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Built for the daughter of Louis XIV in 1722, the Palais Bourbon has housed the lower house of the French parliament since 1827. The Council of the Five Hundred met here during the Revolution, and it was the headquarters of the German Occupation during World War II. Napoleon added the Classical riverfront façade in 1806 to complement La Madeleine (see Place de la Madeleine) across the river.

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 urging of his mistress Madame Pompadour, Louis XV approved the building of the Royal Military Academy in 1751. Although its purpose was to educate the sons of impoverished officers, a grand edifice was designed by Jacques-Ange Gabriel, architect of the place de la Concorde and the Petit Trianon at Versailles, and completed in 1773. The central pavilion with its quadrangular dome and Corinthian pillars is a splendid example of the French Classical style.

In a city of glamour and grandeur, the sewers (egouts ) of Paris are an incongruously popular attraction. They date from the Second Empire (1851–70), when Baron Haussmann was transforming the city (see The Second Empire), and the sewers which helped to sanitize and ventilate Paris are considered one of his finest achievements. Most of the work was done by an engineer named Belgrand. The 2,100-km (1,300-mile) network covers the area from Les Halles to La Villette – if laid end-to-end the sewers would stretch from Paris to Istanbul. An hour-long tour includes a walk through some of the tunnels, where you’ll see water pipes, telephone lines and various cables, while the museum tells the story of the city’s water and sewers, from their beginnings to the present day. There is an audio-visual show and a room devoted to sanitation techniques of the future.

The Army Museum contains one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of arms, armour and displays on military history in the world. There are weapons ranging from prehistoric times to the end of World War II, representing countries around the world. Housed in the Hôtel des Invalides, the vast galleries occupy the old refectories in two wings on either side of the courtyard. Many rooms on the east side contain Napoleonic memorabilia. On the west side, the Oriental gallery features arms from Asia and the Middle East.

An impressive collection of works by the sculptor and artist Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) is housed in a splendid 18th-century mansion, the Hôtel Biron, where he spent the last nine years of his life. The rooms display his works roughly chronologically, including his sketches and watercolours. Masterpieces such as The Kiss and Eve are displayed in the airy rotundas. One room is devoted to works by his talented model and muse, Camille Claudel, and Rodin’s personal collection of paintings by Van Gogh, Monet and other masters hang on the walls. The museum’s other highlight is the gardens, the third-largest private gardens in Paris, where famous works such as The Thinker and The Gates of Hell stand among the lime trees and rose bushes.

The cobblestone pedestrianized road that stretches south of rue de Grenelle to avenue de La Motte-Picquet is the most exclusive street market in Paris. Here greengrocers, fishmongers, butchers, and wine merchants sell top-quality produce to the well-heeled residents of the area every Tuesday to Saturday. Tear yourself away from the mouth-watering displays of cheese and pastries, however, to feast your eyes on the Art Nouveau buildings at Nos. 33 and 151.