If your taste is for the Gothic, head to the Ile de La Cite, a popular area of bars and restaurants and where the window of your Paris hotel will be in the shadow of the great Notre Dame, the first of the great buildings of Paris . the 1100 to ensure that Paris remained the most important Christian city in the region. The pointed arches, the ribbed vaults and the flying buttresses are the hallmarks of Gothic engineering.
The buildings that make up the main parts of the Louvre museum owe a debt to the Renaissance and King Francis I, who invited Leonardo da Vinci to Paris and hired Italian architects to renovate it. The carefully proportioned ideas of the time started the concept of classical architecture in Paris. After the French Revolution, which devastated the city, Emperor Napoleon rebuilt the Louvre, but it was not until the 1980s that President Mitterrand commissioned the striking glass pyramid entrance, combining beauty with courage, amid his classic yard.
The famous dome of Les Invalides was directly inspired by that of Saint Peter’s in Rome, and the overall design of the complex is classic. But standing at the main entrance you can also see how the later baroque style is combined with the classic. Symmetrical wings and strong window treatments can be seen on many of the hotels, which are now embassy buildings lining the esplanade.
If you’ve ever wondered about the iconic Metro signs that display the entrances to the Paris metro, remember the name of Hector Guimard, a pioneer of the Art Nouveau movement. Guimard and a few other innovative young architects took a fresh look at the new available steel, iron, and concrete and realized that they could free up the interior space of a building, paving the way for Modernism. Using the metro not only makes your great Paris cheap hotel deal even better, it also makes you stand out as a native.
The post-war years are often seen as a disaster for French architecture, but a phoenix rose from the ruins. Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers created the magnificent Center Georges Pompidou, a brightly colored building that uses a design concept called Beauborg, pushing all utilities and services out of the building to free up huge exhibition spaces inside. Love it or hate it, the building has a delightfully fun feel to it.
From the Opera to the Eiffel Tower, all styles and influences are here, book your hotel in Paris in any neighborhood and you will find a masterpiece on every corner.