Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Paris Sewer Tour (Les Egouts de Paris)
Discover what happens after you flush. This quick, interesting, and slightly stinky visit (a
perfumed hanky helps) takes you along a few hundred yards of water tunnels in the world's
firstundergroundsewersystem.PickupthehelpfulEnglishself-guidedtour,thendropdown
into Jean Valjean's world of tunnels, rats, and manhole covers. (Victor Hugo was friends
with the sewer inspector when he wrote Les Misérables .) You'll pass well-organized dis-
plays with helpful English information explaining the history of water distribution in Paris,
from Roman times to the present. The evolution of this amazing network of sewers is sur-
prisingly fascinating. More than 1,500 miles of tunnels carry 317 million gallons of water
daily through this underworld. It's the world's longest sewer system—so long, they say, that
if it was laid out straight, it would stretch from Paris all the way to Istanbul.
In the gift shop, you can ask about the slideshow and occasional tours in English. The
WCs are just beyond the gift shop.
CostandHours: €4.30,coveredbyMuseumPass,May-SeptSat-Wed11:00-17:00,Oct-
April Sat-Wed 11:00-16:00, closed Thu-Fri, located where Pont de l'Alma greets the Left
Bank—on the right side of the bridge as you face the river, Mo: Alma-Marceau, RER: Pont
de l'Alma, tel. 01 53 68 27 81.
▲▲▲ Army Museum and Napoleon's Tomb (Musée de l'Armée)
TheHôteldesInvalides,aformerveterans'hospitaltoppedbyagoldendome,housesNapo-
leon's over-the-top-ornate tomb, as well as Europe's greatest military museum. Visiting the
Army Museum's different sections, you can watch the art of war unfold from stone axes to
Axis powers.
At the center of the complex, Napoleon Bonaparte lies majestically dead inside several
coffins under a grand dome—a goose-bumping pilgrimage for historians. Your visit contin-
ues through an impressive range of museums filled with medieval armor, cannons and mus-
kets, Louis XIV-era uniforms and weapons, and Napoleon's horse—stuffed and mounted.
The best section is dedicated to the two World Wars. Walk chronologically through dis-
plays on the trench warfare of World War I, the victory parades, France's horrendous loss of
life, and the humiliating Treaty of Versailles that led to World War II. The WWII rooms use
black-and-whitephotos,maps,videos,andafewartifactstotraceHitler'srise,theBlitzkrieg
that overran France, America's entry into the war, D-Day, concentration camps, the atomic
bomb, and the eventual Allied victory. There's special insight into France's role (the French
Resistance) and how it was Charles de Gaulle who actually won the war.
Cost and Hours: €9, €7 after 17:00, free for military personnel in uniform, free for
kids but they must wait in line for ticket, covered by Museum Pass, audioguide-€6; mu-
seum—dailyApril-Sept10:00-18:00,maybeopenTueuntil21:00,Oct-March10:00-17:00,
closed first Mon of month year-round; tomb—daily April-June and Sept 10:00-18:00, may
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