Chicago, a city of skyscrapers

Chicago is at the crossroads of contemporary architectural trends, a favorite playground for designers who have long sought to touch the sky and break records. For many years, the city was home to the world's tallest skyscraper, the Willis Tower. The city's skyline is dominated by some of the world's ten tallest buildings: Trump Tower and the John Hancock Center, whose observatory offers the best photographic view of Chicago's skyscrapers.

Chicago is an open-air art gallery, a pioneer of the "public art" movement that scatters astonishing installations along streets, squares, and parkways.

Initiated by the monumental sculpture "The Picasso," Chicago-style public art has spread to the city's subway stations and parks: Grant Park and adjacent Millennium Park are cultural hubs, as is the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the nation's two largest museums, and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, a bold outdoor concert hall. Public art is presented free of charge in the open air, and in keeping with the movement's philosophy, visitors are invited to interact: photograph themselves in the distorted reflections of "The Bean" (The Cloud Gate) or play in the water jets of the Crown Fountain.

On the shores of the gigantic Lake Michigan, the fifth largest lake in the world, Chicago unfurls its thirty or so sandy beaches. At the foot of the skyscrapers, the largest city in Illinois and the third largest metropolitan area in the United States offers a seaside feeling, with the cold waters of Lake Michigan stretching as far as the eye can see, beyond the horizon.

Chicago invented the Chicago-style hot dog, the "healthiest" of all hot dogs, said to be overflowing with greens and absolutely forbidden with ketchup! You can enjoy it, for example, at Portillo's Hot Dog and his movie set.

And it's in the shelter of Pizzeria Uno that Ike Sewell creates the "deep-dish pizza", or Chicago-style pizza. A pizza with thicker dough and more generous toppings, served in its own baking dish, in a noisy setting with small wooden tables arranged along a long, weathered bar.

Route 66, the legendary American road and the world's first transcontinental highway, begins here in Chicago. Or stops, depending on how you follow it. It officially begins a few long steps from the harbor behind the Art Institute of Chicago.

Emblematic of Route 66's heyday, Lou Mitchell's Restaurant is often considered the starting point for 66ers, who have always stopped here for a hearty breakfast before hitting the Mother of All Roads. The Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park is also a symbol. The now defunct Route 66 stretched nearly 3,000 miles from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California.

Chicago's subway system is one of the city's icons, appearing in movies, television and newspapers. Around downtown, it forms a loop nicknamed the "L" ("Elevated"), which occupies an elevated route on impressive metal structures. Beyond the tourist center, the subway goes underground, providing a vital link between downtown and the residential suburbs of Chicago's "Chicagoland" metropolitan area.

In downtown Chicago, the Magnificent Mile is home to the city's most luxurious boutiques, restaurants and hotels. But also more affordable shops. A true shopping temple, Water Tower Place is Chicago's largest mall. About 100 stores are spread over 8 levels. Located in one of the ten tallest buildings in the city (262 meters, 74 floors), it's open every day.

In Chicago, gusts sweep through the streets at the base of some of the tallest skyscrapers on the continent and in the world. In winter, the wind turns frigid, blowing in from the icy plains of the Arctic before rushing through the corridors formed by the tall buildings. It has inspired the city's nickname, "Windy City.