Paris: Quick Facts

Written and fact-checked by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

Nov. 10, 2026

News •

G7 attention in Paris turns to Ukraine while US-mediated talks get underway in Abu Dhabi • Nov. 10, 2026, 4:25 AM ET (AP)

G7 talks in Paris try to tackle global crises with uncertainty high over the US approach • Nov. 9, 2026, 12:48 PM ET (AP)

Mass protests sweep France as huge crowds demand higher wages, back students' demands • Nov. 5, 2026, 2:06 PM ET (AP)

Rodgers throws TD pass in Paris as Steelers beat Saints 16-10 in NFL's regular-season France debut • Oct. 25, 2026, 10:01 PM ET (AP)

French TV channels scramble to apologize after airing Albanian protests as Paris and Lyon • Oct. 25, 2026, 2:06 PM ET (AP)

Paris, the capital of France, is located in the north-central portion of the country. It constitutes one of the départements of the Île-de-France administrative region and is France's most important centre of commerce and culture. The city is home to the Eiffel Tower, one of the world's premier tourist attractions, which opened to the public on May 15, 1889.

Facts

Birthplace Of	Simone de Beauvoir • Charles Baudelaire • René Lacoste • Voltaire • Sarah Bernhardt • George du Maurier • Claude Monet • Louis VIII • Alexandre Millerand • Edgar Degas • Claude Chabrol • Jean-Luc Godard • Yo-Yo Ma • Gustave Moreau • Seán MacBride • Giovanni Boccaccio • Paul Gauguin • Nicolas Sarkozy • François Villon • Rudolf Diesel • Gaston Leroux • Camille Saint-Saëns • Isabelle Huppert • Émile Zola • Alexis de Tocqueville • Jean-Paul Sartre • Édouard Manet • André Gide • Stéphane Mallarmé • Napoleon III • Alexandre Decamps • Juilette Binoche • Louis X • Jules Goncourt • Irène Joliot-Curie • Jacques Chirac • Pierre Curie • Christian Louboutin • Pierre Charles L'Enfant • Catherine Deneuve • Charles VII • Paul Delaroche • Henri Becquerel • Frédéric Joliot-Curie • Auguste Rodin • Marion Cotillard
Death Location Of	Roland Gérard Barthes • Eugène Ionesco • Mary Cassatt • Jean-Paul Sartre • Samuel Beckett • François Mitterrand • Georges Seurat • Jean de La Fontaine • Louis Braille • Guy de Maupassant • Marie-Antoinette • Porfirio Díaz • Frédéric Chopin • John Paul Jones • Diana, princess of Wales • Edward VIII • Victor Hugo • André Breton • Camille Pissarro • Coco Chanel • Claude Debussy • Oscar Wilde • Claude Lévi-Strauss • Henri Bergson • Honoré de Balzac • Claude Chabrol • Denis Diderot • Pierre Beauchamp • Blaise Pascal • Bao Dai • Léon Foucault • Yasser Arafat • Colette • Gustave Eiffel • Michel Foucault • Marlene Dietrich • Edgar Degas • Jacques Derrida • Philip Astley • Joseph Fourier • Voltaire • Émile Zola • Georges Braque • Molière • Hector Berlioz • Claude Simon • Louis Blériot • Jacques Cousteau
Location	Ville-de-Paris, Île-de-France, France
Latitude/Longitude	48.856614, 2.3522219
Size Of Area	41 sq mi (105 sq km)
Population	2,206,488 (city estimate, 2015)
Currency	euro
Language	French
Time Zone	Central European Summer Time (CEST) • Central European Time (CET)
Geographical Features	Seine River
Points Of Interest/Tourist Attractions	Champs-Élysées • Promenade Plantée • Tuileries Palace • Jardin des Plantes • Père-Lachaise Cemetery • Paris Zoo • Picasso Museum • Rodin Museum • Notre-Dame de Paris • Bibliothèque Nationale de France • Place de la Concorde • Bastille • Eiffel Tower • Grand Palais • Pompidou Centre • Pont Neuf • Louvre Museum • Musée d'Orsay
Headquarters Of	International Astronomical Union • Pechiney • International New York Times • Charbonnages de France • Le Figaro • Agence France-Presse • Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie • European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company • International Council of Women • UNESCO • Total SA • Le Parisien • Air France • BNP Paribas • Section d'Or • Le Monde • Trilateral Commission • Carrefour SA • Société Générale • Compagnie de Saint-Gobain-Pont-à-Mousson • Le Journal des Débats • Elf Aquitaine • International Federation of Human Rights • France-Soir • Le Crédit Lyonnais • Banque de France • Reporters Without Borders • France Telecom SA • European Space Agency • Rhône-Poulenc SA • Larousse • Orchestre de Paris
Related Events	Commune of Paris (1871) • Paris attacks of 2015 • September Massacres (1792) • Paris 1924 Olympic Games • Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day (1572) • Paris 1900 Olympic Games • Siege of Paris (1870–1871) • Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920) • Siege of Paris (885–886) • XYZ Affair

Did You Know?

The motto of Paris is "Fluctuat nec mergitur," a Latin phrase meaning "It is tossed by the waves but does not sink" (in reference to a ship).
In 2012 a Paris police report noted that there was only one stop sign in the city of Paris, situated in the 16th arrondissement at the exit of a building company; the sign was later removed.