DK Travel : Paris

From Notre-Dame to the Eiffel Tower, Paris holds some of the world's most famous sights and these highlights should be top of the list for any first-time visitor. With the exception of the overtly modern Pompidou Centre, they have been landmarks of this elegant and romantic capital for centuries and remain awe-inspiring sights, no matter how often you visit the city.

More on guided tours in Paris

10 August 1792

A mob storms the Tuileries and the royals are imprisoned in the Temple.
102 Boulevard Haussmann

Hypochondriac author Marcel Proust lived in a soundproofed room here, turning memories into a masterwork.
10th Century

A larger market for meat, fruit and vegetables was at this time known to exist in the part of Paris which is now Les Halles.
114 Avenue des Champs-Elysées

Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont planned many of his amazing aeronautical feats – notably that of circling the Eiffel Tower in an airship in 1901 – from this address.
1183

The market is enlarged by King Philippe Auguste, who built shelters for the market traders near St-Eustache church. This date is generally accepted as the founding of Les Halles as the city’s market.
12 November 1970

The death of President Charles de Gaulle was an immense event in France, as he had been the single most dominant French political figure for 30 years. He was honoured by a silent march along the Champs-Elysées.
14 July 1789

Storming of the Bastille prison, a symbol of repression, launches the Revolution.
1616

Paris’s grand avenue was first laid out when Marie de Médici, wife of Henri IV, had a carriage route, the Cours-la-Reine (Queen’s Way), constructed through the marshland along the Seine.
1667

Landscape gardener Le Nôtre lengthened the Jardin des Tuileries to meet the Cours-la-Reine, and opened up the view with a double row of chestnut trees, creating the Grand Cours.
1709

The avenue was re-named the Champs-Elysées (Elysian Fields). In Greek mythology, the Elysian Fields were the “place of ideal happiness”, the abode of the blessed after death.