- For alternate uses, see Paris
(disambiguation).
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 quays (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 (in French: aire urbaine de Paris) has about 11 million residents (1999 census:
11,174,743).
History
(See History of Paris for a fuller article)
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.
Flag of Paris
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 Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Élysées
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 Hautecloque backed by the Allies.
Historical population
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
Administration
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.
The Paris City hall behind the river Seine
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.
Former mayors Jacques Chirac and Jean Tiberi were cited in corruption scandals in the Paris region.
Paris from space. The River Seine winds its way through the center of the image. The gray and purple pixels are the urban areas.
The patchwork of green, brown, tan and yellow surrounding the city is farmland.
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
- Menilmontant
- Buttes-Chaumont
- Passy
- Chaillot
- Montagne
Ste-Genevieve
- 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).
View from the Montparnasse Tower (Tour Montparnasse) towards the
Eiffel Tower. On the right Napoleon's tomb lies under the golden dome at Les
Invalides. The towers of the office and entertainment centre La Defense
line the horizon. 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.
Places in Paris
Notable places in Paris:
Monuments and buildings
Museums
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-Élysées, 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.
Boutiques and Department Stores
- Fauchon
- Galleries
Lafayette
- Printemps
Night life
- Le Lido - cabaret on the Champs-Élysées
famous for its exotic shows and where, as an American GI on leave with some army friends, Elvis Presley gave an impromptu concert.
- Bal du Moulin Rouge, Le Crazy Horse Saloon,
the Paris Olympia, Les Folies Bergère - famous
nightclubs
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, in the
town of Versailles to the southeast of Paris. The largest tourist attraction in
France.
- Saint Denis Basilica - ancient Gothic Cathedral and
burial site for many French monarchs, located north of the city.
- Le Raincy - a town in the suburb,
with the Eglise du Notre Dame (1923), an Historic Monument famed for its concrete columns
Events
View over Paris from the Grand Gallery of Notre Dame
- 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
- 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)
- 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.
Another simulated-color satellite image of Paris taken on the Landsat 7. This
image zooms closer into the heart of the city.
External links
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