PARIS city (1999 pop. 2,115,757; metropolitan area est. pop.
11,000,000), N central France, capital of the country, on the Seine
River. It is the commercial and industrial focus of France and a
cultural and intellectual center of international renown. The city
possesses an indefinable unity of atmosphere that has fascinated
writers, poets, and painters for centuries. Paris is sometimes called
the City of Light in tribute to its intellectual preeminence as well as
to its beautiful appearance.
Paris is the center of many major newspapers and periodicals, as well as
all the major French radio and television stations. Elegant stores and
hotels, lavish nightclubs, theaters, and gourmet restaurants help make
tourism the biggest industry in Paris. Other leading industries
manufacture luxury articles, high-fashion clothing, perfume, and
jewelry. Heavy industry, notably automobile manufacture, is located in
the suburbs. About one quarter of the French labor force is concentrated
in the Paris area.
Transportation Facilities
Situated in the center of the Paris basin (see Ile-de-France ), and only
90 mi (145 km) from the English Channel, the city handles a great
volume of shipping. Orly and Charles de Gaulle airports (the latter
opened in 1974) and many major railroad stations make Paris one of the
great transportation centers of western Europe. The Paris metro
(subway), built in 1900, was modernized and extended during the 1970s.
There are now 16 principal metro lines and a high-speed express subway
system servicing the suburbs. The system's hub, Chatelet Les-Halles, is
perhaps the largest, busiest underground station in the world. Paris is
also the hub of the national rail system, with high-speed trains
connecting it to most major European cities.
Points of Interest
Paris is divided into roughly equal sections by the Seine. On the right
(northern) bank are the Bois de Boulogne , Arc de Triomphe ,
Bibliotheque nationale , Elysee Palace, Grand Palais, Georges Pompidou
National Center for Art and Culture (see Beaubourg ), Place de la
Concorde , Opera , Comedie Francaise , Louvre , Palais de Chaillot,
Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, Grande Arche de la Defense, Champs
Elysees , and other great streets, sites, and boulevards. In the
eastern part of the right bank is the Museum of the Art and History of
Judaism, the Place de la Bastille and the Bastille Opera; to the north
is Montmartre , the highest area in Paris, topped by the Church of
Sacre-C?ur . Much of the right bank, which has many of the most
fashionable streets and shops, has a stately air. At night many
monuments and boulevards are floodlit. In the city's northeastern
outskirts is the Parc de la Villette, home of the large Cite de la
Musique, opened in the early 1990s, and the planned site of a number of
performance and exhibition spaces.
The left bank, with the Sorbonne , the French Academy , the Pantheon
(see under pantheon ), the Luxembourg Palace and Gardens, the Jardin des
Plantes (site of the National Natural History Museum), the Chamber of
Deputies, the Quai d'Orsay , and the Hotel des Invalides , is the
governmental and to a large extent the intellectual section. The Latin
Quarter, for nearly a thousand years the preserve of university students
and faculty; the Faubourg Saint-Germain section, at once aristocratic
and a haven for students and artists (the celebrated Cafe des Deux
Magots and Cafe de Flore are there); and Montparnasse are the most
celebrated left-bank districts. The Eiffel Tower stands by the Seine on
the Champ-de-Mars.
The historical nucleus of Paris is the Ile de la Cite, a small
boat-shaped island largely occupied by the huge Palais de Justice and
the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. It is connected with the smaller
Ile Saint-Louis, occupied by elegant houses of the 17th and 18th cent.
Characteristic of Paris are the tree-lined quays along the Seine (famed,
on the left bank, for their open-air bookstalls), the historic bridges
that span the Seine, and the vast tree-lined boulevards that replaced
the city walls. Skyscrapers, apartment complexes, and highways have been
added to the Paris scene in recent years.
Government and People
Paris is divided into 20 arrondissements (districts or boroughs), each
of which has a local council and a mayor, but most of the power is held
by the mayor of the City of Paris who is chosen by the city's council.
Paris and its suburbs together make up the eight departments of the
Ile-de-France administrative region, which is governed by an elected
assembly, chairman, and supervisor and overseen by a prefect appointed
by the state.
Immigrants to France now constitute nearly 20% of Paris's population.
The majority of these are Algerian, Moroccan, and Tunisian. Large groups
of Indochinese have also immigrated to Paris. About 75% of all
Parisians live in the suburbs due to high costs and a high population
density in the city. New towns have been built, consolidating suburban
areas, and a great deal of manufacturing and other industry takes place
in the suburbs.
History
Early History
Julius Caesar conquered Paris in 52 BC It was then a fishing village,
called Lutetia Parisiorum (the Parisii were a Gallic tribe), on the Ile
de la Cite. Under the Romans the town spread to the left bank and
acquired considerable importance under the later emperors. The vast
catacombs under Montparnasse and the baths (now in the Cluny Mus.)
remain from the Roman period. Legend says that St. Denis , first bishop
of Paris, was martyred on Montmartre (hence the name) and that in the
5th cent. St. Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, preserved the city
from destruction by the Huns. On several occasions in its early history
Paris was threatened by barbarian and Norman invasions, which at times
drove the inhabitants back to the Ile de la Cite.
Clovis I and several other Merovingian kings made Paris their capital;
under Charlemagne it became a center of learning. In 987, Hugh Capet,
count of Paris, became king of France. The Capetians firmly established
Paris as the French capital. The city grew as the power of the French
kings increased. In the 11th cent. the city spread to the right bank.
During the next two centuries—the reign of Philip Augustus (1180-1223)
is especially notable for the growth of Paris—streets were paved and the
city walls enlarged; the first Louvre (a fortress) and several
churches, including Notre-Dame, were constructed or begun; and the
schools on the left bank were organized into the Univ. of Paris. One of
them, the Sorbonne, became a fountainhead of theological learning with
Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas Aquinas among its scholars. The
university community constituted an autonomous borough; another was
formed on the right bank by merchants ruled by their own provost. In
1358, under the leadership of the merchant provost Etienne Marcel, Paris
first assumed the role of an independent commune and rebelled against
the dauphin (later Charles V). During the period of the Hundred Years
War the city suffered civil strife (see Armagnacs and Burgundians ),
occupation by the English (1419-36), famine, and the Black Death.
During the Renaissance
The Renaissance reached Paris in the 16th cent. during the reign of
Francis I (1515-47). At this time the Louvre was transformed from a
fortress to a Renaissance palace. In the Wars of Religion (1562-98),
Parisian Catholics, who were in the great majority, took part in the
massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day (1572), forced Henry III to leave the
city on the Day of Barricades (1588), and accepted Henry IV only after
his conversion (1593) to Catholicism. Cardinal Richelieu, Louis XIII's
minister, established the French Academy and built the Palais Royal and
the Luxembourg Palace. During the Fronde , Paris once again defied the
royal authority. Louis XIV, distrustful of the Parisians, transferred
(1682) his court to Versailles. Parisian industries profited from the
lavishness of Versailles; the specialization in luxury goods dates from
that time. J. H. Mansart under Louis XIV and Francois Mansart, J. G.
Soufflot, and J. A. Gabriel under Louis XV created some of the most
majestic prospects of modern Paris.
The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
During the late 17th and the 18th cent. Paris acquired further glory as
the scene of many of France's greatest cultural achievements: the plays
of Moliere, Racine, and Corneille; the music of Lully, Rameau, and
Gluck; the paintings of Watteau, Fragonard, and Boucher; and the salons
where many of the philosophes of the Enlightenment gathered. At the same
time, growing industries had resulted in the creation of new
classes—the bourgeoisie and proletariat—concentrated in such suburbs (
faubourgs ) as Saint-Antoine and Saint-Denis; in the opening events of
the French Revolution , city mobs stormed the Bastille (July, 1789) and
hauled the royal family from Versailles to Paris (Oct., 1789).
Throughout the turbulent period of the Revolution the city played a
central role.
Napoleon to the Commune
Napoleon (emperor, 1804-15) began a large construction program
(including the building of the Arc de Triomphe, the Vendome Column, and
the arcaded Rue de Rivoli) and enriched the city's museums with artworks
removed from conquered cities. In the course of his downfall Paris was
occupied twice by enemy armies (1814, 1815). In the first half of the
19th cent. Paris grew rapidly. In 1801 it had 547,000 people; in 1817,
714,000; in 1841, 935,000; and in 1861, 1,696,000. The revolutions of
July, 1830, and Feb., 1848, both essentially Parisian events, had
repercussions throughout Europe. Culturally, the city was at various
times the home or host of most of the great European figures of the age.
Balzac, Hugo, Chopin, Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner, Delacroix, Ingres, and
Daumier were a few of the outstanding personalities. The grand outline
of modern Paris was the work of Baron Georges Haussmann , who was
appointed prefect by Napoleon III. The great avenues, boulevards, and
parks are his work. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), Paris was
besieged for four months by the Germans and then surrendered. After the
Germans withdrew, Parisian workers rebelled against the French
government and established the Commune of Paris , which was bloodily
suppressed.
Under the Third Republic
With the establishment of the Third French Republic and relative
stability, Paris became the great industrial and transportation center
it is today. Two epochal events in modern cultural history that took
place in Paris were the first exhibition of impressionist painting
(1874) and the premiere of Stravinsky's Sacre du Printemps (1913). In
World War I the Germans failed to reach Paris. After 1919 the outermost
city fortifications were replaced by housing developments, including the
Cite Universitaire, which houses thousands of students. During the
1920s, Paris was home to many disillusioned artists and writers from the
United States and elsewhere. German troops occupied Paris during World
War II from June 14, 1940, to Aug. 25, 1944. The city was not seriously
damaged by the war.
Contemporary Paris
Paris was the headquarters of NATO from 1950 to 1967; it is the
headquarters of UNESCO. A program of cleaning the city's major buildings
and monuments was completed in the 1960s. The city was the scene in
May, 1968, of serious disorders, beginning with a student strike, that
nearly toppled the Fifth Republic. In 1971, Les Halles, Paris's famous
central market, called by Zola the "belly" of Paris, was dismantled.
Construction began immediately on Chatelet Les-Halles, Paris's new metro
hub, which was completed in 1977. The Forum des Halles, a partially
underground, multistory commercial and shopping center, opened in 1979.
Other developments include the Georges Pompidou National Center for Art
and Culture, built in 1977, which includes the National Museum of Modern
Art. The Louvre underwent extensive renovation, and EuroDisney, a
multibillion dollar theme and amusement park, opened in the Parisian
suburbs in 1992. A number of major projects in the city were initiated
by President Francois Mitterrand (1981-95); they include the new
Bibliotheque Nationale, the glass pyramid at the Louvre, Grande Arche de
la Defense, Arab Institute, Bastille Opera, and Cite de la Musique.
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