The regional council has 121 members from the Union of the Right, 66 from the Union of the Left and 22 from the extreme right National Front. In addition to the Sorbonne location, there are branches in Malesherbes, Clignancourt-Championnet, Michelet-Institut d'Art et d'Archéologie, Serpente-Maison de la Recherche, and Institut des Etudes Ibériques. The anti-independence Organisation armée secrète (OAS), for their part, carried out a series of bombings in Paris throughout 1961 and 1962. However the city is known for intermittent abrupt heavy showers. Tropical plantations (for products such as henequen and bananas) made extensive use of animal-powered trams for both passengers and freight, often employing the Decauville narrow-gauge portable track system. The average street car horse had a life expectancy of about two years.[8]. [125], Paris' disconnect with its suburbs, its lack of suburban transportation, in particular, became all too apparent with the Paris agglomeration's growth. It is composed of 209 members representing the different communes within the region. [322] One of the newest parks, the Promenade des Berges de la Seine (2013), built on a former highway on the left bank of the Seine between the Pont de l'Alma and the Musée d'Orsay, has floating gardens and gives a view of the city's landmarks. The number of city employees increased from 40,000 in 2001 to 55,000 in 2018. Paris is a major international air transport hub with the 5th busiest airport system in the world. [187] Paris hosts the headquarters of the European Space Agency, the International Energy Agency, European Securities and Markets Authority and, as of 2019, the European Banking Authority. Paris' most popular sport clubs are the association football club Paris Saint-Germain F.C. On 17 October 1961, an unauthorised but peaceful protest demonstration of Algerians against the curfew led to violent confrontations between the police and demonstrators, in which at least 40 people were killed, including some thrown into the Seine. The Paris region hosts France's highest concentration of the grandes écoles – 55 specialised centres of higher-education outside the public university structure. Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame inspired the renovation of its setting, the Notre-Dame de Paris. [31] The Roman town was originally called Lutetia (more fully, Lutetia Parisiorum, "Lutetia of the Parisii", modern French Lutèce). [329] Some of the most famous people in the world are buried in Parisian cemeteries, such as Oscar Wilde and Serge Gainsbourg among others. Paris (French pronunciation: ()) is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,175,601 residents as of 2018, in an area of more than 105 square kilometres (41 square miles). [249][250] Among the Impressionist composers who created new works for piano, orchestra, opera, chamber music and other musical forms, stand in particular, Claude Debussy (Suite bergamasque, and its well-known third movement, Clair de lune, La Mer, Pelléas et Mélisande), Erik Satie (Gymnopédies, "Je te veux", Gnossiennes, Parade) and Maurice Ravel (Miroirs, Boléro, La valse, L'heure espagnole). [134], France's highest courts are located in Paris. [95], On 3 February 2017, a two-backpack-carrying, machete-wielding attacker shouting "Allahu Akbar" attacked soldiers guarding the Louvre museum after they stopped him because of his bags; the assailant was shot, and no explosives were found. In 2018, of the 27 Michelin three-star restaurants in France, ten are located in Paris. [319] The Jardin des plantes was the first botanical garden in Paris, created in 1626 by Louis XIII's doctor Guy de La Brosse for the cultivation of medicinal plants.[320]. Paris offers a bike sharing system called Vélib' with more than 20,000 public bicycles distributed at 1,800 parking stations,[308] which can be rented for short and medium distances including one way trips. [120], Once elected, the council plays a largely passive role in the city government, primarily because it meets only once a month. The military history of France, from the Middle Ages to World War II, is vividly presented by displays at the Musée de l'Armée at Les Invalides, near the tomb of Napoleon. The Golden Age of the School of Paris ended between the two world wars. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros. Another district, including Boulogne-Billancourt, Issy-les-Moulineaux and the southern part of the 15th arrondissement, is a centre of activity for the media and information technology.[193]. [214], Greater Paris, comprising Paris and its three surrounding departments, received 38 million visitors in 2019, a record, measured by hotel arrivals. [20] Alternatively, Pierre-Yves Lambert proposed to translate Parisii as the 'spear people', by connecting the first element to the Old Irish carr 'spear', derived from an earlier *kwar-sā. Fortification of the Île de la Cité failed to avert sacking by Vikings in 845, but Paris' strategic importance—with its bridges preventing ships from passing—was established by successful defence in the Siege of Paris (885–86), for which the then Count of Paris (comte de Paris), Odo of France, was elected king of West Francia. [17] The third most visited Paris museum, in a building constructed for the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900 as the Orsay railway station, was the Musée d'Orsay, which had 3.3 million visitors in 2019. This was an increase of 588 persons since 2018. Picasso, living in Le Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre, painted his famous La Famille de Saltimbanques and Les Demoiselles d'Avignon between 1905 and 1907. [269] The Michelin Guide has been a standard guide to French restaurants since 1900, awarding its highest award, three stars, to the best restaurants in France. [265][266], Since the late 18th century, Paris has been famous for its restaurants and haute cuisine, food meticulously prepared and artfully presented. They also built the major parks around the city centre. The hospitals receive more than 5.8 million annual patient visits.[331]. [246] It is also a city of small bookstores. Celebrate and remember the lives we have lost in Paris, Kentucky. [160] Their poor construction quality and their haphazard insertion into existing urban growth contributed to their desertion by those able to move elsewhere and their repopulation by those with more limited possibilities. [238] of Other famous theatres include the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe, next to the Luxembourg Gardens, also a state institution and theatrical landmark; the Théâtre Mogador, and the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Montparnasse.[239]. Photography came to occupy a central role in Parisian Surrealist activity, in the works of Man Ray and Maurice Tabard. [151] Two-thirds of the city's 1.3 million residences are studio and two-room apartments. In 1911, the dance hall Olympia Paris invented the grand staircase as a settling for its shows, competing with its great rival, the Folies Bergère. [162], The official estimated population of the City of Paris was 2,206,488 as of 1 January 2019, according to the INSEE, the official French statistical agency. [68], During the First World War, Paris sometimes found itself on the front line; 600 to 1,000 Paris taxis played a small but highly important symbolic role in transporting 6,000 soldiers to the front line at the First Battle of the Marne. [32], By the end of the Western Roman Empire, the town was known as Parisius, a Latin name that would later become Paris in French. Between 1853 and 1870, Emperor Napoleon III and the city's first director of parks and gardens, Jean-Charles Adolphe Alphand, created the Bois de Boulogne, Bois de Vincennes, Parc Montsouris and Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, located at the four points of the compass around the city, as well as many smaller parks, squares and gardens in the Paris's quarters. Among these, 1,165,541 (85.9 percent) were main residences, 91,835 (6.8 percent) were secondary residences, and the remaining 7.3 percent were empty (down from 9.2 percent in 2006). The city is spread widely on both banks of the river. [88] The system is scheduled to be completed by 2030. [7] The cars were designed by John Stephenson of New Rochelle, New York, and constructed at his company in New York City. [125] It is an administrative structure for co-operation between the City of Paris and its nearest suburbs. The 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cups, the 2007 Rugby World Cup, as well as the 1960, 1984 and 2016 UEFA European Championships were also held in the city. Follow horse racing with Alex Hammond on Sky Sports - get live racing results, racecards, news, videos, photos, stats (horses & jockeys), plus daily tips. In addition, the Paris region is served by a light rail network of nine lines, the tramway: Line T1 runs from Asnières-Gennevilliers to Noisy-le-Sec, Line T2 runs from Pont de Bezons to Porte de Versailles, Line T3a runs from Pont du Garigliano to Porte de Vincennes, Line T3b runs from Porte de Vincennes to Porte d'Asnières, Line T5 runs from Saint-Denis to Garges-Sarcelles, Line T6 runs from Châtillon to Viroflay, Line T7 runs from Villejuif to Athis-Mons, Line T8 runs from Saint-Denis to Épinay-sur-Seine and Villetaneuse, all of which are operated by the RATP Group,[297] and line T4 runs from Bondy RER to Aulnay-sous-Bois, which is operated by the state rail carrier SNCF. A greater administrative Seine department had been governing Paris and its suburbs since its creation in 1790, but the rising suburban population had made it difficult to maintain as a unique entity. The Pompidou Centre Musée National d'Art Moderne has the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe. It was highly visible because of its large red imitation windmill on its roof, and became the birthplace of the dance known as the French Cancan. [125][127] The first president of the metropolitan council, Patrick Ollier, a Republican and the mayor of the town of Rueil-Malmaison, was elected on 22 January 2016. [110], Paris has an average annual precipitation of 641 mm (25.2 in), and experiences light rainfall distributed evenly throughout the year. Paris has several prominent hills, the highest of which is Montmartre at 130 m (427 ft). [203] Outside Paris, the western Hauts-de-Seine department La Défense district specialising in finance, insurance and scientific research district, employs 144,600,[198] and the north-eastern Seine-Saint-Denis audiovisual sector has 200 media firms and 10 major film studios. Several of France's most famous chefs, including Pierre Gagnaire, Alain Ducasse, Yannick Alléno and Alain Passard, have three-star restaurants in Paris. [101], Excluding the outlying parks of Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes, Paris covers an oval measuring about 87 km2 (34 sq mi) in area, enclosed by the 35 km (22 mi) ring road, the Boulevard Périphérique. [3] In 1882, steam locomotives were deployed experimentally to haul tram cars. Since the 19th century, Paris has been an international fashion capital, particularly in the domain of haute couture (clothing hand-made to order for private clients). In the same survey, 7 percent of residents identified themselves as Muslims, 4 percent as Protestants, 2 percent as Jewish, and 25 percent as without religion. Most of this is due to companies relocating outside the Paris region. UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles with 27 screens, MK2 Bibliothèque with 20 screens and UGC Ciné Cité Bercy with 18 screens are among the largest. [207], The average net household income (after social, pension and health insurance contributions) in Paris was €36,085 for 2011. [103] The metropolitan area of the city is 2,300 km2 (890 sq mi). The southern Essonne department specialises in science and technology,[198] and the south-eastern Val-de-Marne, with its wholesale Rungis food market, specialises in food processing and beverages. There are about 150 bookstores in the 5th arrondissement alone, plus another 250 book stalls along the Seine. The remaining group, people born in foreign countries with no French citizenship at birth, are those defined as immigrants under French law. [233] It is famous for its dinosaur artefacts, mineral collections and its Gallery of Evolution. The Bercy Arena also hosted the 2017 IIHF World Ice Hockey Championship, together with Cologne, Germany. [59] Napoleon Bonaparte replaced the elected government of Paris with a prefect reporting only to him. The Casino de Paris presented many famous French singers, including Mistinguett, Maurice Chevalier and Tino Rossi. The economy of the City of Paris is based largely on services and commerce; of the 390,480 enterprises in the city, 80.6 percent are engaged in commerce, transportation, and diverse services, 6.5 percent in construction, and just 3.8 percent in industry. [75][76] On 25 August 1944, the city was liberated by the French 2nd Armoured Division and the 4th Infantry Division of the United States Army. [177] These last two groups of immigrants are again vastly outnumbered by migrants from French overseas regions and territories located in the Americas and the South Pacific. [128], The Region of Île de France, including Paris and its surrounding communities, is governed by the Regional Council, which has its headquarters in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. [63] Paris became the laboratory of Naturalism (Émile Zola) and Symbolism (Charles Baudelaire and Paul Verlaine), and of Impressionism in art (Courbet, Manet, Monet, Renoir). The winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature, Patrick Modiano (who lives in Paris), based most of his literary work on the depiction of the city during World War II and the 1960s–1970s. The traditional kepis of the gendarmes were replaced in 2002 with caps, and the force modernised, though they still wear kepis for ceremonial occasions. In some cases these systems were very extensive and evolved into interurban tram networks (as in the Yucatan, which sported over 3,000 kilometers (1,900 mi) of such lines). [18] The football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris. In 1648, the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture) was established to accommodate for the dramatic interest in art in the capital. From 1809, the Canal de l'Ourcq provided Paris with water from less-polluted rivers to the north-east of the capital. [6] According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living Survey in 2018, Paris was the second most expensive city in the world, after Singapore, and ahead of Zürich, Hong Kong, Oslo and Geneva. [283] Paris is also home to several of France's most famous high-schools such as Lycée Louis-le-Grand, Lycée Henri-IV, Lycée Janson de Sailly and Lycée Condorcet. [122], Each of Paris' 20 arrondissements has its own town hall and a directly elected council (conseil d'arrondissement), which, in turn, elects an arrondissement mayor. [280], The University of Paris, founded in the 12th century, is often called the Sorbonne after one of its original medieval colleges. [3] In 1902, the first electric tramcar in India ran from Esplanade to Kidderpore on 27 March and on 14 June from Esplanade to Kalighat. The city hosted the Olympic Games in 1900, 1924 and will host the 2024 Summer Olympics. Captioned performances in Paris. and partly to the possible loss of housing in the city due to short-term rentals for tourism. [129], As the capital of France, Paris is the seat of France's national government. After a contract was signed between the Bombay Tramway Company, the municipality and the Stearns and Kitteredge company, the Bombay Presidency enacted the Bombay Tramways Act, 1874 licensing the company to run a horsecar tram service in the city. [189] The story is similar in the Paris Region (Île-de-France): 76.7 percent of enterprises are engaged in commerce and services, and 3.4 percent in industry. The National Institute of Sport and Physical Education, located in the 12th arrondissement, is both a physical education institute and high-level training centre for elite athletes. In a partnership between Dark Horse and Critical Role, the beloved weekly web series, is now a digital comic! The first tram services in the world were started by the Swansea and Mumbles Railway in Wales, using specially designed carriages on an existing tramline built for horse-drawn freight dandies. [311] From 1857, the civil engineer Eugène Belgrand, under Napoleon III, oversaw the construction of a series of new aqueducts that brought water from locations all around the city to several reservoirs built atop the Capital's highest points of elevation. [3] In 1900, electrification of the tramway and reconstruction of its tracks to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge) began. By 2020 its basic competencies will include urban planning, housing and protection of the environment. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, science and arts.The City of Paris is the centre and seat of … Its distribution varies widely throughout the city, from 2.6 percent of the housing in the wealthy 7th arrondissement, to 24 percent in the 20th arrondissement, 26 percent in the 14th arrondissement and 39.9 percent in the 19th arrondissement, on the poorer southwest and northern edges of the city. [302] For the year 2017 it was the 5th busiest airport in the world by international traffic and it is the hub for the nation's flag carrier Air France. Bred in Kentucky by Ann Marie Farm, City of Light is out of the unraced Dehere mare Paris Notion, whose runners also include stakes-placed Pointsman and Exotic Notion. [17] It was ranked as the second most visited travel destination in the world in 2019, after Bangkok and just ahead of London. [227] Impressionism, Art Nouveau, Symbolism, Fauvism, Cubism and Art Deco movements all evolved in Paris. Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), formerly the Syndicat des transports d'Île-de-France (STIF) and before that the Syndicat des transports parisiens (STP), oversees the transit network in the region. [144] The high residential population of its city centre also makes it much different from most other western major cities.[145]. The 80,000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the commune of Saint-Denis. [note 1][26], The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. This article is about equine-powered railcars. [17] Paris has long been famous for its grand hotels. By the end of the 19th century the company owned 166 tram cars, 1000 horses, seven steam locomotives and 19 miles of tram tracks. Theatre traditionally has occupied a large place in Parisian culture, and many of its most popular actors today are also stars of French television. This broad Toronto gauge is still used today by the Toronto streetcar system and three lines of the Toronto subway. It hosts the French national football team for friendlies and major tournaments qualifiers, annually hosts the French national rugby team's home matches of the Six Nations Championship, and hosts several important matches of the Stade Français rugby team. Fare-paying passengers were carried on a line between Oystermouth, Mumbles and Swansea Docks from 1807. In 1861, Toronto Street Railway horsecars replaced horse-drawn omnibuses as a public transit mode in Toronto. [251] Patrons danced the bourrée to the accompaniment of the cabrette (a bellows-blown bagpipe locally called a "musette") and often the vielle à roue (hurdy-gurdy) in the cafés and bars of the city. More than half had been homeless for more than a year. [285], There are several academic libraries and archives in Paris. [150], Sixty-two percent of its buildings date from 1949 and before, 20 percent were built between 1949 and 1974, and only 18 percent of the buildings remaining were built after that date. [275][276] Moreover, Paris is also the home of the world's largest cosmetics company: L'Oréal as well as three of the top five global makers of luxury fashion accessories: Louis Vuitton, Hermés, and Cartier. The district of the Paris region was renamed "Île-de-France" in 1977, but this abbreviated "Paris region" name is still commonly used today to describe the Île-de-France, and as a vague reference to the entire Paris agglomeration. It received 1.1 million visitors in 2018.[235]. The overall climate throughout the year is mild and moderately wet. [169] It declined again in 2018. [201], According to 2015 INSEE figures, 68.3 percent of employees in the City of Paris work in commerce, transportation, and services; 24.5 percent in public administration, health and social services; 4.1 percent in industry, and 0.1 percent in agriculture. The Guimet Museum, or Musée national des arts asiatiques, has one of the largest collections of Asian art in Europe. [203] Fourteen percent of Parisians work in hotels and restaurants and other services to individuals. These were local versions of the stagecoach lines and picked up and dropped off passengers on a regular route, without the need to be pre-hired. The first book printed in France, Epistolae ("Letters"), by Gasparinus de Bergamo (Gasparino da Barzizza), was published in Paris in 1470 by the press established by Johann Heynlin. After the Trojan Horse was left at the gates, the Greeks sailed away from Troy to the island of Tenedos, leaving behind one double agent named Sinon. Paris has a big hip hop scene. [233] The National Museum of Natural History located near the Jardin des plantes attracted two million visitors in 2018. Long a transportation obstacle, the hills of Richmond included grades of over 10%, and were an excellent proving ground for acceptance of the new technology in other cities. Many large metropolitan lines lasted well into the early twentieth century. New suburban cemeteries were created in the early 20th century: The largest of these are the Cimetière parisien de Saint-Ouen, the Cimetière parisien de Pantin (also known as Cimetière parisien de Pantin-Bobigny), the Cimetière parisien d'Ivry, and the Cimetière parisien de Bagneux. Bastille Day, a celebration of the storming of the Bastille in 1789, the biggest festival in the city, is a military parade taking place every year on 14 July on the Champs-Élysées, from the Arc de Triomphe to Place de la Concorde. There are 30,200 officers under the prefecture, and a fleet of more than 6,000 vehicles, including police cars, motorcycles, fire trucks, boats and helicopters. [137] The Constitutional Council, an advisory body with ultimate authority on the constitutionality of laws and government decrees, also meets in the Montpensier wing of the Palais Royal.[138]. Paris is the département with the highest proportion of highly educated people. [121] This ensures that the winning party or coalition always wins a majority of the seats, even if they don't win an absolute majority of the vote. Louis-Philippe was overthrown by a popular uprising in the streets of Paris in 1848. [193], The second-largest business district in terms of employment is La Défense, just west of the city, where many companies installed their offices in the 1990s. Paris was central to the development of Romanticism in art, with painters such as Gericault. [5] Stearns and Kitteredge reportedly had a stable of 1,360 horses over the lifetime of the service.[6]. After Richelieu's death in 1642, it was renamed the Palais-Royal. Since 1975, the race has finished on the Champs-Elysées.[290]. [54], In the summer of 1789, Paris became the centre stage for the French Revolution. [90], On 7 January 2015, two French Muslim extremists attacked the Paris headquarters of Charlie Hebdo and killed thirteen people, in an attack claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,[91] and on 9 January, a third terrorist, who claimed he was part of ISIL, killed four hostages during an attack at a Jewish grocery store at Porte de Vincennes. It helped make famous the singers Mistinguett and Édith Piaf and the painter Toulouse-Lautrec, who made posters for the venue. [102] The city's last major annexation of outlying territories in 1860 not only gave it its modern form but also created the 20 clockwise-spiralling arrondissements (municipal boroughs). [338] Radio France, France's public radio broadcaster, and its various channels, is headquartered in Paris' 16th arrondissement. Since that time, because of high prices, some publishers have moved out to the less expensive areas. The city is a major railway, highway and air-transport hub served by two international airports: Paris–Charles de Gaulle (the second busiest airport in Europe) and Paris–Orly. With Paris's growth many of these, particularly the city's largest cemetery, the Holy Innocents' Cemetery, were filled to overflowing, creating quite unsanitary conditions for the capital. The council is elected using closed list proportional representation in a two-round system. In the late 12th century, a school of polyphony was established at Notre-Dame. [223] The arrival of the railways and the Paris Exposition of 1855 brought the first flood of tourists and the first modern grand hotels; the Hôtel du Louvre (now an antiques marketplace) in 1855; the Grand Hotel (now the InterContinental Paris Le Grand Hotel) in 1862; and the Hôtel Continental in 1878. [60] In 1860, Napoleon III also annexed the surrounding towns and created eight new arrondissements, expanding Paris to its current limits. The banks of the Seine from the Pont de Sully to the Pont d'Iéna have been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991.[217]. During the Hundred Years' War, Paris was occupied by England-friendly Burgundian forces from 1418, before being occupied outright by the English when Henry V of England entered the French capital in 1420;[43] in spite of a 1429 effort by Joan of Arc to liberate the city,[44] it would remain under English occupation until 1436. In March 2001, Bertrand Delanoë became the first Socialist Mayor of Paris. Paris' 2015 at-census unemployment rate was 12.2%,[202] and in the first trimester of 2018, its ILO-critera unemployment rate was 7.1 percent. and the rugby union clubs Stade Français and Racing 92, the last of which is based just outside the city proper. Other landmarks are laid out east to west along the historical axis of Paris, which runs from the Louvre through the Tuileries Garden, the Luxor Column in the Place de la Concorde, and the Arc de Triomphe, to the Grande Arche of La Défense. The French royal family and courtiers "disported themselves in masques, ballets, allegorical dances, recitals, and opera and comedy", and a national musical printing house was established. During the Roman era, the city's main cemetery was located to the outskirts of the left bank settlement, but this changed with the rise of Catholic Christianity, where most every inner-city church had adjoining burial grounds for use by their parishes. Below is a list of locations around the world with operational horsecars that are open to the public. [157] Many other suburban residential districts (grands ensembles) were built between the 1960s and 1970s to provide a low-cost solution for a rapidly expanding population:[158] These districts were socially mixed at first,[159] but few residents actually owned their homes (the growing economy made these accessible to the middle classes only from the 1970s). Another musical landmark is the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, where the first performances of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes took place in 1913. Paris received 38 million visitors in 2019, measured by hotel stays, with the largest numbers of foreign visitors coming from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and China. [199], In 2018, Paris was the most expensive city in the world with Singapore and Hong Kong.