fbpx

KidsKonnect

Paris Facts & Worksheets

Paris of France, known as the “City of Light” or the “City of Love,” is the capital and the most populous city of France.

Search for Worksheets

Worksheets /Social Studies /Geography /City /Paris Facts & Worksheets

Premium
Paris Worksheets
Not ready to purchase a subscription? Click to download the free sample version   Download sample

Paris of France, known as the “City of Light” or the “City of Love,” is the capital and the most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres (41 square miles) and an official estimated population of 2,140,526 residents as of January 1, 2019.

See the fact file below for more information on the Paris or alternatively, you can download our 22-page Paris worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

DESCRIPTION

  • Paris is a major European city and a global center for art, fashion, gastronomy, and culture. Its 19th-century cityscape is crisscrossed by wide boulevards and the River Seine.
  • Beyond such landmarks as the Eiffel Tower and the 12th-century, Gothic Notre-Dame cathedral, the city is known for its cafe culture and designer boutiques along the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.
  • The currency used in Paris is the Euro. Exchanging of money could be done at most Paris banks or at specialized stores called Foreign Exchange Bureaus.

ETYMOLOGY

  • The name “Paris” is derived from its early inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe.
  • Paris is often referred to as the City of Light (La Ville Lumière), both because of its leading role during the Age of Enlightenment and more literally because Paris was one of the first large European cities to use gas street lighting on a grand scale on its boulevards and monuments.
  • Inhabitants are known in English as “Parisians” and in French as Parisiens. They are also pejoratively called Parigot.

CITYSCAPE

  • Urbanism and architecture
    • Most French rulers since the Middle Ages made a point of leaving their mark on a city that, contrary to many other of the world’s capitals, has never been destroyed by catastrophe or war.
    • In modernising its infrastructure through the centuries, Paris has preserved even its earliest history in its street map. At its origin, before the Middle Ages, the city was composed around several islands and sandbanks in a bend of the Seine.
  • Housing
    • The total number of residences in the city of Paris in 2011 was 1,356,074, up from a former high of 1,334,815 in 2006. Among these, 1,165,541 (85.9 percent) were main residences, 91,835 (6.8 percent) were secondary residences, and the remaining 7.3 percent were empty (down from 9.2 percent in 2006).
    • Sixty-two percent of its buildings date from 1949 and before, 20 percent were built between 1949 and 1974, and only 18 percent of the buildings remaining were built after that date.

DEMOGRAPHICS

  • The official estimated population of the city of Paris was 2,140,526 as of 1 January 2019, according to the INSEE, the official French statistical agency. This is a decline of 59,648 from 2015, close to the total population of the 5th arrondissement. Despite the drop, Paris remains the most densely-populated city in Europe, with 252 residents per hectare, not counting parks.
  • This drop was attributed partly to a lower birth rate, to the departure of middle-class residents. and partly to the possible loss of housing in the city due to short-term rentals for tourism.
  • Paris is the fifth largest municipality in the European Union, following London, Berlin, Madrid and Rome. Eurostat, the statistical agency of the EU, places Paris (6.5 million people) second behind London (8 million) and ahead of Berlin (3.5 million), based on the 2012 populations of what Eurostat calls “urban audit core cities.”

FRENCH CULTURE

  • Most people associate French culture with Paris, which is a center of fashion, cuisine, art, and architecture, but life outside of the City of Lights is very different and varies by region.
  • France doesn’t just have culture; the word “culture” actually comes from France. “Culture derives from the same French term, which in turn derives from the Latin colere, meaning to tend to the earth and grow, cultivation and nurture,” Cristina De Rossi, an anthropologist at Barnet and Southgate College in London, told Live Science.
  • Historically, the French culture was influenced by Celtic and Gallo-Roman cultures as well as the Franks, a Germanic tribe.
  • France was initially defined as the western area of Germany known as Rhineland but it later came to refer to a territory that was known as Gaul during the Iron Age and Roman era.
  • French is the official language and the first language of 88 percent of the population, according to the BBC. It is the dominant language of the country’s 70 million residents, but there are a number of variants based on region. French is the second most widely learned foreign language in the world, with almost 120 million students, according to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development.
  • About 3 percent of the population speaks German dialects, and there is a small group of Flemish speakers in the northeast, according to the BBC. Arabic is the third-largest minority language.
  • Those living near the border of Italy may speak Italian as a second language, and Basque is spoken by people living along the French-Spanish border.
  • Other dialects and languages include Catalan, Breton (the Celtic language), Occitan dialects, and languages from the former French colonies, including Kabyle and Antillean Creole.
  • Catholicism is the predominant religion of France. In a survey by the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP), 64 percent of the population (about 41.6 million people) identified themselves as Roman Catholic.
  • Other religions in France include Islam, Buddhism and Judaism. From 23 to 28 percent of people in France do not subscribe to a religion.

RELIGION AND VALUES

  • The French take great pride in their nation and government and are typically offended by any negative comments about their country. Visitors, particularly Americans, often interpret their attitude toward foreigners as rude.
  • “From around the 16th century, in Europe, culture became a term for the cultivation of the mind, the intellect, knowledge, learning, creative faculties, and acceptable ways of behaving,” said De Rossi. The French embrace style and sophistication and take pride in the fact that even their public spaces strike a regal tone.
  • The French believe in égalité, which means equality, and is part of the country’s motto: “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.” Many say they place a higher importance on equality than liberty and fraternity, the other two words in the motto.

Paris Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the Paris across 22 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use Paris worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about the Paris of France, known as the “City of Light” or the “City of Love,” which is the capital and the most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres (41 square miles) and an official estimated population of 2,140,526 residents as of January 1, 2019.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • Paris Facts
  • Fill Me Up
  • Four Facts
  • Choose That
  • Jumbled Words
  • Word Bank
  • Paris Acrostic Poem
  • Eiffel Tower
  • Wait… there’s More!
  • Places in the World
  • Keep Us Posted

Link/cite this page

If you reference any of the content on this page on your own website, please use the code below to cite this page as the original source.

Link will appear as Paris Facts & Worksheets: https://kidskonnect.com - KidsKonnect, November 15, 2019

Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

Related Resources