Paris by the Numbers – 1st

I’m starting a new series today called Paris by the Numbers. There are twenty arrondissements in Paris, and I’m going to cover each and every one of them in numerical order. The landmarks I have chosen in each neighborhood are the ones that appealed to us, so this won’t be an inclusive list of sites for each neighborhood.

The 1st arrondissement is home to museums, parks, palaces, cathedrals and loads of shopping and restaurants. Located on the right bank of the River Siene, it is sometimes referred to as le premier or Louvre. During our visits to le premier, we toured Sainte-Chapelle, the Conciergerie, Jardin des Tuileries, Musée de Louvre (the world’s largest museum), strolled along Rue de Rivoli and had some delicious meals in Place Dauphine. Here are the highlights from each location.

Sainte-Chapelle was consecrated on April 12, 1248, after about ten years of construction. This beautiful Gothic church was built to house the religious relics of King Louis the IX. It is famous for its beautiful, stained glass windows.

Not far from Sainte-Chapelle is the Conciergerie, which served as a courthouse and prison during the French Revolution. Marie Antoinette along with 2,780 others were imprisoned here and were later tried and sentenced. Both Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie were part of the Palais de la Cité, the residence of the French Kings from the 6th – 14th centuries.

Jardin des Tuileries dates back to the 1500s and was created by Catherine de Medici. Catherine commissioned Bernard de Carnesse, a landscape architect from Florence, to create her Italian Renaissance garden. It was kept exclusively as a garden and playground for nobility until 1667 when it was opened to the public.

This 55 acre (22.4 hectare) garden is the largest and oldest garden in Paris, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

No trip to Paris is complete without a visit to the Louvre, the largest and most famous museum in the world. There is too much to write about regarding this extensive museum, so I will simply say that it is an amazing experience. We visited in 2005 with our daughter, who was a teenager at the time, and she was excited to see the Mona Lisa. We arrived just as it was opening and once inside, she quickly headed to the painting with us scurrying behind her, doing our best to keep up. The museum was mostly empty at that time of the day, except for a crowd of people in front of the Mona Lisa. She studied it for a few moments, turned to us and said, “that’s it??”

Rue de Rivoli is a 1.8 mile (3 km) street famous for shopping and restaurants.

Place Dauphine is a charming square (although it’s in the shape of a triangle) located at the western tip of Ile de la Cité. It is one of the first places in Paris we ever visited, so it holds special memories for us. We stop by almost every time we’re in Paris.

Pont de Solférino is a foot bridge linking the 1st and the 7th arrondissements.

What do you think of the 1st arrondissement? Only 19 more to go! As always, I would love to hear from you.

Wishing you grand adventures,

Tricia