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Paris has long inspired opinionated outbursts, from delusional to denouncing, but on one matter travelers remain in agreement: it's among the most stimulating cities in the world. Paris assaults all the senses, demanding to be seen, heard, touched, tasted and smelt.  From luminescent landmarks to fresh poodle droppings on the pavement, the city is everything it should be - the very essence of all things French.  If you come here expecting all you've heard to be true, you won't leave disappointed.

Paris was founded towards the end of the 3rd century BC on what is now the Île de la Cité by a tribe of Celtic Gauls known as the Parisii. Centuries of conflict between the Gauls and Romans ended in 52 BC, when Julius Caesar's legions took control of the territory and the settlement became a Roman town. Christianity was introduced in the 2nd century AD, and the Roman party was finally crashed in the 5th century by the arrival of the Franks. In 508 AD, Frankish king Clovis I united Gaul as a kingdom and made Paris his capital, naming it after the original Parisii tribe.

Paris prospered during the Middle Ages.  In the 12th century, construction began on the cathedral of Notre Dame (work continued for nearly 200 years), while the Marais area north of the Seine was drained and settled to become what's known today as the Right Bank. The Sorbonne opened its doors in 1253, the beautiful Sainte Chapelle was consecrated in 1248 and the Louvre got its start as a riverside fortress around 1200.

Scandinavian Vikings (also known as Norsemen, or Normans) began raiding France's western coast in the 9th century; after three centuries of conflict, they started to push toward Paris.  These conflicts gave birth to the Hundred Years War between Norman England and Paris' Capetian dynasty, eventually resulting in the French defeat at Agincourt in 1415 and English control of Paris in 1420. In 1429, a 17-year-old stripling called Jeanne d'Arc re-rallied the French troops to defeat the English at Orléans, and, with the exception of Calais, the English were expelled from France in 1453. Embracing the trappings of the Italian Renaissance helped Paris get back on its feet at the end of the 1400s, and many of the city's signature buildings and monuments sprang up during the period.  Still, by the late 16th century Paris was again up in arms, this time in the name of religion.  Clashes between the Huguenots (French Protestants supported by England), the Catholic League and the Catholic monarchy sank to their lowest levels in 1572 with the St Bartholomew's Day massacre of 3000 Huguenots in town to celebrate the wedding of Henri of Navarre (later, King Henri IV).

Louis XIV, known as le Roi Soleil (the Sun King), ascended to the throne in 1643 at the tender age of five and held the crown until 1715. During his reign, he nearly bankrupted the national treasury with prolonged bouts of battling and building.  His most tangible legacy is the place at Versailles, 23km (15mi) south-west of Paris. Louis was succeeded by Louis XV and then Louis XVI.  The excesses of the latter and his capricious queen, Marie-Antoinette, led to an uprising of Parisians on 14 July 1789 and the storming of the Bastille prison - the act that kick-started the French Revolution.

The populist ideals of the revolution's early stages quickly gave way to the 17,000 head-loppings of the Reign of Terror, wherein even a few of the original 'patriots' got cozy with Madame la Guillotine.  The unstable post-revolution government was consolidated in 1799 under a young Corsican general, Napoleon Bonaparte, who adopted the title First Consul.  In 1804, the Pope crowned him Emperor of the French, and Napoleon proceeded to sweep most of Europe under his wing. Napoleon's hunger for conquest led to his defeat, first in Russia in 1812 and later at Belgium's Waterloo in 1815. His legacy in modern France includes the national legal code, which bears his name, and monuments such as the massive neoclassical Arc de Triomphe.

Following Napoleon's exile, France faltered under a string of mostly ineptrulers until a coup d'état in 1851 brought a new emperor, Napoleon III, to power. In 17 years, he oversaw the construction of a flashy new Paris, with wide boulevards, sculptured parks and - not insignificantly - a modern sewer system.  Like his namesake uncle, however, this Napoleon and his penchant for pugnacity led to a costly and eventually unsuccessful war, this time with the Prussians in 1870.  When news of their emperor's capture by the enemy reached Paris, the masses took to the streets, demanding that a republic be created.

Despite its bloody beginnings, the Third Republic ushered in the glittering belle époque (beautiful age), with its famed Art Nouveau architecture and a barrage of advances in the arts and sciences. By the 1920s and 1930s, Paris had become a worldwide centre for the artistic avant-garde and had entrenched its reputation among freethinking intellectuals.  The excess of that era was cut short by the Nazi occupation of 1940, and Paris remained under Germany's thumb until 25 August 1944. (The Allied forces that retook the city were spearheaded by Free French units in order to give the French the honor of liberating their capital.)  After the war, Paris regained its position as a creative hotbed and nurtured a revitalized liberalism that reached a crescendo in the student-led 'Spring Uprising' of 1968.  The Sorbonne was occupied, barricades were erected in the Latin Quarter, and some 9 million people nationwide were inspired to join in a paralyzing general strike, drawing attention to their increasing dissatisfaction with the rigidity of French institutions.

During the 1980s, President François Mitterand initiated the futuristic grands projets, a series of costly building projects that garnered widespread approval even when the results were popular failures.  Responses to the flashier examples, like the Centre Pompidou and the glass pyramids in the Louvre, have ranged from appalled 'mon Dieux' to absolute dotin grapture; if nothing else, the projets invigorated dialogue about the Parisian aesthetic.  In the late 1990s, the city dominated the international spotlight with two front-page events: the rumour-plagued auto-accident death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in August 1997 (though it's arguable that an idealised icon can ever really die), and France's first-ever World Cup victory (3-0 over the odds-on favourite, Brazil) in July 1998. Both events brought Parisians out into the streets by the thousands and international press corps in droves.  Of less emotional interest but nonetheless significant, the political party behind Jacques Chirac, who has been France's president since mid-1995, lost the country's parliamentary elections in June 1997 to a coalition of Socialists, Communists and Greens headed by current Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. Jospin continues to be seen in a favorable light by the majority of the French, having engineered a local economic recovery and introduced a 35-hour working week - he's the favorite to win the next round of presidential elections due in 2002.

Attractions - Musée du Louvre, This enormous building, constructed around 1200 as a fortress and rebuilt in the mid-16th century for use as a royal palace, began its career as a public museum in 1793.  As part of Mitterand's grands projects in the 1980s, the Louvre was revamped with the addition of a 21m (67ft) glass pyramid entrance. Initially deemed a failure, the new design has since won over those who regard consistency as inexcusably boring.  Vast scrums of people puff and pant through the rooms full of paintings, sculptures and antiquities, including the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and Winged Victory (which looks like it's been dropped and put back together).  If the clamor becomes unbearable, your best bet is to pick a period or section of the Louvre and pretend that the rest is somewhere across town. 

The Centre Georges Pompidou, displaying and promoting modern and contemporary art, is far and away the most visited sight in Paris. Built between 1972 and 1977, the hi-tech though daffy design has recently begun to age, prompting face-lifts and closures of many parts of the centre.  Woven into this mêlée of renovation are several good (though pricey) galleries plus a free, three-tiered library with over 2000 periodicals, including English-language newspapers and magazines from around the world.  A square just to the west attracts street musicians, Marcel Marceau impersonators and lots of unsavory types selling drugs or picking pockets.

Notre Dame - The city's cathedral ranks as one of the greatest achievements of Gothic architecture. Notre Dame was begun in 1163 and completed around 1345; the massive interior can accommodate over 6000 worshippers.  Although Notre Dame is regarded as a sublime architectural achievement, there are all sorts of minor anomalies as the French love nothing better than to mess with things.  These include a trio of main entrances that are each shaped differently, and which are accompanied by statues that were once colored to make them more effective as Bible lessons for the hoi polloi. The interior is dominated by spectacular and enormous rose windows, and a 7800-pipe organ that was recently restored but has not been working properly since.  From the base of the north tower, visitors with ramrod straight spines can climb to the top of the west façade and decide how much aesthetic pleasure they derive from looking out at the cathedral's many gargoyles - alternatively they can just enjoy the view of a decent swathe of Paris.  Under the square in front of the cathedral, an archaeological crypt displays on site the remains of structures from the Gallo-Roman and later periods.

Sainte Chapelle Lying inside the Palais de Justice (law courts), Sainte Chapelle was consecrated in 1248 and built to house what was reputedly Jesus' crown of thorns and other relics purchased by King Louis IX earlier in the 13th century.  The gem-like chapel, illuminated by a veritable curtain of 13th-century stained glass (the oldest and finest in Paris), is best viewed from the law courts' main entrance - a magnificently gilded, 18th-century gate.  Once past the airport-like security, you can wander around the long hallways of the Palais de Justice and, if you can find a court in session, observe the proceedings. Civil cases are heard in the morning, while criminal trials - usually reserved for larceny or that French speciality crimes passionnel - begin after lunch. Musée d'Orsay Spectacularly housed in a former railway station built in 1900, the Musée d'Orsay was re-inaugurated in its present form in 1986.  Inside is a trove of artistic treasures produced between 1848 and 1914, including highly regarded Impressionist and Post-impressionist works. Most of their paintings and sculptures are found on the ground floor and the skylight-lit upper level, while the middle level has some magnificent rooms showcasing the Art-Nouveau movement. Nearby, the Musée Rodin displays the lively bronze and marble sculptures by Camille Claudel and Auguste Rodin, including casts of some of Rodin's most celebrated works. There's a shady sculpture garden out the back, one of Paris' treasured islands of calm.

Eiffel Tower - This towering edifice was built for the World Fair of 1889, held to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution. Named after its designer, Gustave Eiffel, it stands 320m (1050ft) high and held the record as the world's tallest structure until 1930.  Initially opposed by the city's artistic and literary elite - who were only affirming their right to disagree with everything - the tower was almost torn down in 1909.  Salvation came when it proved an ideal platform for the antennas needed for the new science of radiotelegraphy. When you're done peering upwards through the girders, you can visit any of the three public levels, which can be accessed by lift or stairs. Just south-east of the tower is a grassy expanse that was once the site of the world's first balloon flights and is now used by teens as a skateboarding arena or by activists bad-mouthing Chirac.

Avenue des Champs-Élysées A popular promenade for the ostentatious aristos of old, the Avenue des Champs-Élysées has long symbolised the style and joie de vivre of Paris. Encroaching fast-food joints, car showrooms and cinemas have somewhat dulled the sheen, but the 2km (1mi) long, 70m (235ft) wide stretch is still an ideal place for evening walks and relishing the food at overpriced restaurants.

Cimetière du Père Lachaise - Established in 1805, this necropolis attracts more visitors than any similar structure in the world.  Within the manicured, evergreen enclosure are the tombs of over one million people including such luminaries as the composer Chopin; the writers Molière, Apollinaire, Oscar Wilde, Balzac, Marcel Proust and Gertrude Stein; the artists David, Delacroix, Pissarro, Seurat and Modigliani; the actors Sarah Bernhardt, Simone Signoret and Yves Montand; the singer Édith Piaf; and the dancer Isadora Duncan.  The most visited tomb, however, is that of The Doors lead singer, Jim Morrison, who died in Paris in 1971.  One hundred years earlier, the cemetery was the site of a fierce battle between Communard insurgents and government troops.  The rebels were eventually rounded up against a wall and shot, and were buried where they fell in a mass grave.

Place des Vosges - The Marais district spent a long time as a swamp and then as agricultural land, until in 1605 King Henry IV decided to transform it into a residential area for Parisian aristocrats.  He did this by building Place des Vosges and arraying 36 symmetrical houses around its square perimeter.  The houses, each with arcades on the ground floor, large dormer windows, and the requisite creepers on the walls, were initially built of brick but were subsequently constructed using timber with a plaster covering, which was then painted to look like brick. Duels, fought with strictly observed formality, were once staged in the elegant park in the middle.  From 1832-48 Victor Hugo lived at a house at No 6, which has now been turned into a municipal museum.  Today, the arcades around the place are occupied by expensive galleries and shops, and cafés filled with people drinking little cups of coffee and air-kissing immaculate passersby.

Catacombes - In the late 18th century, Paris decided it had a problem with its cemeteries, namely that they were full, if not overflowing.  Faced with potential outbreaks of disease, not to mention aesthetic concerns, the city authorities decided to exhume the bones of the buried and relocate them in the tunnels of several disused quarries.  The decision to do this was made in 1785 and led to the creation of the Catacombes.  Visitors to this disturbing 'attraction' will find themselves 20m (65ft) underground, working their way along corridors stacked with bones. People over 60 can get in for free, which says a lot about the French sense of humor.  The tunnels, which were used by the Résistance during WWII as a headquarters, are south of the Seine.

Bois de Boulogne - The modestly sized Bois de Boulogne, on the western edge of the city, is endowed with forested areas, meandering paths, belle époque cafes and little wells of naughtiness. Each night, pockets of the Bois de Boulogne are taken over by prostitutes and lurkers with predacious sexual tastes.  In recent years, the police have cracked down on the area's sex trade, but locals still advise against walking through the area alone at night.