Paris

Paris is the capital city of France, as well as the capital of the Île-de-France région, whose territory encompasses Paris and its suburbs. The city of Paris proper is also a département, called Paris département (French: département de Paris). It is a wonderful city for aimless wandering of which features a wide variety of style and décor and boasts a wide assortment of entertainment to satisfy even the most benign of tastes.

Geography

Coordinates

Paris is located at {{coor dms|48|52|00|N|2|19|59|E|region:FR_city(11,174,743)}} (48.866667, 2.333056).

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Area

The city (commune) of Paris has an area of 105.398 km² (40.69 mi²). Excluding the outlying parks of Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes, the actual area of the city is only 86.928 km² (33.56 mi²).

Related Topics:
Commune - Bois de Boulogne - Bois de Vincennes

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This is not a very large area, and in fact the commune of Paris is only the 113th largest commune of France (out of 36,782 communes). For comparison, Greater London has an area of 1,572 km² (607 mi²), and New York City has an area of 786 km² (303 mi²). This peculiar fact is due to the conservatism of administrative limits in France. Unlike other western metropolises such as London, New York, or Berlin whose limits were extended in the 20th century to include suburbs previously independent, in the case of Paris no such enlargement happened. In fact, the last time Paris was enlarged was in 1860 when Napoleon III and the prefect Haussmann annexed the then suburban communes surrounding Paris, such as Montmartre or Auteuil, extending the area of the city from 34.50 km² (13.3 mi²) to 78 km² (30.1 mi²), and creating the 20 arrondissements of Paris. Since 1860, the limits of Paris have only marginally changed, reaching the 86.9 km² figure indicated above. In 1929, the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes were officially incorporated into the city of Paris.

Related Topics:
Greater London - New York City - Napoleon III - Haussmann - Montmartre - Auteuil - 20 arrondissements - Bois de Boulogne - Bois de Vincennes

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Thus, the Brooklyn, Greenwich, or Charlottenburg of Paris are still lying outside of the city of Paris proper, and the city of Paris can be more rightly compared to the borough of Manhattan 59.5 km² (23 mi²) or to Inner London 319 km² (123 mi²). Even the largest business and financial district of Paris, known as La Défense, lies outside of the city limits.

Related Topics:
Brooklyn - Greenwich - Charlottenburg - Borough - Manhattan - Inner London - La Défense

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The urban area of Paris (unité urbaine de Paris), however, is much more extended than the administrative city of Paris. It had an area of 2,723 km² (1,051.4 mi²) in 1999, about 26 times larger than the city of Paris. As for the metropolitan area of Paris (aire urbaine de Paris), its area in 1999 was 14,518 km² (5,605.5 mi²), about 138 times larger than the city of Paris.

Related Topics:
Urban area - Metropolitan area - Aire urbaine

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The city of Paris proper, excluding the outlying Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes, has an almost regular oval shape, with a circumference of 35.5 km.(22 miles). This oval extends 9.5 km.(6 miles) from north to south, and 11 km.(7 miles) from east to west.

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Density

At the 1999 French census the population density in the city of Paris was 20,164/km² (52,225/mi²). Excluding the outlying parks of Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes, the density in the city was actually 24,448/km² (63,321/mi²). As a matter of comparison, the density in Manhattan at the 2000 US census was 25,846/km² (66,940/mi²), and the density in Inner London at the 2001 UK census was 8,663/km² (22,438/mi²).

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The population density in the city of Paris is very high compared to those of most western cities, which are rarely as crowded as Paris (except for Manhattan). The density in Paris is comparable to the densities met within Asian cities. In many western cities, people have left the city center in the 20th century to relocate to the distant suburbs, leaving the city center as a business district dead at night. Although the city of Paris has also experienced a decline in population since the 1920s, it has nonetheless seen fewer inhabitants relocating to the suburbs than has occurred in other western cities.

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More precisely, people relocating to the suburbs were for the most part replaced by new people attracted to an urban lifestyle, and buildings were not converted into offices as systematically as has happened elsewhere, such as in London where the inhabitants have left the city center since the Second World War, and the density of Inner London is now much lower than that of Paris. This is most striking in the medieval heart of both metropolises: the City of London and the four first arrondissements of Paris were the medieval heart of each metropolis, with densities reaching 75,000 to 100,000 inh. per km² before the Industrial Revolution. Today, the City of London is almost empty, with a population density of only 2,478/km² (6,417/mi²) in 2001, whereas the four first arrondissements of Paris still have a density of 18,139/km² (46,979/mi²) in 1999, seven times more dense than in the City of London.

Related Topics:
Second World War - City of London - Arrondissements of Paris - Industrial Revolution

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Today, the most crowded arrondissement in the city of Paris is the 11th arrondissement, with a density reaching 40,672/km² (105,339/mi²) in 1999. Some neighborhoods in the east of this arrondissement are known to have densities of almost 100,000/km² (260,000/mi²).

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Altitude

The altitude of Paris varies, with several prominent

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hills :

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• Montmartre 130 m (425 ft) Above Sea Level
• Belleville 115 m (375 ft) ASL
• Menilmontant 108 m (354 ft) ASL
• Buttes-Chaumont 80 m (269 ft) ASL
• Passy 71 m (233 ft) ASL
• Chaillot 67 m (220 ft) ASL
• Montagne Ste-Geneviève 61 m (200 ft) ASL
• Butte-aux-Cailles 62m (203 ft) ASL
• Montparnasse 66 m (217 ft) ASL

Montparnasse was leveled in the 18th century.

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The highest elevation in the urban area of Paris is in the Forest of Montmorency (Val-d'Oise département), 19.5 km. (12 miles) north-northwest of the center of Paris as the crow flies, at 195 metres (640 ft) above sea-level.

Related Topics:
Montmorency - Val-d'Oise - Département

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Temperatures

The coldest temperature ever recorded in Paris since meteorological records started in 1873 was on December 10, 1879 when the temperature went down to –23.9 °C (–11.0 °F) in the city proper, and –25.6 °C (–14.1 °F) in the southeastern suburb of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés.

Related Topics:
December 10 - 1879 - Saint-Maur-des-Fossés

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The hottest temperature was recorded on July 28, 1947 when the temperature in the city proper (Parc Montsouris) reached 40.4 °C (104.7 °F). During the deadly European heat wave of 2003, the temperature in central Paris (Parc Montsouris) "only" reached 38.1 °C (100.6 °F) during the day, while reaching 40.2 °C (104.4 °F) at Le Bourget Airport in the northern suburbs, but the lowest temperature at night on August 11 and August 12, 2003 was 25.5 °C (77.9 °F) in the Parc Montsouris, which is the hottest minimum temperature at night ever registered in Paris, causing the death of many elderly people whose body temperature could not cool down.

Related Topics:
July 28 - 1947 - Parc Montsouris - European heat wave of 2003 - Le Bourget Airport - August 11 - August 12 - 2003

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