8th July: The Founding of Paris

This date is usually considered to be the "founding" of Paris. There are 38 cities called “Paris” in the world, including in the USA, Sweden and Panama. Today's facts refer to the capital of France.

1. The first people to live there were the the Celtic Parisii people, around the middle of the 3rd century BC. It was an important trade centre. The Parisii traded with many river towns as far away as the Iberian Peninsula, and minted their own coins. When the Romans arrived, they called the place Lutetia Parisiorum.
2. Paris nicknamed “The City of Love”, and also "The City of Light" (La Ville Lumière), because the city was an early adopter of gas street lighting. Since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam(e) in French slang.
3. Paris was almost destroyed at the end of the second world war. Hitler actually commanded the city should be destroyed: " The city must not fall into the enemy’s hand except lying in complete debris." The Germans had gone so far as to place bombs all around the city to be detonated if they were forced out. The German governor of Paris, General Dietrich von Choltitz, for some reason, never carried out the order. Nobody knows exactly why. Some say von Choltitz, who'd normally ruthlessly carry out Hitler's orders, had finally had an epiphany and realised the war was futile and Hitler was a nutter. Others say the French Resistance stopped him.
4. Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements, or districts. Starting in the centre of the city they follow a clockwise spiral around it, like a snail’s shell. The total area of the city is 105.4 km² and the population is around 2.244 million. It's not only the people who get counted. The 470,000 or so trees in the city are all referenced and measured. There are also about 300,000 dogs (bad news for the trees!).
5. Paris is only twinned with one other city - Rome. It is said, “Only Paris is worthy of Rome; only Rome is worthy of Paris.”
6. The longest street in Paris is the rue Vaugirard in the 15th arrondissement at 4,360 meters long. The shortest is Rue des Degrés at just 5.75. The tallest building is the First tower, in the business quarter of La Défense. It is 231 meters tall. By law, no buildings can exceed six stories in Paris. "Pour que tout le monde ait du soleil (so that all have sunshine)". Paris also has a large market, the Marché de Rungis (founded in 1110), which is so big that the entire Prinicpality of Monaco would fit into it.
7. The motto of Paris is “Fluctuat Ner Mergitur”, which means “Tossed but not sunk” in Latin.
8. In the early 20th century, Paris had a human zoo. Built in 1907, it consisted of six villages representing the French colonial empire at the time – Madagascar, Indochine, Sudan, Congo, Tunisia and Morocco. The villages reflected the architecture and culture of the original countries and were filled with people imported from those countries to live there as human exhibits.
9. The Paris Métro is the 4th largest public transport system in the world. It has 303 stations, 16 lines and and 220 km (136.7 mi) of rails. It was inaugurated in 1900 and carries 5.23 million passengers daily. More recently, the “Réseau Express Régional” was added. This was originally going to be called was going to be called the “Métro Express Régional Défense-Étoile”, but they realised in time that the initials of this name spelt out "M.E.R.D.E."
10. The most popular tourist attraction is not the Eiffel Tower, but the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The main bell in the Notre Dame Cathedral weighs over 13 tonnes. It has a name - Emmanuel. Other things tourists might go an look at in Paris are the Place de la Concorde, which has the oldest monument in Paris, the Luxor obelisk, which, with the Roman numerals on the pavement acts as the largest sundial in the world; the oldest bridge, named Pont Neuf (New Bridge); the Louvre museum, originally meant to be a palace and which took 666 years to build, and now houses over 35 thousand works of art, and several replicas of the Statue of Liberty, including one which faces the American one, and a full size replica of the flame, which has become a memorial to Princess Diana. When they fancy some refreshment, tourists can stop off at the oldest café in Paris, Le Procope, founded in 1686, or one of the 9,057 cafes with open terraces.