre in the royal palace of the Tuileries. In 1782, the company moved into the Salle du Faubourg Saint-Germain, designed by architects Marie-Joseph Peyre and Charles De Wailly and located on the site of today’s Odéon. Since 1799, the Comédie-Française has been housed in the Salle Richelieu (architect Victor Louis) at 2, rue de Richelieu. This theatre was enlarged and modified in the 1800s, then rebuilt in 1900 after a severe fire.
Théâtre du Châtelet
The Théâtre du Châtelet is a theatre and opera house, located in the place du Châtelet in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The theatre is one of two apparent twins constructed along the quays of the Seine, facing each other across the open Place du Châtelet. The other is the Théâtre de la Ville. One of two theatres (the other being the Théâtre de la Ville) built on the site of a châtelet, a small castle or fortress, it was designed by Gabriel Davioud at the request of Baron Haussmann between 1860 and 1862. Their external architecture is essentially Palladian entrances under arcades, although their interior layouts differ considerably. Originally named the Théâtre Impérial du Châtelet, it has undergone remodeling and name changes over the years. Currently it seats 2,500 people. At the centre of the plaza is an ornate, sphinx-endowed fountain, erected in 1808, which commemorates Napoleon’s victory in Egypt.
Orangerie Museum
The Musée de l’Orangerie is an art gallery of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings located in the west corner of the Tuileries Gardens next to the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The museum is most famous as the permanent home of eight large Water Lilies murals by Claude Monet. Besides the famous Water Lilies cycle, eight large paintings by Claude Monet that cover the walls of two large oval rooms, the museum features works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, Le Douanier Rousseau, André Derain, Chaïm Soutine, Marie Laurencin, Maurice Utrillo, Paul Gauguin and Kees van Dongen.
Musée en Herbe
The Musée en Herbe is an art museum for children, located at 23 rue de L’Arbre-Sec in Paris, France. It was formerly in the Jardin d’Acclimatation, Bois de Boulogne, Paris. The museum was established in 1975 by Sylvie Girardet and Claire Merleau-Ponty. It presents a series of art exhibits and workshops for children, based on the works of artists such as Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, and Niki de Saint Phalle.
The Musée en Herbe has presented trail-games on artistic, scientific and civic themes, designed for children. Its pedagogy based on play and humor develops children’s sensitivity and curiosity. Observation, imagination and identification games allow them to discover the works of art and exhibits. A game booklet guides them throughout the course, thus encouraging independent visits to the exhibitions. Alongside the exhibitions, the Musée en Herbe also lets children benefit from its know-how thanks to plastic art workshops. Supervised by a visual artist, budding artists explore a work of art, and use different materials and techniques.
Museum of Decorative Arts
The Musée des Arts décoratifs is a museum dedicated to the exhibition and preservation of the decorative arts. Located at 107 Rue de Rivoli in the city’s 1st arrondissement, the museum occupies the most north-western wing of the Palais du Louvre, known as the Pavillon de Marsan. The museum’s deep holdings range back to 13th-century Europe. Today’s collection is primarily composed of French furniture, tableware, carpets such as those from Aubusson, porcelain such as that by the Manufacture nationale de Sèvres, and many glass pieces by René Lalique, Émile Gallé and many others. It includes numerous works in the Art Nouveau and Art Déco styles and modern examples by designers like Eileen Gray and Charlotte Perriand. Pieces by Camille Fauré can also be found in the permanent collection.
With over one million objects in its collection, the Musée des Arts décoratifs is the largest museum of decorative arts in continental Europe. The museum collection was founded in 1905 by members of the “Union des arts décoratifs”. The architect was Gaston Redon. It houses and displays furniture, interior design, altarpieces, religious paintings, objets d’arts, tapestries, wallpaper, ceramics and glassware, plus toys from the Middle Ages to the present day. Examples include part of Jeanne Lanvin’s house (decorated by Albert-Armand Rateau [1884–1938] in the early 1920s) at 16 rue Barbet-de-Jouy in Paris. Others are graphic artist Eugène Grasset’s dining room of 1880, and the 1752 Gold Cabinet of Avignon. And, peculiar to a French museum it seems, there is the 1875 bedroom of courtesan Lucie Émilie Delabigne, purportedly the inspiration for the main character in Émile Zola’s novel Nana (1880). There is a distinctive ceiling there once owned by Jeanne Baptiste d’Albert de Luynes, mistress of then duke of Savoy.
Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume
Jeu de Paume is an arts centre for modern and postmodern photography and media. It is located in the north corner (west side) of the Tuileries Gardens next to the Place de la Concorde in Paris. In 1991, the Jeu de Paume reopened as “France’s first national gallery of contemporary art”, with an exhibition devoted to Jean Dubuffet. Subsequent retrospectives were dedicated to international artists. In 1999, the museum chose American architect Richard Meier as the subject of its first-ever architectural exhibition. In 2004, Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Centre National de la Photographie and Patrimoine Photographique merged to form the Association de Préfiguration for the Etablissement Public (EPIC) Jeu de Paume. It has since developed into a centre for modern and postmodern photography and media.
Public spaces
There are many prestigious monuments adorn the streets and squares in the 1st arrondissement of Paris: the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, the Louvre Palace, the Forum des Halles, the Palais-Royal, the Vendôme Column, La Samaritaine, the Paris Bourse de Commerce.
Famous streets, squares and quays including: Place du Chatelêt, Quai du Louvre, Quai des Orfèvres, Rue de Rivoli, Rue Saint-Honoré, Quai des Tuileries, Place Vendôme, Montmartre Street.
Place Vendôme
The Place Vendôme is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. It is the starting point of the Rue de la Paix. Its regular architecture by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and pedimented screens canted across the corners give the rectangular Place Vendôme the aspect of an octagon. Place Vendôme embodies the “high bourgeoisie” side of Paris and the luxury that accompanies it, being endowed with many luxury boutiques, jewelers and fashion houses: Cartier, Boucheron, Trussardi, van Cleef & Arpels, as well as banks, the Department of Justice and the Ritz.
At the centre of the square’s long sides, Hardouin-Mansart’s range of Corinthian pilasters breaks forward under a pediment, to create palace-like fronts. The arcading of the formally rusticated ground floors does not provide an arcaded passageway as at place des Vosges. The architectural linking of the windows from one floor to the next, and the increasing arch of their windowheads, provide an upward spring to the horizontals formed by ranks of windows. Originally the square was accessible by a single street and preserved an aristocratic quiet, except when the annual fair was held there. Then Napoléon opened the Rue de la Paix, and the 19th century filled the place Vendôme with traffic. It was only after the opening in 1875 of the Palais Garnier on the other side of the Rue de la Paix that the centre of the Parisian fashionable life started gravitating around the Rue de la Paix and the place Vendôme.
The original Vendôme Column at the centre of the square was erected by Napoleon I to commemorate the Battle of Austerlitz; it was torn down on 16 May 1871, by decree of the Paris Commune, but subsequently re-erected and remains a prominent feature on the square today. The original Vendôme Column was modelled after Trajan’s Column, to celebrate the victory of Austerlitz; its veneer of 425 spiralling bas-relief bronze plates was made out of cannon taken from the combined armies of Europe, according to his propaganda. A statue of Napoleon by Antoine-Denis Chaudet was placed on top of the column. Napoleon is depicted dressed in Roman attire, bare-headed, crowned with laurels, holding a sword in his right hand and a globe surmounted with a statue of Victory (as in Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker) in his left hand.
Place des Victoires
The Place des Victoires is a circular place in Paris, located a short distance northeast from the Palais Royal. The area surrounding the Place des Victoires is now an upmarket neighborhood. Fashion designers Kenzo and Cacharel have boutiques there, as have the ready-to-wear chains Maje, and Zadig et Voltaire. The German Forum for Art History (Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte) is on the Place and the French Institut national d’histoire de l’art is in nearby Galerie Colbert.
At the center of the Place des Victoires is an equestrian monument in honor of King Louis XIV, celebrating the Treaties of Nijmegen concluded in 1678-79. The original statue, of Louis XIV crowned by Victory and trampling Cerberus underfoot, in gilt bronze, stood on a high square pedestal with bas-relief panels and effusively flattering inscriptions; dejected bronze figures were seated at the corners. The sculptor was Martin Desjardins, part of the team that was working cooperatively at the Château of Versailles and its gardens.
Place Dauphine
The Place Dauphine is a public square located near the western end of the Île de la Cité in the first arrondissement of Paris. It was initiated by Henry IV in 1607, the second of his projects for public squares in Paris, the first being the Place Royale (now the Place des Vosges). He named it for his son, the Dauphin of France and future Louis XIII, who had been born in 1601. From the “square”, actually triangular in shape, one can access the middle of the Pont Neuf, a bridge which connects the left and right banks of the Seine by passing over the Île de la Cité. A street called, since 1948, Rue Henri-Robert, forty metres long, connects the Place Dauphine and the bridge. Where they meet, there are two other named places, the Place du Pont-Neuf and the Square du Vert-Galant.
Square Court of the Louvre Palace
The Cour Carrée is one of the main courtyards of the Louvre Palace in Paris. The wings surrounding it were built gradually, as the walls of the medieval Louvre were progressively demolished in favour of a Renaissance palace. The buildings form a square of about 160 meters on each side. It consists of eight wings punctuated with eight pavilions.
All the reliefs and statues of the Cour Carrée represent allegories or specific characters. For example, the first window on the left on the 2nd floor of the Lemercier wing, therefore against the Pavillon de l’Horloge. Above the window, an allegory of the Law. Then at the level of the window from left to right: Moses with the tablets of the law, the Egyptian goddess Isis with a sistrum, the Inca emperor Manco Cápac with the sun of which he is the son, Numa Pompilius the second king of the monarchy Roman.
The Pyramide du Louvre
The Pyramide du Louvre is a large glass and metal structure designed by the Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei. The pyramid is in the main courtyard (Cour Napoléon) of the Louvre Palace in Paris, surrounded by three smaller pyramids. The large pyramid serves as the main entrance to the Louvre Museum. The pyramid and the underground lobby beneath it were created because of deficiencies with the Louvre’s earlier layout, which could no longer handle the increasing number of visitors on an everyday basis. Visitors entering through the pyramid descend into the spacious lobby then ascend into the main Louvre buildings.
The pyramid structure was initially designed by Pei in late 1983 and presented to the public in early 1984. Constructed entirely with glass segments and metal poles, it reaches a height of 21.6 metres. Its square base has sides of 34 metres and a base surface area of 1,000 square metres. It consists of 603 rhombus-shaped and 70 triangular glass segments.
Place du Carrousel
The Place du Carrousel is a public square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, located at the open end of the courtyard of the Louvre Palace, a space occupied, prior to 1883, by the Tuileries Palace. Sitting directly between the museum and the Tuileries Garden, the Place du Carrousel delineates the eastern end of the gardens just as the Place de la Concorde defines its western end. With the disappearance of the palace, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, built between 1806 and 1808 to serve as an entrance of honor at the Tuileries, became the dominant feature of the Place du Carrousel. It is a triumphal arch that was commissioned in 1806 to commemorate Napoleon’s military victories of the previous year.
The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel
The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is a triumphal arch in Paris, located in the Place du Carrousel. It is an example of Neoclassical architecture in the Corinthian order. It was built between 1806 and 1808 to commemorate Napoleon’s military victories in the Wars of the Third and Fourth Coalitions. The Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile, at the far end of the Champs Élysées, was designed in the same year; it is about twice the size and was not completed until 1836.
The upper frieze on the on entablement has sculptures of soldiers: Auguste Marie Taunay’s cuirassier (left), Charles-Louis Corbet’s dragoon, Joseph Chinard’s horse grenadier and Jacques-Edme Dumont’s sapper. The quadriga atop the entablement is a copy of the so-called Horses of Saint Mark that adorn the top of the main door of the St Mark’s Basilica in Venice but during both French empires the originals were brought up for special occasions.
Poste centrale du Louvre
The central post office of the Louvre is a central office of La Poste in Paris, occupying in the 1st arrondissement the northern part of a delimited island: to the west by rue du Louvre where the entrance reserved for the public is located, to the north by rue Étienne-Marcel and to the south-east by rue Jean-Jacques-Rousseau where the access to loading and unloading areas. Located in the heart of Paris, the Haussmannian building hosting, among other things, this post office, was completed in 1886 and designed by the architect Julien Guadet. This entire historic building underwent major renovation work between the beginning of 2016 and the end of 2021. This vast and ambitious architectural and urban project was designed by Dominique Perrault associated with Jean-François Lagneau, chief architect of historical monuments. Inaugurated on January 10, 2022, the new Louvre post office, completely renovated, finally reopened its doors to the public.
Fontaine du Palmier
The Fontaine du Palmier (1806-1808) or Fontaine de la Victoire is a monumental fountain located in the Place du Châtelet, between the Théâtre du Châtelet and the Théâtre de la Ville, in the First Arrondissement of Paris. It was designed to provide fresh drinking water to the population of the neighborhood and to commemorate the victories of Napoleon Bonaparte. It is the largest fountain built during Napoleon’s reign still in existence. The Fountain du Palmier was one of a series of fifteen fountains commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 to his minister of the Interior, Emmanuel Cretet. It was designed by the engineer François-Jean Bralle, who was in charge of the Paris fountains and water supply during the First Empire. It was finished in 1808.
The column, modeled after a Roman triumphal column, takes its name from the sculpted palm leaves at the top, commemorating Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign. The bands of bronze on the column pay tribute to Napoleon’s victories at the siege of Danzig (1807), the Battle of Ulm (1805), the Battle of Marengo (1800), the Battle of the Pyramids (1798), and the Battle of Lodi (1796). At the top of the column is a statue of Victory made of gilded bronze, carrying the laurels of victory. People sometimes mistake the statue of the woman representing victory for a bird. The statue is the work of the sculptor Louis-Simon Boizot. The present statue is a copy; the original is in the courtyard of the Carnavalet Museum of the history of Paris.
Around the base of the column are four statues representing Vigilance, Justice, Strength and Prudence, also made by Boizot. The lower basin of the fountain, designed by architect Gabriel Davioud, was added to the fountain in 1858 during the reign of Emperor Louis Napoleon when the Place du Châtelet was expanded and the fountain moved to its center during the renovations of Baron Haussmann. At that time the base was also decorated with statues of Egyptian sphinxes spouting streams of water, sculpted by Henri Alfred Jacquemart.
Square du Vert-Galant
The Square du Vert-Galant is a small, triangular park pointing downstream located at the western tip of the Ile de la Cité, next to the Pont Neuf, in the First Arrondissement of Paris. It was created in 1884 by joining two small islands to the larger island. The level of the square is located seven meters lower than the current level of the other parts of the island, which corresponds to the level that this one once had. When the Seine rises to an unusual height, the park will be submerged. The small overhang of the square in relation to the Seine explains why it is flooded, or even totally submerged during the most important floods of the river.
The square has an area of 1,642 square meters, or just four-tenths of an acre. It is planted with chestnut trees, taxus or yew trees, prunus pissardii or plum trees; black walnut trees, érables negundo, flowering apple trees, Salix babylonica or weeping willows, Olive trees from Bohemia, Sophora trees, catalpa, robiniers, and Ginkgo biloba. One can observe mute swans, a few ducks such as the pochard and tufted duck, gray wagtails or common sandpipers, little grebes and great crested grebes. In winter, white-fronted coots, moorhens, herring gulls and black- headed gulls are also found.
Rue Molière
The rue Molière is a short road in central Paris, in the 1st arrondissement. It begins at avenue de l’Opéra, near the Comédie-Française, and ends at the rue de Richelieu with the Fontaine Molière. The street was amputated by the openings of the avenue de l’Opéra and the rue de l’Échelle operated under the Second Empire. Until the middle of the 19th century, it extended to rue Saint-Honoré. Typical of old Paris street. In the Rue Molière, there is the collège Jean-Baptiste-Poquelin, named after the real name of Molière.
Rue de Rivoli
Rue de Rivoli is a street in central Paris, France. It is a commercial street whose shops include leading fashionable brands. It bears the name of Napoleon’s early victory against the Austrian army, at the Battle of Rivoli, fought on 14–15 January 1797 The Rue de Rivoli is an example of a transitional compromise between an environment of prestigious monuments and aristocratic squares. The new street that Napoleon Bonaparte pierced through the heart of Paris includes on one side the north wing of the Louvre Palace, and the Tuileries Gardens. Upon completion, it was the first time that a wide, well designed and aesthetically pleasing street bound the north wing of the Louvre Palace. Napoleon’s original section of the street opened up eastward from the Place de la Concorde. The result was a pleasing uniformity, and Napoleon’s planners extended a similar program, which resulted in the arcades and facades that extend for almost a mile along the street.
Green spaces
Thanks in particular to the Jardin des Tuileries and the Jardin du Carrousel, the 1st arrondissement has the largest surface area of public green spaces (excluding the two woods), with 46 hectares out of the 270 in Paris. The landscape heritages in the 1st arrondissement offering green spaces provide places to walk and relax in the center of Paris, in particular: the Jardin des Halles, the Jardin du Carrousel, the Jardin des Tuileries, the Square du Vert-Galant, the Jardin du Palais-Royal.
Tuileries Garden
The Tuileries Garden is a public garden located between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. Created by Catherine de’ Medici as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in 1564, it was eventually opened to the public in 1667 and became a public park after the French Revolution. In the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, it was a place where Parisians celebrated, met, strolled and relaxed.
These gardens are the last vestige of the Tuileries Palace, destroyed by fire in 1871. A haven of tranquility in the heart of the city, it is not uncommon in good weather to see Parisians, especially students, meet in small groups on the benches or lawns or even stroll between the classical and modern statues that dot them. These gardens, adjacent to the Louvre and notably contain the Musée de l’Orangerie and the Jeu de Paume, at the western end of the Gardens. This one, in summer, there is a fairground installations, including the Ferris wheel copied from that of London.
Carousel Garden
The Jardin du Carrousel is a landscaped space to the east of the Tuileries Garden, between the Marsan wing and the Flore wing of the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. After being burnt down in 1871, the Tuileries Palace was razed in 1883. A garden was laid out on the vast site thus cleared. L’Histoire et La France Victorieuse, works by Antoine-François Gérard, frames the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel which marks the main entrance to the garden. Since 1964, the Carrousel garden has been decorated with around twenty statues by the French sculptor Aristide Maillol.
Garden of the Infanta Quai des Tuileries
Jardin de l’Infante Quai des Tuileries is a small garden located to the south of La Cour Carré, it is surrounded by a gate but accessible through the museum. It is made up of small benches, a pond and, in the centre, a green space with different plants of all kinds that flower well in summer.
Garden of the Oratory Rue de Rivoli
The creation of the Jardin de l’Oratoire was the natural complement to the extension of rue de Rivoli, from rue de l’Echelle beyond the Hotel de Ville, one of the capital works of the Second Empire.
Garden of the Palais-Royal
The Jardin du Palais-Royal is a large Parisian square of 20,850 m2 located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris and laid out in 1633 in the center of the Palais-Royal. The garden is labeled “ remarkable garden ”. The garden was wanted by Cardinal Richelieu to adorn the Palais-Royal and was created by Pierre Desgotz, the king’s gardener. The palace and the garden are bequeathed to Louis XIII on the death of the cardinal and the royal family settles there. It was modified under Charles X to give it its current appearance, with galleries and paths.
Nelson Mandela Garden
The Nelson-Mandela Garden, formerly Jardin des Halles, is a green space of about four hectares in the middle of the Halles district of the 1st arrondissement, in the center of the city of Paris, France. It was created in the 1980s on the site of the former Halles de Paris. The garden sits on the slab that covers the Forum des Halles, a shopping centeralso hosting some cultural activities. The garden includes several lawns and numerous plantations of trees and shrubs. Among the remarkable elements are the Children’s Garden, a tropical greenhouse buried in the basement and the Place René-Cassin which forms a small amphitheater.
The garden is built on a slab covering underground facilities: the Forum des Halles, the underground road network of Les Halles and the station of Châtelet – Les Halles, which implies the presence within it of facilities intended to allow access and ventilation of these facilities. It is organized around several aisles. The Jules-Supervielle alley is a mall lined with lime trees and chestnut trees while the Saint-John-Perse alley includes many fountains and basins; they lead to Place René-Cassin. The garden also has many arcades that refer to the old Halles de Paris. The west of the garden includes a 450 m 2 tropical greenhouse lit by four glass pyramids. The northeast is occupied by the Lalanne garden.
Gourmet
The 1st provides rather a wide range of eating possibilities, considering its central location and overall poshness. The 1st arrondissement offers a wide choice in terms of restaurants, but due to its very central and elitist location, you will find few canteens and other PMUs there. On the other hand, the 1st is a good choice for a business meal, or to impress your family. A large variety of inexpensive food is sold out of windows and stalls, especially on the car-free east end of the arrondissement near Les Halles.
The district of rue Montorgueil, is shared between the 1st and 2nd arrondissements and is located northeast of Les Halles. Cobbled streets, pedestrian streets and cafes, bars and restaurants galore, market gardeners, bakers and village-style fishmongers, all combined with an architecture of old Paris give this district an intimate and insider flavor although very “bobo”.