Paris (France)

 

 

Most of the heavier industries (motor-cars, chemicals) are concentrated in northern suburbs along the bends of the Seine; the city itself specialises in luxury products (fashions, perfumes, jewellery) for which it is justly famous. Paris is `the city of light' not only because its sumptuous monuments and impressive boulevards are illuminated at night, but because it has been a world leader in art and thought for many centuries.

 

 

The right bank of the Seine is the centre of business and amusements. There is to be found the avenue of the Champs Elysées, one of the world's best-known thoroughfares, leading from the Arc de Triomphe (Napoleon's victory arch at the Place de l'Etoile, a circle upon which twelve avenues converge) to the Place de la Concorde with its Egyptian obelisk. There, too, are the 19th-century Opera House, the Louvre (with its invaluable collection of paintings), and the theatre which houses the Comédie Française. The Rue de la Paix (with its pavement cafés) and Place Vendôme lie at the centre of the most fashionable shopping district.

 

 

The bohemian and night-club district of Montmartre occupies the city's highest hill, topped by the striking church of Sacré Coeur. The left bank of the Seine is the intellectual and government quarter of Paris. The old Latin Quarter, for many centuries the retreat of university students, and the once-aristocratic Faubourg Saint- Germain are the best-known left-bank districts. There, too, is the Sorbonne (founded in 1150), the Panthéon, the Hotel des Invalides (where Napoleon is buried), and the 984 foot (300 metres) high Eiffel Tower, the city's landmark along the banks of the Seine. The oldest part of Paris is the Ile de la Cité, a small island largely occupied by the Palais de Justice and the renowned Cathedral of Mitre Dame. It is connected with the smaller Ile Saint-Louis, occupied by the elegant homes of Parisians of the 17th and 18th centuries.

 

 

After Caesar's conquest of Gaul, the fishing village on the Ile de la Cité spread to the left bank and acquired considerable importance under the late Roman emperors. The Merovingian kings made Paris their capital, and Charlemagne turned it into a centre of medieval learning, circa 800 A.D. Paris was occupied by the English during the Hundred Years War, and suffered from famine and the Black Death. Reconquered from the English in 1436 (six years after Joan of Arc had been captured while attempting to take it), Paris recovered quickly. In 1572 it witnessed the massacre of St Bartholomew's Day. Under Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu, Paris became the political centre of Europe. Louis XIV transferred his residence to the sumptuous palace at Versailles, but Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were brought back to the city by an angry mob of Parisians, ready to launch the French Revolution (1789).

 

 

The storming of the Bastille, the city's hated fortress and prison for political prisoners, marked the actual beginning of this bloody revolt. In 1804, Napoleon was crowned Emperor at Nôtre Dame Cathedral. In 1814, and again in 1815, the city was occupied by Napoleon's victorious enemies, but Paris once again flourished under the restored Bourbon kings. Both the July Revolution of 1830 and the February Revolution of 1848 were centred in Paris, and their repercussions were felt throughout the rest of Europe. The city fell to German forces in 1871, at the end of the Franco-Prussian War, but its economy recovered under the Third Republic.

 

 

During World War I, German long-range guns shelled the city, but Paris remained in Allied hands. In 1940, however, the city was captured by German armies, being liberated by Free-French and some American forces in 1944. The large number of treaties and other political agreements that were signed in Paris are only one of the indications of the city's importance through the ages.