Castles & palaces in France

The palace of the kings of France, with the Hall of Mirrors and its 357 mirrors under Le Brun's 30 ceiling paintings of Louis XIV's reign, the museum of French history Louis-Philippe opened in 1837, and an estate of more than 800 hectares: the gardens, the Park and the Trianon.

The vaulted Gothic halls of the medieval royal palace, the vast Salle des Gens d'armes among them, and the Revolution's prison, where the Hall of Names recalls more than 4,000 prisoners brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal and their fate: acquittal, exile or execution.

More than 1,500 rooms, from the Renaissance masterpieces commissioned by Francis I to Marie Antoinette's interiors, Napoleon I's state apartment and the tastes of Napoleon III and Eugénie, on an estate of 130 hectares with three gardens and a park.

Major international exhibitions, shows, performances and talks with leading figures of contemporary creation, and spaces open to all, such as the central Place and the Rotonde d'Antin, from which to rediscover its architecture.

A garden 226 metres long and nearly 92 wide, framed by three galleries: its basin, two lawns bordered with flower beds and, on the Paris meridian, a small bronze cannon that fires every Wednesday at noon.

An exhibition space that mixes art and science, designed for children aged 2 to 10 and the adults with them.

Live science talks and workshops with science communicators, on natural phenomena, the digital world or life under a microscope, and a planetarium that shows that evening's sky before a trip through the solar system, under six coloured big tops 14 metres high.

A national museum that traces how migrations have shaped France from 1685 to today, through personal stories, works of art and everyday objects, and a tropical aquarium of more than 4,000 animals from 350 species, under one Art Deco roof.

Opera, musicals, dance and concerts on the stage where Le Tour du Monde en 80 jours was performed 3,007 times between 1876 and 1940; guided visits lead from the terrace overlooking Paris to the auditorium, and the tenor-lecturer Grégoire Ichou gives sung visits with opera arias and French songs.