Description
Le Marais is the historic district of Paris on the Right Bank, across the 3rd and 4th arrondissements, full of aristocratic mansions, small museums, galleries, boutiques and narrow streets. It is one of the best places in the city to walk with no plan.
Start at the Place des Vosges, the oldest planned square in Paris, with its red-brick arcades. From there the hôtels particuliers, the grand town mansions, line the streets: Sully, Sens, Beauvais, Carnavalet, Soubise. Many are now museums, with courtyards that open to the public.
The Musée Picasso is in the Hôtel Salé, and the Musée Carnavalet, the museum of the history of Paris, in the mansion of the same name. On the west edge, the Centre Pompidou, by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, brings a very different, modern note to the mix.
Then there is Rue des Rosiers, still a center of Jewish Paris, with its kosher food. The district is also known for its galleries and its lively gay scene.
Le Marais means "the marsh," and long before the palaces this was soggy ground outside the walls, where in 1240 the Knights Templar built a fortified church. Then the kings arrived: in 1605 Henry IV laid out the Place Royale, and the nobility followed.
For two centuries they outdid one another with their mansions. Then fashion moved elsewhere, the Revolution drove out the last nobles, and the Marais began a completely different life as a busy district of trades and shops.
From the late 19th century Jews from Eastern Europe settled around Rue des Rosiers, the "Pletzl." By the 1950s the mansions were crumbling. In 1964 the culture minister André Malraux made the Marais France's first protected historic district, and the restoration began. Since then the district has also become a home for fashion houses, art galleries and upscale restaurants.
Start at the Place des Vosges, the oldest planned square in Paris, with its red-brick arcades. From there the hôtels particuliers, the grand town mansions, line the streets: Sully, Sens, Beauvais, Carnavalet, Soubise. Many are now museums, with courtyards that open to the public.
The Musée Picasso is in the Hôtel Salé, and the Musée Carnavalet, the museum of the history of Paris, in the mansion of the same name. On the west edge, the Centre Pompidou, by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, brings a very different, modern note to the mix.
Then there is Rue des Rosiers, still a center of Jewish Paris, with its kosher food. The district is also known for its galleries and its lively gay scene.
Le Marais means "the marsh," and long before the palaces this was soggy ground outside the walls, where in 1240 the Knights Templar built a fortified church. Then the kings arrived: in 1605 Henry IV laid out the Place Royale, and the nobility followed.
For two centuries they outdid one another with their mansions. Then fashion moved elsewhere, the Revolution drove out the last nobles, and the Marais began a completely different life as a busy district of trades and shops.
From the late 19th century Jews from Eastern Europe settled around Rue des Rosiers, the "Pletzl." By the 1950s the mansions were crumbling. In 1964 the culture minister André Malraux made the Marais France's first protected historic district, and the restoration began. Since then the district has also become a home for fashion houses, art galleries and upscale restaurants.