Paris Guide
Beaubourg and Les Halles
Straddling the third and fourth arrondissements, the Beaubourg quartier hums with lively cafés, shops and art galleries; at its heart stands the Pompidou Centre, one of the city's most popular attractions. The ground-breaking "inside-out" architecture of this huge arts centre provoked a storm of controversy on its opening in 1977, but since then it has won over critics and public alike, and become one of the city's most recognizable landmarks, drawing large numbers to its excellent modern art museum and high-profile exhibitions. By contrast, nearby Les Halles, a massive underground shopping complex built at around the same time as the Pompidou Centre to replace the centuries-old food market, has never really endeared itself to the city's inhabitants and is probably the least inspired of all the developments in the capital in the last thirty years.