Petit Palais
A Beaux-Arts palace rushed to completion in under three years for a world's fair — and it never left.
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Charles Girault broke ground in October 1897 and finished by April 1900 for the Exposition Universelle, replacing a tired 1855 fairground hall. The trapezoid footprint wraps a semi-circular courtyard at its center, and the building now holds Paris's own City of Fine Arts collection — making the architecture as much the draw as what hangs inside.
What to look for
- The domed central porch and triple arcade — Girault modeled both on the stables at the Château de Chantilly
- Ionic columns framing the grand porch on the main façade, which faces the Grand Palais across Avenue Winston-Churchill
- The semi-circular interior courtyard and garden produced by the building's unusual trapezoid plan
Main entrance on Avenue Winston-Churchill (formerly Avenue Nicolas II); other façades face the Seine and the Champs-Élysées, so the building is approachable from multiple angles.
Petit Palais is one of 39 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.