Culture of Paris

Parisians are almost as passionate about their culture as they are about their restaurants. The French government takes art and culture very seriously, pumping money into the arts, supporting French cinema against Hollywood imports, and embarking on grandiose grands travaux, such as the new Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Quai François-Mauriac. The Opera Bastille (see Music below) opened in 1989, on the bicentennial of Bastille Day, although the merit of its architecture and the quality of its productions have since been questioned.

Major venues, in addition to those detailed below, include the Palais des Congres, 2 place de la Porte-Maillot, 17th, for opera, ballet and pop-star performances, and the enormous Palais des Sports, Porte de Versailles, 15th.

Tickets for concerts of all kinds can be purchased at FNAC Forum des Halles, 1 rue Pierre Lescot, 1st , or FNAC Musique, 2 rue Charenton, 12th . There is also the Carrousel du Louvre, 99 rue de Rivoli, 1st , located directly beneath the Louvre, or Virgin Megastore, 52 avenue des Champs-Elysees, 8th. However long the queue, ticket touts at the Opera and concert venues are to be avoided due to high prices and the prevalence of worthless fake tickets.

Listings are to be found in Pariscope and L’Officiel des Spectacles. Classical concerts are listed in the monthly Le Monde de la Musique.

Music: The Paris Opera performs ballet and opera at the Opera Garnier, place de l’Opera, 9th and Opera Bastille, place de la Bastille, 12th (Tickets cost €30-110). Large opera productions are also performed at the Chatelet Theatre Musical de Paris, 1 place du Chatelet, 1st . The varied programme at the Cite de la Musique, at La Villette , is strongest in contemporary music and home to the internationally renowned Ensemble Intercontemporain (website: www.ensembleinter.com). It also features ancient music, jazz, chansons and world music. The Cite has two important venues - the Conservatoire National de Musique, 209 avenue Jean Jaures, 19th , and the Salle des Concerts, 221 avenue Jean Jaures, 19th (tel: (01) 4484 4484). Big names in French contemporary and experimental classical music to listen out for are Pierre Boulez, Pascal Dusapin and Luc Ferrarie.

A series of orchestras, including the Orchestre Colonne (website: www.orchestrecolonne.fr), Orchestre Lamoureux and Orchestre de Paris are based at Salle Pleyel, 252 rue du Faubourg-St-Honore, 8th. Other prestigious venues for classical music include the Salle Gaveau, 45 rue de la Boetie, 8th (, Theatre des Champs-Elysees, 15 avenue Montaigne, 8th , and the Theatre Musical de Paris, 1 place du Chatelet, 1st .

Theatre: The Comedie Française, 1 place de Colette, 1st , is the national theatre, renowned for its production of the classics. Theatre National de la Colline, 15 rue Malte-Brun, 20th , plays contemporary French drama. New talent is sought out at fringe theatres, such as Guichet-Montparnasse, 15 rue du Maine, 14th . Peter Brook is based at the Bouffes du Nord, 37 bis boulevard de la Chapelle, 10th . The Odeon, 1 place de l’Odeon, 6th , hosts foreign-language productions.

Dance: The main ballet venue is at the Opera Garnier (see Music above). Major productions are also held at the prestigious Theatre de la Ville, 2 place du Chatelet, 4th , where the works of high-profile choreographers, such as Karine Saporta, Maguy Marin and Pina Bausch, are frequently shown. The theatre has another venue, Les Abbesses, with the same contact details at 31 rue des Abbesses, 18th. The Theatre Musical de Paris (see Music above) hosts ballet companies from abroad.

Film: The first public film screening ever (’Le train entrant en gare’) was shown by the Lumiere brothers in Paris in 1895. Today, Paris remains an important cinema capital - in any given week, over 300 films are shown.

There is no English-language cinema in the city, however, most movies are shown in the original language, with French subtitles. UGC (www.ugc.fr) have a major presence in Paris with the city’s largest (18-screen) cinema, UGC Cine Cite Bercy, 2 cours St-Emilion, 12th . There is also a 16-screen UGC Cine Cite Les Halles, place de la Rotonde, Nouveau Forum des Halles, 1st . Although the multi-screen UGCs and Gaumonts are on the increase (many based on the Champs-Elysees and in Montparnasse), Paris is still teeming with small arthouse cinemas, clustered in the 5th and 6th arrondissements. Among these are Le Champo, 51 rue des Ecoles, 5th, near the Sorbonne, and Racine Odeon, 6 rue de l’Ecole-de-Medecine, 6th , known for its all-night showings. Some cinemas are worth seeing just for their decor - one such is kitsch Le Grand Rex, 1 boulevard Poisssonniere, 2nd . Recent movies Amelie or Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amelie Poulain (2001), directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (of Delicatessen (1991) fame) and Moulin Rouge (2001), directed by Baz Luhrmann, were both set in Montmartre and took box offices worldwide by storm.

Cultural Events: Paris offers plenty of choice and a wide variety of lively festivals. Among these are the free, city-wide Fete de la Musique , the Festival du Film de Paris and the Festival d’Automne contemporary dance event. Free concerts are held within the city’s churches during the Festival d’Art Sacre, in the weeks preceding Christmas.

Literary Notes : The written word and words uttered during long cafe discussions on the Left Bank have done much to create the mythical Paris that visitors still hunt out today.

Victor Hugo’s historical novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) is set in 15th-century Paris and his Les Miserables (1862) in the poverty-stricken Parisian underworld. Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast (1964) depicts the bohemian Paris of the inter-war years. Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer (1934) and Tropic of Capricorn (1939) portray a sexier city. A more reflective image is portrayed in Anais Nin’s interlocking works. For Nin, Paris allows the development of her sexuality and (perceived as equally sinful) creativity. George Orwell describes the poverty of the 1920s in Down and Out in Paris and London (1933).

Traces of literary heroes and heroines and their fictional creations are sought throughout the city - in the lingering smoke of the Cafe de Flore and Les Deux Magots, boulevard St-Germain, 6th, where the existential discussions between Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir used to rage. James Joyce used to drink at chic Le Fouquet’s, 99 avenue des Champs-Elysees, 8th, while such luminaries as Jean Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire and Oscar Wilde frequented Le Procope, 13 rue de l’Ancienne-Comedie, 6th. Ernest Hemingway dined at the La Cloiserie des Lilas, 171 boulevard du Montparnasse, 6th, still popular with the publishing world, and Samuel Beckett’s favourite haunt was Le Select, 99 boulevard du Montparnasse, 6th.

The place of literary pilgrimage par excellence is the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, presumed resting place of medieval lovers Abelard and Heloïse. They lie in good company, along with the great 17th-century playwright Moliere and fable-teller La Fontaine, Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhardt, Champollion, Delacroix, Ingres, Gericault, Bizet, Balzac, Proust, Colette and Edith Piaf. Contemporary poet, singer and icon Jim Morrison was famously buried here in 1971. Heather Reyes’ Zade (2004) is set in Pere Lachaise and swirls around the ghosts of Jim Morrison, Marcel Proust and Oscar Wilde.