PARIS Day 3

Starting point: Basilique St Denis

The Basilica of Saint Denis (French: Basilique Saint-Denis) is a large medieval abbey church in the city of Saint-Denis, now a northern suburb of Paris. The building is of unique importance historically and architecturally as its choir, completed in 1144, is considered to be the first Gothic church. The site originated as a Gallo-Roman cemetery in late Roman times. The archeological remains still lie beneath the cathedral; the people buried there seem to have had a faith that was a mix of Christian and pre-Christian beliefs and practices. The basilica is the burial place of the French kings with nearly every king from the 10th to the 18th centuries being buried there, as well as many from previous centuries.

PARIS - 661 - Version 2 — *Website Hours/Admission Tickets*

Directions: Take line 13 to the Basilique de Saint-Denis stop. Then walk south on Place du Caquet.

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Moulin Rouge

Moulin Rouge is a cabaret in Paris, France. The original house burned down in 1915. Moulin Rouge is best known as the spiritual birthplace of the modern form of the can-can dance. Originally introduced as a seductive dance by the courtesans who operated from the site, the can-can dance revue evolved into a form of entertainment of its own and led to the introduction of cabarets across Europe. Today, the Moulin Rouge is a tourist attraction, offering musical dance entertainment for visitors from around the world. The club’s decor still contains much of the romance of fin de siècle France.

Directions: Take line 13 to Place de Clichy. From this stop either walk or take line 2 to Blanche.

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Basilique du Sacre Coeur

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris (French: Basilique du Sacré-Cœur), is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica located at the summit of the butte Montmartre, the highest point in the city. Sacré-Cœur is a double monument, political and cultural, both a national penance for the defeat of France in the 1871 Franco-Prussian War and the socialist Paris Commune of 1871 crowning its most rebellious neighborhood, and an embodiment of conservative moral order, publicly dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which was an increasingly popular vision of a loving and sympathetic Christ. Construction began in 1875 and was finished in 1914. It was consecrated after the end of World War I in 1919.

Directions: Walk north on Rue Lepic. Take a right on Rue des Abbesses and quickly turn left on Rue Tholozé. Turn right on Rue Durantin which becomes Rue Garreau. Turn left and walk through Place Émile-Goudeau and curve right on Rue Ravignan. Turn left on Rue Lepic and right on Place Jean-Baptiste Clemente. Turn right on Rue Norvins.

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Galeries Lafayette

Galeries Lafayette is an upmarket French department store chain. Its flagship store on Boulevard Haussmann was opened in 1912. From the roof, you can get a view of the Paris skyline.

Directions: Take subway line 12 to Trinité – d’Estienne d’Orves. From Rue de Châteaudun, turn left on Rue de la Chaussée d’anton.

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Opera Garnier

The Palais Garnier is a 1,979-seat opera house, which was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera. The Palais Garnier has been called “probably the most famous opera house in the world.” This is at least partly due to its use as the setting for Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera and, especially, the novel’s subsequent adaptations in films and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s popular 1986 musical. Another contributing factor is that among the buildings constructed in Paris during the Second Empire, besides being the most expensive, it has been described as the only one that is “unquestionably a masterpiece of the first rank.”