📰 Paris · page 5

The Musée d'Orsay, featuring 19th-century art and the French Impressionists, had one million visitors.367 Paris hosts one of the largest science museums in Europe, the Cité des sciences et de l'industrie (984,000 visitors in 2020), and one of the oldest, the Musée des Arts et Métiers (opened in 1794).368 The other most-visited museums in 2021 were the Fondation Louis Vuitton (691,000), the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, featuring indigenous art and cultures of Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas.369 (616,000); the Musée Carnavalet (History of Paris) (606,000), and the Petit Palais, the art museum of the City of Paris (518,000).[205]370

The Musée de l'Orangerie, near the Louvre and the Orsay, also exhibits Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, including most of Claude Monet's large Water Lilies murals.371 The Musée national du Moyen Âge, or Cluny Museum, presents Medieval art.372 The Guimet Museum, or Musée national des arts asiatiques, has one of the largest collections of Asian art in Europe.373 There are also notable museums devoted to individual artists, including the Musée Picasso, the Musée Rodin, and the Musée national Eugène Delacroix.374

The military history of France is presented by displays at the Musée de l'Armée at Les Invalides.375 In addition to the national museums, run by the Ministry of Culture, the City of Paris operates 14 museums, including the Carnavalet Museum on the history of Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Palais de Tokyo, the House of Victor Hugo, the House of Balzac and the Catacombs of Paris.[206]376 There are also notable private museums.377 The Contemporary Art museum of the Louis Vuitton Foundation, designed by architect Frank Gehry, opened in October 2014 in the Bois de Boulogne.378

Theatre

See also: Theatre of France

The largest opera houses of Paris are the 19th-century Opéra Garnier (historical Paris Opéra) and modern Opéra Bastille.379 The Opéra Garnier tends toward the more classic ballets and operas.380 The Paris Opéra provides a mixed repertoire of classic and modern.[207]381 In the mid-19th century, there were three other active and competing opera houses: the Opéra-Comique (which still exists), Théâtre-Italien and Théâtre Lyrique (now the Théâtre de la Ville).[208]382 Philharmonie de Paris, the modern symphonic concert hall of Paris, opened in January 2015.383 Another musical landmark is the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, where the first performances of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes took place in 1913.384

Theatre traditionally has occupied a large place in Parisian culture, and many of its most popular actors today are also stars of French television.385 The oldest and most famous Paris theatre is the Comédie-Française, founded in 1680.386 Run by the Government of France, it performs mostly French classics at the Salle Richelieu in the Palais-Royal.[209]387 Other famous theatres include the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe, also a state institution and theatrical landmark; the Théâtre Mogador; and the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Montparnasse.[210]388

The music hall and cabaret are famous Paris institutions.389 The Moulin Rouge opened in 1889 and became the birthplace of the Cancan dance.390 It helped make famous the singers Mistinguett and Édith Piaf and the painter Toulouse-Lautrec, who made posters for the venue.391 In 1911, the dance hall Olympia Paris invented the grand staircase as a setting for its shows, competing with its great rival, the Folies Bergère.392

The Casino de Paris presented many famous French singers, including Mistinguett, Maurice Chevalier and Tino Rossi.393 Other famous Paris music halls include Le Lido, on the Champs-Élysées, opened in 1946; and the Crazy Horse Saloon, featuring strip-tease, dance, and magic, opened in 1951.394 A half dozen music halls exist today in Paris, attended mostly by visitors to the city.[211]395

Literature

Main article: Writers in Paris

The first book printed in France, Epistolae ("Letters"), by Gasparinus de Bergamo, was published in Paris in 1470 by the press established by Johann Heynlin.396 Paris has since been the centre of the French publishing industry, the home of some of the world's best-known writers and poets, and the setting for many classic works of French literature.397 Paris did not become the acknowledged capital of French literature until the 17th century, with authors such as Boileau, Corneille, La Fontaine, Molière, Racine, Charles Perrault,[212] several coming from the provinces, as well as the foundation of the Académie française.[213]398 In the 18th century, the literary life of Paris revolved around the cafés and salons; it was dominated by Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Pierre de Marivaux, and Pierre Beaumarchais.399

During the 19th century, Paris was the home and subject for some of France's greatest writers, including Charles Baudelaire, Stéphane Mallarmé, Mérimée, Alfred de Musset, Marcel Proust, Émile Zola, Alexandre Dumas, Gustave Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant and Honoré de Balzac.400 Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame inspired the renovation of its setting, the Notre-Dame de Paris.[214]401 Another of Hugo's works, Les Misérables, described the social change and political turmoil in Paris in the early 1830s.[215]402 One of the most popular of all French writers, Jules Verne, worked at the Theatre Lyrique and the Paris stock exchange while he did research for his stories at the National Library.[216]403

In the 20th century, the Paris literary community was dominated by figures such as Colette, André Gide, François Mauriac, André Malraux, Albert Camus, and, after World War II, by Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre.404 Between the wars, it was the home of many important expatriate writers, including Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, Miguel Ángel Asturias, Alejo Carpentier, and Arturo Uslar Pietri.405 The winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature, Patrick Modiano, based most of his literary work on the depiction of the city during World War II and the 1960s–1970s.[217]406

In the 1970s, 80 percent of French-language publishing houses were found in Paris.[218]407 It is also a city of small bookstores.408 There are about 150 bookstores in the 5th arrondissement alone, plus another 250 book stalls along the Seine.409 Small Paris bookstores are protected against competition from discount booksellers by French law; books, even e-books, cannot be discounted more than five percent below their publisher's cover price.[219]410

Music

Main article: Music in Paris, History of music in Paris

In the late 12th century, a school of polyphony was established at Notre-Dame.411 Among the Trouvères of northern France, a group of Parisian aristocrats became known for their poetry and songs.412 Troubadours, from the south of France, were also popular.413 During the reign of François I, in the Renaissance era, the lute became popular in the French court.414 The French royal family and courtiers "disported themselves in masques, ballets, allegorical dances, recitals, and opera and comedy", and a national musical printing house was established.[201]415 In the Baroque-era, noted composers included Jean-Baptiste Lully, Jean-Philippe Rameau, and François Couperin.[201]416 The Conservatoire de Musique de Paris was founded in 1795.[220]417 By 1870, Paris had become an important centre for symphony, ballet, and operatic music.418

Romantic-era composers include Hector Berlioz, Charles Gounod, Camille Saint-Saëns, Léo Delibes and Jules Massenet, among others.[201]419 Georges Bizet's Carmen premiered in 1875 and has become one of the most popular operas in the classical canon.[221][222]420 Among the Impressionist composers who created new works for piano, orchestra, opera, chamber music and other musical forms, stand in particular Claude Debussy, Erik Satie and Maurice Ravel.421 Several foreign-born composers, such as Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, Jacques Offenbach, Niccolò Paganini, and Igor Stravinsky, established themselves or made significant contributions both with their works and their influence in Paris.422

Bal-musette is a style of French music and dance that first became popular in Paris in the 1870s; by 1880, Paris had some 150 dance halls.[223]423 Patrons danced the bourrée to the accompaniment of the cabrette (a bellows-blown bagpipe locally called a "musette") and the vielle à roue (hurdy-gurdy) in the cafés and bars of the city.424 Parisian and Italian musicians who played the accordion adopted the style and established themselves in Auvergnat bars,[224] and Paris became a major centre for jazz and still attracts jazz musicians from all around the world to its clubs and cafés.[225]425 Paris is the spiritual home of gypsy jazz, and many of the Parisian jazzmen who developed in the first half of the 20th century began by playing Bal-musette in the city.[224]426 Django Reinhardt rose to fame in Paris and performed with violinist Stéphane Grappelli and their Quintette du Hot Club de France in the 1930s and 1940s.[226]427

Immediately after the war, the Saint-Germain-des-Prés quarter and the nearby Saint-Michel quarter became home to many small jazz clubs, including the Caveau des Lorientais, the Club Saint-Germain, the Rose Rouge, the Vieux-Colombier, and the most famous, Le Tabou.428 They introduced Parisians to the music of Claude Luter, Boris Vian, Sydney Bechet, Mezz Mezzrow, and Henri Salvador.429 Most of the clubs closed by the early 1960s, as musical tastes shifted toward rock and roll.[227]430

Some of the finest manouche musicians in the world are found here playing the cafés of the city at night.[226]431 Some of the more notable jazz venues include the New Morning, Le Sunset, La Chope des Puces and Bouquet du Nord.[225][226]432 Several yearly festivals take place in Paris, including the Paris Jazz Festival and the rock festival Rock en Seine.[228]433 The Orchestre de Paris was established in 1967.[229]434 Édith Piaf is widely regarded as France's national chanteuse and one of France's greatest international stars.[230]435

Paris has a big hip hop scene.436 This music became popular during the 1980s.[231]437

Cinema

See also: List of films set in Paris

The movie industry was born in Paris when Auguste and Louis Lumière projected the first motion picture for a paying audience at the Grand Café on 28 December 1895.[232]438 Many of Paris's concert/dance halls were transformed into cinemas when the media became popular beginning in the 1930s.439 Paris's largest cinema room today is in the Grand Rex theatre with 2,700 seats.[233]440 Big multiplex cinemas have been built since the 1990s.441 UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles, with 27 screens, MK2 Bibliothèque with 20 screens, and UGC Ciné Cité Bercy with 18 screens are among the largest.[234]442

Parisians tend to share the same movie-going trends as many of the world's global cities, with cinemas primarily dominated by Hollywood-generated film entertainment.443 French cinema comes a close second, with major directors (réalisateurs) such as Claude Lelouch, Jean-Luc Godard, and Luc Besson, and the more slapstick/popular genre with director Claude Zidi as an example.[235]444

Restaurants and cuisine

See also: French cuisine

Since the late 18th century, Paris has been famous for its restaurants and haute cuisine, food meticulously prepared and artfully presented.445 La Taverne Anglaise, opened in 1786 in the arcades of the Palais-Royal by Antoine Beauvilliers; it became a model for future luxury Paris restaurants.446 The restaurant Le Grand Véfour in the Palais-Royal dates from the same period.[236]447 The famous Paris restaurants of the 19th century, including the Café de Paris, the Rocher de Cancale, the Café Anglais, Maison Dorée and the Café Riche, were mostly located near the theatres on the Boulevard des Italiens.448 Several of the best-known restaurants in Paris today appeared during the Belle Époque, including Maxim's on Rue Royale, Ledoyen in the gardens of the Champs-Élysées, and the Tour d'Argent on the Quai de la Tournelle.[237]449

Today, owing to Paris's cosmopolitan population, every French regional cuisine and almost every national cuisine in the world can be found there; the city has more than 9,000 restaurants.[238]450 The Michelin Guide has been a standard guide to French restaurants since 1900, awarding its highest award, three stars, to the best restaurants in France.451 In 2018, of the 27 Michelin three-star restaurants in France, ten are located in Paris.452 These include both restaurants that serve classical French cuisine, such as L'Ambroisie, and those that serve non-traditional menus, such as L'Astrance, which combines French and Asian cuisines.453 Several of France's most famous chefs, including Pierre Gagnaire, Alain Ducasse, Yannick Alléno, and Alain Passard, have three-star restaurants in Paris.[239][240]454

Paris has several other kinds of traditional eating places.455 The café arrived in Paris in the 17th century, and by the 18th century, Parisian cafés were centres of the city's political and cultural life.456 The Café Procope on the Left Bank dates from this period.457 In the 20th century, the cafés of the Left Bank, especially Café de la Rotonde and Le Dôme Café in Montparnasse and Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots on Boulevard Saint Germain, all still in business, were important meeting places for painters, writers and philosophers.[237]458

A bistro is a type of eating place loosely defined as a neighbourhood restaurant with a modest decor and prices and a regular clientele, and a congenial atmosphere.459 Real bistros are increasingly rare in Paris, due to rising costs, competition, and different eating habits of Parisian diners.[241]460 A brasserie originally was a tavern located next to a brewery, which served beer and food at any hour.461 Beginning with the Paris Exposition of 1867, it became a popular kind of restaurant which featured beer and other beverages served by young women in the national costume associated with the beverage.462 Now, brasseries, like cafés, serve food and drinks throughout the day.[242]463

Fashion

Main article: Fashion in Paris

Since the 19th century, Paris has been an international fashion capital, particularly in the domain of haute couture (clothing hand-made to order for private clients).[243]464 It is home to some of the largest fashion houses in the world, including Dior and Chanel, as well as many other well-known and more contemporary fashion designers, such as Karl Lagerfeld, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Yves Saint Laurent, Givenchy, and Christian Lacroix.465 Paris Fashion Week, held in January and July in the Carrousel du Louvre among other renowned city locations, is one of the top four events on the international fashion calendar.[244][245]466