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One of the stars of the Botanical Gardens, with more than 3,000 plants from the world’s many diverse Alpine regions. There are samples from Corsica to the Caucasus, from Morocco to the Himalaya.

The remains of the 2nd-century Roman amphitheatre from the settlement of Lutetia (see Roman Settlement) lay buried for centuries and were only discovered in 1869 during construction of the rue Monge. The novelist Victor Hugo, concerned with the preservation of his city’s historic buildings, including Notre-Dame (see The Man Who Saved Notre-Dame), led the campaign for the restoration. The original arena would have had 35 tiers and could seat 15,000 spectators for theatrical performances and gladiator fights.

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.

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.

This institute was founded in 1980 to promote cultural relations between France and the Arab world. The stunning building (1987) designed by architect Jean Nouvel features a southern wall of 1,600 photo-sensitive metal screens that open and close like a camera aperture to regulate light entering the building. The design is based on the latticed wooden screens of Islamic architecture. Inside are seven floors of Islamic artworks, from 9th-century ceramics to contemporary art, and ancient astrolabes used by astronomers of old.

An unusual feature is this designated garden which brings together more than 400 different varieties of iris.

The 17th-century royal medicinal herb garden was planted by Jean Hérouard and Guy de la Brosse, physicians to Louis XIII. Opened to the public in 1640, it flourished under the curatorship of Comte de Buffon in the mid-18th century. It contains some 10,000 species, including the first Cedar of Lebanon planted in a French tropical greenhouse, and Alpine, rose and winter gardens (see Cedar of Lebanon).

This internationally renowned tapestry factory was originally a dyeing workshop, founded by the Gobelin brothers in the mid-15th century. In 1662, Louis XIV’s minister Colbert set up a royal factory here and gathered the greatest craftsmen of the day to make furnishings for the palace at Versailles. Painters such as Charles Le Brun directed 250 Flemish weavers in creating the tapestries. You can see the traditional weaving process on a guided tour.

The country’s oldest public zoo was founded during the Revolution to house the four surviving animals from the royal menagerie at Versailles. Other animals were donated from circuses and abroad, but during the Siege of Paris in 1870–71 (see Top 10 Events in the French Revolution) the unfortunate creatures were eaten by hungry citizens. A favourite with children (see Grande Galerie de l’volution), the zoo has since been rehoused with monkeys, large cats, birds and reptiles.