Belle Epoque Paris Tour

Belle

Époque

PARIS

During the XIX century (after the Franco Prussian War in 1871) Paris became the center of innovation and style; exporting art styles like: the Romanticism, the Impressionism, and Art Noveau to the rest of Europe and the world — and today you can go back to the times of Rodin and feel like you are attending an exposition universelle.

Time period: 1850-1910

Movie or book: Aristocats (1970)/Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

Soundtrack: Frederick Chopin/Claude Debussy’s music

Fashion: white outfit, long coat plus bowler hat

Budget:

Alexandre Aimé Vuillemin & Charles Dyonnet: Nouveau Plan Complet Illustre de la Ville de Paris en 1889

L Baschet: Plan Practique de l’Exposition Universelle de 1900; Paris, 1900

This tour would take you through: the Faubourg Saint Germain district, the neighborhood where many iconic monuments plus pavilions got built for the world fairs; and through Le Champs-Elysées, a promenade designed by Andre Le Notre in 1667 that became a shopping street by the end of the 1800s. The area is characterized by: monumental beaux-art/neoclassical architecture, boulevards and Le Champs-Elysées. This is the time when France was a colonial imperial power and the capital got industrialized, sparking a new era of growth and prosperity that would turn “The City of Lights” on. Napoleon the III ordered the renovation of the medieval city to Georges-Eugene Haussmann, who from 1853 till 1870 created the Paris of the boulevards we known today. Then during the Belle Epoque (1870-1914) the city experienced its golden era and gained its romantic/elegant reputation: Le Champs-Elysées got transformed by the bourgeoisie into an urban corridor ending in the Arc du Triumph; Parisian coffee shops became the meeting point of intellectuals while the cabarets for the bohemians; the Paris’ opera house, Palais Garnier, got inaugurated in 1875; and the Eiffel Tower, the metro and railway stations got built for the different world fairs editions (the city had 5 fairs from 1855 till 1900 were countries/companies would send their innovations). All this construction plus the advancement in steel production gave us a new style of architecture The Beaux-Arts characterized by: a metal interior structure, symmetrical facades, and ornamentation mixing elements from different styles. Artist like Eugene Delacroix started revolting against the formality of the academie and the rationality of the enlightenment by being more emotional and organic — embracing the romanticism. He inspired a wave of artist from a generation latter that would paint natural landscapes or the new street-life (rather than mythological scenes) like Eduard Manet, a nepo baby/hipster who frequented the Cafe Guerbois. There Manet led discussions about art and life with a younger crowd: Renoir, Monet, Cezanne and Pissarro who created the impressionist movement in the 1860s against the salons of the day. They all reach success and wealth by the end of the century going from renegades to mainstream. All this growth and modernization culminated in 1900 when the city held its largest fair (introducing electricity and public lights to the masses) and also hosted its first Olympic Games (the second edition of the games after Athens in 1896). Sadly WWI (and latter WWII) will shut down the lights of the Belle Époque. The tour suggests having brunch at a historic cafe plus an Art Studio in the morning; checking out 3 buildings done for the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in the afternoon; and to end the day shopping and dinning at the iconic the Champs-Elysées plus the Eiffel Tower.