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Paris in French, pronounced is the capital and largest city of
France. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France,
at the heart of the Île-de-France region (or Paris Region,
French: Région parisienne). The Paris Region hosts 38 of the
Fortune Global 500 companies in several business districts,
notably La Défense, the largest purpose-built business district
in Europe. Paris also hosts many international organizations
such as UNESCO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
and the informal Paris Club. According to the latest survey from
Economist Intelligence Unit in 2010, Paris is the world's most
expensive city to live in. 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, 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. It expanded
greatly over the following centuries, becoming a prosperous city
with a forum, palaces, baths, temples, theatres, and an
amphitheatre. The collapse of the Roman empire and the
fifth-century Germanic invasions sent the city into a period of
decline. By 400 AD, Lutèce, by then largely abandoned by its
inhabitants, was little more than a garrison town entrenched
into the hastily fortified central island. The city reclaimed
its original appellation of "Paris" towards the end of the Roman
occupation. The Frankish king Clovis I established Paris as his
capital in 508. La Défense (straddling the communes of
Courbevoie, Puteaux, and Nanterre, 2.5 km (2 mi) west of the
city proper) is a key suburb of Paris and is one of the largest
business centres in the world. Built at the western end of a
westward extension of Paris' historical axis from the
Champs-Élysées, La Défense consists mainly of business
high-rises. Initiated by the French government in 1958, the
district hosts 3,500,000 m2 (37,673,686 sq ft) of offices,
making it the largest district in Europe specifically developed
for business. The Grande Arche (Great Arch) of la Défense, which
houses a part of the French Transports Minister's headquarters,
ends the central Esplanade, around which the district is
organised. Val de SeinePlaine Saint-Denis (straddling the
communes of Saint-Denis, Aubervilliers, and Saint-Ouen,
immediately north of the 18th arrondissement, across the
Périphérique ring road) is a former derelict manufacturing area
that has undergone large-scale urban renewal in the last 10
years. It now hosts the Stade de France, around which is being
built the new business district of LandyFrance, with two RER
stations (on RER line B and D) and possibly some skyscrapers. In
the Plaine Saint-Denis are also located most of France's
television studios as well as some major movie studios. Val de
Seine (straddling the 15th arrondissement and the communes of
Issy-les-Moulineaux and Boulogne-Billancourt to the south-west
of central Paris) is the new media hub of Paris and France,
hosting the headquarters of most of France's TV networks (TF1 in
Boulogne-Billancourt, France 2 in the 15th arrondissement,
Canal+ and the international channels France 24 and Eurosport in
Issy-les-Moulineaux), as well as several telecommunication and
IT companies such as Neuf Cegetel in Boulogne-Billancourt or
Microsoft's Europe, Africa & Middle East regional headquarters
in Issy-les-Moulineaux. |
