10 Things You Didn’t Know about Paris

One of the world’s most popular tourist destinations, Paris is globally recognized for the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and the Arc de Triomphe – to name a few landmarks. But there’s a lot more to it than what you see on TV or in the movies. No matter how many times you visit, there’s always something new to discover. Here we’ve rounded up just a few surprising tidbits you may not know about Paris… Test your knowledge, and let us know what you know in the comments section below.

courtesy of the Musée des Arts Forains
- Ride a merry-go-round by biking in place at a quirky museum.
The Louvre may be the world’s most popular museum, but Paris has hundreds of other museums, including a quirky one devoted to the fairground arts. Think vintage merry-go-rounds galore. The Musée des arts forains is a fantastical place. To quote Kate Robinson: “One of Paris’ most enchanting museums is located in a former wine hall in the Bercy district. Jean-Paul Favand’s private collection of carnival attractions popular from 1850 to 1950 includes such wonders as a manège vélocipédique, a pedal-pushing merry-go-round powered by the riders themselves, and the game La course au café in which a line of wooden waiters race to be the first to “serve” a glass of wine.” Read the full article about 9 quirky museums here.

Place des Vosges. Photo credit: Marko Maras/ Flickr
2. The Marais district could’ve been destroyed in the 1920s.
The Place des Vosges is often recognized as the prettiest square in Paris, attracting locals and tourists alike to bask in its architectural harmony (and pretty grass lawns for picnics). But it’s fate could’ve been quite different. As Renata Haidle explains in her must-read article on the Place des Vosges, “In the 1920s, architect Le Corbusier submitted a plan (named Plan Voisin) to demolish most of the Marais, including the area surrounding Place des Vosges, and replace it with a futuristic business district, with spacious parks and “widely-spaced crystal towers”. Thankfully, the plan was received poorly by his contemporaries and it was never considered. The Place des Vosges remains intact since its construction.”

The Line 11 Arts et Métier Station. © Meredith Mullins
3. There’s a metro station inspired by Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.
If you’ve ever alighted from the metro line 11 at the Arts et Métiers station, you might find your jaw dropping at the design. In the words of Meredith Mullins, who writes our Metro Magic series: “curved Nautilus submarine walls, giant cogs in the ceiling, and tiny portholes into a world of discovery.” The station designer imagined a retro-futuristic submarine- and we get lots of steampunk vibes. “At Arts et Métiers, you peer into the portholes and get a peek into a history of humans’ inventions and innovations. Aside from the fact that the porthole windows need a good cleaning (Note to RATP), it’s a perfect introduction to the fascinating Musée des Arts et Métiers, just a few minutes from the metro station.” Read the full article here.

La Seine Musicale. Photo credit: Laurent-Blossier / Paris je t’aime
4. A dazzling music venue occupies an island in the Seine.
La Seine Musicale is located on the Île Seguin, once the site of a Renault car factory. To quote Dimitri Keramitas: “It’s absurd that such an enormous (and marvelous) venue, with such interesting programs, can qualify for expressions like “best kept secret” but when I mentioned it to Parisian friends after watching Abel Gance’s masterpiece Napoleon (7 hours over 2 days, four intermissions), I was surprised that they had only a vague idea of the place.”

Beehives of the Musée d’Orsay. Photo © Pierre Torset
5. Urban beekeepers tend hives on the rooftops of major monuments.
Beekeeping has a long history in Paris. As described by Meredith Mullins, “if you’re a Paris flâneur, you may have walked by the beehives tucked away in the southwest corner of the Luxembourg Gardens. These traditional wooden hives are part of a beekeeping project that began in 1856, followed by a beekeeping school that is still active today.” But that’s not all. From the top of the Opera Garnier to the Orsay Museum, “bees are all the buzz.” To read about all the major landmarks that are home to beehives, check out the full article here.

La Marche des Teckels 2022. Photo credit: William O’Such
6. The city is home to a lot of dogs, and cats.
There’s a sizeable population of pets in Paris. As described by Hazel Smith, “There are over 300,000 dogs in Paris. With a central population of 2.1 million, the math says that’s one dog for every seven Parisians. Parisians cherish their dogs as much as their time off, so dogs accompany their owners to places the rest of the world reserves for humans only: restaurants, shops, and public transport. Everywhere the Parisian goes, the dog goes too… well, almost.” (Here’s our ultimate guide to dog-friendly Paris.) And when it comes to cats, they can be more elusive, but here’s where you can find them.

Harvested wine grapes. Photo credit: Jean-Pierre Viguié/ Ville de Paris
7. Vineyards still exist in Paris.
From Belleville to Bercy, there are a number of vineyard parcels in the wine-loving City of Light. But nothing rivals the last working vineyard, Le Clos Montmartre, and its annual harvest festival. The five-day Fête Des Vendanges is a family favorite on the Paris cultural calendar, complete with a costume parade featuring various wine brotherhoods. To quote Hazel Smith: ” ‘Rejoice in doing good’ is the motto that members of the Republique de Montmartre are loyal to. The pinnacle of their year is celebration around the Montmartre grape harvest. Today they are distinguished from the throng by wearing the outfit of Montmartre denizen, Aristide Bruant, immortalized by Toulouse-Lautrec in a red scarf, black cape and floppy black hat.” Find out more about the famous grape harvest festival here.

Promenade dans le égouts de Paris. Rue du Château-d’Eau, Illustration by Morin after Nadar’s photography, 1865
8. Fashionable Parisians used to go boating in Haussmann’s sewers in the 19th century, and you can still visit the sewers today.
Did you know there’s an underground museum of the Paris sewers? As reported by Claudia Jacob: “‘The sewer is the conscience of the city,’ prophesied Victor Hugo with bizarre fascination in his magnum opus, Les Misérables, first published in 1862. But if Paris is a city rhapsodized for its grandiose exterior, you’d be forgiven for not having explored the recently renovated Musée des Égouts de Paris, a quirky museum which, rather than celebrating the visible, transports you into Paris’s murky depths.” Read the full article here.

Ernest Meissonier, Autoportrait. © Wikipedia, Public Domain
9. The richest French artist of the 19th century wasn’t an Impressionist.
When you think of masterpieces of French art, no doubt the Impressionist works of the Orsay Museum come to mind. The art movement, which celebrated its 150th birthday in 2024, is a lasting legacy of the 19th century. But despite their fame today, Impressionist artists didn’t make it big in their lifetimes. To quote correspondent Hazel Smith: “The richest and most popular artist in France in the 19th century wasn’t Renoir, Monet or even Manet, but an artist whose reputation languishes in obscurity. Ernest Meissonier, born 1815, was a Realist painter who would end up as a footnote to the history of French painting when the free-hand of the Impressionism took over from the painstaking minutiae of Meissonier.” Read the full article here.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923). Public domain
10. Why is the “hunchback of Notre Dame” named Quasimodo?
“France has just celebrated the reopening of its iconic cathedral, Notre Dame, with a ceremony that brought together leaders from around the world,” says Keith Van Sickle. The cathedral dates back to the 12th century, and 200 years ago Victor Hugo helped save it, via the publication of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, a novel that championed historic preservation and particularly the Gothic architecture of Notre Dame. The “hunchback” is named from the Catholic religious calendar, after the day he was found. “Quasimodo Sunday is the third of three holy days that follow one another. First comes Palm Sunday, followed a week later by Easter Sunday, followed a week later by Quasimodo Sunday.” Read the full article here.
Lead photo credit : View of the Eiffel Tower from the Tour Saint Jacques. Photo: Yann Caradec / Wikimedia commons
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