The History of Paris - www.paris-pages.com

around 200 BC
A Celtic tribe called the Parisii settle on the Ile de la Cité.

52 BC
The Romans defeat the Parisii.

53 BC
Julius Caesar camps on Ile de la Cite.

around 200 AD
Roman city of Lutetia is built.

250
Population around 6 000

around 300
The Roman city of Lutetia is renamed Paris.

451
Genvieve has a vision and tells the citizens that the approaching Huns, led by Attila, will not invade the city. She is right.

508
Clovis, king of the Franks decides to settle in Paris.

845
First Viking raids on Paris. The Vikings attack the city from the river. The Parisians defend the city by stretching a chain across the Seine.

12th century
Paris was not recognized as the capital of France until around 1190. By then the city had spread out from its origins on the Ile de la Cité to occupy both banks of the Seine.

On the right bank could be found the commercial part of the city with the houses of merchants, craftsmen, shops and workrooms. The left bank life revolved around religion and education. With the great abbeys of Saint-Géneveivève, Saint-Victor and Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the cathedral schools of scholarship and debate. Out of these would evolve France's first university.

Peter Abélard was a famous scholar and teacher in Paris during this time, and scholars came from all over Europe to study in the classes held mainly in the open air in Paris.

However idyllic as this life sounds, life in Paris in the summer could be very unpleasant. The streets were unpaved, and there was little or no provision for refuse disposal or sanitation. So when the weather was hot the city stank and was plagued by huge swarms of flies.

The court and others wealthy enough took refuge on the outskirts of the city where there were still orchards, vineyards and farms.

1163-1245
the building of Notre Dame cathedral.

1220
The building of the Medieval part of the Louvre is completed. Population around 50 000.

1253
Robert de Sorbon (chaplain to Louis IX) founds the Sorbonne.

1380
The building of the Bastille started.

1408
Paris is occupied by the English during the 100 years war.

1420 - 1436
Paris is ruled directly from England.

1431
King Henry VI of England is crowned King of France in Notre Dame cathedral.

1437
French King Charles VII liberates Paris from the English.

1470
A printing press is set up in the Sorbonne.

1500
Population around 150 000

1528
Francis I decides to move to the Louvre. However rebuilding work on the medieval Louvre didn't start until 1546. He demolished the existing tower and set to work building the Renaissance palace we see today.

1546
Francis I begins renovation the Louvre.

1570-1610
The Louvre is extended.

August 1572
St Bartholomew's Day massacre. The signal was given to kill Protestants (a sect of the Christian religion) throughout France.

The population of Paris at that time was mainly a savage people calling themselves Catholics (a different sect of the Christian religion), obeyed this order and set about massacring any Protestant they could find.

When they ran out of Protestants they continued to kill anyone they didn't like, or didn't like the look of.

25th July 1593
In the Basilica of Saint-Denis, Henry of Navarre (a believer in the Protestant sect of Christianity) becomes a catholic (another sect of Christianity). He is later crowned as Henry IV.

22 March 1594
King Henry IV enters Paris. This ends the wars of religion. Actually there was only one religion, Christianity.

A religion which encourages its believers to practice tolerance and kindness to all men. Henry was previously a Protestant, but became a Catholic in order to become King. He is supposed to have said, "Paris is worth a mass."

1600
Population grows to around 450 000.

1603
Pont Neuf built

1605
The building of the Place Royale (now the Place des Vosges) is completed. This is Paris's oldest square, and its construction led to the development of the Marais district which was previously a swampy area.

1660-70
The Louvre is extended again.

1667
Street lighting using oil lamps is introduced in certain street.

around 1670
Cafés become popular.1680
Louis XIV leaves the Louvre for Versailles.

1698
In the dead of night a prisoner is brought to the Bastille. His face is covered by a black velvet mask. No-one knows who he is, why he is being imprisoned, nor how long he will be there for. History knows him as the Man in the Iron Mask.

1700
Population 650 000

1715
Louis XIV (the sun king) dies.

1749
Louis XV orders a road to be constructed from Versailles to St. Denis, but skirting around Paris, so that he need never set foot in his capital.

1752
Ecole Militaire established.

1755-1775
Place Louis XV (now Place de la Concorde) built.

1770 (May)
The Dauphin (future Louis XVI) marries Marie-Anoinette. During the festivities more than 100 Parisians are crushed to death.

1774
Louis XV dies.

1789
88% of a worker's income was spent on buying bread alone, leaving only 12% for every other necessity of life.

Fall of the Bastille and the start of the revolution. Population around 650 000

1793
Louvre becomes a national museum

1804
Napoleon crowns himself emperor in Notre Dame cathedral.

1808
Arc de Triomphe de Caroussel finished.

1816
First gas lights in the city. First steamships on the Seine.

1817
Population 715 000

1830
Another revolution.

1844
Population 1 000 000

1848
Yet another revolution.

1850
Only one house in five has running water. In the entire city only 150 houses have water piped above the ground floor.

1851
Coup by Louis-Napoloen.

1852-70
Baron Haussmann reshapes the city by demolishing many narrow streets and building wide boulevards.

1870
Prussians besiege Paris. During the unrest that followed the French defeat the Hôtel de Ville is burnt.

1872
Population 1.8 million.

1875
Opera Garnier completed.

1872 - 1912
Sacre Coeur built.

1889
Eiffel tower is built as a temporary attraction for the Paris world fair.

1900
First metro opened on 19th July. The line ran from Porte de Vincennes to Porte Maillot. Population 2 million.

1911
Harry's New York bar opened, this is where the bloody Mary was invented.

1913
Population 2.8 million

1940
Flame over the tomb of the unknown soldier under the Arc de Triomphe is extinguished in June as Paris is occupied by the Germans.

During their 4 years of occupation the Nazis made no contribution or addition to any of the Parisian buildings or monuments, except to drape the swastika and slogans over things.

The National Assembly had "Deutschland siegt an allen Fronten" (Germany is victorious on all fronts) plastered over its frontage.

During the occupation the average daily ration of each Parisian fell to 850 calories. The average height of children fell 7 cm for boys and 11 cm for girls compared with pre-war heights.

1944
Paris liberated by Allied troops.

"The heroes multiplied, the number of last-minute resistants, armed from head to toe and covered in cartridge belts in the Mexican style was considerable." - Jean Galtier-Boissière.

26/8/1944, the flame over the tomb of the unknown soldier is relit by General de Gaulle.

17/10/1961
The battle of Paris. The Muslim community held a peaceful demonstration to protest against the curfew on muslims (though I'm not sure how you tell a muslim from a non-muslim by sight alone).

The police (most of whom would have claimed to be Christians) reacted brutally. Many muslims were beaten, tortured and then thrown into the Seine to drown.

It was only in 1999 that there was a government enquiry, and in 2001 a memorial was erected next to the Pont St Michel. No-one knows how many were killed, but at least 48 were drowned on the night of 17/10/61, and it is documented that well over a hundred bodies were dragged from the Seine over a period of a month.

1968
Student demonstration and a general strike.

1976
Pompidou Centre completed.

1989
I. M. Pei's pyramids over the Louvre entrance are completed.

2001
Small Scottish female is uprooted from her beloved garden and dumped in a modern Parisian apartment close to the Eiffel Tower.

She samples the local food and wine and decides more empirical research is needed.

2002
As a result of the continuing selfless empirical research into French food and wine, a treadmill is purchased by the small Scottish female to prevent her becoming entirely spherical.

2007
Small Scottish female returns home where she belongs, never to wander in foreign parts again.

Oh the joys of an Aitken's roll/rowie/buttery, the croissant, though a worthy attempt, is no substitute for the real thing.

In Paris life goes on. Absence of small Scottish female goes largely unnoticed.