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As he gazed at Paris from atop the Eiffel Tower
I have beneath my 500 hectares of the world in which the greatest amount of thinking talking and writing has been accomplished
Starting from this tower which seems to have been specially planned to let the beholder discover Paris
Let's take a look at some of the chief monuments of the city
Since these will be our rallying points for the perspectives that they command and for the areas that they overlook
the Sacre-Cœur Basilica
The Dome of the Hôtel des Invalides
The Arch of Triumph
The Place de la Concorde and the Luxor Obelisque
Last but not least Notre Dame the great cathedral of Notre Dame which for seven centuries has been
presiding over the heart of Paris
Way back when Paris used to be Lutetia and Lutetia was the original name of the island where everything began
between the two arms of the Seine
At the dawn of recorded history this island was inhabited by the Parisi tribe whence the city's name
In 52 BC it was overrun by Caesar's legions
Unable to defend the Gallic settlement its leader had it set on fire
Paris then began rising out of the ashes of Lutetia
Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris's outstanding religious edifice embodies the loftiest expression of the French soul and genius
It is the geopolitical center of a world and a civilization
This much is symbolized on its parvis by the zero kilometer mark the point of departure from which the highways and byways lead out
From its location in the center of the ancient Capetian Kingdom
The Cathedral of Paris has viewed the spectacle of the city's growth, its changes, vanishings and rebirths
It has witnessed all its metamorphoses
It has stood by while regimes tumbled and while the most glamorous pageantry of a history-fraught nation was performed
The Cathedral is Paris's most important expo to appealing to our memories in the name of eternity
However, its façade recounts quite another story
Christ's apostles and disciples
The kings of Israel and Judas, Christ's ancestors and hence the spiritual ancestors of the kings of France
The martyrs and saints, including particularly Saint Denis, the first bishop of Paris
who was beheaded at Montmartre by the Romans and who, according to legend, carried his head to the site of the basilica
that was later erected to commemorate him
This incomparable monument founded in 1163, spawned by the meeting between Romanesque and Gothic art
forcefully testifies to the sagacity and serenity of the great medieval epoch
But this miraculous vessel looks as if it was sailing up the Seine towards the rising sun of an eternal dawn
It was destined to undergo the gradual erosion wrought by passing time, plus the more violent one wrought by revolutions
Victor Hugo's novel entitled Notre Dame de Paris, published in 1831, was hailed as an appeal to rescue this marvel from destruction
Another poet was necessary to plan and carry out the restoration work ten years later
Violet Le Duc, a gifted architect and historian, took on this responsibility
The cathedral, which was constructed in a period between two eras, contains in itself the meditative foundation of the Romanesque world
and the loftily soaring yearning of the Gothic age. All this makes it unique in the world
The Gothic rose window, three magnificent examples of which are displayed in this cathedral, emerged from the twofold symbolism of the rose and the wheel
thereby expressing both the visible and the invisible worlds
Notre Dame Cathedral is dedicated to Mary, the mother of God, referred in French as Notre Dame, who continues to bear the title of Queen of France
since Louis XIII consecrated the kingdom to her
As the cathedral of France, it stands as a summary of the country's history, through certain noteworthy events that occurred within its walls
1302, the first estate general convened by Philip the Fair
1456, the canonical rehabilitation of Joan of Arc
1804, the coronation of Napoleon I
1944, the mass celebrating the liberation of Paris, attended by General de Gaulle
A different liberation is commemorated by the statue of Saint Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, standing to the east of the great vessel
She is remembered for having successfully repelled Attila's hordes in 451 AD
Formerly inhabited by Clovis, the founder of the kingdom, the palace on the Isle de la Cité had become merely the residence of the Counts of Paris
when in 987, the accession to the throne of one of the latter, Hugh Capet, enabled the royal lineage to stage a comeback
Paris had made the Capetian dynasty, and in its turn the Capetian dynasty made Paris into the capital of France
After being rebuilt by Philip Augustus and Saint Louis, the palace was abandoned by Charles V
Paris's first public timepiece dates from 1370, during the period in which the kings had deserted the Cité in favour of the Louvre
handing over their old palace to occupation by judicial institutions
During the dark days of the reign of terror in 1793, the monarchy did return for one last time to the palace of its origins
In fact, a cell in the Conciergerie became Marie Antoinette's prison before she was guillotined
But amidst its matrix of heavy stones, this vast palace shelters the purest gem of medieval art
The building of the Saint-Chapelle was commissioned by Saint Louis for the purpose of accommodating the relics of the Passion of Christ
The master contractor, Pierre de Montreuil, erected it in the record time of 33 months
This monument, which was consecrated in 1248, consists of two superimposed chapels
The ground floor chapel was reserved for residents of the palace
The other one, on the floor above, was for the king and his entourage
The palatine chapel of the Cité, designed to house the crown of thorns, is hence primarily a reliquary
It is the loveliest of all reliquaries
This prodigious bit of architecture is virtually devoid of walls
Everything rests on slender 15 meter high columns surrounding stained glass windows that remain the most ancient and most beautiful in all Paris
The art of stained glass making, an original invention of the Gothic period, achieved its most shining hour of glory here
Nowhere else has it been used with such architectural daring
This stained glass window is actually a spiritual support to contemplation
This seven centuries old monument, a marvel of equilibrium, of airy grace and sturdiness, is devoid of any fissures
Indeed, this most fragile jewel is perhaps the only edifice of that time which has survived intact
May the spirit of the holy, justice dispensing king who built it, as well as our unceasing prayers, continue to protect it
But the mother island of Paris harbours still other memorable reminders of the past
In early, overpopulated Paris, crowded in between narrow walls, the bridges themselves were cluttered with housing structures
The town planning adventure of Paris began under Henry IV, with the construction of the Pont Neuf, or the New Bridge
The remodelling of the island's promontory around the equestrian statue of Henry IV, together with the introduction of an unencumbered bridge
created the first of the great monumental vistas of Paris that dot the long expanse of the Seine
Even if the famous saying to the effect that Paris is certainly worth a mass was never actually uttered by Henry IV
it forms part of the legend attached to this Protestant ruler who had been born a Catholic, who became reconverted to his original faith
and who brought an end to thirty years of civil and religious strife, thereby reconciling the French people
In the 14th century, the Seine became a species of historical boundary line
The central part crossed the river and settled itself definitively on the right bank, remaining there throughout all the changes of regime
continuously along the main east-west axis, in the Louvre, the Palais Royal, the Tuileries, or the Elysee Palace
while the legislative branch, the deputies and the senators, eventually emigrated to the left bank
Only the municipal authority, founded by Saint-Louis, has virtually never changed its location since the beginning
The Citizens' Council House, the headquarters of the first Paris municipality, stood on the Place du Châtelet, now the site of a theatre
In 1357, Étienne Marcel, the merchant's provost, transferred the municipal authority to the exact site of the present-day city hall
From this vantage point, he directed the first riot against the monarchy
This curious personage doubtless dreamt of a Paris that would enjoy the destiny of the merchant republics of Flanders and Italy
Evidence of this vocation emerges in the depictions of the illustrious native Parisians, whose likenesses are displayed on this façade
which is a duplicate of the earlier Renaissance city hall, built in 1533 by Domenico de Cortogne, known as Le Bocador
The Paris city hall, assigned by fate to a site near the Bastille, was destined to serve as the background for a full array of revolutions
All the way from Berger's rebellions to popular uprisings, from the aristocratic Fronde movement to the religious leagues, everything that has rent Paris asunder down through the centuries has wound up here
The last revolt proved fatal. Occupied by the Central Committee of the Paris Commune, the city hall burned down in 1871
But the municipal palace shared the destiny of Paris, whose prophetic motto is, fluctuat nic mergiter, I confront the tempest but never found her
The fire seems to have exorcised doom, since the history of the present city hall, which was completed in 1882 under the third republic, has been utterly uneventful
Its lavish baroque interior decoration was designed as a glamorous background setting for splendid receptions
In line with a time-honoured tradition, the city hall has always been the place for entertaining French sovereigns and presidents, as well as foreign heads of government on official visits to Paris
The greatly enlarged central structure reproduces the earlier renaissance façade, designed by Le Bocadour
But the diverse fortunes of this municipal palace must not let us forget that the history of Paris took place in the Louvre
Before becoming a fine museum, this formidable, variegated structure, the world's largest palace, was the official residence of the monarchy
Before being built and interminably rebuilt down through the centuries, it had originally been designed by Philippe Augustus as a citadel for defending the river
If places have souls and if buildings have destinies, that of the Louvre was to become a museum, since Charles V installed his treasures here, including his Treasure of Treasures, a rich collection of illuminated manuscripts, the beginnings of the Bibliothèque nationale
For a long time, his successors, driven out of Paris by wars, preferred to dwell along the banks of the Loire
Not until François I's reign did the construction of the modern-day Louvre begin, with the addition of numerous royal acquisitions, including the Mona Lisa
In 1563, Marie de' Medici commissioned the building of the Tuileries Palace, 500 meters away from the unfinished Louvre
At that point, the last kings of the Valois dynasty decided to connect the two palaces by means of the famous waterside gallery
Henry IV completed this immense structure
To Louis XIV, there befell the honour of building the great square courtyard and of commissioning a main façade and entranceway worthy of the prestige that he planned to bestow upon the monarchy
Designed and planned by Perrault, Le Brun and Lavaux, the Louvre colonnade made Louis XIV's ambitious dream come true
The museum has gradually conquered all the palace spaces, including Youming Pai's pyramid
The crypt of Saint-Louis houses the archaeological discoveries
In 1682, the court abandoned Paris and settled in Versailles to remain there for over a century
In 1793, in the grand gallery of the Louvre, there were gathered together the masterpieces from the royal collections that had been scattered by the revolution. The Museum of the Republic opened for business. Such was the official inauguration of the Louvre
Meanwhile, the palace continued to grow in size. Napoleon I cleared the Place du Carousel to make room for an arch of triumph, and Napoleon III built the north wing which runs along the Rue de Rivoli
After three centuries of work, the Tuileries Palace and the Louvre were at long last brought together
And then, in 1871, during the Bloody Week of the Commune, the Tuileries Palace went up in smoke
Had it all been in vain for the two great arms to make their way towards it for three centuries? Perhaps not, for the end result shines forth in all its stupendous grandeur
The Louvre's universal renown is due not primarily to its architecture, but to what it contains. And this museum, which is so rich and so thronged by visitors, dwarfs all the others in a city that suffers from no dearth of other highly prestigious museums
Each one of its six departments is a realm unto itself. Together they offer a complete panorama of Western and Middle Eastern art, from antiquity down through the 19th century
Art has been described as the reflection of the world. The admirable masterpieces that we're going to see require no commentary. Our only guide will therefore be Claudel's expression, The Eye Listens
The Victory of Summothras
And The Venus of Milo, Greece, 2nd century BC
The Archers of the King of Persia, Palace of Darius, 6th century BC
The Squatting Scribe, Egypt, Early Empire
The Sphinx and the Shawabti, Egypt, Middle Empire
Psyche, revived by Cupid's Kiss, Canova, France, 18th century
The Coronation of the Virgin, Painted Ivory, France, 13th century
Three paintings by Georges de la Tourre, France, 17th century
Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci, Italy, 16th century
During Louis XIV's reign, the landscape designer André Le Nôtre laid out the triumphal way that changed the face of Paris over the next two centuries by integrating monuments into vast perspectives of intersecting avenues.
The Carousel Arch is the start of a monumental six kilometer axis which, through parks and pools, squares and arches, forms the immense perspective from which present day Paris emerged.
The extraordinary thing is that succeeding generations of a motley array of rulers, city fathers and architects, managed to observe such perfect continuity from Catherine de' Medici down to the Third Republic.
The Place de la Concorde, in the center of the new Paris, is the shining example of this concept which links the Louvre to the Place de l'Etoile and the Madeleine Church to the Chamber of Deputies.
This strange royal square was laid out by Gabriel in 1765 to provide a prestigious setting for Louis XV's statue. It has buildings on one side only, yet, in a sense, it circumscribes the whole city.
It is a crossroads of avenues and, at the same time, a crossroads of destinies. It was rechristened Place de la Révolution. The throne was burned in it and Louis XV's statue was overturned to make room for the sinister guillotine.
It was onto the paved surface of this glamorous intersection of the ages that the French king's head rolled on the 21st of January 1793.
The reign of terror would eventually spell the doom of all the major figures of the revolution, from Danton to Robespierre, together with their victims.
Louis XV's statue was replaced by a statue of liberty. Napoleon had the latter removed when he proclaimed the empire. Each new ruler devoted himself to conferring a meaning on this square in accordance with the vicissitudes of the changes of reign.
To put an end to this, Louis Philippe decided to use it as the setting for the Luxor Obelisk, a gift from Egypt. The monument, erected 33 centuries ago to the glory of Ramses II, Egypt's sacred ruler, could not offend anyone.
Since that time, the Place de la Concorde has never again changed, either its appearance or its name.
The lovely fountains, the attractive use of this vast open space, and the rhythm of the perspectives combine to make this spot into one of the wondrous sights of the city, a place where all Paris issues forth and from whence all Paris reveals itself.
The Madeleine Church, designed in harmony with the elegant colonnades of the naval ministry building and the Hôtel Crillon, closes off the end of the Rue Royale.
It was patterned after a Greek temple of colossal proportions, dedicated to the glory of Napoleon's great army, for whose troops the emperor had intended it.
Facing opposite, on the far side of the Seine, the antique model peristyle of the Palais Bourbon completes the symmetry of the overall pattern.
This latter palace was built in 1772 by the Duchess of Bourbon, Louis XIV's daughter, and since 1795 it has accommodated the legislative branch of the French government. Initially the Council of the Five Hundred, it is now the home of the National Assembly.
But let us retrace our steps to the Place de la Concorde to continue along the triumphal way.
Let us stroll in leisurely fashion up the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, the world's most famous avenue. So famous is it, indeed, that the tourist hordes who swarm over it during the holiday season have completely altered the appearance of that elegant avenue of yesteryear.
In order to crown the Champs-Élysées with a suitable endpiece and to add a finishing touch to the Arch of Triumph, housemen increased to twelve the number of avenues leading off from the Place de l'Étoile and built the mansions that surrounded the site.
Triumph at the Étoile was planned to commemorate the victorious imperial army and is the world's largest such arch, measuring 50 meters high by 45 meters wide. Designed by the architect Jean-François Chagrin, this gigantic edifice, begun in 1806 by Napoleon, was inaugurated 30 years later under the reign of Louis-Philippe.
This high relief by Cocteau celebrates the triumph of 1810, the Peace of Vienna. The empire at the height of its glory carved in stone the names of its many victors. Napoleon's ambition was to make Paris the capital of Europe, but Europe had united against him.
All that this archway witnessed of Napoleon was the funeral chariot transporting the emperor's remains brought back from Saint Helena.
This monument, initially devoted to the glory of conquest, became a symbol of resistance and patriotism.
The departure of the volunteers of 1792 to combat the invader is commemorated by Rude's masterpiece, the Marseillaise.
On the 11th of November 1920, in memory of the troops who died in the First World War, the Arch of Triumph became the site of the tomb of the unknown soldier.
What France's national flag owes to Paris is a matter of record. This flag features the two colors of the capital, red and blue, combined in 1789 with white, the king's color.
Paris thereby returned to the nation the three colors of the Old Kingdom. The red came from the auriflame of Saint Denis, the blue came from the coat of arms of the city of Paris, and white had been the king's personal color since the war in which fought Joan of Arc.
Thus, formed of colors drawn from all of France's history, the flag symbolizes the indissoluble union between the nation and its capital.
On the 14th of July, the French national holiday, a military parade marches down the Champs-Élysées from the Arch of Triumph.
The Paris Republican Guard, the heir to all the military corps that since the time of Philippe Augustus' sergeants-at-arms have had the duty of protecting the city, carry out safety and prestige missions for the top government institutions.
The Élysée Palace, built in 1718 and considerably enlarged since then, has been the French president's principal residence since 1873.
Its inner façade gives onto a vast garden overlooking the Champs-Élysées park area.
The Alexander III Bridge opens another monumental axis leading from the Élysée Palace to the Anvalide.
This cast-iron bridge, bedecked with adornments, statues, and lighting fixtures, looks as if it spans the Seine only in order to shame the latter into oblivion.
The architectural principle of the Triumphal Way is applied here, for the Alexander III Bridge binds together into a single pattern, the Petit Palais and the Grand Palais, which were built to represent the fine arts at the 1900 World's Fair on the Esplanade of the Anvalide, designed by Robert de Cotte in the 17th century.
This is a bridge that brings together the genius and the monuments of three centuries in an incomparable perspective.
Reviving a custom that dated back to earliest times, Louis XIV commissioned the building of a veritable palace designed to provide accommodation for disabled war veterans.
This commendable social institution, which accommodates up to 6,000 inmates, became what Montesquieu later described as the most respectable place on earth.
But first of all, the Hôtel des Invalides is one of the most outstandingly perfect examples of 17th century architecture.
It was designed by the architect Libéral Bruan and completed in 1702 by Jules-Ardoin Molsa. This huge edifice, which contains no fewer than 16 kilometers of corridors, is so felicitously proportioned that it doesn't look gigantic.
The Soldiers' Church gives out onto the Great Courtyard, the Church of Saint-Louis, and the Army Museum, which exhibits a fairly complete panorama of the military history of France and Europe, including a very fine collection of armor.
Here also admirers of Napoleon I can view a set of his legendary possessions, including the gray frock coat from his captivity on Saint Helena,
the dress parade saddle from his coronation, the famous little hat adorned with the emblem of the Legion of Honor, which he founded in 1802, and the field tent with its sentry mounting an eternal guard.
By prolonging the Soldiers' Church, the Royal Church enabled Ardoin Molsa to produce the masterpieces of 17th century religious architecture, complete with its famous dome, clearly the finest in Paris, which shelters a military necropolis.
In 1840, on this temple of glory, linked to the prestige of the Sun King, there was conferred the additional honor of receiving the remains of Napoleon I.
The body of the Emperor, who had died 19 years earlier on Saint Helena, reposes in a porphyry sarcophagus that was a gift of Star Nicholas I.
Thus was Napoleon's last wish fulfilled. I should like my remains to repose on the banks of the Seine, amid the people of France whom I loved so dearly.
The War College, which was built under Louis XV, was completed in 1769, the year of the birth of its most illustrious graduate, Napoleon Bonaparte, whose academic record bore the notation, should go far if circumstances are favorable.
The Champs-de-Mars, which in succession has been a drill field, the site of revolutionary celebrations, and an exhibition ground, has become a garden, and is also one of the pleasantest monumental perspectives in Paris.
If the Eiffel Tower perpetuates the memory of the great World's Fair of 1889, it was for the 1937 exhibition that Paris constructed the Palace of Chaillot, which houses four large museums, a national theater, and the French Film Library.
This handsome architectural layout of terraces, buildings, stairways, gardens, and fountains felicitously links the Place du Trocadéro to the Seine and the Champs-de-Mars.
Before Guillaume Apollinaire's playful muse prompted him to describe the tower as a shepherdess of the clouds, this strange structure had deeply offended the aesthetic sensibility of the artists, and was decried as an iron monster before eventually becoming the symbol of Paris.
A useful purpose had been found for this prodigious bit of lacework designed by an engineer named Gustave Eiffel, when in 1909 it was rescued by the French radio, which took it over.
The installations of radio and television transmitters have made it grow even taller. Today, the airwave messenger holds force high above the critics at an altitude of 320 meters.
And since we are gazing down on Paris from on high, let's take this opportunity to pinpoint the structural rhythm of its architecture.
The Seine, the original throughway of the great city, remains the lifeline around which everything else is organized.
Three monumental axes, Chaillot École Militaire, Élysée Invalide, and Madeleine Chamber of Deputies, span the Seine and proceed towards the triumphal way.
This completed structure is a result of four centuries of urban planning.
The Pont Neuf opened the way from the Ile de la Cité towards Paris. The Triumphal Way opened the way from Paris towards the Ile de France.
The Place de la Concorde ushered in the new downtown area of Paris.
The intersections of the avenues with the concentric circles of boulevards provided a continuous array of landmarks for the eyes.
The great merit of Le Nôtre, of Gabriel and Haussmann, is that they remodeled Paris from an approach of intellectual humility that was equal only by the enormity of the work undertaken.
Thus, the great perspectives came into being, and thus were formed the city's famous quarters, consistently laid out in relation to monuments.
In the midst of the Latin Quarter, on the topmost elevation of the left bank, where the Pont Éan stands today, there used to be the Sanctuary of Saint Genevieve.
On this history-steep site, Louis XV planned to erect a prestigious church dedicated to the early protectress of the capital.
Souffleau's structure had not been completed when the revolution began.
It was eventually converted into a lay temple under the Republic, and was devoted to the cult of great men.
Ensconced in the recesses of the massive necropolis, the tombs of Voltaire, Brousseau, Hugo, Zola, and Jean Moulin, the most recent hero, a World War II resistance fighter, stand as a challenge to the eternal youth that swarms through the surrounding Latin Quarter.
In the nearby Luxembourg gardens, Carpeau's sculpture entitled The Four Corners of the Globe could well be an allegory of the international character of these youthful university students.
This palace, dating from 1615, designed by the architect Salomon de Brousse, was commissioned by Mary de Medici, and built on a large tract of land purchased from the Duke of Luxembourg.
It emerges as the earliest example of classical art, and was the most sumptuous residence in Paris at the beginning of the 17th century. It now houses the Senate.
This pleasant park, which, with its famous Medici fountain, was adopted by the Parisians upon its opening in 1650, served, among other things, as a breathing space for the adjacent university, whose buildings were crowded together on St. Genevieve's Hill.
In the 13th century, the University of Paris, a landmark of medieval construction, was already Europe's intellectual centre. Concerning it, a contemporary observed that France is the oven in which the spiritual bread of the whole world is baked.
Through the centuries, the Sorbonne, the centre of this centre, which was founded by Robert de Sorbonne under St. Louis, has continuously basked in unrivalled prestige.
The ranks of its many illustrious students have included Dante, Erasmus, and Calvin.
The first books printed in France during the reign of Louis XI were produced by the Sorbonne presses.
Since that time, books have so overwhelmingly invaded the quarter that they are still found all along the banks of the Seine, like a cup running over.
In the same way that, a short distance away, are found some of the people who, by writing them, became immortals, as the members of the French Academy are called.
The Academy convenes under the dome of the Institut Français. It was founded by Richelieu for the purpose of compiling a dictionary of the French language, the most official of all official tomes.
If intellectual centres shift locations during the course of the centuries, they also change their décor and their ambiance.
The year 1685 ushered in the café era with the advent of Le Procope, the world's oldest café.
This is one of those Paris gathering places that call to mind the greatest number of famous men in French thought and literary creation.
La Fontaine, Voltaire, Beaumarchais, the Encyclopedist, Hugo, Balzac, Zola, Verlaine.
Meandering along from one street to another, following the caprices of literary trends, how can we help landing at Saint-Germain-des-Prés?
But before the sidewalk terraces of the famed existentialist cafés in their turn became part of the modern world's legendary lore, in the shadow of ancient Abbey's bell tower,
in the early part of the 20th century, the Bohemian artists and writers had elected to settle clustered around the brand new Sacre-Cœur church.
When the butte Montmartre became officially incorporated into the capital in 1830, it was dotted with vineyards and windmills, where people went dancing on Sundays.
The windmills became cabarets, the cabarets became café-concerts, like the Lapin-Angile.
Ancient Montmartre coped successfully with the real estate developments that mushroomed on the butte, and it still holds forth, huddled around the folklore-steeped Place du Terre.
Doubtless to remind us that the great city of Paris, stretched out below, is merely the end result of a merger involving 20 villages and hamlets that were swallowed up by the voracious municipality from 1789 to 1860.
The Sacre-Cœur Basilica was built from 1873 to 1914, from blueprints drafted by an architect named Abadie, who died before its completion.
An inexplicable destiny had already overtaken Jean Gougon, Soufflot and Chagrin, plus many other architects who were struck down whilst in the midst of their work.
But it is in this way that a relay pattern emerges, handed along from master to apprentice, from heir to successor, and that individual achievement counts for less than does the unique monument constituted by the city as an entity.
The silhouette of the white citadel guarded by Saint Michael, the protector of Christian France, has won recognition as one of the outstanding landmarks looming over the city's rooftops.
The Paris skyline, this great church whose origins are rooted in the bleak years that followed the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune, should be considered largely as a collective act of faith. The nation's vows, sworn in 1873, had chosen prayer as both a purpose and a remedy.
For the Good Friday programs, who toil up the slopes towards one of the world's most assiduously visited shrines, the tragedies of modern history are less important than the progress towards eternity.
All the dramaturgy that keeps memory alive is necessary for the equilibrium of the forgetful city. Here it achieves a return to origins by following in the footsteps of Saint Denis, who was beheaded in Montmartre for the sake of Christ, our Redeemer.
But the memory of Paris has room for a host of other favorite haunts. In romantic Père Lachaise Cemetery, the vast human tide has deposited the greatest amount of deeply stirring evidence of the lives of those individuals who have done it honor.
This garden of the deceased may truly be the pantheon of those who have loved Paris, who have lived and worked in it, thereby imparting their glory to it.
Molière, Balzac, Delacroix, Alfred de Musset, Rossini, Sarah Bernhardt, Guillaume Poliner, Georges Pizet, Frédéric Chopin, and many others have their last resting places here.
But the strange, contradictory city takes its sustenance from a pattern of broken rhythms and stark contrasts. We shall therefore take our leave of the nighttime calm amid which Paris accommodates its dead.
And wend our way through the ceaseless hustle and bustle of the stupendous, unpredictable nighttime scene of that other Paris which comes to life at the close of day and sets off in pursuit of all sorts of mechanized dreams, acoustical deliriums, and fleeting artifices.
Or again, a Paris which, at Christmastide, seeks to recapture the childhood spirit of the
world, and a festival.
The Paris Opera House, edified during the Second Empire, stands as the unique masterpiece of a trend that was doomed to be short-lived.
When the style of an era is actually an absence of style, working with it is a long-shot challenge. Such was the case with the so-called Napoleon III style. Charles Garnier accepted the challenge. By erecting the world's largest theater complex in the heart of downtown Paris, the emperor and his architect were aiming at something spectacular and grandiose.
The Paris Opera House is part of the Pacific prestige policy of Napoleon III, who was bent on having Paris become the pleasure capital of the world.
Napoleon I's ambition had been to make Paris the capital of Europe. Napoleon III dreamt of making it the capital of the whole world, without having to leave home.
The endless parade of VIPs visiting what amounted to a brand new Paris sparked the illusion that a lasting peace was guaranteed for all time.
This illusion ended so wretchedly that it took a long time before proper recognition was granted to the achievements of Haussmann and Napoleon III.
Yet, the Paris of today is largely the one that emerged from their recreation of the city.
Actually, this recreation was merely a completion. A glance at certain of the city's open squares reveals other landmarks of the inner urbanization of Paris.
The Place Vendôme is one of the most beautifully planned examples of civil architecture during Louis XIV's reign.
The Place des Pyramides fits in felicitously amidst the Rue de Rivoli arcades, complete with an unexpected statue of Joan of Arc, which enables her to at last enter Paris at the very spot on which she was wounded during her attempt to force the St. Honoré defense works.
The Place de la Bastille basks peacefully today around the July Column.
Last but not least, the Place des Vosges, originally Place Royale, was a fashionable gathering place under Louis XIII.
The rendezvous of politicians and lovers were dualists cross swords beneath Richelieu's windows.
Romanticism later haunted this public square on which Victor Hugo lived for 16 years, where his neighbors included Theodore Gauthier and Gérard de Nerval.
The latter noted that nothing is handsomer than the sight of those 17th century houses that stand in a majestic array on Place Royale.
The Georges Pompidou Museum, a national center for the arts and culture, has been standing forth in its avant-garde architecture since 1977.
Its tubular framework and bright colors have won a mixed reception from Parisians.
Its architects, Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, designed the building to have on its outside the power inlet and ventilation pipes, stairways, elevators, escalators, and passage areas.
Within are contained the 7,500 square meters of floor surface, every bit of which can thus be planned to accommodate the most widely diversified purposes and activities.
The glass enclosure of the great escalator that glides diagonally up the façade affords a panoramic view of Paris.
The center's annual 8 million visitors enjoy a richly varied cultural treasure, including libraries, research units, exhibitions, theater performances, and a modern art museum, whose displays trace the evolution of painting and sculpture from the early 20th century to the last contemporary trends.
Here we see Matisse and Braque.
Harpe.
Chagall.
Picasso.
Moore and Brancusi.
Chauffeur.
Agam.
Modernism continues a pace next door in the Forum des Halles.
Perhaps as a phenomenon of compensation, the open area at the foot of this center, in which all forms of modernity reign supreme, is the rendezvous of strolling players, mimes, and street entertainers, reminiscent of their medieval forebears, and of those who still hold forth in eastern marketplaces.
These young people who perform in all the languages of the world have traveled over many meridians and parallels to admire Paris, long ago described by Montaigne as one of the world's handsomest ornaments.
Come on, guys!
Come on, guys!
Come on, guys!
In the deep of this gigantic night, Paris, which through the ages has striven for order and serenity, Paris, replete with certitudes but fraught with rumbling rebellion, Paris, a formidable volcano whose every social or intellectual eruption has the strange power of shaking the world,
Paris, which is the gift of the self, yet which restores everything to a sense of proportion, Paris, in all ways extreme, surviving in a precarious equilibrium between profundity and frivolity,
Paris, consumed with insomnia, Paris, that according to the Goncourt's prophetic insight, is perhaps the vigil light necessary to the world, because wherever contradictions abound, the spirit of freedom conserves all its chances.
May Paris never lose sight of this universal mission for which the way has been paved by the record of its marvelous history.
May Paris never lose sight of this universal mission for which the way has been paved by the record of its marvelous history.
Thank you.