Paris, city of Love !!

Paris is the capital city of France and there is almost 2.5 millions inhabitants. Personaly, I live in a little city called Fontenay-aux-roses which is situated in the close suburb of Paris called the "little crown". Paris and the "little crown" is populated by more than 10 millions people (more people than in whole Lituania).

About my city there is not a lot to say :

• the nuclear research institute (which is now located in a city in the middle of nowhere because Fontenay-aux-roses is too urbanised) was the first in Europe to work with plutonium,
• the city is called Fontenay because of the springs ("funtain" is "fontaine" in french) and aux-roses because here there were the roses plantations to furnish Louis IX (the Sun King) in Versailles,
• a famous french singer (Maxime le Forestier) sang a song called "Fontenay-aux-roses" because he is borned there.

But of course about Paris there is a lot to say. The city is divided in 21 districts. We have 16 subway lines (that is called "Metropolitain" but everybody say "Metro"), more than 1000 bus lines, 3 tram lines and almost 10 train lines to connect the suburb to the center (for exemple I take a train and in 20 minutes, I am in the center).

First a bit of History. Paris was founded by one of the tribe which consisted the people called "Les Gaulois" (everybody know Asterix and Obelix I hope [evenif they are Belgium]). The name of the tribe was Parisi and they changed the first name of the city, Lutecia, to the actual name. I think the story is a bit more complicated but history classes are a bit far and I don't remember everything. Paris is crossed by a river called "La Seine" and the heart of the city is two islands ("Saint-Louis" et "La cité") where you can find the world famous cathedral "Notre-Dame de Paris" (with Quasimodo the monster inside [David don't laugth]).

In the middle of 19th century, a guy called Haussmann (I will not tell the story of the guy but it's an important one) turned Paris into a big yard and transformed all the city. Thanks to him (he did a great job), the city is now the one everybody knows all around the world.

During World War 2, Paris almost disappeared. All important buildings were full of explosives substances and ready to explode if the order was given. Hitler gave the order when the parisians, which heard about the imminent arrival of Allies army, rised up against Nazi. But, the general Von Choltitz, in charge of Paris, decided to ignore the order and save the city.

To finish historical part, a word about the symbol of Paris : the Eiffel Tower. It has been built in 1889 for the Universal Exhibition by an architect called Gustave Eiffel.

Paris is one of the most touristic place in the world. The is a huge number of things to see and to visit : La Tour Eiffel, Notre-Dame de Paris, Le Louvre, Le Grand Palais, Les Invalides, Les Tuileries, Le Trocadéro, La Sorbonne (the most famous french university), Le Panthéon, L'Arc-de-Triomphe, Les Champs-Elysées and a lot more. They here also few parks and gardens but nothing comparable to Hide Park in London or Central Park in New York, evenif they are quite big and calm.

In Paris, it's forbidden to build tower higher than 37 meters. There is just one exception which is the Montparnasse Tower. But thanks to that restriction, Paris keep the same face threw the years.

Paris is well known for all the little cafés and restaurant everywhere. But most of them are quite expensive and for students like us, it's not very easy to go out.

And don't forget that Paris is also known as the capital of luxury and fashion. Fashion TV in Bulgaria took the Eiffel Tower as logo.

I don't know what more to say so I will just say what I like to do in this city :

• seat down in the riverside, take beers and guitar and stay hours just here talking, eating, drinking, playing music
• walk in the street of the latin district which are always animated (and also where there is the Ben&Jerry's ice cream shop !)
  
• go out in the 13th district where there is cool bars with cool music (and the cheapest beer)
  
• go near Pigalle place, full of well known places to go out at night with all kind of music (and also a lot of prostitutes but not for me)
• and a lot more to discover :-)

Tour Eiffel

Notre-Dame de Paris

Montmartre

Le Sacré Coeur

Le canal St Martin

A café

Le louvre

And to finish, a word about the city where I am studying. It's Compiègne and it's in the north of Paris (1 hour by car). It's a very small city where there is absolutly nothing to do. But we are more than 3000 students living there.

The castle where we are sometimes allowed to do parties in suits and dresses.

My University

The new building of my university where I will never study