History UsefulNotes / Paris

** In the 21st Century of course, there were the terrorists' attack on the offices of the satirical newspaper ''Charlie Hebdo'' by religious extremists in January 2015. Then there was the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_2015_Paris_attacks November terrorist attacks]] that took place '''the same year''' by Islamic terrorists. And in between, an attempted attack on a Thalys train heading to Paris, immortalized in the film ''Film/TheFifteenSeventeenToParis'' (with the American soldiers who foiled the attack [[AsHimself playing themselves]]). More recently is the April 2019 fire that engulfed Notre Dame, causing immense damage to the building.

Some other places of interest :

** It continued in April 2019, when the famed cathedral Notre Dame de Paris caught fire during renovations to the roofing. At present, the entire interior is lost, the spire has collapsed, and civil services are trying to save as many art pieces as they can. The bell towers have been saved, and the external structure is likely to remain.

** In the 21st Century of course, there were the terrorists' attack on the offices of the satirical newspaper ''Charlie Hebdo'' by religious extremists in January 2015. Then there was the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_2015_Paris_attacks November terrorist attacks]] that took place '''the same year''' by Islamic terrorists. And in between, an attempted attack on a Thalys train heading to Paris, immortalized in the film ''Film/TheFifteenSeventeenToParis'' (with the American soldiers who foiled the attack [[AsHimself playing themselves]]).

** It continued in April 2019, in which the famed cathedral Notre Dame de Paris caught fire durng renovations to the roofing. At present, the entire interior is lost, the spire has collapsed, and civil services are trying to save what art they can. The bell towers have been saved, and the external structure is likely to remain.

** In the 20th Century, the city survived World War II with little damage. During TheSeventies, President Georges Pompidou built a new cultural centre in Paris, known as the Centre Pompidou (designed as a modern art museum). To build it, he controversially ordered the destruction of Les Halles. This was the celebrated glass-windowed open-market celebrated in many French novels and films, the subject of philosopher Walter Benjamin's ''The Arcades Project'', the destruction was widely resented and remains quite controversial to this day.
** It continued in April 2019, in which the famed cathedral Notre Dame de Paris caught fire durng renovations to the roofing. At present, the entire interior is lost, the spire has collapsed, and civil services are trying to save what art they can. However, the external structure is likely to remain.

In its administrative area (the 75 postal area, split up into twenty numbered administrative districts called "arrondissements", although these sort of things exist all over France), also known as "downtown Paris", the population is only about 2 million, but the total urban sprawl has a population of over 11 million (making it the largest urban area in UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion and the second-largest in Europe, after UsefulNotes/{{Moscow}}). The region roughly in a 50 km radius around Paris is known as Ile-de-France, and its inhabitants are called "Franciliens" - although French people tend to refer to them all as Parisians.

** In the 21st Century of course, there were the terrorists' attack on the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo by religious extremists in January 2015. Then there was the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_2015_Paris_attacks November terrorist attacks]] that took place '''the same year''' by Islamic terrorists.

* CityOfAdventure: It became this in the 19th and 20th Century. Artists coming to Paris to be inspired by its art, culture, women and night-life is common enough to be [[GayParee its own trope]], as seen in ''Film/AnAmericanInParis'' and ''Film/MidnightInParis''. In French literature too, young men coming to Paris from the Provinces has sometimes been a major theme. (Of course, "young man from the provinces comes to the capital to seek his fortune" is a [[DickWhittingtonAndHisCat story as old as civilization]].)

* Le Marais ("The Marsh"), a historical district that was once host to the Chinese and Jewish community of Paris. It's now more oriented towards fashion and hipster as well as LGBT culture and lifestyle.

* Famous cabarets such as the Moulin Rouge, the Theatre/CrazyHorse or the Lido.

Paris is most famous for its wide boulevards, copied in several other cities around the world. There's of course the [[EiffelTowerEffect Eiffel Tower]], originally intended as the entrance arch for the 1889 World's Fair and holding the "tallest building in the world" title until the Chrysler Building took it in 1930. Other famous buildings include the Louvre art gallery, the Arc de Triomphe and the Moulin Rouge (best known for the [[Film/MoulinRouge of the same name]]).

Other places of interest :

** Nevertheless the Paris Commune showed that the city was far from pacified. During the Commune, when the Army was closing in, the Communards set fire on the Hotel de Ville (subsequently rebuilt) and burnt the Palais de Tuileries to the ground.

It has four ring roads (UsefulNotes/{{London}} only has two), the inner most being the division between the main city and the very poor suburbs... Or the very rich: the GDP per capita of the "Hauts-de-Seine" (the rich suburbs to the North West of Paris) is close to the GDP per capita of the district of Columbia, while the GDP per Capita of some parts of the "Seine-Saint-Denis" (the poorer eastern suburbs) is closer to that of parts of eastern Europe. This is a very old distinction; western Paris has been home to its better-off inhabitants for generations (as any account of the 1789, 1830, and 1848 revolutions can tell you). Still, you can go from the posher parts of the city to the poorer ones in 40 minutes by the subway. People of a prudish disposition should avoid [[RedLightDistrict Pigalle]].

It has four ring roads (LondonTown only has two), the inner most being the division between the main city and the very poor suburbs... Or the very rich: the GDP per capita of the "Hauts-de-Seine" (the rich suburbs to the North West of Paris) is close to the GDP per capita of the district of Columbia, while the GDP per Capita of some parts of the "Seine-Saint-Denis" (the poorer eastern suburbs) is closer to that of parts of eastern Europe. This is a very old distinction; western Paris has been home to its better-off inhabitants for generations (as any account of the 1789, 1830, and 1848 revolutions can tell you). Still, you can go from the posher parts of the city to the poorer ones in 40 minutes by the subway. People of a prudish disposition should avoid [[RedLightDistrict Pigalle]].

It has four ring roads (LondonTown only has two), the inner most being the division between the main city and the very poor suburbs... Or the very rich: the GDP per capita of the "Hauts-de-Seine" (the rich suburbs to the North West of Paris) is close to the GDP per capita of the district of Columbia, while the GDP per Capita of some parts of the "Seine-Saint-Denis" (the poorer eastern suburbs) is closer to that of parts of eastern Europe: you can go from the posher parts of the city to the poorer ones in 40 minutes by the subway. People of a prudish disposition should avoid [[RedLightDistrict Pigalle]].

Paris is most famous for its wide boulevards, copied in several other cities around the world. There's of course the [[EiffelTowerEffect Eiffel Tower]], originally intended as the entrance arch for the 1889 World's Fair and holding the "tallest building in the world" title until the Chrysler Building took it in 1930. Other famous buildings include the Louvre art gallery, the Arc de Triomphe and the MoulinRouge.

** During the Nazi Occupation, there was the famous Round Up of Vel d'Hiv where the French Police acting on Nazi Orders arrested 28,000 Jews (including children) and held them in an ice-skating rink before deporting them to the Camps. Only 400 survived.

-->-- '''Gustave Eiffel''': ''Not only the art of the modern engineer, but also the century of Industry and Science in which we are living, and for which the way was prepared by [[UsefulNotes/TheEnlightenment the great scientific movement of the eighteenth century]] and by [[UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution the Revolution of 1789]], to which this monument will be built as an expression of France's gratitude.''

*** The Temple, a fortress of TheKnightsTemplar until ThePurge that finished them for good, became the Prison and final home of UsefulNotes/LouisXVI during his trial. Napoleon, worried that it would become a sacred spot for royalists, had it destroyed on coming to power.

** In the 21st Century of course, there were the terrorists attack on the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo by religious extremists in January 2015. Then there was the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_2015_Paris_attacks November terrorist attacks]] that took place '''the same year''' by Islamic terrorists.

* GenreSavvy: According to UrbanLegend, The Baron Georges Eugene Haussmann created the wide boulevards to avoid barricades in case of rebellion (which happened quite often in his nineteenth century). According to UrbanLegend, they had to be large enough to fire cannon down them at the mob. Haussmann himself denied this, [[BoringButPractical the wide boulevards were intended by him to accomodate the greater urban population and carriage traffic]].
** In any case, the goal of making impossible-to-barricade streets never materialized: as demonstrated by the Paris Commune of 1871, irate Parisians can barricade ''anything''.
** The wide boulevards also had the rather unfortunate effect of leaving the city wide open to attacking armies - including tanks - who could use the wide boulevard to march right to the heart of the city. This made the infamously brutal suppression of the Commune possible. It also proved useful to the Nazis in maintaining curfew during the Occupation, something which a patriot like Haussmann would probably regret.

* StarvingArtist: The city used to be a haven for them and still represented as such in fictional depictions.. Creator/VincentVanGogh, the Impressionists, bad boy poets Francois Villon and Arthur Rimbaud, Creator/JamesJoyce and the Modernists, surrealists, jazz musicians and underground experimental film-makers. The reason it attracted them was that the rents were cheaper back then, the Louvre (and the Cinematheque) was open till late at night for their perusal, lots of sidewalk cafes and a good night life. Since the rise of neoliberalism in the 80s and 90s, Paris, like many world cities, has become quite expensive which many feel compromises the qualities that made it so great in the first place.

-> '''Creator/VictorHugo''': ''"[[ReignOfTerror Ninety-three]] was the war of Europe against France, and of France against Paris. And what was the Revolution? It was the victory of France over Europe, and of Paris over France. Hence the immensity of that terrible moment?, '93, greater than all the rest of the century"''