50 Fun Facts About Paris

Paris sits on which river?

The river rises near Dijon and reaches the English Channel at Le Havre, 777 km later.

How many arrondissements (districts) is the city of Paris divided into?

They spiral outward clockwise from the centre like a snail shell, and the number ends every Paris postcode.

Paris's nickname 'City of Light' is partly a nod to its role in which era?

It has been a world capital of finance, fashion and gastronomy since the 17th century.

What was the Roman name for the town that became Paris?

The Parisii, a Gallic tribe, had settled the site around the middle of the third century BC.

Which Frankish king made Paris his capital from 508?

He was the first king of the Merovingian dynasty.

The Eiffel Tower was built as the centrepiece of an 1889 exposition marking the centenary of what?

Leading artists signed a protest against the 'useless and monstrous' tower before it opened.

How tall is the Eiffel Tower, including its aerial?

It was the tallest structure in the world for 41 years until the Chrysler Building was finished in 1930.

The Eiffel Tower was due to be dismantled in 1909. What saved it?

By 1910 it was beaming the time to ships within 5,000 km as part of the International Time Service.

Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt died jumping from the Eiffel Tower in 1912 while testing what?

Two years earlier a priest measuring radiation up the tower had accidentally discovered cosmic rays.

The Louvre opened as a museum in 1793 with an exhibition of how many paintings?

Most were royal property or confiscated from the church during the Revolution.

Which French king converted the medieval Louvre fortress into the primary royal residence in 1546?

Louis XIV later abandoned it for Versailles in 1682, leaving the Louvre to house the royal collection.

Who stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911?

Apollinaire and Picasso were both questioned; the real thief kept it in his flat for two years before trying to sell it in Florence.

Construction of Notre-Dame cathedral began in 1163 under which bishop of Paris?

King Louis VII and Pope Alexander III were present when the cornerstone was laid.

Notre-Dame stands on which island in the Seine?

The island was the birthplace of Paris and the heart of the medieval city.

Which 1831 novel about a hunchbacked bell-ringer prompted the cathedral's 19th-century restoration?

The restoration was supervised by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who added the spire that fell in 2019.

After the April 2019 fire, in which month and year did Notre-Dame formally reopen?

The restoration cost an estimated $739 million and the Crown of Thorns returned days later.

Napoleon commissioned the Arc de Triomphe in 1806 after which victory?

It was not finished until 1836, long after his fall.

In August 1919 pilot Charles Godefroy did what at the Arc de Triomphe?

The stunt, filmed for newsreels, came three weeks after the WWI victory parade.

How many avenues radiate from the Arc de Triomphe, giving its square the old name Place de l'Étoile?

The arch straddles three arrondissements at once: the 8th, 16th and 17th.

The first Paris Métro line opened in July 1900 during which event?

Hector Guimard's Art Nouveau entrances became a symbol of the city; 86 survive.

Who designed the Paris Métro's famous Art Nouveau station entrances?

Bienvenüe was the engineer whose ten-line plan the city adopted in 1896.

The Catacombs of Paris hold the remains of roughly how many people?

Bones were moved there in nightly wagon processions from 1788 after overflowing cemeteries caused basement walls to collapse.

Père Lachaise Cemetery, resting place of Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde, opened in which year?

Napoleon established it, declaring that every citizen had the right to burial regardless of race or religion.

Sacré-Cœur was proposed after France's defeat in which war?

Its hilltop site overlooking the Commune's stronghold still makes it controversial on the French left.

Sacré-Cœur stays brilliant white because its Château-Landon travertine does what when it rains?

Construction took forty years under five architects; it was consecrated only in 1919.

Which hill in the 18th arrondissement was home to Picasso, Renoir and Van Gogh in the Belle Époque?

The Jesuit order was founded there in 1534 when Ignatius of Loyola and companions took their vows.

The Panthéon was originally built as a church dedicated to which patron of Paris?

The Revolution turned it into a mausoleum in 1791; Voltaire's ashes arrived that July.

Who was the first person entombed in the Panthéon after it was returned to mausoleum use in 1881?

Zola followed in 1908 and Resistance leader Jean Moulin under de Gaulle.

Who directed the boulevards, parks and sewers programme that gave Paris its modern look in 1853-70?

Emperor Napoleon III commissioned the work and then dismissed him in 1870.

The Paris Commune of 1871 governed the city for roughly how long before its bloody suppression?

It was crushed during the 'semaine sanglante' beginning 21 May 1871.

Which German general surrendered Paris to the Allies on 25 August 1944?

His memoir 'Is Paris Burning?' cast him as the city's saviour for not carrying out Hitler's demolition orders.

Which French unit, under General Leclerc, was first into Paris on the night of 24 August 1944?

General Leclerc's men reached the Hôtel de Ville shortly before midnight.

Despite its name, which is the oldest bridge still standing across the Seine in Paris?

The 'New Bridge' got its name for being the first without houses lining both sides.

How many bridges cross the Seine within Paris?

The most famous are the Pont Alexandre III and the Pont Neuf.

The Musée d'Orsay, home to the world's largest Impressionist collection, occupies a former what?

The Beaux-Arts Gare d'Orsay was built for the 1900 fair; the museum opened in 1986.

The Centre Pompidou was designed by Renzo Piano and which British architect?

It houses the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Europe's largest modern art museum, and closed for a multi-year renovation.

The Champs-Élysées runs from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe. Its name means what?

In Greek myth the Elysian Fields were the resting place of dead heroes.

From 1975 to 2023 the Champs-Élysées hosted the finish of which annual sporting event?

It is also the route of the annual Bastille Day military parade.

Roland Garros, the Paris tennis Grand Slam, is played on which surface?

It is named after a French aviation pioneer and WWI fighter pilot.

PSG was founded in 1970 by merging Stade Saint-Germain with which club?

PSG plays at the Parc des Princes and contests Le Classique against Marseille.

The 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony broke with tradition by doing what?

Athletes were paraded by boat from Pont d'Austerlitz to Pont d'Iéna; breaking also debuted as a sport.

Paris 2024 made the city only the second to host the Summer Olympics three times. Which was the first?

Paris had hosted in 1900 and 1924; London in 1908, 1948 and 2012.

Swimming in the Seine was banned in 1923 and finally allowed again in which year?

Jacques Chirac first called for the ban to be lifted in 1988; the €1.4 billion 'Swimming Plan' followed in 2018.

'Paris syndrome', culture shock in disappointed visitors, is noted mainly among tourists from which country?

Symptoms range from anxiety and dizziness to acute delusional states.

Disneyland Paris opened in which year?

It is Europe's most-visited theme park and France's largest single-site employer.

The 2001 film Amélie, starring Audrey Tautou, is set mainly in which Paris district?

It won four Césars, including Best Film and Best Director for Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

In Pixar's Paris-set Ratatouille, the rat Remy dreams of cooking in the restaurant of which late chef?

Brad Bird's crew visited Paris and consulted French and American chefs to animate the food.

The croissant descends from the kipferl, brought to Paris around 1839 by an officer from where?

August Zang's Boulangerie Viennoise on the rue de Richelieu inspired the whole idea of 'viennoiserie'.

France's 1993 'Bread Decree' requires that traditional baguettes be what?

Baguette know-how was added to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2022.

At the First Battle of the Marne in 1914, hundreds of Paris vehicles of what kind ferried 6,000 soldiers to the front?

The city was also bombed by Zeppelins during the war.