Paris - From Top to Bottom Trivia Quiz

Answer: Champ de Mars

In terms of starting from the top, the third floor observation deck of the Eiffel Tower isn't going to be topped. At 276m up (and it's 324m at the top of the antenna) and 35ft. above sea level at the base, it stretches higher than many of Paris' rolling hills.

The image provided shows the Champ de Mars, a stretch of lawns, paths, and gardens that reach from the Eiffel Tower to the École Militaire on the opposite end. This park space has been used for centuries, sometimes as a military training ground, sometimes as a movie shoot location, and most usually as leisure space.

Answer: Montmartre

Found in the north of Paris in the 18th arrondissement, Montmarte has been known over the centuries as a haven for artists of all sorts. Aside from the basilica, it's also the home of the Moulin Rouge and Le Quartier Pigalle which, at the turn of the century, became more known for its stretch of sex shops than anything.

But that shouldn't detract from what a vibrant neighbourhood the area is. From the top of the hill, Sacré-Coeur overlooks the city from a height of 130m above sea level. The top of the structure, thus, reaches 165m above sea level.

The church was built over a forty year period and took until partway through the first World War to be completed.

Answer: Belleville

While many have believed the hilltop upon which Sacré-Coeur rests to be the highest point on land in Paris, the top of Belleville is nearly 20m higher, so while the top of the Basilica of Sacré-Coeur is higher, the city tops out, physically, in the 20th arrondissement close to both Belleville and Pere Lachaise Cemetery, the latter of which is known as the final resting place of Oscar Wilde, Frédéric Chopin, Édith Piaf, and Jim Morrison. All of this is in Paris' northeast end, north of the Seine.

Answer: Cube

La Grande Arche de la Défense is perhaps the most unique architectural piece in La Défense, only a short distance from the central portion of the City of Paris, but it's definitely worth taking a look at, especially since it's a straight shot down Avenue Charles de Gaulle from many of Paris' most famous landmarks (and the end of l'axe historique).

While La Défense is known as a business district, La Grande Arche is a bit of a hybrid building; constructed as a cube (its dimensions on the outside are all 110m), two of its sides are government offices. From the observation deck on the top, however, it's one of the highest man-made tourist vantage points in the city.

Answer: The Hundred Years War

Standing 90m tall (though only 61m from the bell tower), Notre-Dame Cathedral is characterized by its French Gothic architecture which, in 1345, pushed it past the Romanesque structures of the Late Middle Ages. This is particularly interesting because the building began its construction in the mid-twelfth century, only ending around the start of the Hundred Years War.

The High Gothic look would become popular in other French cities like Rouen, Amiens, and Chartres. The church also stands on l'Île de la Cité which, adjacent to the similar Île Saint-Louis, is one of the two natural islands in the City of Paris.

It's also home to Pont Neuf, Paris' oldest bridge.

Answer: Champs-Élysées

The Champs-Élysées heads due west from the famous Arc de Triomphe, ending at Place de la Concorde before progressing into the Tuileries Gardens and towards the Louvre. The Arc isn't as high as one may think, reaching an observation deck at the top at only 50m, but it was the tallest arch of its type until the 1930s, lasting about a hundred years with that record.

The tourist avenue of Champs-Élysées heads in one direction, but the Arc de Triomphe sits in the center of twelve avenues, all of which project outward from it.

It also serves as Paris' Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Answer: True

After the pyramid completed construction in 1989, this metal and glass structure became the entrance to view the Louvre's many works of art and historical artifacts, meaning visitors needed to descend inside to the lobby, then reascend into the actual museum. Of course, since this museum was one of the most famous in the world, it has since required extensive renovations deep within to accommodate the foot traffic.

The Musée du Louvre itself, a former royal palace for the Kings of France, sits in the administrative 1st arrondissement and contains some of the most well-known, priceless masterpieces of the world.

Answer: The English Channel

The Seine starts in the town of Source-Seine in Eastern France and travels nearly eight hundred kilometers, through Paris, to Le Havre in the Normandy region before discharging into the English Channel. In Paris, the river flows in from the southeast and loops back to the south before coursing back north again, out of the city.

Many of the city's most famous landmarks-- the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame, the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, etc.-- sit within a short distance of the river which, in the city, is flanked by pedestrian sidewalks and covered in bridges (thirty-seven in the city proper).

In the city, the river is 24m above sea level and about 10m deep.

Answer: 2,100km

Paris first started building its underground sewers in the fourteenth century and have since become one of the forerunners for modern sewage treatment and waterworks. While, for centuries, most of the wastewater in Paris flowed directly into the Seine, continuous improvements over centuries created methods to protect the city and the health of its citizens. Near the Pont de l'Alma in the 7th arrondissement, visitors can descend into the tunnels in the Paris Sewer Museum and walk these rarely-seen sides of the streets of Paris themselves. If they walked them all though, they could easily just walk the same distance to Vilnius, Lithuania.

Answer: Old mines

The Parisian Catacombs came to be in the early nineteenth century when Parisians used the old limestone mines in the south of the city to solve their overcrowded cemetery problem. It became a visitable ossuary in the 1810s, inevitably opening daily to take in curious travellers and tourists.

The mines sink down five storeys below the streets of Paris, but many believe them to descend even deeper than that. There are more than two hundred kilometers of tunnels down there, and more than seven million bodies.