Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It
has an area of 105 square kilometres (41 square miles) and a population in 2013
of 2,229,621 within its administrative limits.The city is both a commune and
department, and forms the centre and headquarters of the Île-de-France, or
Paris Region, which has an area of 12,012 square kilometres (4,638 square
miles) and a population in 2014 of 12,005,077 comprising 18.2 percent of the
population of France.
The agglomeration has grown well beyond the city's
administrative limits. The Paris unité urbaine is a measure of continuous urban
area for statistical purposes, including both the commune and its suburbs, and
has a population of 10,601,122 (Jan. 2013 census) which makes it the largest in
the European Union.The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of metropolitan area,
spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426 (Jan.
2013 census),constituting nearly one-fifth of the population of France.The
Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its
nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation.
Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres (314 square miles) and has a population
of 6.945 million persons.
Paris was founded in the 3rd century BC by a Celtic people
called the Parisii, who gave the city its name. By the 12th century, it was the
largest city in the western world, a prosperous trading centre, and the home of
the University of Paris, one of the oldest universities in history. By the 17th
century Paris was one of Europe's major centres of finance, commerce, fashion,
science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today.
The Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion (US $687 billion)
in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France, and ranking it as
one of the wealthiest regions in Europe; it is the banking and financial centre
of France, and contains the headquarters of 29 of the 31 French companies
ranked in the 2015 Fortune Global 500.
The city is also a major rail, highway, and air-transport
hub, served by the two international airports Paris-Charles de Gaulle (the
second busiest airport in Europe after London Heathrow Airport with 63.8
million passengers in 2014) and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the city's subway
system, the Paris Métro, serves 5.23 million passengers daily.It is the second
busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro. Paris is the hub of the
national road network and is surrounded by three orbital roads: the
Périphérique, the A86 motorway, and the Francilienne motorway.
Among Paris's important museums and cultural institutions
are the most-visited art museum in the world, the Louvre, as well as the Musée
d'Orsay, noted for its collection of French Impressionist art, and the Musée
National d'Art Moderne in the Pompidou Centre, the largest collection of modern
and contemporary art in Europe. The central area of the city along the Seine
River is classified as a UNESCO Heritage Site, and includes many notable
monuments, including Notre Dame Cathedral (12th century to 13th century the Sainte-Chapelle (13th century); the Eiffel
Tower (1889); the Grand Palais and Petit Palais (1900); and the Basilica of
Sacré-Cœur in Montmartre (1914). In 2015 Paris received 22.2 million visitors,
making it one of the world's top tourist destinations.and is also known for its
fashion, particularly the twice-yearly Paris Fashion Week, and for its haute
cuisine and three-star restaurants. Most of France's major universities and
grandes écoles are located in Paris, as are France's major newspapers,
including Le Monde, Le Figaro, and Libération.
The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the
rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris. The 80,000-seat Stade de
France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in
the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open
Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros. Paris hosted the
1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics
and thus become the second city to have hosted the Games three times. The 1938
and 1998 FIFA World Cups, the 2007 Rugby World Cup and UEFA Euro 2016 were also
held in the city, and every July, the Tour de France of cycling finishes in the
city.
Etymology
The name "Paris" is derived from its early
inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe.Thus, though written the same, the city's
name is not related to the character Paris who has a prominent role in Greek
Mythology.
Paris is often referred to as "The City of Light"
(La Ville Lumière) both because of its leading role during the Age of
Enlightenment and more literally because Paris was one of the first European
cities to adopt gas street lighting. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets
of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps.Since the late 19th century, Paris
has also been known as Paname (pronounced: [panam]) in French slang.
Inhabitants are known in English as "Parisians" and
in French as Parisiens pejoratively also called Parigots.
History
The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited
the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC.One of the area's
major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine this meeting place of land and
water trade routes gradually became a town and an important trading centre.The
Parisii traded with many river towns as far away as the Iberian Peninsula, and
minted their own coins for that purpose.
Gold coins minted by the Parisii (1st century BC)
The Romans conquered the Paris Basin in 52 BC and after
making the island a garrison camp, began extending their settlement in a more
permanent way to Paris's Left Bank. The Gallo-Roman town was originally called
Lutetia (more fully, Lutetia Parisiorum, "Lutetia of the Parisii").
It became a prosperous city with a forum, baths, temples, theatres, and an
amphitheatre.
By the end of the Western Roman Empire, the town was known
simply as Parisius in Latin and would later become Paris in French.Christianity
was introduced in the middle of the 3rd century AD. According to tradition, it
was brought by Saint Denis, the first Bishop of Paris. When he refused to
renounce his faith, he was beheaded on the hill which became known as the
"Mountain of Martyrs" (Mons Martyrum), eventually "Montmartre".
His burial place became an important religious shrine; the Basilica of
Saint-Denis was built there and became the burial place of the French Kings.
Clovis the Frank, the first king of the Merovingian dynasty,
made the city his capital from 508. A gradual immigration by the Franks also
occurred in Paris in the beginning of the Frankish domination of Gaul which
created the Parisian Francien dialects. Fortification of the Île-de-France
failed to prevent sacking by Vikings in 845 but Paris's strategic importance—with
its bridges preventing ships from passing—was established by successful defence
in the Siege of Paris (885–86). In 987 Hugh Capet, Count of Paris (comte de
Paris), Duke of the Franks (duc des Francs) was elected King of the Franks (roi
des Franks). Under the rule of the Capetian kings, Paris gradually became the
largest and most prosperous city in France.
Middle Ages to Louis XIV
By the end of the 12th century, Paris had become the
political, economic, religious, and cultural capital of France.The Palais de la
Cité, the royal residence, was located at the western end of the city.In 1163,
during the reign of Louis VII, Maurice de Sully, bishop of Paris, undertook the
construction of the Notre Dame Cathedral at its eastern extremity. The Left
Bank was the site of the University of Paris, a corporation of students and
teachers formed in the mid-12th century to train scholars first in theology,
and later in canon law, medicine and the arts.
The Right Bank became the centre of commerce and finance.
The merchants who controlled the trade on the river formed a league and quickly
became a powerful force. Between 1190 and 1202, Philip Augustus built the
massive fortress of the Louvre, continued the construction of Notre Dame,
rebuilt the two bridges, began paving Paris's main thoroughfares, and the
construction of a fortified wall around the city.
During the Hundred Years' War, in the night of 28–29 May
1418, a force of 800 men attached to John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, and
led by Jean de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam made its way into Paris. Two and half
years later, on 1 December 1420, Henry V of England made his solemn entrance into
the French capital.Paris was occupied by the English and their Burgundian
allies until 1436. They repelled an attempt by Joan of Arc to liberate the city
in September 1429.A century later, during the French Wars of Religion Paris was
a stronghold of the Catholic League. On 24 August 1572, it was the site of the
St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, when thousands of French Protestants were
killed.The last of these wars, the eighth one, ended in 1594, after Henri IV
had converted to Catholicism and was finally able to enter Paris as he
supposedly declared Paris vaut bien une messe ("Paris is well worth a Mass").
The city had been neglected for decades; by the time of his assassination in
1610, Henry IV had rebuilt the Pont Neuf, the first Paris bridge with sidewalks
and not lined with buildings, linked with a new wing the Louvre to the
Tuileries Palace, and created the first Paris residential square, the Place Royale,
now Place des Vosges.
In the 17th century, Cardinal Richelieu, chief minister of
Louis XIII, was determined to make Paris the most beautiful city in Europe. He
built five new bridges, a new chapel for the College of Sorbonne, and a palace
for himself, the Palais Cardinal, which he bequeathed to Louis XIII, and which
became, after his own death in 1642, the Palais-Royal.
Louis XIV distrusted the Parisians and moved his court to
Versailles in 1682, but his reign also saw an unprecedented flourishing of the
arts and sciences in Paris. The Comédie-Française, the Academy of Painting, and
the French Academy of Sciences were founded and made their headquarters in the
city. To show that the city was safe against attack, he had the city walls
demolished, replacing them with Grands Boulevards.To leave monuments to his
reign, he built the Collège des Quatre-Nations, Place Vendôme, Place des
Victoires, and began Les Invalides.
The 18th and 19th century
Paris grew in population from about 400,000 in 1640 to
650,000 in 1780.A new boulevard, the Champs-Élysées, extended the city west to
Étoile while the working-class neighbourhood of the Faubourg Saint-Antoine on
the eastern site of the city grew more and more crowded with poor migrant
workers from other regions of France.
Paris was the centre of an explosion of philosophic and
scientific activity known as the Age of Enlightenment. Diderot and d'Alembert
published their Encyclopédie in 1751–52, and the Montgolfier Brothers launched
the first manned flight in a hot-air balloon on 21 November 1783, from the
gardens of the Château de la Muette. Paris was the financial capital of
continental Europe, the primary European centre of book publishing, fashion,
and the manufacture of fine furniture and luxury goods.
In the summer of 1789, Paris became the centre stage of the
French Revolution. On 14 July, a mob seized the arsenal at the Invalides,
acquiring thousands of guns, and stormed the Bastille, a symbol of royal
authority. The first independent Paris Commune, or city council, met in the Hotel
de Ville and, on 15 July, elected a Mayor, the astronomer Jean Sylvain Bailly.
Louis XVI and the royal family were brought to Paris and
made virtual prisoners within the Tuileries Palace. In 1793, as the revolution
turned more and more radical, the king, queen, and the mayor were guillotined,
along with more than 16,000 others (throughout France), during the Reign of
Terror.The property of the aristocracy and the church was nationalised, and the
city's churches were closed, sold or demolished.A succession of revolutionary
factions ruled Paris until 9 November 1799 when Napoléon Bonaparte seized power
as First Consul.
The Paris Opera was the centrepiece of Napoleon III's new
Paris. The architect, Charles Garnier, described the style simply as
"Napoleon the Third."
The population of Paris had dropped by 100,000 during the
Revolution, but between 1799 and 1815, it surged with 160,000 new residents,
reaching 660000.Napoleon Bonaparte replaced the elected government of Paris
with a prefect reporting only to him. He began erecting monuments to military
glory, including the Arc de Triomphe, and improved the neglected infrastructure
of the city with new fountains, the Canal de l'Ourcq, Père Lachaise Cemetery
and the city's first metal bridge, the Pont des Arts.
During the Restoration, the bridges and squares of Paris
were returned to their pre-Revolution names, but the July Revolution of 1830 in
Paris, (commemorated by the July Column on Place de la Bastille), brought a
constitutional monarch, Louis Philippe I, to power. The first railway line to
Paris opened in 1837, beginning a new period of massive migration from the
provinces to the city.
The Eiffel Tower, under construction in August 1888,
startled Parisians and the world with its modernity.
Louis-Philippe was overthrown by a popular uprising in the
streets of Paris in 1848. His successor, Napoleon III, and the newly appointed
prefect of the Seine, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, launched a gigantic public
works project to build wide new boulevards, a new opera house, a central
market, new aqueducts, sewers, and parks, including the Bois de Boulogne and
Bois de Vincennes.In 1860, Napoleon III also annexed the surrounding towns and
created eight new arrondissements, expanding Paris to its current limits.
During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), Paris was
besieged by the Prussian army. After months of blockade, hunger, and then
bombardment by the Prussians, the city was forced to surrender on 28 January
1871. On 28 March, a revolutionary government called the Paris Commune seized
power in Paris. The Commune held power for two months, until it was harshly suppressed
by the French army during the "Bloody Week" at the end of May 1871.
Late in the 19th century, Paris hosted two major
international expositions: the 1889 Universal Exposition, was held to mark the
centennial of the French Revolution and featured the new Eiffel Tower; and the
1900 Universal Exposition, which gave Paris the Pont Alexandre III, the Grand
Palais, the Petit Palais and the first Paris Métro line.Paris became the
laboratory of Naturalism (Émile Zola) and Symbolism (Charles Baudelaire and
Paul Verlaine), and of Impressionism in art (Courbet, Manet, Monet, Renoir).
20th and 21st century
By 1901, the population of Paris had grown to 2,715,000.At
the beginning of the century, artists from around the world, including Picasso,
Modigliani, and Matisse made Paris their home; it was the birthplace of
Fauvism, Cubism and abstract art and authors such as Marcel Proust were
exploring new approaches to literature.
During the First World War, Paris sometimes found itself on
the front line; 600 to 1,000 Paris taxis played a small but highly important
symbolic role in transporting 6,000 soldiers to the front line at the First
Battle of the Marne. The city was also bombed by Zeppelins and shelled by
German long-range guns.In the years after the war, known as Les Années Folles,
Paris continued to be a mecca for writers, musicians and artists from around
the world, including Ernest Hemingway, Igor Stravinsky, James Joyce, Josephine
Baker, Sidney Bechet and the surrealist Salvador Dalí.
In the years after the peace conference, the city was also
home to growing numbers of students and activists from French colonies and
other Asian and African countries, who later became leaders of their countries,
such as Ho Chi Minh, Zhou Enlai and Léopold Sédar Senghor.
On 14 June 1940, the German army marched into Paris, which
had been declared an "open city".On 16–17 July 1942, following German
orders, the French police and gendarmes arrested 12,884 Jews, including 4,115
children, and confined them during five days at the Vel d'Hiv (Vélodrome
d'Hiver), from which they were transported by train to the extermination camp
at Auschwitz. None of the children came back.On 25 August 1944, the city was
liberated by the French 2nd Armoured Division and the 4th Infantry Division of
the United States Army. General Charles de Gaulle led a huge and emotional
crowd down the Champs Élysées towards Notre Dame de Paris, and made a rousing
speech from the Hôtel de Ville.
In the 1950s and the 1960s, Paris became one front of the
Algerian War for independence; in August 1961, the pro-independence FLN
targeted and killed 11 Paris policemen, leading to the imposition of a curfew
on Muslims of Algeria (who, at that time, were French citizens). On 17 October
1961, an unauthorised but peaceful protest demonstration of Algerians against
the curfew led to violent confrontations between the police and demonstrators,
in which at least 40 people were killed, including some thrown into the Seine.
The anti-independence Organisation Army Secrete (OAS), for their part, carried
out a series of bombings in Paris throughout 1961 and 1962.
The Centre Georges Pompidou, a museum of modern art (1977),
put all its internal plumbing and infrastructure on the outside.
In May 1968, protesting students occupied the Sorbonne and
put up barricades in the Latin Quarter. Thousands of Parisian blue-collar
workers joined the students, and the movement grew into a two-week general
strike. Supporters of the government won the June elections by a large
majority. The May 1968 events in France resulted in the break-up of the
University of Paris into 13 independent campuses.
In 1975, the National Assembly changed the status of Paris
to that of other French cities and, on 25 March 1977, Jacques Chirac became the
first elected mayor of Paris since 1793.The Tour Maine Montparnasse, the
tallest building in the city at 57 storeys and 210 metres (689 ft) high, was
built between 1969 and 1973. It was highly controversial, and it remains the
only building in the centre of the city over 32 storeys high.
The population of Paris dropped from 2,850,000 in 1954 to
2,152,000 in 1990, as middle-class families moved to the suburbs.A suburban
railway network, the RER (Réseau Express Régional), was built to complement the
Métro, and the Périphérique expressway encircling the city, was completed in
1973.
Most of the postwar's presidents of the Fifth Republic
wanted to leave their own monuments in Paris; President Georges Pompidou
started the Centre Georges Pompidou (1977), Valéry Giscard d'Estaing began the
Musée d'Orsay (1986); President François Mitterrand, in power for 14 years,
built the Opéra Bastille (1985–1989), the Bibliothèque nationale de France
(1996), the Arche de la Défense (1985–1989), and the Louvre Pyramid with its
underground courtyard (1983–1989); Jacques Chirac (2006), the Musée du quai
Branly.
In the early 21st century, the population of Paris began to
increase slowly again, as more young people moved into the city. It reached
2.25 million in 2011. In March 2001, Bertrand Delanoë became the first
socialist mayor of Paris. In 2007, in an effort to reduce car traffic in the
city, he introduced the Vélib', a system which rents bicycles for the use of
local residents and visitors. Bertrand Delanoë also transformed a section of
the highway along the left bank of the Seine into an urban promenade and park,
the Promenade des Berges de la Seine, which he inaugurated in June 2013.
In 2007, President Nicolas Sarkozy launched the Grand Paris
project, to integrate Paris more closely with the towns in the region around
it. After many modifications, the new area, named the Metropolis of Grand
Paris, with a population of 6.7 million, was created on 1 January 2016.
In 2011, the City of Paris and the national government
approved the plans for the Grand Paris Express, totalling 205 kilometres (127
miles) of automated metro lines to connect Paris, the innermost three
departments around Paris, airports and high-speed rail (TGV) stations, at an
estimated cost of €35 billion.The system is scheduled to be completed by 2030.
On 5 April 2014, Anne Hidalgo, a socialist, was elected the
first female mayor of Paris.
On 7 January 2015, two French Muslim extremists attacked the
Paris headquarters of Charlie Hebdo and killed thirteen people, and on 9
January, a third terrorist killed four hostages during an attack at a Jewish
grocery store at Porte de Vincennes.On 11 January an estimated 1.5 million
people marched in Paris–along with international political leaders–to show
solidarity against terrorism and in defence of freedom of speech.Ten months
later, 13 November 2015, came a series of coordinated terrorist attacks in
Paris and Saint-Denis claimed by the 'Islamic state' organisation ISIL 130
people were killed by gunfire and bombs, and more than 350 were injured.
Geography
Paris is located in northern central France. By road it is
450 kilometres (280 mi) south-east of London, 287 kilometres (178 mi) south of
Calais, 305 kilometres (190 mi) south-west of Brussels, 774 kilometres (481 mi)
north of Marseille, 385 kilometres (239 mi) north-east of Nantes, and 135
kilometres (84 mi) south-east of Rouen.Paris is located in the north-bending
arc of the river Seine and includes two islands, the Île Saint-Louis and the
larger Île de la Cité, which form the oldest part of the city. The river's
mouth on the English Channel (La Manche) is about 233 mi (375 km) downstream of
the city, established around 7600 BC. The city is spread widely on both banks
of the river.Overall the city is relatively flat, and the lowest point is 35 m
(115 ft) above sea level. Paris has several prominent hills, the highest of
which is Montmartre at 130 m (427 ft).Montmartre gained its name from the
martyrdom of Saint Denis, first bishop of Paris, atop the Mons Martyrum,
"Martyr's mound", in 250.
Excluding the outlying parks of Bois de Boulogne and Bois de
Vincennes, Paris covers an oval measuring about 87 km2 (34 sq mi) in area,
enclosed by the 35 km (22 mi) ring road, the Boulevard Périphérique.The city's
last major annexation of outlying territories in 1860 not only gave it its
modern form but also created the 20 clockwise-spiralling arrondissements
(municipal boroughs). From the 1860 area of 78 km2 (30 sq mi), the city limits
were expanded marginally to 86.9 km2 (33.6 sq mi) in the 1920s. In 1929, the
Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes forest parks were officially annexed to
the city bringing its area to about 105 km2 (41 sq mi).The metropolitan area of
the city is 2,300 km2 (890 sq mi).
Climate
Paris has a typical Western European oceanic climate which
is affected by the North Atlantic Current. The overall climate throughout the
year is mild and moderately wet summer days are usually warm and pleasant with
average temperatures between 15 and 25 °C (59 and 77 °F), and a fair amount of
sunshine.Each year, however, there are a few days when the temperature rises
above 32 °C (90 °F). Longer periods of more intense heat sometimes occur, such
as the heat wave of 2003 when temperatures exceeded 30 °C (86 °F) for weeks, reached
40 °C (104 °F) on some days and seldom cooled down at night.
Spring and autumn have, on average, mild days and fresh
nights but are changing and unstable. Surprisingly warm or cool weather occurs frequently
in both seasons.In winter, sunshine is scarce; days are cool, nights cold but
generally above freezing with low temperatures around 3 °C (37 °F).Light night
frosts are however quite common, but the temperature will dip below −5 °C (23
°F) for only a few days a year. Snow falls every year, but rarely stays on the
ground. The city sometimes sees light snow or flurries with or without
accumulation.
Paris has an average annual precipitation of 652 mm (25.7
in), and experiences light rainfall distributed evenly throughout the year. However
the city is known for intermittent abrupt heavy showers. The highest recorded
temperature is 40.4 °C (104.7 °F) on 28 July 1947, and the lowest is −23.9 °C
(−11.0 °F) on 10 December 1879.
City government
For almost all of its long history, except for a few brief
periods, Paris was governed directly by representatives of the king, emperor,
or president of France. The city was not granted municipal autonomy by the National
Assembly until 1974.The first modern elected mayor of Paris was Jacques Chirac,
elected 20 March 1977, becoming the city's first mayor since 1793. The current
mayor is Anne Hidalgo, a socialist, elected 5 April 2014.
The mayor of Paris is elected indirectly by Paris voters;
the voters of each arrondissement elect the Conseil de Paris (Council of
Paris), composed of 163 members. Each arrondissement has a number of members
depending upon its population, from 10 members for each of the least-populated
arrondissements (1st through 9th) to 36 members for the most populated (the
15th). The elected council members select the mayor. Sometimes the candidate
who receives the most votes citywide is not selected if the other candidate has
won the support of the majority of council members. Mayor Bertrand Delanoë
(2001–2014) was elected by only a minority of city voters, but a majority of
council members. Once elected, the council plays a largely passive role in the
city government; it meets only once a month. The current council is divided
between a coalition of the left of 91 members, including the socialists,
communists, greens, and extreme left; and 71 members for the centre right, plus
a few members from smaller parties.
Each of Paris's 20 arrondissements has its own town hall and
a directly elected council (conseil d'arrondissement), which, in turn, elects
an arrondissement mayor.The council of each arrondissement is composed of
members of the Conseil de Paris and also members who serve only on the council
of the arrondissement. The number of deputy mayors in each arrondissement
varies depending upon its population. There are a total of 20 arrondissement mayors
and 120 deputy mayors.
The budget of the city for 2013 was €7.6 billion, of which
€5.4 billion went for city administration, while €2.2 billion went for
investment. The largest part of the budget (38 percent) went for public housing
and urbanism projects; 15 percent for roads and transport; 8 percent for
schools (which are mostly financed by the state budget); 5 percent for parks
and gardens; and 4 percent for culture. The main source of income for the city
is direct taxes (35 percent), supplemented by a 13-percent real estate tax; 19
percent of the budget comes in a transfer from the national government.
The number of city employees, or agents, grew from 40,000 in
2000 to 73,000 in 2013. The city debt grew from €1.6 billion in 2000 to 3.1
billion in 2012, with a debt of €3.65 billion expected for 2014.
AS a result of the growing debt, the bond rating of the city
was lowered from AAA to AA+ in both 2012 and 2013. In September 2014, Mayor
Hidalgo announced that the city would have budget shortfall of €400 million,
largely because of a cut in support from the national government.
Regional government
The Region of Île de France, including Paris and its
surrounding communities, is governed by the Regional Council, which has its
headquarters in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. It is composed of 209 members
representing the different communes within the region. On December 15, 2015, a
list of candidates of the Union of the Right, a coalition of centrist and
right-wing parties, led by Valérie Pécresse, narrowly won the regional
election, defeating a coalition of Socialists and ecologists. The Socialists
had governed the region for seventeen years. The regional council has 121
members from the Union of the Right, 66 from the Union of the Left and 22 from
the extreme right National Front.
National government
As the capital of France, Paris is the seat of France's
national government. For the executive, the two chief officers each have their
own official residences, which also serve as their offices. The President of
the French Republic resides at the Élysée Palace in the 8th arrondissement,while
the Prime Minister's seat is at the Hôtel Matignon in the 7th arrondissement.Government
ministries are located in various parts of the city; many are located in the
7th arrondissement, near the Matignon.
The two houses of the French Parliament are located on the
Left Bank. The upper house, the Senate, meets in the Palais du Luxembourg in
the 6th arrondissement, while the more important lower house, the Assemblée
Nationale, meets in the Palais Bourbon in the 7th arrondissement. The President
of the Senate, the second-highest public official in France (the President of
the Republic being the sole superior), resides in the "Petit
Luxembourg", a smaller palace annexe to the Palais du Luxembourg.
France's highest courts are located in Paris. The Court of
Cassation, the highest court in the judicial order, which reviews criminal and
civil cases, is located in the Palais de Justice on the Île de la Cité while
the Conseil d'État which provides legal advice to the executive and acts as the
highest court in the administrative order, judging litigation against public
bodies, is located in the Palais-Royal in the 1st arrondissement.The
Constitutional Council, an advisory body with ultimate authority on the
constitutionality of laws and government decrees, also meets in the Montpensier
wing of the Palais Royal.
Paris and its region host the headquarters of several
international organisations including UNESCO, the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development, the International Chamber of Commerce, the Paris
Club, the European Space Agency, the International Energy Agency, the
Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, the European Union Institute
for Security Studies, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, the
International Exhibition Bureau, and the International Federation for Human
Rights.
Following the motto "Only Paris is worthy of Rome; only
Rome is worthy of Paris” the only sister city of Paris is Rome, although Paris
has partnership agreements with many other cities around the world.
Police force
The security of Paris is mainly the responsibility of the
Prefecture of Police of Paris, a subdivision of the Ministry of the Interior of
France. It supervises the units of the National Police who patrol the city and
the three neighbouring departments. It is also responsible for providing
emergency services, including the Paris Fire Brigade. Its headquarters is on
Place Louis Lépine on the Île de la Cité.There are 30,200 officers under the
prefecture, and a fleet of more than 6,000 vehicles, including police cars,
motorcycles, fire trucks, boats and helicopters. In addition to traditional
police duties, the local police monitors the number of discount sales held by
large stores (no more than two a year are allowed) and verify that, during
summer holidays, at least one bakery is open in every neighbourhood the
national police has its own special unit for riot control and crowd control and
security of public buildings, called the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité
(CRS), a unit formed in 1944 right after the liberation of France. Vans of CRS
agents are frequently seen in the centre of the city when there are demonstrations
and public events.
The police are supported by the National Gendarmerie, a
branch of the French Armed Forces, though their police operations now are
supervised by the Ministry of the Interior. The traditional kepis of the
gendarmes were replaced in 2002 with caps, and the force modernised, though
they still wear kepis for ceremonial occasions.
Crime in Paris is similar to that in most large cities.
Violent crime is relatively rare in the city centre.Political violence is
uncommon, though very large demonstrations may occur in Paris and other French
cities simultaneously. These demonstrations, usually managed by a strong police
presence, can turn confrontational and escalate into violence.
City scape
Most French rulers since the middle ages made a point of
leaving their mark on a city that, contrary to many other of the world's
capitals, has never been destroyed by catastrophe or war. In modernising its
infrastructure through the centuries, Paris has preserved even its earliest
history in its street map [citation needed] At its origin, before the Middle
Ages, the city was composed around several islands and sandbanks in a bend of
the Seine; of those, two remain today: the île Saint-Louis, the île de la Cité;
a third one is the 1827 artificially created île aux Cygnes. Modern Paris owes
much to its late 19th century Second Empire remodelling by the Baron Haussmann:
many of modern Paris's busiest streets, avenues and boulevards today are a
result of that city renovation. Paris also owes its style to its aligned
street-fronts, distinctive cream-grey "Paris stone" building
ornamentation, aligned top-floor balconies, and tree-lined boulevards. The high
residential population of its city centre makes it much different from most
other western global cities.
Paris's urbanism laws have been under strict control since
the early 17th century particularly where street-front alignment, building
height and building distribution is concerned. In recent developments, a
1974–2010 building height limitation of 37 metres (121 ft) was raised to 50 m
(160 ft) in central areas and 180 metres (590 ft) in some of Paris's peripheral
quarters, yet for some of the city's more central quarters, even older
building-height laws still remain in effect.[116] The 210 metres (690 ft)
Montparnasse tower was both Paris and France's tallest building until 1973 but
this record has been held by the La Défense quarter Tour First tower in
Courbevoie since its 2011 construction. A new project for La Défense, called
Hermitage Plaza, launched in 2009, proposes to build two towers, 85 and 86
stories or 320 metres (1,050 feet) high, which would be the tallest buildings
in the European Union, just slightly shorter than the Eiffel Tower. They were
scheduled for completion in 2019 or 2020, but as of January 2015 construction
had not yet begun, and there were questions in the press about the future of the
project.
Parisian examples of European architecture date back more
than a millennium; including the Romanesque church of the Abbey of
Saint-Germain-des-Prés (1014–1163); the early Gothic Architecture of the
Basilica of Saint-Denis (1144), the Notre Dame Cathedral (1163–1345), the
Flamboyant Gothic of Saint Chapelle (1239–1248), the Baroque churches of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis
(1627–1641) and Les Invalides (1670–1708). The 19th century produced the
neoclassical church of La Madeleine (1808–1842); the Palais Garnier Opera House
(1875); the neo-Byzantine Basilica of Sacré-Cœur (1875–1919), and the exuberant
Belle Époque modernism of the Eiffel Tower (1889). Striking examples of
20th-century architecture include the Centre Georges Pompidou by Richard Rogers
and Renzo Piano (1977), and the Louvre Pyramid by I.M. Pei (1989). Contemporary
architecture includes the Musée du Quai Branly by Jean Nouvel (2006) and the
new contemporary art museum of the Louis Vuitton Foundation by Frank Gehry
(2014).
Monuments and attractions
The city's top tourist attraction was the Notre Dame
Cathedral, which welcomed 13.6 million visitors in 2015. The Louvre museum had
7.3 million visitors in 2016, making it the most visited art museum in the
world. The other top cultural attractions in Paris in 2015 were the Basilique
du Sacré-Cœur (10 million visitors); the Eiffel Tower (6.917,000 visitors); the
Centre Pompidou (3,060,000 visitors) and Musée d'Orsay (3,439,000 visitors).In
the Paris region, Disneyland Paris, in Marne-la-Vallée, 32 kilometres (20
miles) east of the centre of Paris, was the most visited tourist attraction in
France, with 13.4 million visitors million visitors in fiscal year 2016, though
this was a drop of ten percent from visitors in fiscal year 2015.
The centre of Paris contains the most visited monuments in
the city, including the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Louvre as well as the
Sainte-Chapelle; Les Invalides, where the tomb of Napoleon is located, and the
Eiffel Tower are located on the Left Bank south-west of the centre. The banks
of the Seine from the Pont de Sully to the Pont d'Iéna have been listed as a
UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991.Other landmarks are laid out east to west
along the historic axis of Paris, which runs from the Louvre through the
Tuileries Garden, the Luxor Column in the Place de la Concorde, the Arc de
Triomphe, to the Grande Arche of La Défense.
Several other much-visited landmarks are located in the
suburbs of the city; the Basilica of St Denis, in Seine-Saint-Denis, is the
birthplace of the Gothic style of architecture and the royal necropolis of
French kings and queens.The Paris region hosts three other UNESCO Heritage
sites: the Palace of Versailles in the west the Palace of Fontainebleau in the
south and the medieval fairs site of Provins in the east.
As of 2013 the City of Paris had 1,570 hotels with 70,034
rooms, of which 55 were rated five-star, mostly belonging to international
chains and mostly located close to the centre and the Champs-Élysées. Paris has
long been famous for its grand hotels. The Hotel Meurice, opened for British
travellers in 1817, was one of the first luxury hotels in Paris.The arrival of
the railways and the Paris Exposition of 1855 brought the first flood of
tourists and the first modern grand hotels; the Hôtel du Louvre (now an
antiques marketplace) in 1855; the Grand Hotel (now the Intercontinental
LeGrand) in 1862; and the Hôtel Continental in 1878. The Hôtel Ritz on Place
Vendôme opened in 1898, followed by the Hôtel Crillon in an 18th-century
building on the Place de la Concorde in 1909; the Hotel Bristol on rue de
Fabourg Saint-Honoré in 1925; and the Hotel George V in 1928.
Restaurants and cuisine
Since the late 18th century, Paris has been famous for its
restaurants and haute cuisine, food meticulously prepared and artfully
presented. A luxury restaurant, La Taverne Anglaise, opened in 1786 in the
arcades of the Palais-Royal by Antoine Beauvilliers; it featured an elegant
dining room, an extensive menu, linen tablecloths, a large wine list and
well-trained waiters; it became a model for future Paris restaurants. The
restaurant Le Grand Véfour in the Palais-Royal dates from the same period.The
famous Paris restaurants of the 19th century, including the Café de Paris, the
Rocher de Cancale, the Café Anglais, Maison Dorée and the Café Riche, were
mostly located near the theatres on the Boulevard des Italiens; they were
immortalised in the novels of Balzac and Émile Zola. Several of the best-known
restaurants in Paris today appeared during the Belle Epoque, including Maxim's
on Rue Royale, Ledoyen in the gardens of the Champs-Élysées, and the Tour
d'Argent on the Quai de la Tournelle.
Today, thanks to Paris's cosmopolitan population, every
French regional cuisine and almost every national cuisine in the world can be
found there; the city has more than 9,000 restaurants.The michelin Guide has
been a standard guide to French restaurants since 1900, awarding its highest
award, three stars, to the best restaurants in France. In 2015, of the 29
Michelin three-star restaurants in France, nine are located in Paris. These
include both restaurants which serve classical French cuisine, such as
L'Ambroisie in the Place des Vosges, and those which serve non-traditional
menus, such as L'Astrance, which combines French and Asian cuisines. Several of
France's most famous chefs, including Pierre Gagnaire, Alain Ducasse, Yannick
Alléno and Alain Passard, have three-star restaurants in Paris.
In addition to the classical restaurants, Paris has several
other kinds of traditional eating places. The café arrived in Paris in the 17th
century, when the beverage was first brought from Turkey, and by the 18th
century Parisian cafés were centres of the city's political and cultural life.
The Café Procope on the Left Bank dates from this period. In the 20th century,
the cafés of the Left Bank, especially Café de la Rotonde and Le Dôme Café in
Montparnasse and Café de Flore and Les Deux Magots on Boulevard Saint Germain,
all still in business, were important meeting places for painters, writers and
philosophers.A bistro is a type of eating place loosely defined as a
neighbourhood restaurant with a modest decor and prices and a regular clientele
and a congenial atmosphere. Its name is said to have come in 1814 from the
Russian soldiers who occupied the city; "bistro" means
"quickly" in Russian, and they wanted their meals served rapidly so
they could get back their encampment. Real bistros are increasingly rare in
Paris, due to rising costs, competition from cheaper ethnic restaurants, and
different eating habits of Parisian diners.A brasserie originally was a tavern
located next to a brewery, which served beer and food at any hour. Beginning
with the Paris Exposition of 1867; it became a popular kind of restaurant which
featured beer and other beverages served by young women in the national costume
associated with the beverage, particular German costumes for beer. Now
brasseries, like cafés, serve food and drinks throughout the day.
Fashion
Paris has been an international capital of high fashion
since the 19th century, particularly in the domain of haute couture, clothing
hand-made to order for private clients.It is home of some of the largest
fashion houses in the world, including Dior and Chanel, and of many well-known
fashion designers, including Karl Lagerfeld, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Christophe
Josse, and Christian Lacroix. Paris Fashion Week, held in January and July in
the Carrousel du Louvre and other city locations, is among the top four events
of the international fashion calendar, along with the fashion weeks in Milan,
London and New York.Paris is also the home of the world's largest cosmetics
company, L'Oréal, and three of the five top global makers of luxury fashion
accessories; Louis Vuitton, Hermés, and Cartier.
Holidays and festivals
Bastille Day, a celebration of the storming of the Bastille
in 1789, the biggest festival in the city, is a military parade taking place
every year on 14 July on the Champs-Élysées, from the Arc de Triomphe to Place
de la Concorde. It includes a flypast over the Champs Élysées by the Patrouille
de France, a parade of military units and equipment, and a display of fireworks
in the evening, the most spectacular being the one at the Eiffel Tower.
Other yearly festivals are Paris-Plages, a festive event
that lasts from mid-July to mid-August when the Right Bank of the Seine is
converted into a temporary beach with sand, deck chairs and palm trees Journées
du Patrimoine, Fête de la Musique, Techno Parade, Nuit Blanche, Cinéma au clair
de lune, Printemps des rues, Festival d'automne and Fête des jardins. Carnaval
de Paris, one of the oldest festivals in Paris, dates back to the middle ages.
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