Fine Art lovers should Hurry up and book Paris breaks this spring if you want to see this impressive masterpiece. From May 11 to June 23, the artist Anish Kapoor is the guest of the 4th edition of the Monumenta exhibition. His enormous piece of work, entitled Leviathan, has been created specifically for the Grand Palais near the Champs Elysees, a popular desination for Paris breaks in any case. I’ll be there the week after next with more photos of this amazing art work by the creator of The Orbit Tower in London.

Paris – Tour Eiffel

Originally uploaded by Añelo de la Krotsche

Well I suppose most people feel the need to visit the Eiffel tower once or twice whenever they first go on Paris breaks and all will take a picture or two. Maybe from the top of the steps at the Trocadero, or from right underneath or possibly of the Eiffel tower at night when it’s lit up. But this picture is a bit different which is why I chose to feature it today on the Paris breaks blog.

During 2009 we posted twenty three times on the Paris breaks blog, and focused many of them on the different arrondissements of Paris.

Ok, the idea of going on Paris breaks in order to hang out entirely in the 20th is only semi-serious, it would be a bit like visiting London in order to spend all your time in Leytonstone or Newham, but that’s not quite as mad as it sounds. You’d be surprised at the number of young Europeans and Orientals wandering about in East London these days, I’m sure Brick Lane, Walthamstow and Stratford must feature in some offbeat guide books to trendy London. But back to Paris, and the Bellevile,  Barbes  area. It’s similar in some ways, with a history of immigration, a melting pot of world cultures and cheap accommodation for starving artists etc, but with a Parisian style that’s unmistakeable. So you might find a flourishing little underground Parisian indie music scene, or an ex-pat community linking South Sea islanders with Mexican sushi vendors. But you might just find the usual struggle against exploitation and discrimination that you wanted to get a short break from while abroad. You’ve only got a few days in Paris so why spend some of that precious away day time in the 20th?

Père Lachaise Cemetery

The single great tourist attraction in the 20th is a  graveyard.  The landmark is Père-Lachaise Cemetery, the resting place of Edith Piaf, Marcel Proust, Oscar Wilde, Isadora Duncan, Sarah Bernhardt, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, Colette, Jim Morrison, and many others.

Père Lachaise is located on Boulevard de Ménilmontant. Métro station Philippe Auguste on line 2 is next to the main entrance, while the station called Père Lachaise, on line 3, is 500 metres away near a side entrance. Many tourists prefer the Gambetta station on line 3 as it allows them to enter near the tomb of Oscar Wilde and then walk downhill to visit the rest of the cemetery.  Abelard is also buried there, and the list goes on.

The Communards’ Wall (Mur des Fédérés) is also located in the cemetery. This is the site where 147 Communards, the last defenders of the workers’ district of Belleville, were shot on 28 May 1871 — the last day of the “Bloody Week” (Semaine Sanglante) in which the Paris Commune was crushed.

And so we come to the end of our little series of distributed articles about Paris breaks to each of the 20 arrondissements or districts of Paris, but not to the end of the Paris Breaks blog which continues with a new series coming soon looking at a number of aspects of our favourite city with one common theme.

Mayor of Paris comes out to support Ken – from Pink News

It is estimated that over 300,000 French people live in London, all of whom are eligible to vote in the election on May 1st.