Paris, the ultra-cosmopolitan French capital city, has a longstanding global reputation as a mecca of art, culture, fashion, gastronomy, history and architecture. Called the City of Light, City of Love and Capital of Fashion, Paris is not only brimming with internationally famous attractions but is an energetic city where beauty and vivacity ever-weave its curvy streets. Paris' starring role on the global stage makes it a prime destination for travelers, who have many reasons to visit beyond the emblematic Eiffel Tower and the world-renowned wines.
Although it counts almost 400 stations, the Paris metro’s network keeps a few secrets. Actually, no less than 14 stations are listed as “abandoned”, “no longer in use” or “never used”. Most of them, like the station Molitor, are now used as a garage for the storage and maintenance of the underground trains. One of these abandoned stations, Porte des Lilas, is even used as a film set and can be rented by production companies.
Among all European armies, the French army is the only one that still has pigeons trained to carry and transmit messages. Even if this practice can be seen as disused in the era of digitization and the new information and communication technologies, it is considered by military staff as necessary and an alternative in case of a major breakdown in the conventional technologies. You can encounter this military dovecote within the barracks of the 8th Transmissions Regiment in Mont-Valérien, near the capital.
In 1862, Charles Garnier started the building of the famous Opéra de Paris, which would later on be given his name. However, he encountered a big issue: the building’s foundations were endangered by the swampy ground on which the architect planned to build. He then decided to build a concrete liner filled with water to block infiltrations. Inaccessible to the public, the 10,000-cubic-meter lake is today used by the scuba divers of the Paris fire brigade for their training
If you enjoy walking, you can walk across the whole city in just 2 hours. It’s a large city with many residents, but it’s very compact within the city limits.
All of the major fashion brands are represented in the French capital, and many fashion shows are held here as well. Fashion has always been of much importance among the Parisians.
Want to know what time it is, but don’t have a watch? Just walk to Place de la Concorde. There are roman numerals in the pavement around the giant obelisk, which functions as a sundial.
The only stop sign can be found in the 16th arrondissement. Funny enough, the particular area where the stop sign is located is not known for heavy traffic.
