Many people think of Paris, France, as a city of famous art, trendy fashion, unforgettable food, and historic landmarks. And it definitely has all of those things. But it is also a city with a long and rich history. In fact, people have lived in Paris for over 10,000 years! For all of its long history, the people who call Paris home have loved this city deeply. Today, many of the people who visit Paris fall in love with it, too.
Not surprisingly, Paris is one of the most popular cities to visit in the world. People from all over the globe come to stroll its wide streets, eat at its famous cafes, and take pictures in front of the shining Eiffel Tower. Some call it “The City of Love.” Others think of it as “The City of Light.”
But Paris hasn’t always been the beautiful and magical place that many people consider it to be today. The city and its people have survived devastating plagues, invasions, and revolutions that threatened to destroy it entirely. But it’s actually this eventful history that makes Paris such a cool and fascinating city.
So what do you say we take a trip through the streets of Paris together? We’ll tour some of its famous buildings and landmarks, learn a little bit about why they have become so well-known, and discover some of the city’s many secrets.
To really understand Paris, we have to start our tour on the River Seine. This river flows for almost 500 miles throughout France, but it is perhaps most known for snaking its way through Paris. [1] In the heart of the city sits a famous island that divides the river. It’s called Île de la Cité. In English, this means Island of the City.
It was on this tiny island that the city of Paris began! The first king of France lived here thousands of years ago. [2] Living in the middle of the river was not only fun, it was pretty practical. It let the king trade easily with nearby cities. It made it hard for anyone to invade without warning. And it had the best soil for growing crops. Pretty nice place to start a city, right?
Today, the island boasts a large cathedral called Notre Dame built there between 1163 and 1345 A.D. If you do a little subtraction, you’ll realize that this means it took almost 200 years to build this one church! [3] But if you are ever able to see it in person, you’ll likely agree that it was time well spent In fact, Notre Dame is considered one of the most beautiful Catholic cathedrals in the world. It was also once known as “point zero” because it was used to measure distances within Paris and to other places in France. [3]
Next on our tour is a museum. An art museum, to be exact. Actually, it’s the most popular museum in the world. It’s known as the Louvre. About 7.5 million people come to appreciate the art within its walls each year. [5]
And there is plenty to see! The Louvre is home to hundreds of thousands of pieces of art. [15] The most famous piece, however, is the Mona Lisa, which was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci in the 1500s. [6] People stand in line for hours sometimes to see this woman and her mysterious smile! Visitors can also wander through the four floors of the museum to see pieces from artists from all over the world and throughout history. Some of the art in the Louvre is 9,000 years old. [15]
The Louvre wasn’t always a museum though. In the 1100s, a guy named King Philip II built a mighty fortress where the Louvre sits today to defend against some unwelcome invaders. [6] Then, about 400 years later, King Francis I tore it down and built a palace. [6]
Every king that came after Francis decided the palace was just a tad too small and had a new addition built. But hey, that just means it has plenty of room for all that really cool art today! Eventually, King Louis XIV decided that he did not want to live in the middle of such a crowded city, so he left and had his own palace built outside of Paris. [7]
It took another 200 years before somebody said, “Wait! This old castle would make a great museum!” or something like that anyway. The French government found a bunch of art and added a beautiful garden for museum-goers to stroll through. Even more recently, they had a modern artist create a glass pyramid as the entrance to the museum. [7]
Just a short walk from the Louvre is a wide boulevard called the Champs Elysees. This mile-long street is filled with shops, museums, restaurants, and even movie theaters. Every year, a famous bike race known as the Tour de France finishes on the Champs Elysees, too.
The Champs Elysees was built in the 1600s. But for two hundred years, it was just a street like any other in Paris. [8] It took a revolution to make it famous. It all started with a bunch of angry people throwing furniture in the streets of Paris.
In 1789, French people were super angry with their king. To show him just how mad they were, they barricaded the streets. Remember they didn’t have a lot of money to build anything fancy. So, they basically gathered furniture, trash, and pretty much anything else they could find and piled it up to block the narrow streets. [11]
Eventually, the people managed to overthrow the king. [12] A number of years later, a guy named Napoleon III came to power in France. At the time, the population of Paris was growing so fast that it was hard to get around. Plus, the crowded narrow streets made it far too easy for a plague or disease to spread. Paris needed wider streets, Napoleon decided, to bring in more sunlight.
There was also that nasty barricading business during the revolution. To make sure that the people of Paris could not block all the streets and overthrow him – and well, make a few needed upgrades, too– he asked a guy named Georges Haussmann to redesign the entire city. Later nicknamed “the demolisher,” he tore down a lot of stuff. Then, he widened the streets, designed new apartment buildings, and figured out a way to bring clean drinking water to the city.
Haussmann may not have known it at the time, but the world would come to see one magnificent boulevard – the Champs Elysees – as representative of all Paris has to offer. Many luxury fashion designers, like Louis Vuitton and Dior, have stores there. The street is also lined with spectacular restaurants where top chefs serve delicious French dishes.
It is on this famous street that we find another landmark: the Arc de Triomphe. This means the Arch of Victory in English. It’s a giant arch that symbolizes France’s history of military strength. It was built by a well-known emperor named Napoleon Bonaparte who wanted to honor all the soldiers who died fighting for France.[13]
The Arc de Triomphe took a long time to build. In fact, Napoleon died before it was finished. Today, it serves as a rallying place for the French military [13] who are often seen marching around and through it. It also creates a traffic nightmare, but that’s another story.
A tour of Paris is not complete without a final stop at the most famous structure of all: the Eiffel Tower. This tall tower is shaped like the letter A and is known as the “Iron Lady.” It is more than 1,000 feet high. When it was first built, it was the tallest building in the world. [14] Over 7 million people come to Paris to see this tower each year. [14] From its balconies, you can see the most amazing views of the entire city.
The tower was designed by the French architect Gustave Eiffel for the Paris World’s Fair in 1889. [14] A world’s fair is supposed to show off new architecture, art, and inventions for people from around the world to see. What better way to show off all the beauty and extravagance of Paris than a giant tower?
The Eiffel Tower is often considered one of the most romantic places in the world. But people come there for more than just a romantic stroll. Daredevils have walked up its hundreds of stairs on stilts. Trapeze artists have swung off of it. [14] It was even used by spies during World War I [14] to intercept enemy messages. [14] Today, the Eiffel Tower is lit up by over 20,000 lights every night that make it shine and sparkle for all of Paris to see. [14]
Paris is without a doubt one of the most beautiful cities in the world. If you are lucky enough to visit someday, make sure you stroll down the Champs Elysees, check out the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, and climb the more than 600 steps of the Eiffel Tower to snap a selfie with all of Paris behind you. You might want to grab a baguette first though. All those steps are sure to make you hungry!
1- https://www.britannica.com/place/Seine-River
2 –https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/Paris/345991
3- https://kids.kiddle.co/Notre-Dame_de_Paris
4- https://zipfslaw.org/2016/05/02/why-there-are-so-many-churches-in-paris/
5 – https://presse.louvre.fr/7-8-million-visitors-to-the-musee-du-louvre-in-2022/
6- https://kids.kiddle.co/Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre
7- https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Louvre-Museum/394560
8- https://www.britannica.com/place/Champs-Elysees
9-https://www.britannica.com/biography/Georges-Eugene-Baron-Haussmann
10- https://www.ducksters.com/history/french_revolution/causes_of_the_french_revolution.php
11- https://kids.britannica.com/kids/article/French-Revolution/353712
12- https://www.ducksters.com/history/french_revolution/causes_of_the_french_revolution.php
13- https://kids.kiddle.co/Arc_de_Triomphe
14- https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/eiffel-tower