Paris Travel Video - Paris, the cosmopolitan capital of
France, is one of the largest agglomerations in
Europe, with
2.2 million people living in the dense (105 km²) central city and almost 12 million people living in the metropolitan area
. In the north of the country on the river
Seine, Paris has the reputation of being the most beautiful and romantic of all cities, brimming with historic associations and remaining vastly influential in the realms of culture, art, fashion, food and design. Dubbed the
City of Light (la
Ville Lumière) and
Capital of
Fashion, it is home to some of the world's finest and most luxurious fashion designers and cosmetics, such as
Chanel,
Christian Dior,
Yves Saint-Laurent, Guerlain, Lancôme, L'Oréal, and Clarins. A large part of the city, including the
River Seine, is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city has the second highest number of Michelin-restaurants in the world (after
Tokyo) and contains numerous iconic landmarks such as the
Eiffel Tower, the
Arc de Triomphe, the
Notre-Dame Cathedral, the
Louvre Museum,
Moulin Rouge,
Lido, making it one of the most popular international tourist destinations in the world, with around 14 million tourists annually.
Paris started life as the Celto-Roman settlement of
Lutetia on the
Île de la Cité, the island in the Seine currently occupied by the Cathédral de
Nôtre Dame. It takes its present name from name of the dominant Gallo-Celtic tribe in the region, the
Parisii. At least that's what the
Romans called them, when they showed up in 52
BCE and established their city Lutetia on the left bank of the Seine, in what is now called the "
Latin Quarter" in the
5th arrondissement.
The Romans held out here for as long as anywhere else in the
Western Empire, but by 508 CE they were gone, replaced by
Clovis of the Franks, who is considered by the
French to have been their first king. Clovis' descendants, aka the
Carolingians, held onto the expanded Lutetian state for nearly
500 years through
Viking raids and other calamities, which finally resulted in a forced move by most of the population back to the islands which had been the centre of the original
Celtic village. The
Capetian Duke of Paris was voted to succeed the last of the Carolingians as
King of France, ensuring the city a premier position in the medieval world. Over the next several centuries Paris expanded onto the right bank into what was and is still called le Marais (
The Marsh). Quite a few buildings from this time can be seen in the
4th arrondissement.
The medieval period also witnessed the founding of the
Sorbonne. As the "
University of Paris", it became one of the most important centres for learning in Europe—if not the whole world, for several hundred years. Most of the institutions that still constitute the
University are found in the 5th, and
13th arrondissements
.
In the late
18th century, there was a period of political and social upheaval in France and Europe, during which the French governmental structure, previously a monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and
Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on
Enlightenment principles of nationalism, citizenship, and inalienable rights. Notable events during and following the revolution were the storming of the
Bastille 4th arrondissements, and the rise and fall of
Napoleonic France. Out of the violent turmoil that was the
French Revolution, sparked by the still known
Passion des
Français, emerged the enlightened modern day France.
The Paris of today was built long after the Capetian and later the
Bourbon Kings of France made their mark on Paris with the
Louvre and the
Palais Royal, both in the 1st. In the
19th century,
Baron von Hausmann set about reconstructing the city, by adding the long straight avenues and replacing many of the then existing medieval houses, with grander and more uniform buildings.
The Eiffel Tower, Paris
New wonders arrived during
La Belle Époque, as the
Parisian golden age of the late 19th century is known.
Gustave Eiffel's famous tower, the first metro lines, most of the parks, and the streetlights (which are partly believed to have given the city its epithet "the city of light") all come from this period. Another source of the epithet comes from Ville Lumière, a reference not only to the revolutionary electrical lighting system implemented in the streets of Paris, but also to the prominence and aura of Enlightenment the city gained in that era.
The twentieth century was hard on Paris, but thankfully not as hard as it could have been.
Hitler's order to burn the city was thankfully ignored by the
German General von Choltitz who was quite possibly convinced by a
Swedish diplomat that it would be better to surrender and be remembered as the saviour of Paris, than to be remembered as its destroyer.
Following the war, the city recovered quickly at first, but slowed in the
1970s and
1980s when Paris began to experience some of the problems faced by big cities
- published: 29 Jul 2014
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