Paris

HISTORY

Julius Caesar conquered the Celtic Parisii tribe on July 8, 51 B.C. The Romans called the place that is now known as Paris, Lutetia, or Lutetia Parisiorum.

When the Romans took Lutetia, they burned and rebuilt the city. But it wasn't in the same spot as it is now. It was 7 miles west of its modern location in Nanterre.

The place got a shorter name, Paris, in 212 AD. The name is derived from its early inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe.

As the Roman Empire began to fall apart in the West, the Germanic tribe called the Franks moved in, taking Paris in 464. In 506, their king Clovis I made it his capital.

Paris was sacked by Viking raiders, probably under the legendary Ragnar Lodbrok on March 29, 845. They withdrew once they had been paid a huge ransom of 7,000 French livres (2,570 kilograms or 5,670 pounds) of silver and gold from Charles the Bald.

The Vikings arrived outside Paris again in late November 885, demanding tribute. This was denied by Odo, Count of Paris, so The Vikings  began laying siege with a variety of siege engines. The siege was maintained for months, but without any significant assaults. In October 886, Charles the Fat arrived with his army. However, he didn't bother fighting them. He instead paid them 700 livres (257 kg) of silver to go and raid to the then rebelling Burgundy instead.

 Palais de la Cité and Sainte-Chapelle from the Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry 1410

King Henry III laid the first stone of the Pont Neuf (New Bridge), the oldest bridge of Paris, on May 31, 1578.

The storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 in Paris marked the beginning of the French Revolution, leading to many massacres. The population of Paris had dropped by 100,000 to 500,000 during the Revolution, but between 1799 and 1815, it surged with 160,000 new residents.

The Arc de Triomphe in Paris, commemorating those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, was formally inaugurated in 1836.

The arch of the Arc de Triomphe is 162ft tall. A few weeks after the end of World War I, French aviator Charles Godefroy flew his Nieuport fighter plane through the Arch to salute all the airmen killed in the war.

The grand boulevards of Paris were built in the mid-1800s partly to make it harder for rioters and revolutionaries to barricade the streets like they had in earlier uprisings. The streets and monuments were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, giving it the name "The City of Light."

French President Adolphe Thiers ordered the evacuation of Paris on March 18, 1871 after an uprising broke out as the result of France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. It lead to the establishment of the Paris Commune government. The Commune held power for two months, until it was harshly suppressed by the French army during the "Bloody Week" at the end of May 1871.

Paris hosted the 1889 Universal Exposition, which was held to mark the centennial of the French Revolution and featured the new Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel Tower, under construction in August 1888,

The 1900 Universal Exposition gave Paris the first Paris Métro line. The Paris Métro system was built by engineer Fulgence Bienvenüe and architect Hector Guimard.

The 1900 Universal Exposition in Paris displayed many machines, inventions, and architecture that are now nearly universally known, The fair was where talking films and escalators were first publicized.

Both the second Summer Olympic Games in 1900 and the eighth in 1924 took place in Paris.

A German gun fired a shell into Paris every 20 minutes from a distance of 77 miles over a 139 day period in 1918, killing 1,000 people.

Before Paris was liberated from the Nazis during World War II, Hitler ordered military governor Dietrich von Choltitz the to demolish the Eiffel Tower and other major landmarks. He refused this direct order, and surrendered to the Allies instead, saving the tower. Von Choltitz later asserted his affection for the French Capital and his belief that Hitler had gone insane as reasons for his defiance.

 On August 25, 1944, Allied troops marched down the Champs-Élysées in Paris, marking the end of four years of German occupation during World War II. The city had been liberated just two days earlier, on August 23, after a week-long uprising by the French Resistance.

The Allied troops who marched down the Champs-Élysées were from the 2nd Armored Division of the Free French Forces, led by General Philippe Leclerc. They were joined by French Resistance fighters and civilians, who lined the streets to cheer them on. The mood was jubilant, as Parisians celebrated their liberation from the Nazis.

General Charles de Gaulle on the Champs-Élysées celebrating the liberation of Paris 

The 80,000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of the Paris in the neighboring commune of Saint-Denis.

Terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday November 13, 2015 by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant killed 130 people and injured 413 others. The attacks were the deadliest on France since the Second World War,

FUN PARIS FACTS

There's one stop sign in the whole of Paris.

There are 12 roads that radiate out from the Arc de Triomphe. A car accident occurs here roughly every seven minutes.

The word "metro" comes from the French word "metropolitain." The Métro covers over 124 miles with 300 stations and 16 lines. About 4.5 million people daily travel beneath the city on the Paris subway to reach the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral, or the Arc de Triomphe. Every building in Paris is less than 500 meters from a train station, so accessibility is never a problem.

Paris has public sparkling water fountains throughout the city to encourage more people to drink water.

In Paris there are 1,803 monuments, 173 museums and 450 parks and gardens in the city.

The Louvre is the most visited art museum in the world.

There are more dogs than children in Paris.

The official city motto of Paris is "Fluctuat nec mergitur", meaning "She is tossed by the waves but does not sink."