Destination: Paris
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Paris
Paris
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* Pont Alexandre III
* Arc de Triomphe
* Art Moderne de La Ville de Paris, Musée d'
* Arts Asiatiques-Guimet, Musée national des
* Arts Décoratifs, Musée des
* Arts et Métiers-Techniques, Musée national des
* Assemblée Nationale Palais-Bourbon
* Baccarat, Musée
* Balzac, Maison de
* Bastille
* Bibliothèque Nationale De France
* Carnavalet, Musée
* Cernuschi, Musée
* Chaillot, Palais de
* Cognacq-Jay, Musée
* La Conciergerie
* Concorde, Place de la
* Eugène Delacroix, Musée National
* Faubourg Saint-Germain
* Faubourg St-Honoré
* Fragonard, Musée
* Gobelins, Manufacture nationale des
* Grand Palais
* Grands Boulevards
* Les Halles
* Hôtel De Ville
* Institut De France
* Institut du Monde Arabe
* Jacquemart-André, Musée
* Jeu de Paume, Galerie nationale du
* Madeleine, Eglise de la
* Maillol, Musée
* Le Marais
* Marmottan, Musée
* Mode et du Costume, Musée de la
* Montmartre
* Montparnasse
* Moyen-Age, Musée National du
* Musique, Musée de la
* Nissim de Camondo, Musée
* Opéra Garnier
* Orangerie, Musée National de l'
* Palais-Royal
* Panthéon
* Père-Lachaise, Cimetière du
* Petit Palais, Musée du
* Picasso, Musée
* Plantes, Jardin des
* Rodin, Musée
* Sacré Coeur, Basilique du
* St-Germain-des-Prés
* Saint-Louis, Ile
* St-Sulpice, église
* Sainte-Chapelle
* Tuileries, Jardin des
* Vendôme, Place
* Vosges, place des
Vicinity
  + Vicinity

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  In The Know
  Did You Know?
Bibliothèque Nationale De France

( Worth Seeing )

The national library is seen by the French as a symbol of their culture. Until 1996, the BN, as Parisians call it, was housed in Cardinal Mazarin's former palace situated at the back of the Palais-Royal, extended many times and now stretching from the rue de Richelieu to the rue Vivienne. However, with around 13 million books and as many prints and photographs, the premises had long been overcrowded. The building of a new library along the river, in the redevelopment area of Bercy, was President Mitterrand's last 'Grand Projet'. The BNF, as it is now called, occupies two sites known as 'Richelieu' and 'Tolbiac'.
The new library houses the huge stock of printed books and documents and is intended to serve as a public library and a research centre equipped with the most modern means of data transmission. Four corner towers looking like open books surround an imposing base with a central garden where the reading-rooms are situated.
The Richelieu building houses manuscripts, prints and medals and holds temporary exhibitions in the Galerie Mansart and the Galerie Mazarine (which has a magnificent painted ceiling). The Cabinet des Médailles et des Antiques houses coins and medals from antiquity to the present day as well as various objets d'art, cameos and bronzes from the former royal collections.
Two charming arcades linked to the library, the Galerie Vivienne and the Galerie Colbert, offer an unexpected insight into Parisian social life in the 19th century.


Address: Richelieu: 58 rue de Richelieu, 75002 Paris; Tolbiac: quai François Mauriac, 75013 Paris
Phone: Richelieu: 01 47 03 81 26, recorded information: 01 47 03 81 10; Tolbiac: 01 53 79 59 59
Open: Richelieu: 10-7, closed Mon; Cabinet des Médailles: daily 1-5; Sun 12-6; Tolbiac: visits of the building on Sun and bank hols: 10-4:30 by appointment only
Restaurant: Richelieu: restaurant in Galerie Vivienne near by (Inexpensive)
Bus: Richelieu: 29, 39, 48; Tolbiac: 62
Metro: Richelieu: Bourse, Palais-Royal-Musée du Louvre; Tolbiac: Quai de la Gare
Accessible: Very good
Admission: Richelieu: moderate; Tolbiac: free
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