Paris Guide
The Eiffel Tower quarter
Standing sentinel over a great bend in the Seine as it flows southwest out of Paris is the monumental flagpole that is the Eiffel Tower. It surveys the most relentlessly splendid of all Paris's districts, embracing the palatial heights of the Trocadéro, on the Right Bank, and the wealthy, western swathe of the 7e(septième)arrondissement, on the Left. These are street vistas planned for sheer magnificence; as you look out across the river from the terrace of the Palais de Chaillot to the Eiffel Tower and the huge Ecole Militaire, or let your gaze run from the ornate Pont AlexandreIII past the parliament building to the vast Hôtel des Invalides, you are experiencing city design on a truly monumental scale.
Sparsely populated by diplomats, ministers and members of the old and new aristocracies, the area is nevertheless home to some compelling museums. Newest on the block in the Septième is the museum of "primitive" (or non-Western) art at Quai Branly, built at extravagant expense at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. At the other end of the scale, though close at hand, the city's museum of the sewer system is indeed found down in the sewers. A little further east, the huge military complex of Les Invalides is home to a gigantic war museum, while nearby the sculptor Rodin has a beautiful private house entirely devoted to his works. Across the river, in the Trocadéro quarter of the 16e arrondissement, the Musée Guimet displays a sumptuous collection of Asian Buddhist art, while the landmark Neoclassical Palais de Tokyo, Palais de Chaillot and Galliera, on the elevated north bank of the Seine, house museums devoted to modern and contemporary art, maritime life, fashion and architecture.