Not long after the Centre Pompidou, one of the most famous landmarks in Europe, the Louvre Museum, was to be modernized, again striking fear into Parisian hearts. When the new design (by I.M. Pei) was first shown to the French, emotions evolved quickly: disbelief at first, followed by disgust.

The Hôtel des Invalides in Paris isn’t a hotel at all, but a complex built by Louis XIV as a home for veterans. You can easily recognize its characteristic golden, under which Napoleon Bonaparte is buried. His is quite the tomb: red quartzite on a base of green granite, surrounded by a mosaic containing the names of Napoleon’s war victories.

The tower's builder, Gustave Eiffel, was born with a different last name: Bönickshausen. His father had been a military officer of German origin but in 1877, in the wake of France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, Gustave officially changed his name to avoid being tainted as a Prussian spy. Of course by the time the tower was built, Bönickshausen had been replaced by Eiffel.

So many monarchs have been linked to Fontainebleau, southwest of Paris! There’s little in French history that isn’t somehow connected to this château. Fontainebleau burst onto the royal scene at the hands of François I, the builder king, who turned what had been a medieval fortress into an Italian-style palace, having come to love this style during his military campaigns in Italy.

The Centre Pompidou was inaugurated in 1977, but not before it set many tongues wagging, confirming that Parisians don't seem to take instantly to what is modern. The peculiarity of this building is that it is turned inside out: all the pipes, conduits and shafts are placed outside the building rather than inside, as is usual.

One of the iconic historical monuments in Paris, the Arc de Triomphe commemorates Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz. The Arc de Triomphe is at the center of Place Charles De Gaulle (more commonly known as the Place de l'Étoile) in the 8th arrondissement, which marks the west end of the Champs Elysées and connects all 12 major avenues in Paris.