Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
It was in this same neighbourhood that Louis VI created
halles
(markets) in
1137 for the merchants who converged on the city centre to sell their wares,
and for over 800 years they were, in the words of Émile Zola, the 'belly of Par-
is'. The wholesalers were moved lox, stock and cabbage out to the suburbs in
1971.
ART MUSEUM
LES ARTS DÉCORATIFS
11am-6pm Tue-Sun, to 9pm Thu; Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre)
A trio of privately administered collections - Applied Arts, Advertising and Fashion & Tex-
tiles - sit in the Rohan Wing of the vast Palais du Louvre. They are collectively known as
the Decorative Arts; admission includes entry to all three. For an extra €2, you can scoop up
a combo ticket that also includes the
Musée Nissim de Camondo
in the 8e.
The
Arts Décoratifs
(Applied Arts) section takes up the majority of the space and dis-
plays furniture, jewellery and such objets d'art as ceramics and glassware from the Middle
Ages and the Renaissance through the art-nouveau and art-deco periods to modern times. Its
collections span from Europe to East Asia.
On the other side of the building is the smaller
Musée de la Publicité
(Advertising Mu-
seum), which has some 100,000 posters in its collection dating as far back as the 13th cen-
tury and innumerable promotional materials. Most of the space is given over to special ex-
hibitions.
Haute couture
(high fashion) creations by the likes of Chanel and Jean-Paul Gaultier can
be ogled in the
Musée de la Mode et du Textile
(Museum of Fashion & Textiles), home to
some 16,000 costumes from the 16th century to the present day. Items are only on display
during regularly scheduled themed exhibitions.
CHURCH
ÉGLISE ST-GERMAIN L'AUXERROIS
8am-7pm Mon-
Sat, 9am-8pm Sun; Louvre Rivoli or Pont Neuf)
Built between the 13th and 16th centuries in a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance styles and
with similar dimensions and ground plans to those of Notre Dame, this once royal parish
church stands on a site at the eastern end of the Louvre that has been used for Christian wor-
ship since about AD 500.
