• Paris is the capital of France.  The population of the city proper is 2.5 million.
• From 259 BC until 52 BC, a Celtic tribe called the Parisii settled along the river Seine.  When the Romans conquered this part of France in 52 BC, they built the city, Lutetia Parisiorum.  Toward the end of the Roman Empire, Lutetia became Parisius.  And in 508 AD, “Paris” became the official name of the city.
• Georges-Eugène Haussmann was chosen by Napoleon III to re-design Paris in the mid-1800s.  The way Paris looks today, with its grand boulevards, large squares, and splendid architecture is mainly due to Haussmann’s city-planning.
• Paris is divided into twenty distinct districts called “arrondissements.”  The first of the arrondissements is in the very center of the city.  The higher a district’s number, the farther it is from the center.
• The city is not large in area.  From Notre-Dame Cathedral in the heart of Paris to any point on the periphery is at most 10 km (6 mi).
• All around the outskirts of Paris are forests, known as “the lungs of Paris.”
• The river Seine flows right through the city.
• In some parts of Paris, including in the elegant Jardin des Tuileries, grazing sheep and goats help to trim the grass!
• Paris is called, “La Ville Lumière,” or “The City of Light,” because it was one of the first cities in Europe to use gas streetlamps to illuminate its boulevards and buildings.
• During the first part of the 1900s, Paris was considered a focal point of the intellectual and artistic worlds, attracting such cultural giants as the performer, Josephine Baker, the writer, Ernest Hemmingway, and the artist, Pablo Picasso.  During World War II, when the Germans occupied Paris, the city was the nerve center of the Resistance movement.  And after the war, intellectual life was revitalized, despite the collective trauma suffered during the German occupation.
• Some famous sites in Paris:

– The Louvre – one of the world’s most celebrated art museums.  Home of the Venus de Milo, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, and countless other masterpieces.

 – Notre-Dame de Paris – the cathedral in the heart of Paris built in 1163.  A devastating blaze on April 15, 2019,  badly damaged this beloved symbol of Paris.  The cathedral will continue to undergo major reconstruction and repair in the coming years due to this disaster.  There is a plaque in front of Notre-Dame, which is considered the starting point for measuring the distances to all other towns in France.  On the plaque is inscribed, “Point zéro des routes de France,” roughly translated as “kilometer zero for roads in France.”

– The Eiffel Tower – built in 1889 for the World Fair and originally supposed to stand for only 20 years.  It is 324 m (1062 ft) high.

– The Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac – famous for its front facade, covered in plants!  It is an example of a so-called vertical garden and includes over 15,000 plants, representing 376 species.

– The oldest tree in Paris – located in Square Viviani.  This locust tree is more than 400 years old.