KIIS Paris-Munich

15/06/2026

There is a café on the fifth floor of the Musée d'Orsay that very few visitors ever reach.

It sits directly behind one of the museum's two original station clocks — the building was a railway terminus before it became a museum, and the giant glass and steel clock faces were installed in 1900 to guide passengers to their trains. From inside the café, the clock becomes a window: you look straight through the Roman numerals to the Seine below and the Louvre on the opposite bank.

The interior was redesigned in 2011 by Fernando and Humberto Campana, two Brazilian brothers known for furniture that pulls from natural forms — coral, waves, nests. The brief they gave themselves was inspired by Jules Verne's Nautilus: an underwater world suspended mid-air. The result is gold bell-shaped chandeliers, shimmering blue panels, organically shaped chairs, and copper walls that catch the light differently depending on the hour.

You need a museum ticket to access it. It sits at the exit of the Impressionist Gallery on the fifth floor — which means the only people who find it are the ones who go all the way to the top.

Photo: Samantha Ohlsen

12/06/2026

08/06/2026

Some days you just want France without leaving the house. These films give you a real feel for the country, from Paris streets to the south of France. I’ve picked ten that are actually worth your time. See Comment 👇

20/05/2026

Gothic architecture did not start at Notre-Dame. It started at a basilica 6 miles north that most visitors to Paris have never set foot in.

The Basilique Saint-Denis started in 1135. Notre-Dame de Paris did not break ground until 1163. Every element that defines the Gothic style — the ribbed vault, the pointed arch, the flying buttress, the walls of stained glass flooding the interior with light — appeared first at Saint-Denis, assembled together for the first time by a visionary abbot named Suger. Notre-Dame studied the model and built on it.

The royal connection runs even deeper. For nearly a thousand years, the kings of France chose Saint-Denis as their burial place. Forty-three kings and thirty-two queens are interred there, from the Merovingian dynasty through to Louis XVIII in 1824. Notre-Dame hosted coronations and ceremonies. Saint-Denis held the bodies.

During the French Revolution, that made it a target. Royal tombs were smashed. Remains were dumped in common graves. In 1817, Louis XVIII ordered the bones recovered and placed in a royal ossuary within the crypt. The names of the kings and queens are engraved on black marble slabs, though the remains could not be individually identified.

The original north spire reached 282 feet (86 meters) before it was demolished in the 19th century after storm damage. A reconstruction project, three decades in the making, began in 2022. The new spire is expected to be completed around 2028.

Today, approximately 140,000 people visit Saint-Denis each year. Notre-Dame draws 14 million. The basilica that taught Notre-Dame everything it knows sits mostly empty on a Tuesday afternoon.

06/03/2026

The Paris Catacombs are reopening this spring after a 5.5 M€ restoration, making it the best time in years to visit this underground labyrinth.

If you are heading to France soon, you can finally book your spot to see the resting place of over 6M Parisians. This site is just a small portion of a 300 km network of old limestone quarries that were transformed into an ossuary starting in 1785.

The city just finished a major upgrade, a 5-month project to fix humidity issues and install a new immersive audio tour.

The walk takes you 20 meters underground, deeper than the metro, to see walls of bones meticulously stacked into patterns. You will notice that the air is a constant 14°C regardless of the heat above ground - this is which is why the new ventilation system was such a priority for preserving the site.

Demand is expected to be incredibly high for these first few months back, so you must book your 31€ tickets online ahead of time.

The route involves 131 steps down and 112 steps back up, so make sure you are ready for a bit of a workout!

It is one of the most hauntingly astonishing spots in the city, definitely worth adding to your spring itinerary while the new lighting and displays are fresh 🤩

18/02/2026

This tomb is located in Montparnasse Cemetery, one of the four main historic cemeteries of Paris. It opened in 1824, twenty years after Père Lachaise, when the city needed more burial space outside the crowded center.

Montparnasse became especially important in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when the surrounding neighborhood was home to writers, artists, and intellectuals. The cemetery reflects that atmosphere. Many tombs here are bold, dramatic, and highly artistic.

This monument is often considered one of the most beautiful in the cemetery because it combines sculpture, architecture, and symbolism in one composition. In that era, wealthy families invested heavily in funerary art. A tomb was not just a grave; it was a statement about memory, faith, and social status.

15/02/2026

This is the Bir-Hakeim Bridge, one of the most recognizable bridges in Paris. It connects the 15th and 16th arrondissements and crosses the Seine right next to the small island called Île aux Cygnes.

The bridge we see today was built between 1903 and 1905. At that time, Paris was expanding fast, and the city needed a way for the new metro to cross the river. Instead of hiding the train underground, engineers designed an elevated structure. That’s why Metro Line 6 runs across the top of the bridge, above cars and pedestrians.

The bridge was first called Pont de Passy. In 1948, after World War II, it was renamed Bir-Hakeim in honor of a battle fought in 1942 in Libya, where Free French forces resisted German troops. The new name turned the bridge into a quiet memorial as well as a transport link.

It is also famous for its double-level design. The upper level carries the metro, while the lower level allows cars and pedestrians to cross. The long metal gallery in the center was carefully designed to be both strong and elegant, showing the industrial style of the early 20th century.

03/02/2026

To rebuild the medieval roof structure and the spire of Notre Dame exactly as they were, Paris made a bold choice: do it the old way. That meant wood, not steel. And not just any wood. More than 1,000 oak trees were carefully selected from forests all across the country. Many of them were over 150 years old, chosen for their size, strength, and straightness.

In the Middle Ages, Notre-Dame’s roof was nicknamed “the forest” because it took an enormous number of trees to build it. The reconstruction follows that same idea. Each oak tree was cut at the right season, then left to dry naturally for many months. Nothing was rushed. This was about precision, not speed.

The beams you see here are shaped and assembled using traditional carpentry techniques, very close to those used centuries ago. Skilled craftsmen worked with hand tools, joints, and wooden pegs, fitting each piece together like a giant puzzle. No shortcuts. No modern redesign.

This wooden framework will once again support the roof and the famous spire, just as it did for hundreds of years. It is invisible from the street, but without it, the cathedral could not stand.

What makes this project special is not only the scale, but the choice behind it. Instead of reinventing Notre-Dame, France chose to respect its history, its materials, and the knowledge passed down through generations.

This structure is proof that rebuilding Notre-Dame was never just about fixing damage.
It was about continuing a story that began in the Middle Ages.