Grand Palais
A cathedral of iron and light, built for the 1900 World's Fair and reopened in 2025 to hold art under its glass sky.
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The nearly 240-meter barrel-vaulted nave is the last great transparent structure in the Crystal Palace lineage. After a four-year, €466M restoration completed in June 2025, it again hosts Art Basel and major shows, plus the Palais de la Découverte science museum.
What to look for
- The two copper quadrigas crowning the roof corners by Georges Récipon: 'Immortality Prevailing Over Time' on the north (Champs-Élysées) side, 'Harmony Triumphing Over Discord' on the south (Seine) side.
- The exterior itself, where an imposing Classical stone façade meets a riot of Art Nouveau ironwork.
- The iron, steel and glass barrel roof of the nave, restored in the 2021-2025 works.
Sits on Avenue Winston-Churchill by the Champs-Élysées; the adjacent Petit Palais, produced by the same 1900 exposition, is a separate building.
Grand Palais is one of 33 sights worth the detour in Paris, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Paris pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Paris
- Eiffel TowerThe 300-metre iron tower Parisian artists petitioned against before it was even finished.
- Louvre MuseumThe world's most-visited museum lives inside a 12th-century fortress that became a royal palace.
- Notre-Dame de ParisThe spire fell on live TV in April 2019; since December 2024 you can walk back inside.
- Musée d'OrsayVan Gogh and Monet hung inside a Beaux-Arts station built for the Paris–Orléans railway.
- Champs-ÉlyséesA single 1.9-km straight line runs from the Concorde obelisk to the Arc de Triomphe — Paris's ceremonial spine on the Axe historique.
- Place de la BastilleThe prison that lit a revolution is gone — and the mob that stormed it on 14 July 1789 came for gunpowder, not the seven forgotten men inside.