Short Story of Paris

Visit Paris Story

This 50 min. multimedia show, will give you a good introduction to 2000 years of Paris history in a virtual reality theater that makes you feel like you're there.

11 bis, rue Scribe, near Galeries Lafayette

Every monument, museum, statue and stone in Paris has a story behind it. Knowing a little French history will make you appreciate the culture behind things and you will see them in an entirely different light when you know why they’re there, who built them or who died in them. Here we are giving you the short version, but if you want to explore more, an afternoon at your local library should do the trick.

Paris is more than 2,000 years old

Gauls of the Parisii tribe settled there between 250 and 200 BC and founded a fishing village on an island Ile de la Cité.

The scant knowledge of the primitive settlement by the Seine comes from the note-books of the Roman emperors who encountered it during the conquest of Gaul, and who made it during the subsequent years of occupation a place of residence.

To the best of belief the Parisii, as the Romans name them, were a Celtic people of comparatively small importance. Julius Caesar found them here upon his arrival with his conquering host from 58 to 51 B.C. It was in the first century before our era that the little tribe figured for the first time upon the historic scene.

Their town, called Lutetia Parisiorum (Lutetia of the Parisians), was situated, says Caesar, "on an island of the river Sequana [Seine]."

The name Lutetia was of unknown origin. For some it indicated the " city of crows," for others

" the muddiest " city; but in any case, the name of the town was soon displaced by the name of the tribe, and Lutetia became Parisea Civitas, the city of the Parisians.

Few Important events in the history of Paris and France.

In 987, Hugh Capet, Count of Paris, became king of France, and under his successors, the Capetians, the city became established as the nation's capital.

The Hundred Years' War was a long struggle between England and France over succession to the French throne. It lasted from 1337 to 1453, so it might more accurately be called the "116 Years' War." The teenage girl Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc), lead the French troops to reclaim their lands.

The storming of the Bastille in 1789 was the first of a series of key actions by the Parisian people during the French Revolution.

In 1871, during the Franco-Prussian War, the city was besieged for four months until France surrendered. After German troops withdrew, French radicals briefly established the Commune of Paris.

During World War I the Germans were prevented from reaching Paris, but they occupied the city during World War II from 1940 to 1944.

Paris today maintains its importance, character, and charm. The city of Paris has a population of around 2.15 million in the city and 11 million in the Île de France (the suburban area around Paris).