Paris (city, France)

I

Introduction

Paris (city, France), city in north central France, the capital and largest city of the country. It is located in France’s Île-de-France region, on the Seine River, 370 km (230 mi) upstream from the river’s outlet on the English Channel.

Paris is world-famous for its beauty and charm, and for its long history as a center of learning and knowledge. Parisians call their city the 'City of Light.' People from around the world flock to the city to view its impressive array of monuments and museums, savor its cuisine, and relax in its sidewalk cafes and nightclubs. Paris is the political, cultural, and economic center of France as well as one of the most vibrant metropolises in the world. About 15 percent of France’s inhabitants live in the Paris metropolitan area.

Paris is named after the Parisii, a Celtic people who settled on the city’s central island—the Île de la Cité—in the 3rd century bc. The city has since spread north and south of the Seine. The city lies in a depression. The highest elevation is 129 m (423 ft) at the summit of Montmartre in northern Paris.

Paris enjoys a temperate climate. Average daily temperatures are 20°C (68°F) in summer and 5°C (41°F) in winter. The city receives about 650 mm (26 in) of precipitation annually, spread evenly over the course of the year. Air pollution is high, caused predominantly by automobile traffic and aggravated by the city’s geographic position in a depression.

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II

Paris and Its Metropolitan Area

Roughly circular in shape, Paris proper has an area of 105 sq km (41 sq mi). It is bounded by a 35 km- (22 mi-) long ring road called the Boulevard Périphérique. Paris proper constitutes one of eight départements of the Île-de-France region. The Paris metropolitan area stretches over the three adjacent départements, which are known as the inner suburbs (la petite couronne), and extends into the fringes of the four larger, surrounding départements, known as the outer suburbs (la grande couronne).

The city is divided into 20 political units called arrondissements. The numbering of the arrondissements spirals outward like a snail shell, starting from the western part of the Île de la Cité, then moving clockwise all the way to the 20th arrondissement in eastern Paris. The Seine enters Paris in the southeast, loops north, and then curves to the southwest before leaving the city. Many of the city’s greatest monuments lie on the banks of the Seine, which were designated a World Heritage Site in 1992 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Seine provides the simplest division of the city: The north side of the river is known as the Right Bank (Rive Droite) and the south side as the Left Bank (Rive Gauche). The Right Bank contains 14 arrondissements, while the Left Bank contains 6.

In addition to arrondissements, Paris is made up of neighborhoods, or quarters (quartiers), usually of historical, cultural, or monumental origin. These neighborhoods do not always have clearly defined boundaries.

A

Islands

Île de la Cité, in the center of the Seine, is considered the birthplace of Paris. It was the site of the city’s earliest settlements and was home to the kings of France from the 5th century to the 14th century. The king’s palace, private chapel, parliament, and prison were located on the western side of the island. The medieval palace was largely replaced by the massive 19th-century Palais de Justice, the site of France’s main civil and criminal courts. The Palais de Justice was built around the 13th-century Gothic royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, constructed by King Louis IX to be a shrine for relics that were believed to be the crown of thorns of Jesus Christ and pieces of the holy cross. Also within the Palais is the Conciergerie, the prison that housed many central figures in the French Revolution (1789-1799) before they were executed. The Parisian police headquarters is located across the street from the Palais.

The eastern part of the Île de la Cité is the spiritual center of France, represented by the Gothic cathedral of Notre Dame (begun in 1163). The cathedral stands on the site of an ancient monument to the Roman god Jupiter. Other churches stood nearby before the 19th century, when the island was remodeled, the cathedral square enlarged, and the city’s oldest hospital, l’Hôtel Dieu, moved from its previous location along the river to the northern side of the square. Notre Dame is also the geographic center of Paris. A paving on the cathedral square marks point zéro, the spot from which all distances to Paris are measured. At the eastern tip of the island is a shrine dedicated to the thousands of Parisians deported to German concentration camps during World War II (1939-1945).

Four bridges connect the Île de la Cité with either river bank, and a footbridge connects it with the Île Saint-Louis to the east. Île Saint-Louis was formerly two islets, which were joined in the 17th century. French architect Louis Le Vau designed many of the buildings on the island, which became a wealthy residential neighborhood when space in the fast-developing aristocratic Marais neighborhood, on the Right Bank, was becoming scarce. The island is a wealthy and expensive enclave with attractive baroque and neoclassical architecture and elegant boutiques and restaurants.

B

Right Bank

The north side of the Seine is called the Right Bank because it lies on the right-hand side when one is facing downstream. The following description of the Right Bank follows an east-west itinerary along the Seine starting across from the Île de la Cité and Île Saint-Louis. It then loops back in a west-to-east direction along the major avenues that make up the Grands Boulevards and turns to points north and east.

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