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The circular building which houses the Commercial Exchange was erected as a grain market in 1767 and remodelled in the 19th century. It was first covered with a wooden dome, then by subsequent structures of iron and copper. Under today’s glass dome, activity in the coffee and sugar commodities market is covered at a leisurely pace compared to the way other world financial centres operate.

This magnificent tree was planted in 1734, and came from London’s Botanic Gardens in Kew, although a story grew up that its seed was brought here all the way from Syria in the hat of a scientist.

These long formal gardens, stretching between the Eiffel Tower and the Ecole Militaire, were laid out in 1765–7 as a parade ground for the military school, but the “Field of Mars” was opened to the public in 1780. Three years later crowds gathered for the launch of the first hydrogen-filled balloon. On 14 July 1790, a sullen Louis XVI watched as 300,000 citizens celebrated the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, an event which is commemorated here annually (see Marais and the Bastille). Five world exhibitions were held here between 1867 and 1937; the 1889 event gave Paris the Eiffel Tower.

At the same time as he re-designed central Paris (see The Second Empire), Baron Haussmann created the Bois de Boulogne. This chateau was given to Haussmann as a thank-you from Napoleon III.

This is the most visited cemetery in the world, largely due to rock fans who come from around the world to see the grave of the legendary singer Jim Morrison of The Doors. There are about one million other graves here, in some 70,000 different tombs, including those of Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Balzac, Edith Piaf, Colette, Molière and Delacroix (see Oscar Wilde, Père Lachaise Cemetery). There are maps posted around the cemetery to enable you to find these notable resting places, or a more detailed plan can be bought at the kiosks around the grounds.

A day out at the circus. In the morning kids can put on clown make-up, see the animals or try tightrope walking. After lunch with the performers, they watch the show.

This small circus puts on a new show each year, with jugglers, clowns, tightrope walkers and acrobats performing from November until March.

Outside the Palaeontology Gallery, which is crammed with precious dinosaur skeletons, is a huge dinosaur model, specifically designed for children to climb on (see Grande Galerie de l’volution).

One of the trees in the Botanical Gardens is the Ginkgo biloba , which is 150 years old but the species is known to have existed in exactly the same form in the days of the dinosaurs, 125 million years ago.