The city

Where Paris began

More than 2,000 years ago a Celtic people, the Parisii, lived where the Seine was easy to cross. The Romans took their town in 52 BC and called it Lutetia. It spread over both banks and the islands between, and in the end the tribe's name stuck: Paris.

“I'd find the old river crossing and start there.”

The landmark

The iron tower

Gustave Eiffel's company built the tower for the 1889 World's Fair, and for 41 years it was the tallest structure people had ever made. It was meant to come down after twenty years. Radio saved it: the tower made a perfect aerial, so it stayed.

Neighbourhoods

Paris is split into 20 districts called arrondissements. They are numbered in a clockwise spiral that starts in the middle of the city, so people often compare the map to a snail shell. The last two digits of a Paris postcode give the district number. The Latin Quarter, south of the river, is named after the language of the old university, where students and teachers worked in Latin. In the north, the hill of Montmartre rises about 130 metres, the highest hill in the city.

The river

The Seine splits Paris into the Right Bank in the north and the Left Bank in the south. About 37 bridges cross it inside the city. The oldest one still standing is the Pont Neuf, which means "new bridge". It was finished in 1607. Since 1991 the banks of the Seine, from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower, have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The skyline

Much of central Paris looks the same height because of Baron Haussmann, who rebuilt the city from 1853 to 1870. Buildings on his wide new avenues had to match in height and style, with fronts of cream-coloured stone. After the 210-metre Tour Montparnasse went up in 1973, the city set a 37-metre limit for new buildings in most of the centre, and in 2023 it voted to bring that limit back. The tall glass towers stand west of the city, in the business district of La Défense.

When to see it

Come at dusk and stay after dark. From nightfall, the Eiffel Tower sparkles with flashing lights for five minutes at the start of every hour.

Two keepers

Who keeps the wish in Paris.

An Elite wakes first; the Boss guards the wish itself. Hit their weak points for a BONK!, land the last blow for a KO!, and each one grins and takes a bow.

The Elite
The Carousel Horse

Gallops all day and never leaves · Keeper of the Trocadéro

In June 1662 Louis XIV threw a horseback festival beside the Louvre so grand that the square is still called the Place du Carrousel. Riders galloped to spear a hanging ring with a lance. Tradition says wooden horses on a turning platform soon let anyone try, and the carousel was born.

The carousel horse opens one painted eye. The horse stumbles, then finds its gallop again. The horse rears once and comes to rest. The music stops.

“I'd ride the golden one and catch the ring.”
The Boss
The Stryge

The chimera of Notre-Dame · Keeper of the Île de la Cité

Le Stryge looks medieval but is younger: Viollet-le-Duc had the brooding chimera set on Notre-Dame's high gallery during his restoration, begun in the 1840s. The etcher Charles Méryon made it famous in 1853 and named it after the strix, a night bird of Roman legend.

High on Notre-Dame's gallery, the Stryge lifts its chin and turns to watch the plane. The Stryge flinches, then goes back to watching. The Stryge folds its wings, rests its chin in its hands and goes still.

“I'd sit beside him and watch the city.”