We know the adage.
Shoemakers have the worst shoes… Having world treasures close to home is no guarantee that you will know them like the back of your hand.
How many times does a Parisian visit the Eiffel Tower in his life?
Sometimes less than an American.
Being a tourist in your own city, rediscovering from another angle what seems obvious to us, this is the subject of the fourteenth issue of our special edition collection "Heritage & walks", on sale this Wednesday at your newsagent.
How about rediscovering the history of the capital's most iconic monuments or sites?
Places you feel like you know like the back of your hand… But is that really the case?
Gustave Eiffel and his apartment at 285 m high
Paris, France, February 17, 2022. On the third floor of the Eiffel Tower, Gustave Eiffel (in the photo) had furnished an apartment.
LP/Olivier Corsan
The Eiffel Tower, for example?
Did you know that its designer, the famous Gustave, had installed his apartment on the third floor, 285 m high, and that you can still take a look there?
Barely lower, 210 m above the ground, you will also be taken to the top of Montparnasse, telling you the story of the first Parisian skyscraper which revolutionized building construction techniques.
You can also gain height by contemplating the Champs-Élysées – a former disreputable place until Louis XIV commissioned his gardener, Le Nôtre, to develop this “Grand Cours” – from the terrace of the Arc de A triumph that conceals, we forget, many artistic treasures bearing witness to the history of France since the 19th century.
In the Paris of Amélie Poulain
No dead end: a trip on the riverboats, a tour of Père-Lachaise, an incursion into the Panthéon to discover the history of the Foucault pendulum, a stroll on the Place des Vosges or in the alleys of Saint-Germain -des-Prés… We tick off the unmissable ones, we revisit the unmissable ones, but we discover them with a side step.
And the museums?
Are you sure that the Louvre and Orsay have no more secrets for you?
We bet you otherwise.
And to finish, let's go to the other side of the screen, let's dive into the Paris of Amélie Poulain and that of Emily in Paris.
The first put Montmartre and its mound to its boot.
The second made the Basque beret flourish again in the capital.
Both have helped shine the spotlight on Paris for tourists around the world.
What if it was our turn to marvel at the treasures that shine under our windows?
“Wonderful Paris”
, special issue No. 14 of the “Heritage & Walks of the “Parisian” collection, 116 pages, 6.20 euros.
In partnership with France Bleu.
On sale at newsagents in Île-de-France and Oise from this Wednesday, June 8, 2022.
