A bad for a good. Foreign tourists and their purchasing power have deserted Paris, which is not good for the economy. No more bus ballet in front of each monument. And if it was up to us to take advantage and admire the most beautiful city in the world that we just cross, hurried and tired, not even in the open air.
Paris awaits us like a sleeping beauty: "Since the reopening, there are more people in the great monuments of the provinces, such as Mont Saint-Michel, the City of Carcassonne or the castle of Azay-le-Rideau, which 'in Paris, where we see a breakdown in tourism,' remarks Philippe Bélaval, president of the Center des monuments nationaux (CMN), which manages the Pantheon, the Arc de Triomphe, the Conciergerie, etc.
Corinne Menegaux, Director General of the Capital Tourist Office, puts forward an explanation for this shyness: “Paris is a city-world difficult for its inhabitants to grasp. We are going to be offering walking tours with guides over the next few days. Some riverboats, which will sail again on the Seine at the beginning of July, will also adapt with pizzas on board rather than the obligatory gastronomic meal.
"No one wants to queue up right now"
Playing as a tourist at home is also “reinventing yourself”, the verb of the moment, as Philippe Bélaval himself says: “I had to wait until becoming president of the CMN in 2012 to go up for the first times at the top of the Arc de Triomphe, while I have lived in Paris since 1978. We don't think about it. And yet, how beautiful! "
Like going green around the Château de Vincennes, at the Domaine de Saint-Cloud, or by pushing a little, at Fontainebleau or Compiègne. O seasons, oh castles: "We can see them in visiting conditions that we will not find anytime soon," slips the manager. Those who return from Versailles these days ... do not return. Like being king of your own garden. The Eiffel Tower will reopen on June 25 without elevator, to the second floor, "a real mini-adventure on foot with children," says Corinne Menegaux. Half an hour of walking. Almost a hike.
Free to stroll, with one restriction: almost everywhere, you have to book. We saw at the Arc de Triomphe a couple of Germans and people from the North who had not done so and had to turn back or wait a good hour for an available slot: "It may seem heavy and restrictive, but c is the price of trust. No one wants to queue up at the moment, ”explains Philippe Bélaval. But everyone needs to dream. As if the Ile-de-France was really an island. For a few weeks… Because, according to the Tourist Office, many bookings on flights from Europe are about to be confirmed for the month of August. Paris is ours ... in July.
Museums and monuments are gradually reopening
Cultural life slowly but surely takes shape in Paris. In terms of monuments, the Arc de Triomphe, the Pantheon and the Conciergerie have just reopened, and the Sainte-Chapelle will join them on Tuesday, before the Eiffel Tower on Thursday, without lift, to the second floor. Around Paris, the same applies to the Château de Vincennes, Versailles, and the Fontainebleau Park (you will have to wait for July 1 for the castle).
Many fine art museums welcome the public again, such as Marmottan Monet, Maillol, Jacquemart-André, the Petit Palais, the Cartier Foundation, the Museum of Romantic Life, Cernuschi, the Bourdelle Museum, as well as that of the Liberation from Paris, opposite the Catacombs, also accessible, or the Maison de Balzac. Contemporary art lovers can return to the Palais de Tokyo, opposite the Eiffel Tower on the other bank of the Seine.
The highly anticipated Musée d'Orsay will reopen on June 23 with the James Tissot exhibition, after the Orangerie the day before - only the rooms of Monet's Water Lilies - and before the Grand Palais and its Pompeii exhibition on July 1, as well as the same day, the Pompidou Center with an exhibition dedicated to the artist Christo, who has just disappeared. The Louvre will close the march or almost on July 6, the day before the reopening of the Musée d'art moderne la Ville de Paris.
Two sites give very complete information, advice and ideas on places that are also less well known throughout the Ile-de-France: Parisinfo.com and Exploreparis.com.
