Hotels Paris

The Canal entrance is quite discreet, opening through a tunnel. The Canal was created during the "Restauration" period, from 1821 to 1825. It has 4.5 km. The entrance is crossed by several viaducts for highways and metro. The Canal Saint Martin connects the Seine river in Paris to the Canals l'Ourq and Saint Denis and then goes into the Seine again. This shortcut allows boats a 12 km saving.After crossing through the tunel, the Canal opens to the Arsenal marina. This port is the only real marina in Paris. It can accomodate more than 200 boats. The covered part (from Bastille) is now the Richard Lenoir Boulevard. This was done in the middle of XIXth century to allow the reunification of the outside districts to the city.The Canal crosses the "10ème arrondissement". Here starts the real open-skies Canal St-Martin. And the Canal goes further, another time underground, just to pass under Stalingrad crossroads. After crossing the roads we enter the "XIXème arrondissement". There we find the huge La Villette pond and a funny circular structure called Rotonde de La Villette. It had been once a special market place. The end of the La Villette pond coincide with the connection with the Ourcq Canal. There, a peculiar drawbridge serves as a barrier.

Just nearby Place de la République, between the Grands Boulevards and Magenta. Between the Portes Saint-Martin and Saint-Antoine and the boulevard Magenta is one of those neighbourhoods in Paris where you might wonder if you still are in Paris. At the same time you might wonder where else you could be as there are so many cultural influences! So, splurge into this vibrant cultural mix and enjoy a myriad of flavours. If you cannot choose between the Indian restaurants in the Passage Brady, then you could always do your hopping
in the different exotic grocery shops. You will be amazed by the West Indian hairdressers in boulevard de Strasbourg and by the gallery Arts from the World, devoted to Brazilian artists. But the neighbourhood has preserved its traditions, as in rue de Paradis with its passage dating to 1900 and its Crystal ware. There is also contemporary art: in rue du Faubourg-Saint-Martin, the passage du Désir is a chic and fashionable exhibition site. Less well-known, the Windows space on, rue Gustave-Goublier, showcases photography. Close by, at 9 rue des Petites-Ecuries, the incomparable Blanca Li gives her contemporary dance classes, alongside the great Peter Goss. This is a district for theatre: don’t miss the Théâtre Antoine, with its stained-glass windows decorated with harlequins!

Hard Rock Cafe
The Hard Rock Cafe Paris offers more than just great food and service. Our Cafe is a museum of popular culture. In our restaurant and famous cocktail bar all is done to give our international clientele an American experience.

It is centrally located next to the Opera and the Grands Boulevards, not far from famous places such as Musée Grévin, les Etoiles du Rex or the Theather of Varietes. Hard Rock Cafe Paris offer its guests the finest all-American food and great music.

Hard Rock Cafe
14 Boulevard Montmartre
Paris 75009, France
Restaurant:
Sun - Thur 8:30AM - 1:00AM
Fri - Sat 8:30AM - 2:00AM
Tel. 0033 1 53 24 60 00

The Parisian landmark is the tallest structure in Paris and one of the most recognized structures in the world it is named after its designer, Gustave Eiffel. More than 200,000,000 have visisted the infamous Parisian monument since its construction. This makes the tower the most visited paid monument in the world per year. The Eiffel Tower is equivalent to about 81 levels in a conventional building.

When the tower was completed in 1889 it replaced the Washington Monument as the world's tallest structure. The tower is now the fifth-tallest structure in France and the tallest structure in Paris, with the second-tallest being the Montparnasse Tower, however it will be surpassed by the Tour AXA (225.11 m — 738.36 ft). Maintenance of the tower includes applying 50 to 60 tons of three graded tones of paint every seven years to protect it from rust. The tower is actually painted three different colours in order to make it look the same colour to an observer on the ground with the colors changing from dark to light from top to bottom.

Eiffel (the engineer) originally planned to build the Eiffel Tower in Barcelona, for the Universal Exposition of 1888, but those responsible at the Barcelona city hall thought it was a strange construction, and expensive, which did not fit into the city. After the refusal from Barcelona, Eiffel submitted his draft to those responsible for the Universal Exhibition in Paris, where he would build a year later, in 1889. The tower was inaugurated on 31 March 1889, and opened on the 6th of May. Three hundred workers joined together 18,038 pieces of puddled iron (a very pure form of structural iron), using two and a half million rivets, in a structural design by Maurice Koechlin. The risk of accident was great, for unlike modern skyscrapers the tower is an open frame without any intermediate floors except the two platforms. Yet because Eiffel took safety precautions including use of movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one man died.

The tower was met with resistance from the public when it was built, with many calling it an eyesore. (Novelist Guy de Maupassant — who claimed to hate the tower — supposedly ate lunch at the Tower's restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that it was the one place in Paris where you couldn't see the Tower.) Today, it is widely considered to be a striking piece of structural art.

If you're feeling home sick and need an American Breakfast go to the Saint Germain District of Paris.

There is a little restaurant that serves a fine American breakfast.

Breakfast in America Restaurant
17 rue des Ecoles
75005 Paris

Tel: 01 43 54 50 28