Paris - City of France

Paris is the capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region. An important settlement for more than two millennia, Paris is today one of the world's leading business and cultural centres, and its influence in politics, education, entertainment, media, fashion, science and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities. According to 2005 estimates, the Paris urban area is Europe's biggest city economy,and is fifth in the world's list of cities by GDP.

Paris also hosts many international organizations such as UNESCO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the International Chamber of Commerce and the informal Paris Club.

Paris is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, with 45 million tourists every year in the Paris Region, 60% of whom are foreign visitors.There are numerous iconic landmarks among its many attractions, along with world-famous institutions and popular parks.

The earliest archaeological signs of permanent habitation in the Paris area date from around 4200 BC.The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, known as boatsmen and traders, inhabited the area near the river Seine from around 250 BC. The Romans conquered the Paris basin in 52 BC, with a permanent settlement by the end of the same century on the Left Bank Sainte Geneviève Hill and the Île de la Cité. The Gallo-Roman town was originally called Lutetia, but later Gallicised to Lutèce.

Paris lost its position as seat of the French realm during occupation of the English-allied Burgundians during the Hundred Years' War, but regained its title when Charles VII of France reclaimed the city in 1437. Although Paris was capital once again, the Crown preferred to remain in the Loire Valley.

Parisians revolted against the monarchy during the Three Glorious Days of July 1830. King Charles X was forced to abdicate the throne. The "February Revolution" of 1848 ended the constitutional monarchy of Louis-Philippe, and led to the creation of the French Second Republic.

During World War I, Paris was at the forefront of the war effort, having been spared a German invasion by the French and British victory at the First Battle of the Marne in 1914. In 1918-1919, it was the scene of Allied victory parades and peace negotiations. In the inter-war period Paris was famed for its cultural and artistic communities and its nightlife. The city became a gathering place of artists from around the world, from exiled Russian composer Stravinsky and Spanish painters Picasso and Dalí to American writer Hemingway.

In order to address social tensions in the inner suburbs and revitalise the metropolitan economy of Paris, several plans are currently underway. The office of Secretary of State for the Development of the Capital Region was created in March 2008 within the French government. Its office holder, Christian Blanc, is in charge of overseeing President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans for the creation of an integrated Grand Paris metropolitan authority , as well as the extension of the subway network to cope with the renewed growth of population in Paris and its suburbs, and various economic development projects to boost the metropolitan economy such as the creation of a world-class technology and scientific cluster and university campus on the Saclay plateau in the southern suburbs.

Paris has an oceanic climate and is affected by the North Atlantic Current, so the city rarely sees extremely high or low temperatures.

Several yearly festivals take place in Paris, such as Rock en Seine. A famous composer who lives in Paris is Rhys Chatham. Pop music artists: Soko.

Paris' largest opera houses are the 19th-century Opéra Garnier and modern Opéra Bastille; the former tends towards the more classic ballets and operas, and the latter provides a mixed repertoire of classic and modern. In middle of 19th century, there were active two other competing opera houses: Opéra-Comique and Théâtre Lyrique .

Paris from the 11th century was a popular destination for traders, students and religious pilgrimages, but its 'tourist industry' began on a large scale only with the 19th-century appearance of rail travel, namely from the state's re-organisation of France's rail network, with Paris at its centre, from 1848. Among Paris' first mass attractions drawing international interest were the above-mentioned Expositions Universelles that were the origin of Paris' many monuments, namely the Eiffel Tower from 1889. These, in addition to the capital's Second Empire embellishments, did much to make the city itself the attraction it is today.

In the early ninth century, the emperor Charlemagne mandated all churches to give lessons in reading, writing and basic arithmetic to their parishes, and cathedrals to give a higher-education in the finer arts of language, physics, music, and theology; at that time, Paris was already one of France's major cathedral towns and beginning its rise to fame as a scholastic centre. By the early 13th century, the Île de la Cité Notre-Dame cathedral school had many famous teachers, and the controversial teachings of some of these led to the creation of a separate Left-Bank Sainte-Genevieve University that would become the centre of Paris' scholastic Latin quarter best represented by the Sorbonne university.

Paris is home to several of France's most prestigious high-schools such as Lycée Louis-le-Grand, and Lycée Henri-IV. Other high-schools of international renown in the Paris area include the Lycée International de Saint Germain-en-Laye and the École Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel.

There is also a University of London Institute in Paris which offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in French Studies ratified by the University of London.