Paris Guide

In Paris you will definitely run out of time, because there is too much to see and too much to do. Do you like art? In Paris you find countless art galleries and museums. Do you prefer shopping? Paris belongs to the best places for a good day of shopping, with shops from the best fashion designers of the world, lovely antiques stores, great souvenir shops and much more. Maybe you are interested in history? The museums will tell you fascinating stories about the history of the city. What´s nice about Paris is that the city is very compact. That makes it very easy to cross the whole city in a short time, so you don´t have to miss any of the big attractions. Paris is divided in 20 districts. In the districts 1 till 8 in the middle of the centre near the River Seine you will find most of the touristic attractions like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, the Champs-Élysées, the Arc the Triomphe en the Notre Dame. But also don´t forget to visit the beautiful Montmartre with the Sacre Coeur a little bit further north of the city centre.

History Paris

Paris has a long and interesting history. The place near the River Seine was not accidently chosen. The soil was very fertile and the location was perfect for trading. A lot of different tribes and nations tried to conquer Paris. The first people to live here where the Parisii, a Celtic tribe, who settled here around 300 BC, but it didn´t take long before the Romans chased them away. In 508 the Romans were defeated by the Gaul Clovis, who became the first Frankish king. In the same year Paris became the capital of the country.
In the middle ages Paris developed into an import city and turned into the intellectual and cultural centre of France. In this period the Notre Dame, the Louvre and the Sorbonne University were built. But then the Hundred Years War between England and France, that started in 1337, puts an end to the development of the city. Also the black death takes his toll in the 14th century. In 1420 Paris is conquered by King Henry V of England. The English reign over Paris between 1422 and 1439. Jeanne d´Arc played a very important role in recovering France from the English.
Paris flourished again in the 17th century with the arrival of King Louis XVI the so called ´Sun King`. Paris attracted in this period a lot of artists and scientists. King Louis XVI built a lot a luxurious castles and palaces, including the Palace of Versailles. But in the meantime the inhabitants of Paris started suffering from a very big economic crisis and this situation led to the French Revolution, with the Storming of the Bastilleon the 14th of July 1789. In this chaos Napoleon Bonaparte saw his change to take over the power in France between 1799 and 1815.

During the Industrial Revolution at the end of the 18th century Paris was again an important centre of European culture, until Germany occupied France between 1940 and 1944 during the Second World War. Today Paris counts more than 2 million inhabitants and belongs to the most important cities of the world.