Travelling to Paris: 15 Sights to See

The Père Lachaise Cemetery is one of the most beautiful, serene and quiet places in all of Paris. It is the largest cemetery in Paris, located in the 20th arrondissement. It is the most visited cemetery in the world because of the famous people that have been buried here. Oscar Wilde, Colette, Honoré de Balzac, Édith Piaf, Molière, Marcel Proust, Jim Morrison, and more. The cemetery was first opened in 1804 but was not too popular because it was considered too far from the city centre and hadn’t been blessed by the Church. So, the administrators decided to pull a marketing stunt and organize a big event for the move Jean de La Fontaine and Molière’s tomb in the cemetery.

This 12th arrondissement elevated linear park is the youngest sight on this list but it is still a must-see. If you’ve ever been to New York City, specifically to the High Line in Chelsea, this park might look familiar to you. The Coulée is a park built on top of an old railway infrastructure. This 4.7-kilometre walk was inaugurated in 1993 and begins near the Bastille Opera and ends at the Boulevard Périphérique. The railway was first built in 1859 to link the Bastille station to Verneuil-l’Étang but stopped operating in 1969 and was abandoned until the 1980s when the area was renovated.

Les Invalides Hotel in the 7th arrondissement is a huge building filled with museums and monuments (Musée de l’Armée, the military museum of the Army of France, the Musée des Plans-Reliefs, and the Musée d’Histoire Contemporaine), all related to the military history of France. The building was erected in the 1600s and has lived many important moments in French history. It was first built as a retirement home for war veterans. Napoleon Bonaparte is buried here. If you are interested in French history and more specifically the military history of France, this is the place to go.