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Questionnaire
1- In class video: Europe: A Modern
Profile FRANCE (in lab 403 and Waterfield reserve)
1-Who was Baron Haussman? Who
commissioned him? What is he known for?
2-Name
two sites mentioned in the video.
3-Mention
one fact about the French Revolution.
2--What to
know about Paris ?
-Read the article below from Rough Guide to Travel below.
-maps http://www.paris.org/Maps/MM/
To
go further: What movies/documentaries
do you know about Paris ? e.g
PARIS Je T’AIME ; Paris; Midnight
in Paris…Amélie
3--Questions
1/--locate on map:
-Right and Left
banks (What characterizes each area ? Give some
monuments found on each side)
-The river
Seine
2 /--Locate on a map the
following places and main monuments
Could you recognize them?
-Montmartre/ The Sacré
Coeur pic1/pic2
-Le Louvre museum pic1/pic 2
-Boulevard St Michel & Blvd St Germain
-Notre Dame
-Versailles
-Le Museum of Orsay
-Arc de Triomphe
/ Champs Elysées
-La Sorbonne (University) in Latin Quarter
-The Eiffel Tower
-Le Parc de la Villette (science park) pic1/pic 2
-Le Forum des Halles shopping center
-Beaubourg museum or
Pompidou Center
-National Library: pic1/ pic2
-The New Arch (L’Arche de la Defense)
in west Paris business district
-The Operas (Garnier/Bastille)
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4-- Paris project: see course
guidelines (web search on Paris site: report
written and oral) . What have you
learned from browsing the Paris sites? E.g Parissites.doc
Report: see course
guidelines
-Share
your favorite website on one aspect of Paris and why? (explain orally:
save url)
-Another site that you found on your own (explain and show
url in class)
-Final report
(written: see guidelines).
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ARTICLE ON
PARIS. This article will give you a summary of the Paris essentials.
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PARIS (from Rough Guide To Travel) is the paragon of style - perhaps the most captivating city in
Europe. Yet it is also deeply traditional, a village-like and, in parts,
dilapidated metropolis. Famous names and events are invested with a glamour
that elevates the city and its people to a legendary realm, and it still
clings to its status as an artistic, intellectual and literary
pacesetter.
The city's
history has conspired to create this sense of being apart. From a shaky
start the kings of France, whose seat was Paris, gradually extended their
control over their feudal rivals, centralizing administrative, legal,
financial and political power as they did so. The supremely autocratic
Louis XIV made Paris into a glorious symbol of the pre-eminence of the State,
a tradition his successors have been happy to follow. Napoleon I added to
the Louvre and built the Arc de Triomphe, the
Madeleine and the Arc du Carrousel. Napoleon III had Baron Haussmann redraw
the city centre, while recent presidents have initiated the skyscrapers at
La Défense, the Tour Montparnasse, Beaubourg and Les Halles
shopping precinct, the space-age Parc de la Villette complex, the glass pyramid entrance to the
Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, the Bastille opera
house, and the new National Library.
Nowadays the
most tangible and immediate pleasures of Paris are to be found in its street
life and along the lively banks of the river Seine. Few cities can
compete with the cafés, bars and restaurants - modern and trendy, local and
traditional, humble and pretentious - that line every street and boulevard.
And the city's compactness makes it possible to explore on foot and
experience the individual feel of the different quartier. As for
entertainment, the city's strong points are in film and music. Paris is a
real cinema capital, and the best Parisian music encompasses jazz,
avant-garde, salsa and, currently, Europe's most vibrant African music
scene.
Paris is split
into two halves by the Seine. On the north of the river, the Right Bank
(rive droite) is home to the grand
boulevards and most monumental buildings, many dating from Haussmann's
nineteenth-century redevelopment, and is where you'll spend most time,
during the day at least. The top museums are here - the Louvre and Beaubourg, to name just two - as well as the city's
widest range of shops around rue de Rivoli and
Les Halles; and there are also peaceful quarters
like the Marais for idle strolling. The Left Bank (rive gauche)
has a noticeably different feel, its very name
conjuring Bohemian, dissident, intellectual connotations, and something of
this atmosphere survives in Paris' best range of bars and restaurants, and
its most wanderable streets. The areas around St-Germain and St-Michel are full of nooks and crannies to
explore.
Parts of
Paris, of course, don't sit easily in either category. Montmartre,
rising up to the north of the centre, has managed to retain a village-like,
almost rural atmosphere with its colourful
mixture of locals and artists despite the daily influx of tourists.
Undisturbed by tourism, the old and new working-class quarters of eastern
Paris offer a rich ethnic slice of Parisian street life and in direct
contrast, technological wonder is paraded at the ground-breaking science
museum constructed in the recently renovated Parc
de La Villette. If you're planning to visit
any museums, it's worth knowing that many have reduced fees for under-25s,
are often free for children and reduce their fees by up to half on Sunday.
They are often closed on Mondays or Tuesdays and, if you plan to see more
than a few during your stay, it's a good idea to invest in a museum pass
(one day, three consecutive days, five consecutive
days). You can get them from participating museums, some tourist offices,
the larger metro stations and FNAC ticket offices (FNAC big media/book
stores!!!!) and they'll certainly encourage you to be more adventurous with
the vast choice of museums and monuments in Paris.
Like most
Parisians, you may find there's enough in Paris to keep you from ever
thinking about the world beyond. However, like any large city, Paris can
get claustrophobic, and if it does there are one or two places in the
countryside around that are worth making the trip out for. The most visited
of these is undoubtedly Versailles, the most hyped currently Disneyland
Paris, and the most rewarding is without question the cathedral at Chartres.
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