Printable Paris Metro Map - Weekend French

From Charles de Gaulle or Orly airports, take RER, Line B to centre of Paris (RER stop Châtelet-les-Halles), then change and take RER, Line A to Marne-la-Vallée Chessy (end of line, and the entrance to Disneyland is next to station)

Airport Charles de Gaulle

station: RER, Line B

American Embassy

metro stop: Concorde, Line 12/ 1/ 8

Arc de Triomphe

metro stop: Charles de Gaulle Etoile, Line 2

Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville (BHV rue de Rivoli)

metro stop: Hotel de Ville, Line 1 or 11

Bon Marché

metro stop: Sèvres-Babylone, Lines, 10 or 12 or metro stop: Vaneau, Line 10

British Consulate/ Embassy

metro stop: Madeleine, Line 12/ 14/ 8 or Concorde, Line 12/ 1/ 8

Catacombs

metro stop: Denfert Rochereau, Line 6 or, RER, Line B

Champs Elysees

metro stop: Franklin Roosevelt, Line 1 or Champs Elysees, Line 1 or 13.

Disneyland Paris

RER, Line A to Marne-la-Vallée

Eiffel Tower

metro stop: Bir-Hakeim, Line 6

FNAC

metro stops: Chatelet-les Halles, Line 4 and 14, also metro stop: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Line 1 or 9

Forum Les Halles

metro stop: Chatelet-les Halles, Line 4 and 14

Galeries Lafayette/ Printemps

metro stop: Chaussee d'Antin La Fayette, Line 7

Printable Metro Maps

Paris METRO map (pdf)

Paris RER map (pdf)

Jardin du Luxembourg

metro stop: Odeon, Line 4

Jardin des Tuileries

metro stop: Tuileries, Line 1

Louvre Museum

metro stop: Palais Royal, Line 7

Paris Opera

metro stop: Opera, Line 7

Pompidou Centre

metro stop: Rambuteau, Line 11, or Les Halles, Line 4

Sacre Coeur

metro stop: Anvers, Line 2 or Jules Joffrin, Line 12

Saint Ouen Flea Market (Marché aux Puces)

metro stop: Porte de Clignancourt, Line 4

Shakespeare & Co.

metro stop: St Michel, Line 4

Paris Attractions

must see attractions in Paris

Find below some of the most popular places to visit in Paris with the nearest Paris Metro stop is given at the end of the description.

Eiffel Tower

metro stop: Bir-Hakeim, Line 6

Finished in 1889 for the International Exhibition of Paris, this trademark icon of the Parisian skyline was at first considered unsightly to parisians. Today, however, the Eiffel Tower is a towering symbol of France and draws tourists looking for the ultimate Parisian view up its height-defying elevators in droves. It's a heady feeling just to look up from the base, but for visitors, the Eiffel Tower is worth seeing from the top (you can purchase lift tickets for the 1st, 2nd and top floor). Views of the City of Lights at night from the sparklingly lit Eiffel Tower are phenomenal.

Louvre Museum

metro stop: Palais Royal, Line 7

With more than 800 years of history, including stints as a medieval fortress and a palace to kings, the Louvre, in Paris, France, is one of the world's most impressive museums. Enter through a glass pyramid, the unlikely but fitting juxtaposition of the archaic and the hyper-modern, to the Louvre's "encyclodepic" collection of art, including works from ancient civilizations all the way to contemporary art in every imaginable medium.

The Pompidou Centre

metro stop: Rambuteau, Line 11, or Les Halles, Line 4

Although Parisians cannot agree whether this innovative architectural creation is a masterpiece or a monstrosity, this center of performance and exhibition has become one of the city's most popular tourist attractions. Attraction type: Architectural building; Art museum. Also known as the Centre Beaubourg, this modern sits right in the heart of Paris and is home to an incredible array of modern art, a cyber café, a couple of restaurants and an excellent library. Although you have to pay to visit the art galleries, it is free to ride up to the top floor in the glass-tube escalators for a free view of the city centre. The library is also free (although there is often a long queue to get in) and has some English language books and newspapers, CD listening stations and free use of language courses on CD-ROM and cassette.

Arc de Triomphe

metro stop: Charles de Gaulle Etoile, Line 2

A landmark Paris monument, the Arc de Triomphe is located in the center of the circular place Charles de Gaulle, and forms the hub of a 12-spoked avenue grid that radiates from it. Currently dedicated to an unknown soldier, the Arc de Triomphe's origins are much less humble, being commissioned by the power-hungry Napoleon de Bonaparte.

Chateau de Versailles

RER C5 to Versailles Rive Gauche (Château de Versailles)

The former gluttony and extravagance of the French monarchy certainly make for irresistible Paris attractions. A lavish spread with a Hall of Mirrors, Stables and the most opulent guesthouses one could imagine, the Chateau de Versailles is a lesson in luxury and an ostentatious display of colonialism's gilded spoils.

Disneyland Paris

RER, Line A to Marne-la-Vallée

Patterned after Los Angeles' Disneyland, Disneyland Paris (formerly Euro Disney) opened to less-than-rave reviews and lagging crowds, but now this bastion of Americanism in Paris is a popular Paris attraction, especially for visiting families and American tourists looking for an updated, if still faithful, version of the original. With five theme parks, including Frontierland, Main Street U.S.A., Fantasyland and Walk Disney Studios, Disneyland Paris is a practically a Paris municipality with hotels, restaurants, golf, shops and a massive entertainment center. To avoid long lines, try to visit Disneyland Paris in the off season, from September to June.

Notre Dame Cathedral

metro stop: Cité, Line 4

Frightfully-realistic gargoyles in all demonic shapes and sizes guard the Notre Dame on all sides and hint at this definitive Paris attraction's long history. Originally commissioned in 1163, the Notre Dame took 200 years to complete. Inside, two stunning, circular stained glass windows fill the cathedral with a brilliantly subdued light and impart a reverent tone. For a hunchback of Notre Dame view of Paris, climb the winding staircase to the top of the Notre Dame Cathedral's bell tower. For a post-climb snack, grab a cafe and crepe at the moderately-priced Choice on Left Bank cafe in the Notre Dame's shadow.

The Catacombs

metro stop: Denfert Rochereau, Line 6 or, RER, Line B

Mortality is imminent at Paris' eeriest attraction. A metro quarry, housing several million skeletons, many of which are under 400 years old. The Catacombs are an underground burial ground (tomb), not for the claustrophobic or for those of a sensitive disposition, the young or the faint of heart.

The Paris Catacombs (or Catacombes de Paris, as they’re called in French) are a maze of tunnels and crypts underneath the city streets where Parisians placed the bones of their dead for almost 30 years. Prior to the creation of the Catacombs in the mid-1700s, residents buried their dead in cemeteries near churches as is still customary in most places.

As Paris grew in size, the cemeteries quickly ran out of space. Additionally, improper burial techniques often led to ground water and land near cemeteries becoming contaminated and spreading disease to those living nearby, so city officials moved to condemn all the cemeteries within city limits and move the bodies in those cemeteries elsewhere.

The decision was made to use an underground section of quarries in Paris, and the bones from Paris’ city cemeteries were moved underground between 1786 and 1788. The process was conducted with reverence and discretion – the quarry space was blessed before any bones were moved there, bones were always moved in a quiet parade of carts accompanied by priests, and these movements always took place at night. The quarries continued to be used as the collection point for the bones from Paris’ cemeteries through 1814 and now contain the bodies of roughly 6-7 million Parisians.

What’s particularly surprising about the Catacombs of Paris isn’t that they’re a tourist attraction in modern-day Paris – what’s surprising is that they started attracting visitors even before the last bones were moved in 1814, and they were already a major attraction just over 50 years later. In fact, in the late 1800s the larger underground crypt areas were even used as mini-concert halls!

Sacre Coeur

metro stop: Anvers, Line 2 or Jules Joffrin, Line 12

This Montmartre landmark, a 19th-century basilica built by the French government following the Franco-Prussian War, features a large medieval dome that provides excellent views of the city.

Paris - a brief history

French Revolution (1789-1799)

On the 14^th July 1789, an insurrection broke out in Paris. The Bastille, a fortress symbolic of the arbitrary power of the King, was taken by an armed mob. It was the beginning of the Revolution, which comprised three phases:

From 1789-1792 the movement was controlled by the elite who wanted to reform the kingdom. The king remained at the head of the regime, but he had, nevertheless, to accept a constitution and an Assembly which voted on the laws. The Parisian mob went to Versailles to seek him and to install him in the Tuileries in Paris. They wanted to keep a watch on him. Thus the monarchy returned to Paris.

During this period utopian ideas reigned. In a frenetic atmosphere, everyone understood that power had passed from the hands of a single man – the absolute monarch – to the entire population. The representatives of the people, united in the Assembly, adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man, the abolition of the privileges of the nobility and suppression of the wealth of the clergy. It was planned that the State would pay the clergy.

But the armies of the monarchies of Europe invaded the country to crush the Parisian revolt. In September 1792, after a massacre of suspected Royalists, a group of revolutionaries seized power.

From 1792 - 1794, these revolutionaries led the country with a rod of iron to save the Revolution. The French monarchy was abolished. Louis XVI, who had attempted to flee the capital in 1791, was executed in January 1793. The foreign armies were all defeated, but the regime governed by terror. The most intransigent of the revolutionaries, such as Robespierre had the moderates executed, under a pretext of accusations of treason. They went too far, and were executed in their turn in 1794. During this period, the people of Paris often made and remade decisions without taking into account the rest of France.

1795 - 1799 was the period of the Directories. The executions ceased and the revolution ran out of steam. In order to avoid further drift towards an authoritarian regime, the new leaders adopted other institutions. They wanted to avoid all pressure from the Parisians over the Assembly. For example, a text had to be read three times before being voted on. The leaders did not have time to become dictators because the rule lasted too short a time. The result was that the regime was ungovernable. Only a coup d`Etat could advance matters.

Another problem arose later: the Assignat – the paper money issued by the State – collapsed. Poverty increased, which meant that the Directory lost popular support. Corruption became the rule at the summit of the State: everybody stole. To retain power, the regime leant more and more on the forces of arms. It was one of these which was to put right the situation.

In 1799 General Napoléon Bonaparte seized power during a coup d`Etat. That was the end of the revolution. Despite this, the Revolution constituted a significant event in the history of the world. It inspired, for good or ill, other movements. The adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of Man by the Assembly was an important symbolic act for the defenders of liberty. It could be compared with the adoption of Habeas Corpus by the British Parliament, or the creation by Congress of the American Constitution.