City guide paris

© Lonely Planet Publications Pty Ltd

B ACKG ROU N D
HISTORY

EARLY SETTLEMENT

The early history of the Celts is murky, but it is thought that they originated somewhere in the eastern part of central Europe around the 2nd millennium BC and began to migrate across the continent, arriving in France some time in the 7th century BC. In the 3rd century a group of
Celtic Gauls called the Parisii settled on the site of present-day Paris.
Centuries of conflict between the Gauls and Romans ended in 52 BC, with the latter taking control of the territory. The settlement on the Seine prospered as the Roman town of Lutetia
(from the Latin for ‘midwater dwelling’; in French, Lutèce), counting some 10,000 inhabitants by the 3rd century AD.
The so-called Great Migrations, beginning around the middle of the 3rd century AD with raids by the Franks and then by the Alemanii from the east, left the settlement on the south bank scorched and pillaged, and its inhabitants fled to the Île de la Cité, which was subsequently fortified with stone walls. Christianity had been introduced early in the previous century, and the first church, probably made of wood, was built on the western part of the island.

BACKGROUND HISTORY

With just under 12 million inhabitants, the greater metropolitan area of Paris is home to almost
19% of France’s total population (central Paris counts just under 2.2 million people). Since before the Revolution, Paris has been what urban planners like to call a ‘hypertrophic city’ – the enlarged ‘head’ of a nation-state’s ‘body’. The urban area of the next biggest city – Marseilles – is just over a third the size of central Paris.
As the capital city, Paris is the administrative, business and cultural centre; virtually everything of importance in the republic starts, finishes or is currently taking place here. The French have always said ‘Quand Paris éternue, la France s’en rhume’ (When Paris sneezes, France catches cold) but there have