Boutiques, Department Stores and Hotels

Paris is famous for gastronomical establishments like Fauchon (delicatessen), near the Église de la Madeleine, or Berthillon ( ice cream) on Île-Saint-Louis. Its department stores, e.g. Galeries Lafayette, Samaritaine (currently closed) or Printemps, are remarkable not only for the wide range of items they sell but also for their 19th-century or Art Nouveau architecture. Paris also hosts a number of famous hotels. The most prestigious are probably the Hôtel de Crillon on Place de la Concorde, and the nearby Hôtel Ritz Paris on Place Vendôme. Paris is home to some of the most famous and luxurious brand names in the fashion industry like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermès, Dior and Givenchy.

Museums

The Louvre is one of the largest and most famous museums, housing many works of art, including the Mona Lisa (La Joconde) and the Venus de Milo statue. Works by Pablo Picasso and Rodin are found in Musée Picasso and Musée Rodin respectively, while the artistic community of Montparnasse is chronicled at the Musée du Montparnasse. Starkly apparent with its service-pipe exterior, the Centre Georges Pompidou, also known as Beaubourg, houses the Musée National d'Art Moderne. Lastly, art and artifacts from the Middle Ages and Impressionist eras are kept in Musée Cluny and Musée d'Orsay respectively, the former with the prized tapestry cycle The Lady and the Unicorn.

Culture, Monuments and Landmarks

Three of the most famous Parisian landmarks are the twelfth century cathedral Notre Dame de Paris on the Île de la Cité, the nineteenth century Eiffel Tower, and the Napoleonic Arc de Triomphe. The Eiffel Tower was a "temporary" construction by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 Universal Exposition but the tower was never dismantled and is now an enduring symbol of Paris. It is visible from many parts of the city as are the Tour Montparnasse skyscraper and the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on the Montmartre hill.
Arc de Triomphe by night
The Historical axis is a line of monuments, buildings and thoroughfares that run in a roughly straight line from the city centre westwards: the line of monuments begins with the Louvre and continues through the Tuileries Gardens, the Champs-Elysées and the Arc de Triomphe centred in the Place de l'Étoile circus. From the 1960's line was prolonged even further west to the La Défense business district dominated by square-shaped triumphal Grande Arche of its own; this area hosts most of Paris' tallest skyscrapers.
The Invalides museum is the burial place for many great French soldiers, including Napoleon, and the Panthéon church is where many of France's illustrious men and women are buried. The former Conciergerie prison held some prominent ancien régime members before their deaths during the French Revolution. Another symbol of the Revolution are the two Statues of Liberty located on the Île des Cygnes on the Seine and in the Luxembourg Garden. A larger version of the statues was sent as a gift from France to the United States in 1886 and now stands in New York City harbour.
The Palais Garnier built in the later Second Empire period, houses the Paris Opera and the Paris Opera Ballet, while the former palace of the Louvre now houses one of the most famous museums in the world. The Sorbonne is the most famous part of the University of Paris and is based in the centre of the Latin Quarter. Apart from Notre Dame de Paris, there are several other ecclesiastical masterpieces including the Gothic thirteenth century Sainte-Chapelle palace chapel and the Église de la Madeleine.

History

The Celtic Parisii, who were known as boatmen and traders, established a settlement by the River Seine to control river commerce from about 250 BC. The Île de la Cité was traditionally assumed to be the location of the settlement but some evidence now points to the suburb of Nanterre. Rome conquered the region in 52 BC and built the city of Lutetia on the left bank Sainte Geneviève Hill which was protected from river floods. Lutetia expanded and prospered during the ensuing period of peaceful Gallo-Roman cohabitation, but third-century Germanic invasions caused a period of decline. By 400 AD Lutetia had become a garrison town entrenched on the hastily fortified central island. The city reclaimed its original name of "Paris" towards the end of the Roman occupation.

Geography and climate

Paris is located on a north-bending arc of the river Seine and includes two inhabited islands, the Île Saint-Louis and the larger Île de la Cité which is the heart and origin of the city. Paris has several prominent hills, of which the highest is Montmartre at 130 metres (426½ ft) above sea level. The highest elevation in the urban area of Paris is 195 metres (640 ft) above sea level in the Montmorency forest (Val-d'Oise département), 19.5 km. (12 miles) north-northwest of the center of Paris.
The City of Paris (commune) covers 105.397 square kilometres (40.69 mi²), and is only the 113th largest commune in France (out of 36,782), though the urban area ( unité urbaine) (contiguous built-up area) covers 2,723 km² (1,051.4 mi²) (INSEE 1999), or about 26 times as large as the City of Paris. The metropolitan area (aire urbaine) (built-up area plus the commuter belt) reaches beyond the surrounding Île-de-France région to cover 14,518 km² (5,605.5 mi²) (INSEE 1999), or about 138 times as large as the Paris commune. Excluding the outlying parks of Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes, the City of Paris is 86.928 square kilometres (33.56 mi²).
Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements. The City's administrative borders have remained largely unchanged since 1860, when Napoleon III and prefect Haussmann doubled the area of the city to 78 km² (30.1 mi²) by annexing the land within the city's ring of fortifications (now the 13th through 20th arrondissements). Several former suburbs such as Montmartre and Auteuil were incorporated at that time. The city limits changed marginally in 1920's reaching 86.9 km². In 1929 the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes forest parks were also officially incorporated into the city.
Since meteorological records began in 1873, the lowest temperature recorded in Paris was on December 10, 1879: −23.9 °C (−11.0 °F) in central Paris and −25.6 °C (−14.1 °F) in the southeastern suburb of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés. The highest recorded temperature in central Paris was 40.4 °C (104.7 °F) in Parc Montsouris on July 28, 1947. The 2003 heat wave caused the deaths of many elderly people with the temperature in central Paris reaching 38.1 °C (100.6 °F) (Parc Montsouris) and 40.2 °C (104.4 °F) at Le Bourget Airport in the northern suburbs. The highest recorded minimum temperature at night in Paris was 25.5 °C (77.9 °F) in Parc Montsouris on August 11 and August 12, 2003.

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city of France. It is also the capital of the Île-de-France région which encompasses Paris and its suburbs. Paris is also one of the eight départements of Île-de-France. It is a leading global cultural, business and political center and is renowned for its defining neo-classical architecture as well as its unrivaled influence in fashion and the arts. It is widely regarded as one of the world's major global cities. Nicknamed "the City of Light" (la Ville Lumière) since the 19th century, Paris has a reputation as a "romantic" city.
Situated on the banks of the river Seine in north-central France, Paris hosts a rich array of museums, galleries, and nightlife and is the most visited city in the world, with more than 30 million visitors per year. The most recognisable symbol of Paris is the 324 metre (1,063 ft) Eiffel Tower on the banks of the Seine.
Paris inside its administrative limits had an estimated mid-2004 population of 2,144,700 , but over the last century the city has grown well beyond those boundaries. Today, the Paris urban area (the contiguous built-up area) has an estimated population of 9.9 million , and the Paris metropolitan area (including satellite cities) was at 11.5 million in 1999 .
Paris and the Île-de-France région produce more than a quarter of France's wealth, with a GDP of nearly €450 billion (US$506.7 billion) in 2003. With nearby La Défense, Europe's largest business district, Paris also hosts the head offices of almost half of all French companies, as well as the offices of major international firms and the headquarters of many international organisations such as UNESCO and the OECD.