Q 01/05

Paris's biggest airport, at Roissy, is named after which French leader?

A) Charles de Gaulle

B) Napoleon Bonaparte

C) Georges Pompidou

D) Louis XIV

Answer · why

A) Charles de Gaulle

Charles de Gaulle never saw it: he died in 1970, four years before the airport that bears his name opened.

Q 02/05

In what pattern are Paris's 20 arrondissements numbered?

A) A spiral from the centre

B) West to east along the river

C) Alphabetically by name

D) In order of annexation

Answer · why

A) A spiral from the centre

A spiral from the centre starts with the 1st arrondissement, home to the official buildings, and each number ends that district's postcode, 75001 to 7...

Q 03/05

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

A) The Renaissance

B) The Belle Époque

C) The Age of Enlightenment

D) The Roaring Twenties

Answer · why

C) The Age of Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment is one reason given, though some credit the street lanterns Paris's first police chief put up from 1667.

Q 04/05

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

A) Lugdunum

B) Burdigala

C) Massilia

D) Lutetia

Answer · why

D) Lutetia

Lutetia was home to the Parisii, a Gallic tribe, and it is from them that the city later took the name Paris.

Q 05/05

Which Frankish king, baptised at Reims, made Paris his capital from 508?

A) Pepin the Short

B) Clovis

C) Dagobert I

D) Hugh Capet

Answer · why

B) Clovis

Clovis united the Franks under one king, yet after his death his four sons split his kingdom between them.