The Design Capital of the World
Founded as an official city in the 3rd century, the earliest sign of Human habitation actually dates back to 7500BC. An early Celtic tribe known as the Parisii settled in the area around 250BC until the arrival of the Romans in 52BC.
During the middle ages Paris was the largest City in Europe and a vital centre of trade and commerce. The city has been occupied numerous times over its history having been a capital or regional capital for the Romans, Franks, Nazis, Burgundians, English and warring French factions.
These days school trips to Paris will find the modern capital of culture, style and fashion.
ENGLISH
ART
HISTORY
LANGUAGE
ECONOMICS
SCIENCE
RELIGION
Centre Pompidou
Designed by Richard Rogers, Renzo Piano and Gianfranco Franchini, the fascinating Centre Pompidou building is both unique in nature and one of the most remarkable pieces of high-tech architecture in Europe today. The centre houses the city's public library, IRCAM (the centre of music and acoustic research) and the Musee National d'Art, Europe's largest modern art museum.
Since opening in 1977, the building has received over 180 million visitors and regularly features special exhibitions from world-renowned artists. Former exhibits have showcased the work of Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso and Roy Lichtenstein.
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Cite de Sciences
Paris' Cite de Sciences is France's foremost science museum, and the largest in Europe, attracting around 5 million people each year. Students can enjoy interactive exhibits using the latest touch-screen technology, covering everything from the story of man's genes and the mysteries of the human brain, to the origins of our universe.
As well as expertly guided tours, a planetarium and an IMAX theatre, Cite de Sciences also offers temporary exhibitions, the most recent of which include, Urban Mutations, The City is Ours! And Baby Animals, Tiny Heroes!
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Eiffel Tower
The French capital's iconic Eiffel Tower stands 324 metres high, has 20,000 lightbulbs and 336 lamps. It was first constructed by Gustav Eiffel to celebrate the first centenary of the French Revolution, and was only supposed to last for 20 years. However, over 100 years later the Tower is still a celebrated global landmark, welcoming almost 7 million annual visitors.
The Tower invites visitors to enjoy the remarkable vista seen from its top level, which can be reached via lifts, or if you're feeling especially active, by walking up 704 metallic steps. Perhaps above all others, no school trip to Paris is complete without visiting the Eiffel tower.
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Guided Tour of La Defense
La Defense is the French capital's answer to Canary Wharf; a modern hub of finance, a monument to business and the centre of Parisian commerce. The area includes 38 million square feet of office space, a state-of-the-art shopping mall, an open-air art gallery, as well as many of the city's tallest skyscrapers. On a guided tour, visitors can expect expert knowledge on the workings of La Defense and a unique, first hand perspective of one of Europe's busiest financial districts.
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Louvre Museum
Paris' iconic Louvre Museum houses more than 380,000 historical artefacts and 35,000 treasured works of art, and is the second most-visited museum in the world with around 9.26 million annual visitors. The Louvre is most famous for being the home of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, viewed by an average of 6 million people every year, while the museum also houses several other masterpieces from celebrated artists such as Michelangelo, Raphael and Eugene Delacroix.
The Louvre offers guided tours, expertly curated audio guides, and special exhibitions highlighting specific moments in art and cultural history. As well as access to the storied Clock Pavilion, which recently opened its doors to the public for the first time.
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Maison de Victor Hugo
The Maison de Victor Hugo is a museum dedicated to the life and work of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Miserables author Victor Hugo, set within the house where the prolific writer lived for 16 years of his career. Students can see more than 18,000 handwritten letters within the museum's vast collection of historical artefacts, many of which were penned by Hugo himself.
At the heart of Maison de Victor Hugo is an extensive library containing some 11,400 volumes and more than 3000 reprints and articles. Among these are complete, foreign, French and first editions of many of Hugo's most famous works.
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Musee de l'Orangerie
Paris' remarkable Musee de l'Orangerie houses notable works by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Paul Cezanne, Henri Rousseau and Amedeo Modigliani, and is world-renowned as the permanent home of eight Water Lilies murals painted by Claude Monet, displayed beneath diffused light as requested by the artist himself.
The museum also features the Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume Collection, one of the finest collections of European impressionist art in the world today including no fewer than 25 works by Renoir. Students can also enjoy special exhibits focusing on different art movements from all over the globe.
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Notre Dame
Widely considered to be one of the world's greatest examples of French gothic architecture, Notre Dame Cathedral is of great Catholic significance, housing a vast collection of ancient relics which is purported to include the Crown of Thorns, a piece of the True Cross and one of the Holy Nails. To this day, the Cathedral hosts regular services as well as tours of its facades, treasury and bell-tower.
Built over 800 years ago, the cathedral took over 100 years to construct and soon became an internationally recognised symbol of Paris and France, receiving approximately 13 million annual visitors.
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Palace of Versailles
Another stand out destination for school trips to France, the Palace of Versailles is a national site of deep cultural and historical importance. The wife of King Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette once called the royal chateau home, the founding act of French democracy took place here in 1789 and the Treaty of Versailles was signed in the historic Hall of Mirrors in 1919, drawing World War I to an immediate close.
First built in 1623 by Louis XIII, the chateau has served as the seat of French political power, and to this day remains of great political importance to the national government, with President Francois Hollande holding crisis talks here as recently as 2015. Guided tours explore the Palace interiors, Marie-Antoinette's estate, The Grand Trianon and the ornate gardens.
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Rungis Market
An expert-led guided tour of Rungis Market is a unique chance to see behind the day-to-day operations of the largest fresh produce market on Earth. Students can witness the preparation of fruit, vegetable, meat and dairy products, the building's recycling plant and the rail terminal where two train-loads of produce arrives every day. School trips to Paris offer an opportunity to see the "Champs Elysees of Rungis”, an exhibit exploring the creation and manufacture of gourmet deli foods.
In one form or another, Rungis has existed since the 10th century, however today the market covers 573 acres of land, with a remarkable 1.6 million tonnes of products brought in every year.
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UNESCO
The Parisian headquarters of UNESCO at Place de Fontenoy is a remarkable building, with modernist architecture designed and constructed in the 1950s. UNESCO offer guided tours of the recently renovated site, where visitors can see interactive exhibitions of the work of the organisation, including the work of their global staff and its unique activities around the world, as well as free cultural events.
The Japanese Garden, the Meditation Space of Tadao Ando and the building's extensive art collection are also points of interest seen on an expert-led visit.
Get a quoteA City of Fashion, Taste and History
When it comes to school trips to France, Paris is the pinnacle. In fact Parisians themselves will argue that this vibrant and energetic city is still the world centre for many things; gastronomy, fashion, art, perfume, baking, and more, and who are we to argue? It is most certainly an invaluable centre of culture and learning and has some of the world’s most famous museums for school trips to Paris to explore.
School Trips to Paris Facts - Did you know...
- Paris is a small capital city compared to others...
- Berlin / 891.8km2
- Rome / 1,285km2
- London / 1,572km2
- Paris / 105.5km
- The Eifel Tower was originally offered to Barcelona but the Catalans refused to let it be built in their city
- The French writer Guy de Maupassant ate lunch at the base of Eiffel Tower almost every day because he hated the Eiffel Tower and claimed that was the only place in the whole Paris from which he couldn't see it
- Paris is home to 1,803 monuments and 173 museums
- The 10th arrondissement has old Haussmanian building that is actually fake. It really hides a ventilation system
- Paris has five statues of liberty
- The longest street is the Rue Vaugirard which is 4,360 meters long
- The most visited building is the Notre Dame Cathedral
- No building in Paris is allowed to exceed 6 stories
- The day the Bastille was stormed it actually only had 7 prisoners, none political
Places to go, people to meet...
Great Paris Locations
- Grand Palais Eiffel Tower
- Notre Dame Cathedral
- The Louvre
- Champs-Elysees
- Musee d’Orsay
- Arc de Triomphe
- Montmartre
- Sacre-Coeur
- Pompidou Centre
- Les Invalides
- Musee Rodin
- Catacombs
- Musee do l’Orangarie
- Tuileries Garden
- Musee Picasso
- Bastille
- Musee Marmottan Monet
- Champ de Mars
- Place de la Concorde
Famous Paris Residents
- Alexandre Gustav Eiffel
- Brigette Bardot
- Claude Monet
- Claude-Achille Debussy
- Edith Piaf
- Coco Chanel
- Ernest Hemingway
- Frederic Chopin
- Honore de Balzac
- Isadora Duncan
- Jean Cocteau
- Jean-Baptriste Moliere
- Louis Braillle
- Maria Curie
- Sarah Bernhardt
- Victor Hugo
- Voltaire
- Auguste Rodin
- Rene Lacoste
- Pierre Curie
- Marquis de Sade
- Christian Louboutin
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