Paris is the capital and largest city of France. The city is built on an arc of the River Seine, and is thus divided into two parts : the Right Bank to the north and the smaller Left Bank to the south. The river is well known for its tree-lined quais (walks along the river banks), open-air bookstalls and historic bridges that connect the Right and Left banks. Paris is also famous for its tree-lined boulevards such as the Champs-Élysées, and for its many architectural gems.
The city has about 2 million residents (1999 census : 2.147.857). The Greater Paris metropolitan area has about 11 million residents (1999 census : 11.174.743).
History
The name of the city comes from the name of a Gallic tribe (parisis) inhabiting the region at the time of the Roman conquest.
The historical nucleus of Paris is the Ile de la Cité, a small island largely occupied by the huge Palais de Justice and the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. It is connected with the smaller Ile Saint-Louis (another island) occupied by elegant houses built in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Paris was occupied by a Gallic tribe until the Romans arrived in 52 BC. The invaders referred to the previous occupants as the Parisii, but called their new city Lutetia, meaning "marshy place". About fifty years later the city had spread to the left bank of the Seine, now known as the Latin Quarter, and had been renamed "Paris".
Roman rule had ceased by 508, when Clovis the Frank made the city the capital of the Merovingian dynasty of the Franks. Viking invasions during the 800s forced the Parisians to build a fortress on the Ile de la Cité. On March 28, 845 Paris was sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collected a huge ransom in exchange for leaving. The weakness of the late Carolingian kings of France led to the gradual rise in power of the Counts of Paris; Odo, Count of Paris was elected king of France by feudal lords while Charles III was also claiming the throne. Finally, in 987 Hugh Capet, count of Paris, was elected king of France by the great feudal lords after the last Carolingian died.
During the 11th century the city spread to the Right Bank. In the 12th and 13th centuries, which included the reign of Philip II Augustus (1180-1223), the city grew strongly. Main thoroughfares were paved, the first Louvre was built as a fortress, and several churches, including the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, were constructed or begun. Several schools on the Left Bank were organized into the Sorbonne, which counts Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas Aquinas among its early scholars. In the Middle Ages Paris prospered as a trading and intellectual centre, interrupted temporarily when the Black Death struck in the 14th century. Under the reign of King Louis XIV, the Sun King, from 1643 to 1715, the royal residence was moved from Paris to nearby Versailles.
The French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. Many of the conflicts in the next few years were between Paris and the outlying rural areas.
In 1870 the Franco-Prussian War ended in a siege of Paris and the Paris Commune, which surrendered in 1871 after a winter of famine and bloodshed. The Eiffel Tower, the best-known landmark in Paris, was built in 1889 in a period of prosperity known as La Belle Époque (The Beautiful period).
In late August 1944 after the battle of Normandy, Paris was liberated when the German general Dietrich von Choltitz surrendered after skirmishes to the French 2nd Armored Division commanded by Philippe de Hauteclocque backed by the Allies.
Historical population
Metropolitan area of Paris
- 150 : 80.000 (peak of Roman era)
- 510 : 30.000 (losses after invasions of 3rd and 4th centuries)
- 1000 : 20.000 (lowest point after Viking invasions)
- 1200 : 110.000 (recovery of the Middle Ages)
- 1328 : 250.000 (blossoming of the 13th century, golden age of King Saint Louis)
- 1500 : 200.000 (losses of the Black Plague and War of Hundred Years)
- 1550 : 275.000 (Renaissance recovery)
- 1594 : 210.000 (losses of religious and civil wars)
- 1634 : 420.000 (spectacular recovery under King Henry IV and Richelieu)
- 1700 : 515.000
- 1750 : 565.000
- 1789 : 630.000 (peak of prosperous 18th century)
- 1801 : 548.000 (losses of French Revolution and wars)
- 1835 : 1.000.000
- 1860 : 2.000.000 (fastest historical growth under Emperor Napoleon III and Haussmann)
- 1885 : 3.000.000
- 1905 : 4.000.000
- 1911 : 4.500.000
- 1921 : 4.850.000 (stagnation due to losses of First World War)
- 1931 : 5.600.000
- 1936 : 6.000.000
- 1946 : 5.850.000 (losses of Second World War)
- 1954 : 6.550.000
- 1968 : 8.368.500 (end of postwar baby boom, end of immigration surplus for Paris,
- 1982 : 9.400.000 henceforth migration flows become negative, population growth is significantly slower)
- 1990 : 10.291.851
- 1999 : 11.174.743
City of Paris
- 1801 : 547.800 inhabitants
- 1831 : 714.000
- 1851 : 1.053.000
- 1881 : 2.240.000
- 1901 : 2.661.000
- 1926 : 2.871.000
- 1936 : 2.829.746
- 1946 : 2.725.374
- 1954 : 2.850.189
- 1962 : 2.753.014
- 1968 : 2.590.771
- 1975 : 2.317.227
- 1982 : 2.188.918
- 1990 : 2.152.423
- 1999 : 2.125.246
The city of Paris is itself a département of France (Paris, 75), part of the Ile-de-France région. Paris is divided into twenty numerically organised districts, the arrondissements. These districts are numbered in a spiral pattern with the 1er arrondissement at the center of the city.
The city of Paris also comprises two forests : the Bois de Boulogne on the west and the Bois de Vincennes on the east.
Prior to 1964, département 75 was "Seine", which contained the city and the surrounding suburbs. The change in boundaries resulted in the creation of 3 new départements forming a ring around Paris, often called la petite couronne (the little crown) : Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne.
As an exception to the normal rules for French cities, some powers normally vested in the mayor of the city are instead vested in a representative of the national government, the Prefect of Police. As an example, Paris has no municipal police force, though it has some traffic wardens. This is a legacy of the situation that up to 1977, Paris had no mayor and was essentially run by the prefectoral administration.
Citizens of Paris elect in each arrondissement some municipal council members. Each arrondissement has its own council, which elects the mayor of the arrondissement. Some members of the arrondissement councils form the Council of Paris, which elects the mayor of Paris, and has the double functions of a municipal council and the general council of the département.
Bertrand Delanoë has been the Mayor of Paris since March 18, 2001.
Geography
The city of Paris itself is only approximately 105 square kilometres (41 square miles) in size. Paris is located at 48°52' North, 2°19'59" East (48.866667. 2.333056).
The altitude of Paris varies, with several prominent hills :
- Montmartre - 130 metres (425 feet) above sea level
- Belleville - 115 metres (375 feet) above sea level
- Ménilmontant
- Buttes-Chaumont
- Passy
- Chaillot
- Montagne Sainte-Geneviève
- Butte-aux-Cailles
- Montparnasse (the hill there was levelled in the 18th century)
Transport
Paris is served by two principal airports : Orly Airport, which is south of Paris, and the international airport Charles De Gaulle International Airport in nearby Roissy-en-France. A third and much smaller airport, at the town of Beauvais, 45 miles to the north of the city, is used by charter and low-cost airlines. Le Bourget airport nowadays only hosts business jets, air trade shows and the aerospace museum.
Paris is densely covered by a metro system, the Métro, as well as by a large number of bus lines. This interconnects with a high-speed regional network, the RER, and also the train network : commuter lines, national train lines, and the TGV (or derivatives like Thalys or Eurostar for specific destinations). There are two tangential tramway lines in the suburbs : Line T1 runs from Saint-Denis to Noisy-le-Sec, line T2 runs from La Défense to Issy. A third line along the southern orbital road is currently under construction.
The city is the hub of France's motorway network, and is surrounded by an orbital road, the Peripherique. On/off ramps of the Peripherique are called 'Portes', as they correspond to the city gates. Most of these 'Portes' have parking areas and a metro station, where non-residents are advised to leave cars. Traffic in Paris is notoriously heavy, slow and tiresome.
Monuments and buildings
- The Eiffel Tower
- Arc de Triomphe - monument at the center of the Place de l'Etoile, commemorating the victories of France and honoring those who died in battle.
- Les Invalides - museum and burial place of many great French soldiers, including Napoleon.
- The Conciergerie - ancient prison where many members of the Ancien Regime stayed before their death.
- Palais Garnier - home of the Paris Opera, considered by Hitler to be the most beautiful building in the world.
- Cathedral of Notre Dame on the Ile de la Cité
- The Samaritaine Building - department store built at the start of the 20th century
- The Sorbonne - the University of Paris, founded in medieval times
- Statue of Liberty - a smaller version of the New York City harbor statue which France gave to the United States in 1886.
- The Pantheon of Paris - beautiful church and tomb of France's greatest heroes.
- Sainte-Chapelle - 13th-century Gothic palace chapel.
- Église de la Madeleine
- Place des Vosges - square in the Marais district laid out by Henry IV
- The Sacre Coeur, a Roman Catholic basilica.
Museums
- The Louvre, a huge museum housing many works of art, including the Mona Lisa (La Joconde) and the Venus de Milo statue.
- The Musée d'Orsay, an art museum housed in a converted 19th century railway station, containly mainly Impressionist works.
- Centre Georges Pompidou, also known as Beaubourg, houses the museum of modern art and a cultural center with a large public library. Famous for its external skeleton of service pipes.
- The Musee Rodin - a large collection of works by France's most famous sculptor
- The Musée du Montparnasse in the former residence of artist Marie Vassilieff at 21 Avenue du Maine, details the history of the great artistic community of Montparnasse.
- Musée Cluny, also known as the Musée National du Moyen-Age, houses a large collection of art and artifacts from the Middle Ages, including the tapestry cycle The Lady and the Unicorn.
Streets and other areas within Paris
- Montmartre - historic area on the Butte, home to the Basilica of the Sacré Coeur and also famous for the studios and cafés of many great artists.
- Champs-Élysées - a famous street, a broad boulevard often clogged with tourists.
- Rue de Rivoli - boutiques for tourists
- Place de la Concorde - at the foot of the Champs-Elysées, formerly Place de la Revolution, site of the infamous guillotine and the obelisk.
- Place de la Bastille - where the Bastille prison stood until the Revolution.
- Montparnasse - historic area on the Left Bank, famous for the studios, music-halls, and cafés of artists.
- The Statue of Liberty copy on the river Seine in Paris, France. Given to the city in 1885. it faces west, towards the original Liberty in New York City
- Pere Lachaise Cemetery - a popular tourist site, it contains the graves of many famous French men and women and those from other countries who came to live in France.
- Cimetière de Montmartre
- Cimetière du Montparnasse
- Cimetière de Passy
- Catacombs of Paris
- Les Halles - shopping precinct, includes an important metro connection station.
- Le Marais - trendy district on the Left Bank with large gay and Jewish populations
In the suburbs and the greater Paris region (Île-de-France)
business districts
- La Défense - major office, theater and shopping complex, west of Paris
Monuments
- Grande Arche de la Défense
- Palace of Versailles - the former royal palace of Louis XIV and later kings, in the town of Versailles to the southeast of Paris. The largest tourist attraction in France.
- Vaux-le-Vicomte, near Melun, a smaller palace on which Versailles was modeled.
Saint Denis Basilica - ancient Gothic Cathedral and burial site for many French monarchs, located north of the city.
Events
- 52 BC - Lutetia, later to become Paris, is built by the Gallo-Romans
- 1113 - Pierre Abélard opens his school
- 1163 - Building of Notre Dame begins
- 1257 - The Sorbonne University is founded
- 1682 - Louis XIV moves the French court from the Tuileries palace to Versailles
- July, 1789 - Storming of the Bastille
Royal family forced from Versailles back to Paris
- 1814 - Paris occupied by the armies of the Sixth Coalition after the fall of Napoleon
- 1815 - Paris is again occupied, this time by the Seventh Coalition, after the end of the Hundred Days
- 1840 - Napoleon's remains are buried at Les Invalides
- 1853 - Baron Haussmann rebuilds the centre of Paris
- 1855 - Exposition Universelle (1855)
- 1856 - Congress of Paris is held
- 1867 - Exposition Universelle (1867)
- January 28th, 1871 - Paris Commune falls
- 1878 - Exposition Universelle (1878)
- 1889 - Exposition Universelle (1889) - Eiffel Tower
- 1900 - Exposition Universelle (1900)
Paris Métro is opened
- 1925 - Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (1925)
- 1931 - French Colonial Exposition (1931)
- June 13, 1940 - Nazis enter Paris
- August 24, 1944 - Allies liberate the city
- 1968 - Student riots in Paris, combined with a series of strikes by workers across the country, threaten to bring down the Gaullist government
- 1999 - Opening of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France
- Late 2001 - Paris embassy terrorist attack plot foiled
- Paris hosted the Summer Olympics twice, in 1900 and 1924.
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