Paris, France

Paris is the capital of France and is known throughout the world as the home of such attractions as the Louvre Museum, the Eiffel Tower, and Notre-Dame Cathedral. It is also internationally recognized as a center for the international fashion industry.

Landscape

The Paris metropolitan area covers 105 square kilometers (41 square miles) and rises to an altitude of 129 meters (423 feet) above sea level at the top of the hill Montmartre.

Paris is located along the Seine River in northern France in a region known as the Île de France. The city is subdivided into twenty political sections called arrondissements, which are numbered according to their distance from the river. Areas of the city are also distinguished in terms of their location north or south of the river. Regions to the south are referenced as the Left Bank, while regions to the north are known as the Right Bank.

Paris is also divided into quarters based on the residents and points of interest within each area. Some of the most well-known quarters of Paris are the Latin Quarter, the Tuileries Quarter, the Invalides Quarter, and the Champs-Élysées. The outlying areas of Paris, beyond the city center, are more residential, with the exception of the area surrounding Montmartre.

Paris has a generally mild climate, with temperatures averaging 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) in summer and 5 degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit) in winter.

People

The greater Paris metropolitan area has a population of approximately 11.142 million (2022), according to the Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook. A significant portion of the population consists of immigrants and other foreign residents, with the largest foreign population coming from northern Africa and the Middle East.

The majority of Parisians are Roman Catholic. There are also large groups of Muslims and Jews living in the city, along with some Protestants and Buddhists.

Economy

Paris is one of the most visited cities in the world, receiving more than 40 million tourists in 2022, according to Statista. Tourists come to Paris for a variety of reasons, including landmarks, art, cuisine, politics, fashion, and sporting events such as the French Open and the Tour de France. The city’s tourism industry contributes greatly to France’s annual tourism revenue.

The city of Paris is supported by a well-established subway transportation system known as the Metro, a citywide bus system, and the Charles De Gaulle International Airport.

Landmarks

One of the world’s most recognizable landmarks, the Eiffel Tower, is located in the Invalides Quarter of Paris. The tower was built in 1889 by Gustave Eiffel for the Universal Exhibition in celebration of the French Revolution. The tower is 324 meters (1,063 feet) tall.

Although there are more than one hundred different museums in Paris, the three most famous are the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay (Museum d’Orsay), and the Centre Pompidou (Pompidou Center). The Louvre is one of the largest museums in the world, with over 60,000 square meters (645,835 square feet) of exhibition space. Its collection consists of more than thirty-five thousand pieces, including ancient artifacts and significant works from the major European schools of art.

Some of the most popular works on display at the Louvre are the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, the Greek statue Venus de Milo, and the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi. The Museum d’Orsay specializes in French impressionist art and is located in a converted railway station, and the Pompidou Center houses the National Museum of Modern Art.

In addition to its museums, Paris is also home to two famous opera houses. The oldest is the Opéra de Paris Garnier, which sits as the central feature of the Opera Quarter of Paris. It was built in 1875 and includes a mixture of classical and baroque architectural styles. In 1989, the Opéra de la Bastille, in the Marais Quarter, was constructed to commemorate the bicentennial of the storming of the Bastille.

Paris is known for its many beautiful churches, including Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur, and the Dome Church. Notre-Dame sits in the oldest part of Paris, on the Île de la Cité. Construction of this Gothic cathedral began in 1163 and continued for 170 years. Notre-Dame is famous for its two large rose windows, the gargoyles atop its towers, and the latticed design of its flying buttresses.

The Basilica of Sacré-Cœur overlooks the city from atop Montmartre. It was built in memory of the fallen French soldiers of the Franco-Prussian War. Construction on Sacré-Cœur began in 1875 and was completed in 1914. Although the Dome Church was commissioned by Louis XIV as a private church and a royal tomb, the royal family was never buried there, and the building never truly served as a church. It eventually became a French military memorial building, and its most famous tomb is that of French emperor Napoléon Bonaparte, also known as Napoleon I. The Dome Church is the focal point of the city’s Invalides Quarter.

A few miles north of the center of Paris is the hill of Montmartre. In addition to Sacré-Cœur, the hill is also famous for the artist’s square and the Moulin Rouge night club.

The most famous shopping district of Paris is the Champs-Élysées Avenue, which stretches from the Place de la Concorde—the former location of the guillotine—to the Arc de Triomphe (Arch of Triumph), which was commissioned by Napoléon I to celebrate his military victories. Many of the world’s most noted designers have boutiques along the Champs-Élysées. The traffic circle around the Arch at the end of the avenue connects all of the main streets of the Champs-Élysées Quarter and is itself a local landmark.

The educational hub of Paris is the Latin Quarter, which includes the University of Paris, also known as the Sorbonne. This quarter is known for its bookstores, cafes, and public gardens.

Just outside the city limits there are additional landmarks that are often attributed to the city itself. The Palace of Versailles was constructed between 1668 and 1687 and was home to Louis XIV. The Euro Disney Amusement Park is located 32 kilometers (20 miles) east of Paris and was opened in 1992.

History

Paris was originally settled around 250 BCE by a small Gaul tribe known as the Parisii. The city, known as Lutetia, began as a small fishing village on an island in the Seine River called the Île de la Cité.

In 52 BCE, Lutetia was conquered by Roman emperor Julius Caesar, and it continued to exist as a small Roman city until Rome withdrew from the region in the middle of the fourth century CE.

Under French control, the city was renamed Paris and remained a small fishing village for over a thousand years. Nevertheless, it was chosen as the seat of government in 482 CE, by Clovis I of the Merovingian Dynasty, and again in 987, at the beginning of the Capetian Dynasty, when Hugh Capet was crowned king. It continued to be the seat of power through the remaining rule of the French monarchy.

During the medieval period, Paris enjoyed a variety of technological advancements and grew as a center for intellectual and spiritual education. In the twelfth century, under the rule of the Capetian Dynasty, the marshes of Paris were drained, enabling the city to expand beyond the banks of the Seine. The Sorbonne opened in 1253, and in 1380 the Bastille prison fortress was built.

During the fifteenth century, under the rule of the Valois Dynasty, Paris narrowly endured the Hundred Years’ War with England. The city was later rejuvenated under Louis XI with a new emphasis on art, architecture, and fashion.

The seventeenth century was known as the Great Century of Paris. Under the reign of Louis XIV, known as the Sun King, the city of Paris flourished with the construction of new buildings, squares, theaters, and the Palace of Versailles. Louis XIV’s extravagance would ultimately contribute to the demise of the French monarchy.

In 1774, Louis XVI assumed the throne. During his reign, the disparity between royalty and commoners reached a breaking point, and the people of Paris revolted against the monarchy. On July 14, 1789, a group of citizens stormed the Bastille, the king’s prison, thus beginning the French Revolution. Three years later, a republic was established under revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre, and the Reign of Terror began. During this time, anyone suspected of betraying the revolution was executed. More than sixty thousand people were killed. In 1794, Robespierre was overthrown as ruler of France and executed.

In 1804, former revolutionary general Napoléon Bonaparte assumed control of France and declared himself emperor. Under Napoléon’s control, a new code of laws and a centralized government was established. Napoléon’s reign was marked with many victorious battles, but he was ultimately defeated in the Battle of Waterloo and died in exile in 1821.

After Napoleón’s death, the monarchy was reestablished for a few generations. However, in 1852 Napoléon’s grandson overtook the throne and declared himself ruler of France. Under Napoléon III, Paris was transformed and modernized to become a prominent European city. Napoléon III employed the assistance of urban developer Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, who demolished the city’s slums and its narrow medieval streets and replaced them with a citywide geometrical grid of widened streets and landscaped boulevards.

In 1870, under the leadership of Napoléon III, Paris fell under siege for four months during the Franco-Prussian War. Fearing for his life, Napoléon III abdicated the throne and fled Paris. In 1871, the Prussians withdrew from France and peace was restored.

Under a new government, the Third Republic, Paris was revived by the Industrial Revolution and the popular culture of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth centuries. During this period, Paris was home to artists such as Pablo Picasso and Paul Cézanne and to modernist writers such as American expatriate novelist Ernest Hemingway.

From 1940 to 1944, Paris was occupied by Nazi Germany. The city was liberated in August 1944.

In 1958, the Fifth Republic of France was established in Paris, and Charles de Gaul became the first president of modern-day France. The city continued to grow over the following decades, and in 2007, French leadership launched a development initiative known as Grand Paris, with the goal of expanding the city’s transportation system, creating new housing, and improving Paris’s universities. In 2011, plans for the Grand Paris Express were released, a project that would likely stretch into 2030 to create new automatic Metro lines around Paris.

In the first part of the twenty-first century, Paris has also fallen victim to acts of terrorism. One of the most horrific and globally recognized incidences occurred in January 2015 when Muslim extremists conducted a shooting rampage at the Paris headquarters of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. The attack ended in the deaths of twelve people, including the editor in chief and several cartoonists. Only two days later, another terrorist held patrons hostage at a kosher grocery store in the city, killing four before he and the Charlie Hebdo shooters were killed by police. These combined attacks were the bloodiest that France had seen in decades. An emergency meeting was also called in Paris during which officials determined ways to heighten security on international trains when two Americans and one British man had to subdue a man after he opened fire on a train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris.

Later in 2015, Paris was again the victim on a terrorist attack. On the night of November 13, gunmen and suicide bombers attacked a packed soccer stadium, a concert venue, and a number of restaurants and bars in central Paris. The almost simultaneous attacks killed 130 people and injured hundreds more. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) later claimed responsibility for the attacks. The attacks, along with summer floods, contributed to a decrease in tourist arrivals in 2016.

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