Where’s ‘Hot’ in France?

Date: 2010.09.02 | Category: Latest News | Tags:

With warmer weather coming and thousands of people opting for holidays in France to forget the doom and gloom of a heightening recession, here is a breakdown of some of the most visited tourist sites in the country.

• Palace of Fontainebleau – The Palace of Fontainebleau, sometimes known as Fontainebleau Castle, is located 35 miles from Paris and was built in its current form in the 16th century. The area is a popular getaway for Parisians and is fast gaining a popular reputation amongst other visitors.

• Disneyland Resort Paris – Probably one of the most famous destinations on this list, Disneyland Paris is around 20 miles from Paris, and has been operating since 1992 as the European answer to the original Disneyland resort in the USA. The resort attracts around 10 million visitors a year from all over Europe.

• Notre Dame de Paris – Notre Dame de Paris is a gothic cathedral located in east Paris. The building of the cathedral took 185 years to be completed, and was finally finished in 1345. The novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame was inspired by the church, and was partly written to raise awareness of the disrepair of the cathedral in the 19th century.

• Eiffel Tower – No mention of French Tourist hotspots would be complete without a mention of the Eiffel Tower, which has become a global icon of France and is one of the most famous man-made structures in the world. The tower was built between 1887 and 1889 for the World’s Fair that was due to be held in Paris, after authority figures in Barcelona rejected its construction there. Ironically, after its completion many of the French public hated the structure, with many labeling it an eyesore.

• Centre Georges Pompidou – The Centre Georges Pompidou is a vast public library and modern art museum located in the centre of Paris, and was built in 1977. The Centre is named after French president Georges Pompidou, and has had over 150 million visitors since 1977. Construction of the building cost around 950 million francs, and renovation work that finished in 2000 cost around half that.

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