Monuments and perspective

The major breakthroughs carried out by town-planner Haussmann serve to widen your field of vision, with the perspective often culminating in a monument or a square, giving you an indication as to the district you find yourself in.

Monuments represent the major landmarks on the Parisian landscape. Specific sites mark the points of the compass: the Sacré Cœur for the north, the Montparnasse tower in the south, the Eiffel Tower for the west and the Bastille column in the east. In the square in front of Notre-Dame, the central point in Paris, a bronze plaque indicates the starting point from which all distances are measured in France.