The ParisSharing Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Grand Palais’

Paris has always had it’s winter wonder, with the often spectacular lights and decorations throughout the city. The most famous reoccurring attractions are the Christmas windows at the Gallaries Lafayette and Printemps stores, and of course the Eiffel Tower New Year light show.

This year a new big event will give you one more reason to book your trip in December and January.  It’s the largest temporary ice ring ever created in France, and not just anywhere! Beneath the exquisite iron lace and expansive veranda of the Grand Palais. The ephemeral ring will offer you 1800 sq meters of magique. This will be the first time in its illustrious history that the Grand Palais is transformed for such a purpose.

If your not a skater, there will also be plenty of space around the ring to simply admire the architecture and lighting, as well as the more talented skaters who will certainly be present. There will be a café and a restaurant installed during the event.

For more information,  in particular regarding the special events that will be organized during the period between December 13th and January 6, have a look a the dedicated website.

You can count on ParisSharing to give account of the experience!

In the mean time, book your ParisSharing apartment and start looking forward to an unforgettable Christmas and New Years’.

Fall brings a new season of exhibitions to Paris museums.  Here is a list of the top five exhibits to see while visiting The City:

Grand Palais -  Of Toys and Men (September 14, 2011 – January 23, 2012)

Of Toys and Men is the history of toys in the western world and highlights the importance of toys in children’s education from birth.  The exhibit is possibly the largest toy exhibit ever featuring thousands of toys from Antiquity to modern day.

Centre Pompidou – Edvard Munch (September 21, 2011 – January 9, 2012)

The Centre Pompidou presents Edvard Munch, l’oeil moderne [Edvard Munch, the modern eye], a collection of eighty paintings, thirty drawings, fifty photographs and a film all shown for the first time in France.

Musee Maillol – Pompei (September 21, 2011 – February 12, 2012)

In 79AD, the city of Pompei was completely buried under lava and ash from the catastrophic eruption of the volcano Vesuvius.  However, the extremely well preserved ruins of Pompei rose from the ashes when they were discovered in the 1700’s.  The exhibit guides visitors through a typical Pompeian home, featuring over 200 artifacts including wall murals, vases and jewelry.

Musee du Louvre – La Cité Interdite – Forbidden City (September 26, 2011 – January 9, 2012)

The Louvre exhibit features 130 artifacts from China’s Forbidden City on loan from the ancient imperial palace museum.  Artifacts range from jade carvings, lacquerware, seals, porcelain and bronzes to personal items previously owned by Ming and Qing Dynasty emperors.

Les Arts Decoratifs – Goudemalion – Jean Paul Goude Retrospective (November 11, 2011 – March 18, 2012)

Les Arts Décoratifs welcomes this grand retrospective of Jean-Paul Goude, the French graphic designer, illustrator, photographer, director and art director. For over 40 years, Goude has been one of the advertising world’s leading “image makers”, who is best-known for his campaigns for such brands as Perrier, Citroën, Galeries Lafayette and Chanel.

Fall is one of the best times of the year to visit Paris, and it’s an excellent time to take advantage of some of ParisSharing’s wonderful apartments at special fall prices.

Dual combat has been with us since the dawn of time, as a means of dominating others or settling disputes. Dueling became a codified ceremony for the nobility as early as the 15th century, when the first manual on the subject of fencing was published. In the 17th century, the French further stylized the practice for sport, introducing rules that made it less barbaric (reducing the probability of impaling one’s opponent). The system of rules and scoring was codified in its present form in the 18th century. Today, fencing has become high-tech, and its practitioners resemble astronauts.

If you are into fencing, or just curious about it, the place to be in November is Paris. The city is holding two events in honor of the sport. The Fencing World Championship will be held from November 4-13, 2010 at the Nave of the Grand Palais (for the first time in history). During the 2010 world fencing championships in Paris, you can watch more than 900 competitors face off in combat. At the end of a week of individual and team trials, 24 world titles will be issued. If you have never visited the Nave of the Grand Palais, it is almost worth it to do so, regardless of what takes place inside. The last time we wrote about the Grand Palais, it was about blowing bubbles.

Prior to attending the event, pay a visit to the fencing exhibition currently held at the Palais de la Découverte, within walking distance of the Grand Palais. Between the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, and the Palais de la Découverte, you will be left with the impression that Paris has more than its share of exquisite Palais (best translated Grand Halls in English).

Take advantage of a furnished apartment on Paris-Sharing.com. Here is one that is still available on those dates:

A masterfully designed apartment for two in the Marais

Paris has much to boast when it comes to Monet. The Musée Marmottan features many of his works, the Nymphéas with their own rooms at l’Orangerie and of course Giverny, which is only an hour away by train. Beginning September 2010, Paris will be outdoing itself for Monet with the largest exhibition in thirty years, organized by the associated national museums and the musée d’Orsay.

The event will be hosted in the Grand Palais, as was the previous one in 1980. Since then much research has been done about the artist, bringing to light many lesser known aspects of his work. The exhibition will showcase Monet’s entire career which started in 1860 (60 years of painting!) and his evolution from a young, rather traditional artist to his emergence as an impressionist verging on the abstract.

The retrospective at the Grand Palais – containing nearly two hundred Monet pieces – juxtaposes famous and lesser known works, offering you a new take on Monet as an extraordinarily modern artist (after all, he died only 84 years ago!).

The Paris Claude Monet exhibition is held in the Galeries nationales at the Grand Palais from 22nd September – 24th January 2011. Open every day except Tuesdays and Xmas day from 9am – 8pm (last ticket). Admission 13€ / 9€. A joint ticket with the Orangerie is also available for 19€.
Guided visits (90 minutes, 9€) and kids workshops (2 hours in all, with a special guided visit, 10€) are also available.
Official Grand Palais site: www.grandpalais.fr

Museums in Paris were swarming with visitors into the wee hours last Saturday night, the one night of year during which the city offers free admission. The Grand Palais was open to the public for a rare and surprising evening of bubbles by the millions. You may think that we already have enough bubbles as it is, with financial and real estate markets, and now government deficits, bulging out of control. The bubbles to which the Grand Palais treated us, though, were nice bubbles, lovely and fragrant.

Under the immense glass roof of this grand exhibition hall built during the Eiffel period, special machines were spewing out perfectly shaped and delicately fragranced bubbles fort the masses. As described on the official Grand Palais website : “The Nave will be staging a magical event entitled NoctamBulle for which perfumer Francis Kurkdjian is creating a collection of scented bubbles combining floral, fruit, herbal and honey fragrances with a sound mood created by Béatrice Ardisson.” Ah, not just any bubbles you see !