Travel Guide

Events in France

France History

Pre Historic History

Paris was founded towards the conclusion of the 3rd century BC on what is now called the Île de la Cité named 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. 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.

Modern History

In 2001 Paris elected its first openly gay mayor, Bertrand Delanoë. He continues to enjoy widespread popularity, particularly for his efforts to make Paris more liveable by promoting bicycles and buses and to create a more approachable and responsible city administration.

In October 2005, the deaths of two teenagers who were accidentally electrocuted while allegedly hiding from police sparked riots that quickly spread across other regions of Paris, and then across France.

Further country-wide demonstrations in 2006 were a response to government attempts to shake up the rigidly protected labour market. The action forced a policy backdown, but left the issue of unemployment as intractable as ever.

In 2007 France voted in Nicolas Sarkozy as president, the same Sarkozy whose dismissal of the 2005 Paris rioters as hoodlums and rabble had only poured fuel on the fire scorching across the country.
In 2007 France voted in Nicolas Sarkozy as president, the same Sarkozy whose dismissal of the 2005 Paris rioters as hoodlums and rabble had only poured fuel on the fire scorching across the country.