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Touring Paris - The Seventh Arrondissement
The seventh arrondissement is located on the Left Bank of
the Seine River. It is home to several major government
institutions and some very important tourist attractions.
This district occupies about 1.6 square miles (slightly
over 4 square kilometers) and has a population of almost 57
thousand people while hosting over 76 thousand jobs.

Some of the best jobs in this arrondissement are in the
Assemblee Nationale (National Assembly), the lower house of
the French Parliament which consists of 577 elected members
known as deputes (deputies), each elected to represent a
single-member constituency. The official seat of the
National Assembly is the Palais Bourbon (Bourbon Palace) on
the banks of the Seine River as well as some neighboring
buildings.

The Eiffel Tower is perhaps Paris’s best-known landmark,
recognized all over the world. This thousand foot (three
hundred twenty meter) building, as tall as an eighty-story
building, annually attracts over six million paying
visitors. Once the tallest structure in the world it is now
only the fifth tallest building in France. And yet year in
year out more visitors pay to see it than any other
monument in the world.

The Eiffel Tower was erected between 1887 and 1889 as the
entrance arch to the Exposition Universelle (World’s Fair)
honoring the centennial of the French Revolution. It was
not immediately popular. The French writer Guy de
Maupassant supposedly ate lunch there every day. When asked
why, since everyone knew that he hated the tower, he simply
replied ‘ that was the only Paris location where he
couldn’t see the tower. The original plans were to demolish
the tower after twenty years but happily plans changed. The
tower is used for radio transmission and served for German
television broadcasts during the occupation of Paris in
World War II and again since 1957.

There’s a fancy restaurant with a private elevator on the
second floor and another restaurant on the first floor. The
Eiffel Tower was struck by lightning in 1902 and in 1910
served in the discovery of cosmic rays. And con men have
succeeded in selling it for scrap metal. The tower shifts
up to 7 inches (18 centimeters) because of the sun and
sways about a third as much in the wind. You can climb the
first two levels but going higher requires an elevator.
Once every seven years it’s painted in three different
colors to keep up appearances.

During the German occupation Nazi soldiers climbed to the
top and hoisted the swastika but after a few hours the wind
blew that rag away. Later during the war the tower proudly
flew the French flag. During the winter the first floor
hosts a free ice skating rink. Its night-time image has
been copyrighted. Many, many buildings are taller, but none
are as recognizable or perhaps as well loved.

The Hotel Matignon, completed in 1725 is one of Paris’s
most elegant mansions. At that time, the owners
authorized any “well-dressed” person to visit the mansion
in their absence. Too bad that I was unaware of this little
slice of history the last time I was in the neighborhood.
The building had seen a lot including the signing of the
famous Matignon Accords in 1936 that established the
forty-hour work week and paid vacations for French workers.
During World War II it was used by the collaborationist
government. According to legend the French Resistance
leaders who seized the premises got confused between Hotel
Matignon and the Matignon Avenue across the Seine River. In
all fairness, they did have a lot on their mind. General de
Gaulle convened the government there in 1944 and once again
in 1958. Its park is the largest private garden in Paris.

The Champ de Mars (Field of Mars) is named for the Roman
war god and was once used for military training. It’s not
far from the military school described below. It was the
site of both a festival and a massacre during the French
Revolution. The Musee d’Orsay (Orsay Museum) was once a
railway station, the world’s first electrified urban one.
Charles de Gaulle spoke there in 1958 before taking power.
It is now a museum specializing in French art from 1848 to
1914. Its collection includes impressionist works by Monet,
Renoir, and many others.

The Ecole Militaire (Military School) was founded in 1750
by Louis XV. Madame de Pompadour was part of this project
whose objective was to enable poor boys to become cadet
officers. Napoleon Bonaparte was such a good student that
he graduated from a two-year program in a single year but
he had already frequented (from age nine) another French
military school. Be sure to visit the nearby Les Invalides
(The Invalides) complex, built in 1670 as a retirement home
for war veterans that has expanded to include a soldiers’
hospital, war monuments, and war museums. Many of France’s
war heroes are buried there including France’s greatest war
hero of them all, Napoleon Bonaparte and his family.

The Musee Rodin (Rodin Museum) was opened in 1919 in the
Hotel Biron where he lived from 1908. It contains most of
his greatest works including The Thinker and The Kiss.
You’ll see many of his sculptures in the gardens. Other
great artists and sculptors including Van Gogh, Rodin, and
Claudel are represented in the museum.

The Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Paris Institute
of Political Studies), often called Sciences Po is one of
France’s greatest educational institutions. Among its
subjects of choice are political science, economics,
business, communications, finance, journalism, law,
management, and urban studies. It was established in 1872
by French businessmen, intellectuals, and politicians in
the wake of France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of
1870 and the Paris Commune of the following year. In the
last few years Sciences Po has taken on a few students from
the poor suburban areas outside Paris; a French version of
the inner city. This is in contrast to their usually
elitist student body. The undergraduate program is usually
three years with the third year spent abroad or in an
internship. Of course there are Master’s and Doctoral
programs. Students are expected to be proficient in at
least two foreign languages and fluent in French. Many
French leaders such as Chirac and Mitterand, thirteen
former prime ministers and a whole slew of world leaders
are former students, teachers or both.

Of course you don’t want to be in Paris without sampling
fine French wine and food. In my article I Love French Wine
and Food ‘ A Bordeaux Merlot I reviewed such a wine and
suggested a sample menu: Start with Gravette Huitres
(Oysters from the Arcachon Bay). For your second course
savor Lamproie au Pomerol (Eels cooked in Red Wine and
Chocolate). And as dessert indulge yourself with Cannelles
de Bordeaux (Portable Crême Brulee). Your Parisian
sommelier (wine steward) will be happy to suggest
appropriate wines to accompany each course.
weight equipment

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Levi Reiss has authored or co-authored ten books on
computers and the Internet, but he prefers drinking fine
Italian or other wine, accompanied by the right foods and
people. He knows about dieting but now eats and drinks what
he wants, in moderation. He teaches classes in computers at
an Ontario French-language community college. Visit his
Italian travel website http://www.travelitalytravel.com
which focuses on local wine and food.