The Opéra Garnier was inaugurated in 1875 and its stage has seen some of the greatest Opera singers and ballet dancers, from Maria Callas to Rudolf Noureev, perform.

Rising at 4,808 m above sea level, Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in the Alps, a chain of mountains in the South East of France. Explore the permanent snow of this natural jewel!

The former hunting lodge of Louis XIII was transformed and extended by his son Louis XIV who installed here the Court and the government of France in 1682. Up until the French Revolution, a line of kings succeeded each other, each taking his turn to embellish the Palace. And now, the Palace is yours...

Did you know Van Gogh lived in Arles, in the south of France, for a year? He even painted the room he stayed in, in what was to become one of his most famous works. Read through 10 Things You Might Not Know About Vincent van Gogh.

In the Orangerie Museum, you can explore the famous Water Lilies cycle by Claude Monet. Move your mouse around for a 360° view.

Did you know this French landmark was built in 2 years, 2 months and 5 days for the  for the 1889 Exposition Universelle, a technical prowess for its time?

Now is your time to explore the scenic view of Paris: move your mouse around to take in the sights.

Set in the appartment where scientist Louis Pasteur spent the last 7 years of his life, the Musée Pasteur comemorates the life and research of the man responsible for finding the vaccine for rabbies.

Glimpse Albert Einstein's fascinating - sometimes funny - exchanges with great French mathematicians. These formative conversations would go on to shape his ground-breaking scientific work. Read the letters.

The Provence Region, in the South of France, is home to beautiful and fragrant lavender fields. The flowering season spans from mid-June to mid-August, but you can have a look online year-round!

The Chauvet cave, located in Ardèche, in the South of France, hosts some of the oldest works of art ever created: they are dated at 36, 000 years ago! The cave is not open to the public for preservation reasons, but you can explore it online.

This fossil crocodile is on display in the permanent exhibition of the Musée des Confluences in Lyon. This specimen called France its home 150 million years ago.

In 709, there was just a small church on this hill surrounded by the sea when the tide is high. Monasteries and abbeys were progressively added in the Middle Ages, and the Mont is now a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Situated in the very heart of Paris on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, this iconic building was built for the Universal Exhibition in 1900. It is particularly famous for its glass roof, the largest in Europe.

This ensemble represents the "little black dress," one of Chanel's most popular and enduring contributions to women's fashion. 

This instrument is Console studio 116c from the "Groupe de recherche musicale (GRM)" (Group of musical research). In 1967, it was top of the technology!

1. View from the Lanternon of the Hôtel des Invalides

At a height of 107 meters, the Invalides Dôme was Paris' tallest building until the Eiffel Tower was erected in 1889.

2. Opera Garnier

Enjoy the sculptural group of Apollo, Poetry and Music from up close, before gazing into the distance and seeing the Sacré-Cœur rise up on the highest point of the city.

3. The Grand Palais

“Walk” along the famed glass roof - the largest of its kind in Europe - to catch aerial views of the Eiffel Tower and Place de la Concorde’s Ferris Wheel.

4. Rooftop of the Opéra Bastille

The Opéra stands on Place de la Bastille, symbol of the French Revolution, where the old fortress of the Bastille was destroyed on July 14, 1789.
Beyond the great view, its rooftop hosts 2,500 m2 of crops and vegetables: salads, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, green beans, eggplants, peppers...

5. Saint-Jacques Tower

All that remains of the Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie church, this Gothic tower is steeped in history, as it was a departure point for the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.

Enjoy close-up views of the statue of Saint Jacques le Majeur and restored statues of the four evangelists - the lion, bull, eagle, and man.

6. Hôtel de la Monnaie

The Monnaie de Paris is the institution responsible for minting currency, collector’s coins, objets d’art, medals and decorations. It also is a cultural institution showcasing art exhibitions and events. Located in the heart of Paris, it faces the Ile de la Cité on the River Seine.

7. The Eiffel Tower

One of the most well-known landmarks in the world, the Eiffel Tower is truly iconic. The view from above? Just as spectacular in its own right, with expansive views overlooking the Champ de Mars.

France is famous for its rich opera history that spans over 300 years, but how well do you know it ?

It's also known as "The Phantom of the Opera's Lake" due to its association with Gaston Leroux's novel. This body of water is thought to have inspired the French novelist. The presence of water definitely added a layer of mystery to the Palais Garnier's history.

In reality this water tank was imagined by the Paris Opera's architect, Charles Garnier. It was built to prevent water infiltration and served firefighting purposes. It's not accessible to the public but you can view it below in 360. 

In 1964, the Palais Garnier's ceiling underwent a dramatic makeover. Replacing the 19th-century work, at the Minister of Culture, André Malraux's request, Marc Chagall, a renowned artist then in his late 70s, created a vibrant, 240-square-meter masterpiece.

This bold, modern ceiling, a tribute to 14 composers through fantastical imagery, sparked controversy. Remarkably, Chagall refused payment, requesting only to cover material costs. His selfless act adds another layer of intrigue to this unique addition to the Palais Garnier.

The Opéra-Comique commissioned Georges Bizet to compose Carmen in 1873. Although it tells the story of a seductive woman from Sevilla, the story was imagined by the French writer Prosper Mérimée. 

It premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on March 3, 1875 and is now one of the most frequently performed operas in the world.

Born in Italy the art of Opera developed in France in the 17th century. Jean-Baptiste Lully established in France the form known as "tragédie lyrique," or "musical tragedy" blending music and drama.

Taking inspiration from the Greek tragedy this new genre mixed theatre, singing, music and dance. It was divided in 5 acts, included recitative parts, sumptuous sets, danced scenes and a French libretto and heroic characters.

To please Louis XIV, also known as the Sun King, the genre "tragédie lyrique" included a prolog to the king glory.

Château de Versailles Royal Opera house is remarkable for its splendid auditorium, built in the 18th century. Almost a century of studies and research went into it before it was finished.

Oscar-Claude Monet (Nov 14, 1840 - Dec 5, 1926) is one of the most famous Western painters of all time. The founder of Impressionist painting, creator of the iconic Water Lilies series, and a symbol of French painting, Monet is a household name, but have you ever come across these lesser-known facts about him?

Scroll on to discover 6 things you may not have known about Claude Monet...

1. Impressionism was named after one of Monet's paintings

The term "Impressionism" is derived from the title of his painting Impression, soleil levant, which was exhibited in 1874 in the first of the independent exhibitions mounted by Monet and his friends as an alternative to the Salon de Paris.

The name 'Impressionist' was first intended as a dig at the group by humorist Louis Leroy. Leroy wrote a derisive review of the Impressionists first exhibition entitled 'The Exhibition of the Impressionists', but, strangely enough, the name caught on and made the group famous.

2. Monet not only painted the Water Lilies, he planted them too

Monet began work in 1883 in the small village of Giverny down stream on the Seine from Paris. Then in 1893 he bought the land in front of his home and built a Japanese-style garden in the space. Monet used a small stream that ran through his property to build a huge pond which he filled with water lilies and crossed with a humpbacked bridge. He lined the banks with willows and shrubbery and retired to this watery realm isolated from the outside world to create his final series, "The Water Lilies". He built a glass-walled studio on the side of the garden and set up a wheeled easel that he could freely roll around the room.

There he created painting after painting of the changing images of the pond, its water lilies and the reflecting light at all hours of morning, day and evening. In different works of the series he included images of the willows on the shore, the humpback bridge and the evening sky. But he finally concentrated solely on the pond itself.

3. Monet was inspired by ukiyo-e Japanese art

Monet didn't just base his landscape gardening on Japanese styles, his painting subjects and method were also greatly influenced by Japanese art.

Take this Hiroshige woodcut. Does it seem familiar? Japanese color woodcuts such as this scene, with its detailed close-up of purple wisteria blossoms falling gracefully along a pole with an arched bridge beyond, inspired Claude Monet’s paintings of his water-lily garden at Giverny.

4. Monet's life was marred by tragedy

Despite his growing fame, Monet was often plagued by financial hardship. In 1868, shortly after the birth of his first son Jean, Monet grew increasingly exasperated at his economic situation and he attempted suicide by throwing himself into the Seine.

Luckily, he failed, but this was not the last misfortune Monet would face. His wife Camille became ill in 1876 during her second pregnancy. She died at the young age of thirty two in 1879.

These paintings are touching, intimate portraits of Monet's wife and their young son.

5. Modern Monet

Monet's legacy has had a vast and important impact on Modern and Contemporary art in many different genres and artistic forms. Take these three contemporary works...

Monet influenced artists like Roy Lichtenstein. This artwork, Red Barn, follows Lichtenstein's celebrated Haystack and Cathedral Series, what Lichtenstein himself referred to as "manufactured Monet's". Between 1969 and 1993, the artist, like Monet, completed more than twenty extended print series, most of which comprise six to eight images.

Monet even gets a seat at the table in Kyung Min Nam's Artists' Banquet.

Bonus Fact: submerge yourself in Monet's vast Water Lilies series

Did you know that Monet designed a special room for his Water Lilies series? Even better, did you know that you could take a look around it in Street View?

Offered to the French State by Claude Monet on the day that followed the Armistice of November 11, 1918 as a symbol for peace, the Water Lilies were installed according to his plan at the Orangerie Museum in 1927, a few months after his death.

The set is one of the largest monumental achievements of early 20th-Century painting. The dimensions and the area covered by the paint surrounds and encompasses the viewer in almost 100 meters which immerses them in a landscape dotted with water lilies, water, willow branches, tree and cloud reflections, giving the "illusion of an endless whole, of a wave with no horizon and no shore", in the words of Monet.

When you visit Versailles, you will not only be amazed by the grand architecture of the Palace, but you will also find many treasures hidden around the extravagant gardens. The grounds were first renovated by Louis XIV in 1661 and have been maintained to a royal standard ever since. Take a walk around the gardens of Versailles and experience this living work of art.

En 1661, Luis XIV ordenó a André Le Nôtre que creara los jardines de Versalles, que el rey consideraba tan importantes como el propio palacio.

El trabajo en los jardines se inició aproximadamente al mismo tiempo que el palacio, ¡y duró más de 40 años!

Crear los jardines fue una tarea monumental. Se tuvieron que mover grandes cantidades de tierra para nivelar el suelo y crear espacio para construir parterres, fuentes y el famoso invernadero.

Se trajeron árboles de diferentes regiones de Francia y miles de hombres, a veces incluso regimientos militares enteros participaron en este inmenso proyecto.

Luis XIV estaba tan apegado a los jardines de Versalles que a veces él mismo cogía las herramientas de jardinería si veía algo que no estaba del todo bien.

A Luis XIV también le encantaba organizar fiestas en los jardines. En 1664, en un escenario montado en el Camino Real, el rey interpretó una obra de ballet llamada La princesa de Elide, que Molière y Lully habían escrito especialmente para la ocasión.

Cuando no estaba bailando, Luis XIV navegaba por el Gran Canal en una galera de 20 metros de largo, impulsada por 42 remeros.

Este canal ha sido vaciado tres veces. Primero en 1792, para convertirlo en un huerto, después en 1808, cuando Napoleón restauró sus orillas, y finalmente en 1940, porque a los habitantes de Versalles les preocupaba que la gran superficie de agua fuera un blanco fácil para los bombarderos enemigos.

Después de una serie de tormentas a finales del siglo XX que causaron daños devastadores, se replantó el jardín por completo. Ahora cuenta con una apariencia fresca y juvenil, similar a cómo se vería bajo el reinado de Luis XIV.

La moda es un aspecto importante en el panorama económico y cultural francés. A fin de comprender su significado, primero debemos entender la auténtica realidad de los productos de moda. En mi opinión, el producto de moda presenta cuatro características: tiene una dimensión estética y artística, a menudo se asocia con un diseñador y una marca, da lugar a ciclos cortos y una renovación rápida, se encuentra en una tendencia actual y, a veces, puede determinar las tendencias del futuro.

Estos diversos aspectos enlazan con los comentarios de Charles Baudelaire sobre la modernidad, que percibía como «efímera, transitoria, contingente, que es la mitad del arte, cuya otra mitad es eterna e inmutable». La moda es una parte de la modernidad que integra la creatividad del diseñador y las aspiraciones del consumidor. Para todos nosotros, la moda está en el «aquí y ahora», al tiempo que recoge las tradiciones de nuestro pasado y perfila nuestro futuro.

La moda es una parte esencial de nuestra economía y sociedad. La actividad principal de la moda consiste en elegir cómo nos vestimos y acicalamos, llevar objetos que reflejan la identidad que deseamos proyectar y los estados de ánimo que fluyen a través de nosotros. La moda siempre fluctúa entre la expresión personal y una tendencia colectiva y conjunta.
De esta manera, la economía de la moda en su sentido más estricto se relaciona con los sectores económicos de nuestro entorno personal: las actividades de creación, producción y distribución de prendas, complementos de moda (zapatos, marroquinería, etc.), perfumes y cosmética. Estas actividades en su conjunto representan el 1,7 % del PIB de Francia, 2,7 % si incluimos el empleo, especialmente aquel relacionado con los servicios y sus repercusiones, que representa 1 millón de puestos de trabajo en total. Sorprende saber que el porcentaje supera al de las industrias de automoción y aeronáutica juntas.

No obstante, es la creatividad y no la clientela lo que impulsa a todas las grandes marcas francesas, al igual que a las numerosas firmas jóvenes. No es que malinterpreten a sus consumidores y sus clientes, sino que garantizan que sus diseñadores tengan libertad para expresar su talento artístico. Este enfoque preserva un sentido de continuidad con la tradición francesa, que ahonda sus raíces en el humanismo y el barroco, donde las sensaciones suscitadas por la obra de arte y el objeto tienen prioridad frente a su utilidad directa. Las marcas afirman su imaginación, despliegan vigor creativo y transmiten una emoción que resonará con los consumidores y resistirá el paso del tiempo.

Este enfoque explica el peso económico de las marcas francesas más centradas en la creatividad y el desarrollo internacional, que solas alcanzan cifras de ventas internacionales de 45 millones de euros. La cifra se eleva a 67 mil millones si incluimos marcas de grupos franceses.

La creatividad y el éxito de los diseñadores y marcas de Francia es inseparable de la experiencia de los talleres y de los artesanos que fabrican sus productos. Esta cultura proviene directamente de la tradición de las artes decorativas y la alta costura. Documentado por primera vez en 1298 por Etienne Boileau, rector de París, la artesanía se desarrolló mediante la innovación de la técnica y alcanzó su época dorada durante el Segundo Imperio, antes de disfrutar de un resurgimiento con el art Decó. En cuanto a la alta costura, fue vaticinada por Rose Bertin, «Ministro de la Moda» de María Antonieta, quien comenzó a liberar el cuerpo femenino, mientras adornaba sus creaciones con bordados, encajes y pétalos de rosa.

Charles-Frédéric Worth, un británico que se asentó en París en 1845, fue el primero en determinar estos principios, antes de que el término «alta costura» se convirtiera en su nombre oficial un siglo después.

Si bien la moda industrial y el funcionalismo han crecido desde la década de los 50, la moda francesa nunca ha rechazado los adornos ni ha dejado de nutrir el vínculo entre creación y técnica.

Como consecuencia, en la industria manufacturera de la moda hay 140 000 puestos de trabajo que se centran en el desarrollo de productos individuales y pequeñas series, por lo que se mantienen más cerca de la artesanía tradicional que los métodos de la «gran industria».

Las marcas cuentan con talleres propios donde decenas de miles de empleados altamente cualificados dan forma a las creaciones de los diseñadores y sus estudios, y garantizan la alta calidad de los prototipos. Además, hay 3000 empresas artesanales que integran continuamente la moda y el lujo.

Los conocimientos especializados en artesanía e industria se extienden por las regiones francesas. Algunas se han especializado, como el distrito de Choletais y la región de Lyon , especialistas en ropa y seda respectivamente. Pero es en París donde la moda se presenta a escala mundial.

La Semana de la Moda de París, celebrada tanto para la alta costura como para la moda femenina y masculina, abarca más de 38 días del año. Es con diferencia la semana de moda más internacional: el 50 % de las marcas que se exhiben no son francesas, con independencia de las grandes aperturas internacionales de marcas francesas.

La economía de la Semana de la Moda de París es importante por sí misma. Las exposiciones y eventos relacionados con esta generan más de 400 millones de euros anuales, sin contar las ferias vinculadas a la Semana de la Moda, a las que asisten decenas de miles de profesionales de todo el mundo, con un gasto total de más de 1200 millones de euros al año.

Sin duda, la revolución digital, que ya influye en todos los niveles de la cadena de valor, está transformando la moda. Ha llevado a una mayor individualización de los productos y servicios, a la promoción de la singularidad y al desarrollo continuo del conocimiento: un código de conducta cuyo punto de referencia es la alta costura. La moda francesa se enfrenta igualmente a los retos del desarrollo sostenible. Las marcas que encarnan la moda francesa abordarán esta cuestión en los próximos años para garantizar que su fiabilidad ecológica y social se convierte en el fundamento de su identidad.

Desde su efecto medioambiental, su valor creativo, a su importancia económica, la industria de la moda francesa es una parte esencial del pasado, presente y futuro de Francia.