France: La Tour Eiffel! L’Arc de Triomphe, La baguette; you know all there is to know about Paris, right? Wrong. Herein lie 10 secrets of the City of Lights.
There’s more to Paris than La Tour Eiffel
La Tour Eiffel! L’Arc de Triomphe, La baguette; you know all there is to know about Paris, right? Wrong. Herein lie 10 secrets of the City of Lights. There is a shadow town: Underneath the avenues and boulevards of southern Paris sits a shadowland of underground tunnels and galleries. The public may visit the spooky Catacombs ossuary — which forms a tiny subsection of this subterranean treasure — but many more secrets lurk beneath.
The tunnels are all that remains of hundreds of years of mining Lutetian limestone, whose distinctive white hues define Paris’s Haussmannian architecture.
The occupying Nazis established a bunker under the streets of Lycée Montaigne in the 6th arrondissement during the Second World War, whilemembersoftheFrenchResistance simultaneously used the network to meet and pass messages.
More recently, the tunnels have taken on a subversive life of their own, serving as the site of illegal underground clubs and parties; in 2004, police discovered a fully-functioning cinema, complete with film reels and a bar and restaurant — hidden in the netherworld.
The illegal frequenters of the site have come to be known as “cataphiles” — they access the tunnels, of which they have exhaustive knowledge, via a selection of manholes, which change frequently as the police discover and seal them up. 1 And a hidden village: La Campagne à Paris (The Countryside in Paris) may be one of the French capital’s best-kept secrets. The mini-village, which sits atop a small mound in the un-touristy 20th arrondissement, is comprised of 92 impossibly quaint houses.
The area, which is just a few minutesfromParis’s“Périphérique”ring road — is a secluded enclave of window boxes, wysteria and pastel colours.
The village was founded as a cooperative intended for workingclass familes, by pastor Sully Lombard. These days the houses will set you back well in excess of one million euros. The area is a short walk from Porte de Bagnolet Metro. 2 You can sip tea in a gorgeous garden at La Grande Mosquée de Paris: Paris is well-known for its wide array of imposing historical churches, but its Grand Mosque is also well worth stopping for.
Located in the Latin Quarter and erected in 1926 — its courtyard cafe, 3 magnificently-monikered Viollet-le-Duc.
The architect took a little licence with his refurb, not least when building one particularly unusual gargoyle — with the face of a rather angry looking woman in a hat. The rumour goes it was in fact modelled on his mother-in-law. EugèneEmmanuel
The artistic Montmartre district, which is now a firmly-established stop on the tourist circuit thanks to its status as the home of both Impressionism and the CanCan, was once but a rural outpost.
The hilltop village was used for mining and later was home to a prosperous milling industry, of which the legacy remains in the shape of Le Moulin de la Galette. The 17th-century windmill takes its name from the savoury pancakes which were once made from its buckwheat flour.
This imposing structure was also the backdrop to Renoir’s famous Le Bal du Moulin de la Gallette, which was featured in modern French classic film Amélie. The area was also used for wine-producing, and one vineyard remains on Rue des Saules. It is home to one of the world’s cleverest monkeys: Wattana the orangutan has lived and grown up in Paris’s Jardin des Plantes zoo since the mid nineties. She caught theattentionofzookeeperswithher human-like abilities to sew, draw, tie and untie complex knots — and she’s also partial to a cup of tea. Parisians are as loyal as Londoners when it comes to their side of the river: The Seine splits in Paris into two halves — the Left Bank and the Right Bank — thus designated in relation to the direction of the river flow. Just like North Londoners, Rive Droite (Right Bank) dwellers flinch at the idea of making the journey across to the opposite side, and many only rarely visit their opposite arrondissements. 9 You’ll see headless Denis everywhere: There are a good number of headless statues dotted around the city. The decapitated chap in question is St. Denis, patron saint of France, who had his head lopped off by the Romans for refusing to denounce Christianity.
He started off somewhat of a trend in French history — and 1,500 or so years later, more than 2,000 people also lost their heads to the guillotine on Paris’s Revolution Square (now Place de la Concorde).
Unlike Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, however, he managed to wander for an hour post-beheading, carrying his head in his hands — which is how you will see him depicted. 10