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Paris
(pronounced /ˈpærɪs/ in English, [paʁi] ( listen) in French) is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region (also known as the "Paris Region"; French: Région parisienne). The city of Paris, within its administrative limits largely unchanged since 1860, has an estimated population of 2,203,817 (January 2006),[5] but the Paris aire urbaine (or metropolitan area) has a population of 11,769,433 (January 2006),[4] and is one of the most populated metropolitan areas in Europe.[6]
An important settlement for more than two millennia, Paris is today one of the world's leading business and cultural centres, and its influence in politics, education, entertainment, media, fashion, science and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities.[7]
Paris and the Paris Region, with €533.6 billion (US$731.3 billion) in 2007, produces more than a quarter of the gross domestic product (GDP) of France.[8] According to 2005 estimates, the Paris urban agglomeration is Europe's biggest city economy,[9] and is fifth in the world's list of cities by GDP.[10] The Paris Region hosts 38 of the Fortune Global 500 companies[11] in several business districts, notably La Défense, the largest purpose-built business district in Europe.[12] Paris also hosts many international organizations such as UNESCO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the informal Paris Club.
Paris is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, with 45 million tourists every year in the Paris Region, 60% of whom are foreign visitors.[13] There are numerous iconic landmarks among its many attractions, along with world-famous institutions and popular parks.
Contents[hide]
1 Etymology
2 History
2.1 Beginnings
2.2 Middle ages to 19th century
2.3 Nineteenth century
2.4 Twentieth century
2.5 Twenty-first century
3 Geography
3.1 Climate
4 Cityscape
4.1 Architecture
4.2 Districts and historical centres
4.2.1 City of Paris
4.2.2 In the Paris area
4.3 Monuments and landmarks
4.4 Parks and gardens
4.5 Cemeteries
5 Culture
5.1 Entertainment and performing arts
5.2 Cuisine
5.3 Tourism
5.4 Sports
6 Economy
7 Demographics
7.1 Density
7.2 Paris agglomeration
7.3 Immigration
8 Administration
8.1 Capital of France
8.2 City government
8.3 Municipal offices
8.4 Capital of the Île-de-France région
8.5 Intercommunality
9 Education
9.1 Primary and secondary education
9.2 Higher-education
9.3 Universities
9.4 Grandes écoles
9.5 Libraries
10 Transportation
11 Water and sanitation
12 Health
13 International relations
13.1 Sister city
13.2 Partner cities
14 See also
15 References
16 Further reading
17 External links
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Etymology
The name Paris derives from that of its inhabitants, the Gaulish tribe known as the Parisii. The city was called Lutetia (/lutetja/) (more fully, Lutetia Parisiorum, "Lutetia of the Parisii"), during the first- to sixth-century Roman occupation, but during the reign of Julian the Apostate (360–363) the city was renamed Paris.[14]
Others consider that the name of the Parisii tribe comes from the Celtic Gallic word parisio meaning "the working people" or "the craftsmen."[15] Since the early 20th century, Paris has been known as Paname ([panam]) in French slang (Moi j'suis d'Paname, i.e. "I'm from Paname"), a slang name that has been regaining favor with young people in recent years.[citation needed]
Paris has many nicknames, but its most famous is "La Ville-Lumière" (most often translated as "The City of Light"),[16] a name it owes first to its fame as a centre of education and ideas during the Age of Enlightenment, and later to its early adoption of street lighting.[17]
Paris' inhabitants are known in English as "Parisians" (/pəˈrɪzɪənz/ or /pəˈriːʒənz/) and in French as Parisiens ([paʁizjɛ̃] ( listen)). Parisians are often pejoratively called Parigots ([paʁiɡo] ( listen)), a term first used in 1900[18] by those living outside the Paris region, but now the term may be considered endearing by Parisians themselves.
See Wiktionary for the name of Paris in various languages other than English and French.
History
Main article: History of Paris
Beginnings

Roman bath beneath the Latin Quarter
The earliest archaeological signs of permanent habitation in the Paris area date from around 4200 BC.[19] The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the area near the river Seine from around 250 BC[20]. The Romans conquered the Paris basin in 52 BC,[19] with a permanent settlement by the end of the same century on the Left Bank Sainte Geneviève Hill and the Île de la Cité. The Gallo-Roman town was originally called Lutetia, but later Gallicised to Lutèce. It expanded greatly over the following centuries, becoming a prosperous city with a forum, palaces, baths, temples, theatres, and an amphitheatre.[21] The collapse of the Roman empire and the fifth-century Germanic invasions sent the city into a period of decline. By 400 AD, Lutèce, by then largely abandoned by its inhabitants, was little more than a garrison town entrenched into the hastily fortified central island.[19] The city reclaimed its original appellation of "Paris" towards the end of the Roman occupation. The Frankish king Clovis I established Paris as his capital in 508.
Middle ages to 19th century

The Louvre fortress from the early 15th century illuminated manuscript Book of Hours, Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, month of October.
Paris' population was around 200,000[22] when the Black Death arrived in 1348, killing as many as 800 people a day, and 40,000 died from the plague in 1466.[23] Paris lost its position as seat of the French realm during occupation of the English-allied Burgundians during the Hundred Years' War, but regained its title when Charles VII of France reclaimed the city from English rule in 1436. Paris from then became France's capital once again in title, but France's real centre of power would remain in the Loire Valley[24] until King François I returned France's crown residences to Paris in 1528. During the French Wars of Religion, Paris was a stronghold of the Catholic party. In August 1572, under the reign of Charles IX, while many noble Protestants were in Paris on the occasion of the marriage of Henry of Navarre, the future Henry IV, to Marguerite de Valois, sister of Charles IX, the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre occurred; begun on 24 August, it lasted several days and spread throughout the country.[25][26] During the Fronde, Parisians rose in rebellion and the royal family fled the city (1648). King Louis XIV then moved the royal court permanently to Versailles in 1682. A century later, Paris was the centre stage for the French Revolution, with the Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 and the overthrow of the monarchy in September 1792.[27]
Nineteenth century

1889 Universal Exposition.
Paris was occupied by Russian Cossack and Kalmyk cavalry units upon Napoleon's defeat on the 31st of March 1814; this was the first time in 400 years that the city had been conquered by a foreign power.[28] The ensuing Restoration period, or the return of the monarchy under Louis XVIII (1814-1824) and Charles X, ended with the July Revolution Parisian uprising of 1830. The new 'constitutional monarchy' under Louis-Philippe ended with the 1848 "February Revolution" that led to the creation of the Second Republic.
Throughout these events, cholera epidemics in 1832 and 1849 affected the population of Paris; the 1832 epidemic alone claimed 20,000 of the then-population of 650,000.[29]
The greatest development in Paris' history began with the Industrial Revolution creation of a network of railways that brought an unprecedented flow of migrants to the capital from the 1840s. The city's largest transformation came with the 1852 Second Empire under Napoleon III; his préfet Haussmann levelled entire districts of Paris' narrow, winding medieval streets to create the network of wide avenues and neo-classical façades that still make much of modern Paris; the reason for this transformation was twofold, as not only did the creation of wide boulevards beautify and sanitize the capital, it also facilitated the effectiveness of troops and artillery against any further uprisings and barricades that Paris was so famous for.[30]
The Second Empire ended in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), and a besieged Paris under heavy bombardment surrendered on the 28th of January 1871. The discontent of Paris' populace with the new armistice-signing government seated in Versailles resulted in the creation of a Parisian "Commune" government, supported by an army in large part created from members of the City's former National Guard, that would both continue resistance against the Prussians and oppose the government "Versaillais" army. The result was a bloody Semaine Sanglante that resulted in the death, many by summary execution, of roughly 20,000 "communards" before the fighting ended on May 28 1871.[31] The ease at which the Versaillais army overtook Paris owed much to Baron Haussmann's earlier renovations.
France's late 19th-century Universal Expositions made Paris an increasingly important centre of technology, trade and tourism.[32] Its most famous were the 1889 Universal Exposition to which Paris owes its "temporary" display of architectural engineering prowess, the Eiffel Tower, a structure that remained the world's tallest building until 1930; the 1900 Universal Exposition saw the opening of the first Paris Métro line.
Twentieth century

Liberation of Paris in August 1944.
During World War I, Paris was at the forefront of the war effort, having been spared a German invasion by the French and British victory at the First Battle of the Marne in 1914. In 1918–1919, it was the scene of Allied victory parades and peace negotiations. In the inter-war period Paris was famed for its cultural and artistic communities and its nightlife. The city became a gathering place of artists from around the world, from exiled Russian composer Stravinsky and Spanish painters Picasso and Dalí to American writer Hemingway.[33] On 14 June 1940, five weeks after the start of the Battle of France, Paris fell to German occupation forces, who remained there until the city was liberated in August 1944 after a resistance uprising, two and a half months after the Normandy invasion.[34] Central Paris endured World War II practically unscathed, as there were no strategic targets for Allied bombers (train stations in central Paris are terminal stations; major factories were located in the suburbs). Also, German General von Choltitz did not destroy all Parisian monuments before any German retreat, as ordered by Adolf Hitler, who had visited the city in 1940.[35]
In the post-war era, Paris experienced its largest development since the end of the Belle Époque in 1914. The suburbs began to expand considerably, with the construction of large social estates known as cités and the beginning of the business district La Défense. A comprehensive express subway network, the RER, was built to complement the Métro and serve the distant suburbs, while a network of freeways was developed in the suburbs, centred on the Périphérique expressway circling around the city.[36][37][38]
Since the 1970s, many inner suburbs of Paris (especially the north and eastern ones) have experienced deindustrialization, and the once-thriving cités have gradually become ghettos for immigrants and oases of unemployment.[39][40] At the same time, the city of Paris (within its Périphérique expressway) and the western and southern suburbs have successfully shifted their economic base from traditional manufacturing to high-value-added services and high-tech manufacturing, generating great wealth for their residents whose per capita income is among the highest in Europe.[41][42][43] The resulting widening social gap between these two areas has led to periodic unrest since the mid-1980s, such as the 2005 riots which largely concentrated in the north-eastern suburbs.[44]
Twenty-first century

La Défense.
In order to alleviate social tensions in the inner suburbs and revitalise the metropolitan economy of Paris, several plans are currently underway. The office of Secretary of State for the Development of the Capital Region was created in March 2008 within the French government. Its office holder, Christian Blanc, is in charge of overseeing President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans for the creation of an integrated Grand Paris ("Greater Paris") metropolitan authority (see Administration section below), as well as the extension of the subway network to cope with the renewed growth of population in Paris and its suburbs, and various economic development projects to boost the metropolitan economy such as the creation of a world-class technology and scientific cluster and university campus on the Saclay plateau in the southern suburbs.
In parallel, President Sarkozy also launched in 2008 an international urban and architectural competition for the future development of metropolitan Paris. Ten teams which bring together architects, urban planners, geographers, landscape architects will offer their vision for building a Paris metropolis of the 21st century in the Kyoto Protocol era and make a prospective diagnosis for Paris and its suburbs that will define future developments in Greater Paris for the next 40 years. The goal is not only to build an environmentally sustainable metropolis but also to integrate the inner suburbs with the central City of Paris through large-scale urban planning operations and iconic architectural projects.
Meanwhile, in an effort to boost the global economic image of metropolitan Paris, several skyscrapers (300 m (984 ft) and higher) have been approved since 2006 in the business district of La Défense, to the west of the city proper, and are scheduled to be completed by the early 2010s. Paris authorities also made public they are planning to authorise the construction of skyscrapers within the city proper by relaxing the cap on building height for the first time since the construction of the Tour Montparnasse in the early 1970s.
Geography

Paris seen from Spot Satellite
Main article: Topography of Paris
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. Overall, the city is relatively flat, and the lowest elevation is 35 m (115 ft) above sea level. Paris has several prominent hills, of which the highest is Montmartre at 130 m (427 ft).[45]
Paris, excluding the outlying parks of Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes, covers an oval measuring 86.928 km2 (34 sq mi) in area.[citation needed] The city's last major annexation of outlying territories in 1860 not only gave it its modern form but created the twenty 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 (34 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 the present 105.39 km2 (41 sq mi)[46].
Climate
Paris has an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) and is affected by the North Atlantic Current, so the city rarely sees extremely high or low temperatures, such as the heat wave of 2003 and the cold wave of 2006.
Paris has warm and pleasant summers with average high temperatures of 25 °C (77 °F) and low of 15 °C (59 °F). Winter is chilly, but temperature is around 3 °C (37 °F) to 8 °C (46 °F), and rarely falls below the freezing point. Spring and autumn have mild to occasionally warm days and cool evenings. Rain falls throughout the year, and although Paris is not a very rainy city, it is known for sudden showers. Average annual precipitation is 642 mm (25 in) with light rainfall fairly distributed throughout the year. Snowfall is rare, but the city sometimes sees light snow or flurries without accumulation. The highest recorded temperature is 40.4 °C (105 °F) on 28 July 1948, and the lowest is a −23.9 °C (−11 °F) on 10 December 1879.[47]