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Paris Corporation Business Information, Profile, and History

122 Kissel Road
Burlington, New Jersey 08016
U.S.A.

History of Paris Corporation

Paris Corporation is a holding company with, in 1997, two operating companies of its main subsidiary manufacturing business forms, including computer paper and cut-sheet products. Another line, including business cards, greeting cards, and stationery, is targeted to the small-office and home-office user. Paris markets these products, plus software and other document-management solutions, to a variety of wholesalers and retailers. Formed in 1992, a joint venture with Xerox Corp. was distributing office supplies under the Xerox name to food and drugstore retailers and wholesalers. Paris did very well during the 1980s but has found the 1990s to be a much more difficult business environment as its core products have lost demand because of changes in printing technology.

Paris Business Forms in the 1980s

The company was incorporated as Paris Business Forms in 1964. Dominic P. Toscani, a lawyer, became its president in 1972. Under Toscani, Paris Business Forms became very much a family enterprise. In 1982 his wife, Nancy, was the company's secretary, Dominic P. Toscani, Jr., was operations manager, and another son, Gerard, was sales and marketing manager. The company had net income of $34,000 that fiscal year (the year ended September 30, 1982) on net sales of $10.5 million and had a long-term debt of $4 million. As the nation emerged from the severe recession of the early 1980s, the company's fortunes began to rise. Paris Business Forms had net income of $1.4 million on net sales of $22.5 million in fiscal 1985 and net income of $2.4 million on net sales of $26.9 million in fiscal 1986. The long-term debt had fallen to $657,000 in 1985 and was only $695,000 in fiscal 1986.

In 1986 Paris Business Forms was producing continuous sheets of forms of standard size and uniform format, continuous computer forms customized to meet the specific needs of the end user, and customized (individual) forms. The continuous sheets and forms accounted for 72 percent of the company's sales that year. Typically, these were used for computer-generated reports and documents, including checks, invoices, purchase orders, and airline tickets.

Paris Business Forms bought the paper and produced the forms at a company-owned plant in Burlington, New Jersey, where it also maintained its headquarters. It was marketing its products through about 800 independent distributors, mainly on the East Coast, and to agencies of the federal government, which accounted for 13 percent of sales that year. Other end users included brokers, banks, insurance companies, and hospitals. The firm had three salesmen to call on distributors and four trucks and a delivery van to deliver its products in New York and Pennsylvania.

Paris Business Forms was leasing a sales office and distribution center in Orlando, Florida, in 1986, and it sold a warehouse in Croydon, Pennsylvania that year. In March 1986 the company went public, securing net proceeds of $4 million by selling nearly one-fifth of the outstanding shares of common stock at $7.50 a share. Following the public offering, Toscani&mdash′esident, chairman, and treasurer--and Frank A. Mattei, a Philadelphia orthopedic surgeon who became a director the following year, each owned about one-third of the stock. Another seven percent was owned by the Caritas Foundation, a nonprofit institution founded by Toscani and administered by his brother, a priest.

Paris Business Forms continued to grow rapidly in the ensuing years, serving about 1,100 distributors in 1987 and about 1,500 in 1988. A warehouse was added to the Burlington property in 1988. By the end of fiscal 1989 Paris was selling to about 1,700 distributors. Net sales that year reached $48.7 million, even though the federal government no longer was a significant customer. Net income came to $2.9 million, and the long-term debt also was $2.9 million. The company began distributing cash dividends to its stockholders in 1988. It was listed on Forbes' annual list of the 100 top small businesses in 1989.

In 1987 Paris Business Forms opened a division to sell turnkey, nonfranchised units of a quick-print and desktop-publishing operation known as Fast Forms Plus. At the end of fiscal 1988 there were 13 of these outlets, of which the company owned three--in Burlington; Marlton, New Jersey; and Clearwater, Florida. There were 19 by the end of the following year, of which the company owned units in Burlington and Tampa, Florida. By 1991, however, the firm no longer was engaged in this line of business.

Changes and Challenges of the 1990s

By the end of fiscal 1991 Paris Business Forms was a $60-million-a-year business, serving some 2,300 distributors, some of which were in the south, southwest, and midwest, as well as along the eastern seaboard. The Burlington facility had been expanded and was now divided into separate plants for stock and customized forms. A custom forms plant was leased in Fort Worth, Texas in 1990, and the company also acquired a separate Fort Worth building the same year to produce stock computer paper for sale to customers in the Midwest, Southwest, and Mexico. The firm also had added self-mailers to its product line and was beginning to sell directly to retailers, such as Office Depot, Inc., which took about one-third of its stock computer paper in 1993.

Despite its added volume, the net income of Paris Business Forms slipped to $460,000 in fiscal 1991, compared with $2.4 million the previous year, and the company discontinued its dividend. In fiscal 1992 profit improved only slightly, to $712,000, on sales of $61.8 million. Paris was beginning to experience severe competition from printing companies selling forms directly to retailers and also from a general loss of business as many firms began producing their own business forms. In addition, the company was slow to switch to forms accommodated by the laser and ink-jet printers that were replacing dot-matrix and high-speed impact ones. In fiscal 1993 sales volume dipped to $50.2 million, and the firm lost $998,000. Company stock traded for as low as $1.62 a share that year.

Paris Business Forms made some important changes in the early 1990s. It bought a Jacksonville, Florida plant in 1992 for $1.3 million (counting improvements made) to print stock computer paper. The company sold this plant, however, in 1995 for only $1.05 million. It closed the Fort Worth plant it owned in 1993 and sold it in 1994, replacing it with a leased facility, also in Fort Worth. (The Fort Worth plant it leased had been vacated in 1993.) In December 1992 Paris invested $333,000 in a development-stage joint venture with Xerox Corp. to produce and market office products under the Xerox name.

In fiscal 1994 Paris Business Forms returned to the black but earned only $429,000 on sales of $57.9 million. The following year was much better, however; the company had net income of $3.5 million on net sales of $64.9 million. Rising prices for its products accounted for the hike in revenues, despite a 30 percent drop in volume for computer-paper forms, in part because of paper shortages. Fiscal 1996, however, was the company's worst year yet. Net sales dropped to $57.4 million, and the company incurred a net loss of $3.4 million. In its annual report, Toscani said paper prices had started to decline while the company was caught with a large amount of high-priced inventory. He also cited an ongoing decline in demand for continuous-forms paper products.

Paris Business Forms continued to make major changes in its operations during this period. In fiscal 1995 it became a holding company, transferring substantially all of its operating assets and liabilities to Paris Business Products, Inc., a newly formed subsidiary. The holding company, which became Paris Corporation in January 1996, retained the Burlington plant and cash and near-cash investments. The new subsidiary had a Texas operating corporation, Paris Business Forms, Inc., and a newly formed Florida corporation, Paris Business Products, Inc., as its own subsidiaries. PBF Corp., a Delaware corporation, was a subsidiary that owned the parent company's trademarks.

Signature Corporation, the joint venture with Xerox to distribute office products to the food and drugstore markets, began shipping products in July 1993 and quickly proved a success. Sales doubled in both 1995 and 1996, with the number of stores served increasing from 550 to 6,800&mdashout 13 percent of the total number of food and drugstore outlets in the United States. Paris Corporation held a 44 percent share in this corporation. The Xerox product line consisted of consumables such as binders, indexes, file folders, fax paper, and writing pads; organizers, made from a see-through material, that were designed for document storage; and a ten-item line of papers for desktop laser and ink-jet printer use.

By 1996 Paris Corporation also had introduced Burlington, a retail line specifically targeted to the small-office and home-office markets. Paris's retail line of products was designed to capitalize on ink-jet and laser printer capabilities with offerings such as business cards, greeting cards, and stationery for these small-office and home-office needs. Also a new line was Documents Now, a software package distributors could use to produce short-run custom checks for end users. The distributors also could choose to sell the software, toner, and check stock to customers. Paris was helping distributors lease laser printers as part of the package. Other software modules were being added for production of software-compatible forms, gift certificates, and other documents. The company's on-demand software was being tested by major quick printers, a new market for Paris.

During 1995--96 Paris also introduced a sheet-fed document scanner sold primarily through wholesale clubs, national retailers, and computer stores. "Imaging is becoming a bigger part of [forms management]," Tom Baglio, vice-president of sales and management, told Form, a trade magazine. "Our product allows smaller businesses and the people within bigger corporate businesses such as secretaries and administrative assistants to scan in and file [documents] on their PC." The company was expanding its product line to include other models. In recent years, said Baglio, senior managers had been brought in to build a new network of suppliers, including overseas manufacturers of its scanners. The firm also contracted with major computer companies to buy old circuit boards, which were recycled into the office products sold through Signature.

Paris Corporation in 1996--97

During fiscal 1996 Paris Corporation's Burlington and Fort Worth plants still produced continuous forms designed to run on dot-matrix and high-speed impact printers, but it was changing its focus to the development and sale of value-added and custom-cut sheet products used on laser and ink-jet printers. Prefed, punched, lined cut sheets, high-quality printing cuts, collated sets, colored cuts, and novelty-cut products had recently been introduced. By 1997 all production was to be allocated to cut-sheet products, as compared with 40 percent in fiscal 1996.

Paris Corporation was marketing not only these products of its own manufacture but also paper-handling products for small offices and home offices, computer-based printers and scanners, office products, and on-demand software through retail superstores and about 2,500 independent dealers in the United States and Canada. Office Depot, Inc. accounted for more than 24 percent of the company's stock computer-paper shipments in fiscal 1996.

Paris had entered into a distribution agreement with Seiko Instruments, Inc. to sell a label printer product through selected markets in the United States. It contracted with Microtek, Inc. to private-label manufacture a scanner product with optical-recognition software capability, and with another Taiwanese company, Asco Products, Inc., to provide a variety of products, such as a private-label paper folder. Paris also was working closely with Touch-It Corp., a producer of heat-sensitive envelopes, folders, and note pads that change color when touched, and Compu-Notes, Inc., a producer of clipboards, binders, and address books made from recycled circuit boards. The company maintained more than 20 warehouse shipping points throughout the United States.

Through midyear, Paris Corporation was faring poorly in 1997. After nine months of the fiscal year, net sales had fallen nine percent from the same period in 1996, to $40.2 million. The loss in revenue was attributed to decreased average selling prices for continuous stock forms. The company's net loss, however, had decreased 27 percent, to $1.6 million. The lower loss reflected improved gross margins due to greater labor efficiencies and capacity utilization and also to a reduced need for investment in new-product marketing and research and development.

In November 1996 Mattei owned or controlled 34 percent of the company's stock. Toscani and his wife owned or controlled 27.9 percent; the Caritas Foundation, 9.7 percent; and FMR Corp., 6.4 percent. The company had no long-term debt.

Principal Subsidiaries: Paris Business Forms, Inc.; Paris Business Products, Inc.; PBF Corporation.

Related information about Paris

48°50N 2°20E, pop (2000e) 2 251 000. Capital of France and of Ville de Paris department, on R Seine; originally a Roman settlement; capital of Frankish kingdom, 6th-c; established as capital, 987; R Seine spanned here by 37 bridges, oldest the Pont Neuf (1578–1604), Pont Simone de Beauvoir opened in 2006; tourist river boats (‘bateaux mouches’); bounded by Bois de Boulogne (W), Bois de Vincennes (E); divided into 20 arrondissements; ‘Left Bank’ (formerly associated with the aristocracy, later with writers and artists) and ‘Right Bank’ (formerly associated with the middle class); headquarters of many international organizations (notably UNESCO); airports at Orly (S), Charles de Gaulle (Roissy) and Le Bourget (NE); main railway stations, Gare du Nord, Gare de l'Est, Gare d'Austerlitz, Gare de Lyon, Gare St-Lazare, Gare Montparnasse; métro; Sorbonne University (13th-c); one of the world's main tourist centres, with famous hotels, nightclubs, theatres, restaurants, and shops; world centre of high fashion and production of luxury goods; wide range of heavy and light industry in suburbs; Right Bank: Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysées, Place de la Concorde, Centre Pompidou (1977), Louvre, Church of La Madeleine, Montmartre, Basilica of Sacré Coeur, L'Opéra (1861–75), Tuileries gardens; Left Bank: Eiffel Tower (1889), Hôtel des Invalides, Musée d'Orsay, Jardin des Plantes (1626), Palais du Luxembourg, Notre Dame Cathedral (1163), Montparnasse and Latin Quarter, associated with artists and writers; horse racing at Longchamp, Vincennes, Auteuil; Euro Disney theme park to E of city; international air show at Le Bourget (every second June), Festival du Quartier du Marais (Jun–Jul), international film festival (Oct).

|region = Île-de-France
|departement = Paris (75)
|mayor = Bertrand Delanoë
|party = PS
|mandat = since 2001
|subdivisions_entry = Subdivisions
|subdivisions = 20 arrondissements
|area = 86.9 km² Excluding Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes
|date-population =2004 estimate
|population = 2,144,700
|population-ranking=1st in France
|date-density = 2004
|density = 24,672/km²
|UU-area = 2 723 km²
|UU-area-date = 1999
|UU-pop = 9 644 507
|UU-pop-date =1999
|AU-area = 14,518.3 km²
|AU-area-date = 1999
|AU-pop = 11,174,743
|AU-pop-date =1999
|}}

This article is on the capital of France. For other uses, see Paris (disambiguation).

Paris is the capital city of France and a French département (75). Situated on the banks of the river Seine in north-central France, it is also the capital of the Île-de-France région (also known as "Paris Region"), which encompasses Paris and its suburbs. It produces more than a quarter of France's wealth, with a GDP of ?478.7 billion (US$595.3 billion) in 2005.fr icon With La Défense, one of the largest business districts in Europe, the Paris urban area (unité urbaine) also hosts the head offices of almost half of the major French companies, as well as the offices of major international firms. Paris is a leading global cultural, business and political centre and has a major international influence in fashion, gastronomy and the arts. It is widely regarded as one of the world's major global cities,Inventory of World Cities, GaWC, Loughborough University as well as London, New York and Tokyo, along with the headquarters of many international organisations such as UNESCO, the OECD, the ICC, or the informal Paris Club.

The city, which is renowned for its defining neo-classical architecture, hosts many museums and galleries and has an active nightlife. Dubbed "the City of Light" (la Ville Lumière) since the 19th century, Paris has a reputation as a "romantic" city. It is the most visited city in the world,en icon with more than 30 million visitors per year.

Name

Paris is pronounced as in English and as in French. Another sobriquet for Paris is 'The City of Light' ('La Ville-lumière), owing to its early adoption of street-lighting.

The inhabitants of Paris are known as Parisians or in English and as Parisiens in French. Parisians are sometimes called Parigots in French slang, a term often used pejoratively by people outside the Paris Region, but sometimes considered endearing by Parisians themselves.

See Wiktionary for the name of Paris in various languages other than English and French.

Geography

Topography

Paris is located on a north-bending arc of the river Seine and includes two inhabited islands, the Île Saint-Louis and the larger Île de la Cité which is the heart and origin of the city.

The City of Paris, excluding the outlying parks of Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes, covers an oval measuring 86.928 square kilometres (33.56 mi²) in area. From its 1860 78 km² (30.1 mi²), these limits changed marginally to 86.9 km² in the 1920's, and in 1929 the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes forest parks were officially annexed to the city, bringing its area to its present 105.397 square kilometres (40.69 mi²).

The Paris agglomeration (urban area) extends from the city limits to an area much greater than Paris itself (app. 26 times larger) in an irregular oval with tentacles of urban growth extending along the Seine and Marne river from the city's south-east and east, and along the Seine and Oise rivers to the city's north-west and north.

Climate

Paris has an Oceanic climate and is affected by the North Atlantic Drift, so the city enjoys a temperate climate that rarely sees extremely high or low temperatures. The average yearly high temperature is about 24 °C (75 °F), and yearly lows tend to remain around an average of 1 °C (34 °F). The highest temperature ever, recorded on 28 July 1948, was 40.4 °C (104.7 °F), and the lowest was a ?23.9 °C (?11.0 °F) temperature reached on 10 December 1879.fr icon The Paris region has recently seen temperatures reaching both extremes, with the heat wave of 2003 and the cold wave of 2006.

Rainfall can occur at any time of the year, and Paris is known for its sudden showers. color: black;">7 (45)

Source: Weatherbase

Districts and historical centres

These are a few of Paris' major districts.

Champs-Élysées (8^th arrondissement, right bank) is a seventeenth century garden-promenade turned avenue connecting the Concorde and Arc de Triomphe.
Avenue Montaigne (8^th arrondissement), next to the Champs-Elysées, is home to luxury brand labels such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton (LVMH), Dior and Givenchy.
Place de la Concorde (8^th arrondissement, right bank) is at the foot of the Champs-Élysées, built as the "Place Louis XV", site of the infamous guillotine.
Faubourg Saint-Honoré (8^th arrondissement, right bank) is one of Paris' high-fashion districts, home to labels such as Hermès and Christian Lacroix. A few examples are the Printemps and Galeries Lafayette grands magasins (department stores), and the Paris headquarters of financial giants such as Crédit Lyonnais and American Express.
Montmartre (18^th arrondissement, right bank) is a historic area on the Butte, home to the Basilica of the Sacré Coeur. With large gay and Jewish populations it is a very culturally open place.
Quartier Latin (5^th and 6^th arrondissements, left bank) is a twelfth century scholastic centre formerly stretching between the Left Bank's Place Maubert and the Sorbonne campus. With various higher education establishments, such as the École Normale Supérieure, the École des Mines and the Jussieu university campus make it a major educational center in Paris, which also contributes to its atmosphere. The large Montparnasse - Bienvenüe métro station and the lone Tour Montparnasse skyscraper are located there.
La Défense (straddling the communes of Courbevoie, Puteaux, and Nanterre, 2.5 km/1.5 miles west of the City of Paris) is a key suburb of Paris and is one of the largest business centres in the world, and is a major destination for business tourism. Built at the western end of a westward extension of Paris' historical axis from the Champs-Élysées, La Défense consists mainly of business highrises. The Grande Arche (Great Arch) of la Defense, which houses a part of the French Transports Minister's headquarters, ends the central Esplanade around which the district is organized.
Plaine Saint-Denis (straddling the communes of Saint-Denis, Aubervilliers, and Saint-Ouen, immediately across the Périphérique ring road (which encircles Paris proper) north of the 18^th arrondissement) is a formerly derelict manufacturing area which has undergone massive regeneration in the last 10 years. It now hosts the Stade de France around which is being built the new business district of LandyFrance , with two RER stations (on RER line B and D) and possibly some skyscrapersfr icon . In the Plaine Saint-Denis are also located most of France's television studios as well as some major movie studios.

History

The earliest signs of permanent habitation in the Paris area date from around 4200 BCen icon . Celtic migrants began to settle the area from 250 BC, and the Parisii tribe of these, known as boatmen and traders, established a settlement near the river Seine from around then.

Westward Roman conquest and the ensuing Gallic War overtook the Paris basin from 52 BCen icon , and by the end of the century Paris' Île de la Cité island and Left Bank Sainte Geneviève Hill had become the Roman town of Lutetia.

Middle ages

Around AD 500, Paris was the capital of the Frankish king Clovis I, who commissioned the first cathedral and abbey. Odo, Count of Paris was elected king in place of the incumbent Charles the Fat, namely for the fame he gained in his defence of Paris during the Viking siege of 885-886. Although the Cité island had survived the Viking attacks, most of the unprotected Left Bank city was destroyed; In 987 AD, Hugh Capet, Count of Paris, was elected King of France, founding the Capetian dynasty which would raise Paris to become France's capital.

From 1190, King Philip Augustus enclosed Paris on both banks with a wall that had the Louvre as its western fortress and in 1200 chartered the University of Paris which brought visitors from across Europe. It was during this period that the city developed a spatial distribution of activities that exists even today: the central island housed government and ecclesiastical institutions, the left bank became a scholastic centre with the University and colleges, while the right bank developed as the centre of commerce and trade around the central Les Halles marketplace.

Paris lost its position as seat of the French realm while occupied by the English-ally Burgundians during the Hundred Years' War, but regained its title when Charles VII reclaimed the city in 1437; During the French Wars of Religion, Paris was a stronghold of the Catholic party, culminating in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre (1572). King Henry IV re-established the royal court in Paris in 1594 after he captured the city from the Catholic party. During the Fronde, Parisians rose in rebellion and the royal family fled the city (1648). King Louis XIV then moved the royal court permanently to Versailles in 1682. A century later, Paris was the centre stage for the French Revolution, with the Storming of the Bastille in 1789 and the overthrow of the monarchy in 1792.

Nineteenth century

The Industrial Revolution, the French Second Empire, and the Belle Époque brought Paris the greatest development in its history. The city underwent a massive renovation under Napoleon III and his préfet Haussmann, who leveled entire districts of narrow-winding medieval streets to create the network of wide avenues and neo-classical façades of modern Paris.

Cholera epidemics in 1832 and 1849 affected the population of Paris (the 1832 epidemic alone claimed 20,000 of the then population of 650,000.fr icon Paris also suffered greatly from the siege ending the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), and the ensuing civil war Commune of Paris (1871) killed thousands and sent many of Paris's administrative centres (and city archives) up in flames.

Paris recovered rapidly from these events to host the famous Universal Expositions of the late nineteenth century. The Eiffel Tower was built for the French Revolution centennial 1889 Universal Exposition, as a "temporary" display of architectural engineering prowess but remained the world's tallest building until 1930, and today is the city's best-known landmark. The first line of the Paris Métro opened for the 1900 Universal Exposition and was an attraction in itself for visitors from the world over.

Twentieth century

During World War I, Paris was at the forefront of the war effort, having been spared a German invasion by the French and British victory at the First Battle of the Marne in 1914. The city became a melting pot of artists from around the world, from exiled Russian composer Stravinsky and Spanish painters Picasso and Dalí to American writer Hemingway. In June 1940, five weeks after the start of the German attack on France, a partially-evacuated Paris fell to German occupation forces who remained until the city was liberated by the 2nd Armored Division of General Leclerc in late August 1944. Central Paris endured WW II practically unscathed, as there were no strategic targets for bombers (train stations in central Paris are terminal stations; major factories were located in the suburbs), and also because German General von Choltitz refused to carry out Hitler's order that all Parisian monuments be destroyed before any German retreat.
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**Demographics within the Paris Region**
*(according to the official INSEE 1999 census)*

Areas	Population	Area(km²)	Density(/km²)	1990-1999 growth
City
City of Paris (département 75)	2,125,246	105	20,240	-1.26%
Suburban Départements
Inner ring(Petite Couronne) (Depts. 92, 93, 94)	4,038,992	657	6,148	+1.27%
Outer ring(Grande Couronne) (Depts. 77, 78, 91, 95)	4,787,773	11,249	426	+5.93%
Ile-de-France (entire région)	10,952,011	12,011	912	+2.73%
Statistical Growth
Urban area (Paris agglomeration)	9,644,507	2,723	3,542	+1.85%
Metro area (agglomeration, commuter belt)	11,174,743	14,518	770	+2.90%

The population of the City of Paris was 2,125,246 at the 1999 census, lower than the historical peak of 2.9 million in 1921 fact.

Density

The City of Paris is the most densely populated area in the Western World after the island of Manhattan in New York Cityfact. Excluding the outlying woodland parks of Boulogne and Vincennes, its density was 24,448 inh. These eight départements together complete the Île-de-France région.

The Paris agglomeration or urban area (unité urbaine) covers 2,723 km² (1,051.4 mi²) fr icon , or about 26 times larger than the city of Paris. Beyond this, the couronne peri-urbaine commuter belt region reaches well beyond the limits of the Île-de-France région, and combined with the Paris agglomeration, completes a metropolitan area (aire urbaine) covering 14,518 km² (5,605.5 mi²) fact, or an area about 138 times that of Paris itself.
The Paris agglomeration has shown a steady rate of growth since the end of the late 16th-century French Wars of Religion, save brief setbacks during the French Revolution and World War IIfact. At the same census, 4.2% of the Paris metropolitan area's population were recent immigrants (i.e people who migrated to France between the 1990 and 1999 censuses)fr icon , in their majority from mainland China and Africafr icon .

The first wave of international migration to Paris started as early as in 1820 with the arrivals of German peasants fleeing the agricultural crisis in Germany.

Economy

With a 2005 GDP of ?478.7 billionfr icon (US$595.3 billion)At real exchange rates, not at PPP, the Paris Region is an engine of the global economy: if it were a country, it would rank as the sixteenth largest economy in the world.en icon The Paris Region is thus France's premier centre of economical activity: while its population accounted for 18.7% of the total population of metropolitan France in 2005,fr icon its GDP was about 28.5% that of metropolitan France.fr icon Activity in the Paris metropolitan area is still extremely diverse, unlike other more specialized world cities such as Los Angeles with entertainment industries or London with financial industries.

Organisation

The Paris Region's most intense economical activity through the central Hauts-de-Seine département and suburban La Défense business district places Paris' economical centre to the west of the city, in a triangle between the Opéra Garnier, La Défense and the Val de Seine. At the 1999 census, 47.5% of the 5,089,170 people in employment in the Paris metropolitan area (including commuter belt) worked in the city of Paris and the Hauts-de-Seine département, while only 31.5% worked exclusively in Paris fact. Over recent decades, the local economy has moved towards high value-added activities, in particular business services.

The 1999 census indicated that of the 5,089,170 persons employed in the Paris metropolitan area, 16.5% worked in business services, 13.0% in commerce (retail and wholesale trade), 12.3% in manufacturing, 10.0% in public administrations and defense, 8.7% in health services, 8.2% in transportation and communications, 6.6% in education, and the remaining 24.7% in many other economic sectors. Among the manufacturing sector, the largest employers were the electronic and electrical industry (17.9% of the total manufacturing workforce in 1999) and the publishing and printing industry (14.0% of the total manufacturing workforce), with the remaining 68.1% of the manufacturing workforce distributed among many other industries. President of the Republic resides at the Elysée Palace in the VIIIe arrondissement, while the Prime Minister's seat is at the Hôtel Matignon in the VIIe arrondissement. The upper house, the Senate, meets in the Palais du Luxembourg in the VIe arrondissement, while the more important lower house, the Assemblée Nationale, meets in the Palais Bourbon in the VIIe. The President of the Senate, the second highest public official in France after the President of the Republic, resides in the "Petit Luxembourg", a smaller palace annex to the Palais du Luxembourg.

France's highest courts are located in Paris. The Court of Cassation, the highest court in the judicial order, which tries most criminal and civil cases, is located in the Palais de Justice on the Ile de la Cité, while the Conseil d'État, which provides legal advice to the executive and acts as the highest court in the administrative order, judging litigation against public bodies, is located in the Palais Royal in the Ier.

The Constitutional Council, which is an advisory body which is the ultimate authority on the constitutionality of laws and government decrees, also meets in the Palais Royal.

City government

Paris has been a commune (municipality) since 1834 (and also briefly between 1790 and 1795). At the 1790 division of France into communes in the beginning of the French Revolution, and again in 1834, Paris was a city only half its modern size, but in 1860 it annexed bordering communes, some entirely, to create the new administrative map of twenty municipal arrondissements the city still has today.

Paris as a commune from 1790 became the préfecture (capital) of the Seine département that encompassed Paris and a number of neighbouring communes, but this département was split in 1968 into four smaller ones: the city of Paris became a département distinct from suburban communes in retaining the Seine département 's "75" number (originating from the Seine département's position in France's alphabetical list of départements), while the three new Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne départements were attributed the numbers 92, 93 and 94 respectively. A selection of members from each arrondissement council form the Council of Paris (conseil de Paris), which in turn elects the mayor of Paris.

.

Paris' last Prévôt des marchands was assassinated the afternoon of the 14th of July 1789 uprising that was the French Revolution Storming of the Bastille. Through the turmoil of the 1794 Thermidorian Reaction, however, it became apparent that revolutionary Paris's political independence was a threat to any governing power: the office of mayor was abolished the same year, and its municipal council one year later.

Although the municipal council was recreated in 1834, Paris spent most of the 19th and 20th centuries, along with the larger Seine département of which it was a centre, under the direct control of the State-appointed préfet of the Seine, in charge of general affairs there; Paris has no municipal police force, although it does have its own brigade of traffic wardens.

Paris, Capital of the Île-de-France région

From 1961, as part of a nation-wide administrative effort to consolidate regional economies, Paris as a département became the capital of the new District of the Paris Region, transformed into the Île-de-France région in 1976, encompassing the Paris département and its seven closest départements. Unlike in most of France's major urban areas such as Lille and Lyon, there is no intercommunal entity in the Paris urban area, no intercommunal council treating the problems of the region's dense urban core as a whole;

Education

In the early 9th century, the Emperor Charlemagne mandated all churches to give lessons in reading, writing and basic arithmetic to their parishes, and cathedrals to give a higher education in the finer arts of language, physics, music and theology.

Primary and secondary education

Paris is home to several of France's most prestigious high-schools such as Lycée Louis-le-Grand and Lycée Henri IV.

Other high-schools of international renown in the Paris area include the Lycée International de Saint Germain-en-Laye and the Ecole Active Bilingue

Higher education

In the academic year 2004-2005, there were 359,749 students registered in the 17 public universities located throughout the Paris region.en icon This is the largest concentration of university students in Europe, ahead of the agglomerations of London (300,000 university students), Milan (280,000 university students), Madrid (250,000 university students), and Rome (230,000 university students).fr icon Beside these 17 public universities, 240,778 more students are registered in the prestigious grandes écoles, as well as in the preparatory classes to the grandes écoles, and in scores of private and public schools independent from universities, thus giving a grand total of 600,527 students in higher education in the academic year 2004-2005.en icon

Universities

Historical article: University of Paris
Paris Notre-Dame Cathedral was the first center of higher education before the creation of the University of Paris. Paris's Rive Gauche scholastic centre, or "Latin Quarter" as classes were taught in Latin then, would eventually regroup around the college created by Robert de Sorbon from 1257. These new universities were given names (based on the name of the suburb in which they are located) and not numbers like the previous thirteen: University of Cergy-Pontoise, University of Évry-Val d'Essonne, University of Marne-la-Vallée and University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.

In Paris there is also the English-speaking Westminster Centre for Diplomatic Studies, department of London's University of Westminster, as well as the The American University in Paris, a private higher-education Institution. Most of the grandes écoles were relocated to the suburbs of Paris in the 1960s and 1970s, in new campuses much larger than the old campuses within the crowded City of Paris, though the École Normale Supérieure has remained on rue d'Ulm in the Ve arrondissement. Business schools are also many, including world-famous HEC, INSEAD, and ESCP-EAP European School of Management. Although Paris' former elite administrative school ENA was relocated to Strasbourg, the famous political science school Sciences-Po is still located in Paris' Left bank VIIe arrondissement.

See also: Grandes écoles

Culture

Monuments and landmarks

Three of the most famous Parisian landmarks are the twelfth century cathedral Notre Dame de Paris on the Île de la Cité, the nineteenth century Eiffel Tower, and the Napoleonic Arc de Triomphe. It is visible from many parts of the city as are the Tour Montparnasse skyscraper and the Basilica of the Sacré C?ur on the Montmartre hill.

The Historical axis is a line of monuments, buildings and thoroughfares that run in a roughly straight line from the city centre westwards: the line of monuments begins with the Louvre and continues through the Tuileries Gardens, the Champs-Elysées and the Arc de Triomphe centred in the Place de l'Étoile circus. From the 1960s the line was prolonged even further west to the La Défense business district dominated by square-shaped triumphal Grande Arche of its own; this district hosts most of the tallest skyscrapers in the Paris urban area.

The Invalides museum is the burial place for many great French soldiers, including Napoleon, and the Panthéon church is where many of France's illustrious men and women are buried. The former Conciergerie prison held some prominent ancien régime members before their deaths during the French Revolution. Another symbol of the Revolution are the two Statues of Liberty located on the Île des Cygnes on the Seine and in the Luxembourg Garden. A larger version of the statues was sent as a gift from France to the United States in 1886 and now stands in New York City harbour.

The Palais Garnier built in the later Second Empire period, houses the Paris Opera and the Paris Opera Ballet, while the former palace of the Louvre now houses one of the most famous museums in the world. The Sorbonne is the most famous part of the University of Paris and is based in the centre of the Latin Quarter. Apart from Notre Dame de Paris, there are several other ecclesiastical masterpieces including the Gothic thirteenth century Sainte-Chapelle palace chapel and the Église de la Madeleine.

Museums

The Louvre is one of the largest and most famous museums, housing many works of art, including the Mona Lisa (La Joconde) and the Venus de Milo statue. Works by Pablo Picasso and Rodin are found in Musée Picasso and Musée Rodin respectively, while the artistic community of Montparnasse is chronicled at the Musée du Montparnasse. Starkly apparent with its service-pipe exterior, the Centre Georges Pompidou, also known as Beaubourg, houses the Musée National d'Art Moderne. Lastly, art and artifacts from the Middle Ages and Impressionist eras are kept in Musée Cluny and Musée d'Orsay respectively, the former with the prized tapestry cycle The Lady and the Unicorn.

Entertainment

Opera

Paris' largest Opera houses are the 19th-century Opéra Garnier and modern Opera Bastille; A few of Paris' major theatres are Bobino, Théâtre Mogador and the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Montparnasse.

Many of France's greatest musical legends such as Édith Piaf, Maurice Chevalier, Georges Brassens and Charles Aznavour found their fame in Paris concert halls: legendary yet still-showing examples of these are Bobino, l'Olympia, la Cigale and le Splendid.

The below-mentioned Élysées-Montmartre, much reduced from its original size, is a concert hall today. More recently, the Zenith hall in Paris' La Villette quarter and a "parc-omnisports" stadium in Bercy serve as large-scale rock concert halls.
Dancehalls/Discotheques

Guinguettes and Bals-concerts were the backbone of Parisian entertainment before the mid-20th century. French cinema comes a close second, with major directors (réalisateurs) such as Claude Lelouch, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol and Luc Besson, and the more slapstick/popular genre with director Claude Zidi as an example.

Cafés, restaurants and hotels

Cafés quickly became an integral part of French culture from their appearance, namely from the opening of the left bank Café Procope in 1689 and the café Régence at the Palais-Royale one year earlier. Of course migration from even more distant climes meant an even greater culinary diversity, and today, in addition to a great number of North African and Asian establishments, in Paris one can find top-quality cuisine from virtually the world over.

Hotels were another result of widespread travel and tourism, especially Paris' late-19th century Expositions Universelles (World's Fairs). Of the most luxurious of these, the Hôtel Ritz appeared in the Place Vendôme from 1898, and the Hôtel de Crillon opened its doors to the north of the place de la Concorde from 1909. One of Paris' first 'mass' attractions drawing international interest were, from 1855, the above-mentioned Expositions Universelles that would bring Paris many new monuments, namely the Eiffel tower from 1889. Paris' cathedrals are another main attraction: its Notre-Dame cathedral and Sacré-Coeur basilica receive 12 million and 8 million visitors respectively. Disneyland Resort Paris is a major tourist attraction not only for visitors to Paris, but to Europe as well, with 12.4 million visitors in 2004.

Many of Paris' once-popular local establishments have metamorphised into a parody of French culture, in a form catering to the tastes and expectations of tourist capital. Tourist attractions by visitor numbers (2004)fr icon
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Sports

Paris's main sports clubs are the football club Paris Saint-Germain, the basketball team Paris Basket Racing and the rugby union club Stade Français. The 80,000-seat Stade de France was built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup and is used for football and rugby union, and is used annually for French rugby team's home matches of the Six Nations Championship. Paris also hosted the 1900 and 1924 Olympic Games and was venue for the 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cups. The French Open, held every year on the red clay of the Roland Garros National Tennis Center near the Bois de Boulogne, is one of the four Grand Slam events of the world professional tennis tour.

The 2006 UEFA Champions League Final between Arsenal and FC Barcelona was played in the Stade de France. Paris will host the 2007 Rugby World Cup final at Stade de France on 20 October, 2007.

Air travel

Paris is served by two principal airports: Orly Airport, which is south of Paris, and the Charles de Gaulle International Airport in nearby Roissy-en-France, one of the busiest in Europe.

Railway

Paris is a central hub of the national rail network of high-speed (TGV) and normal (Corail) trains. Six major railway stations, Gare du Nord, Gare Montparnasse, Gare de l'Est, Gare de Lyon, Gare d'Austerlitz, and Gare Saint-Lazare connect this train network to the world famous and highly efficient Métro network, with 380 stations connected by 221.6km of rails. As such, an additional express network, known as the RER, has been created since the 1960s to connect more distant parts of the conurbation.

Public transport

The public transport networks of the Paris region are coordinated by the Syndicat des transports d'Ile-de-France fr icon (STIF), formerly Syndicat des transports parisiens (STP). In May 1998, the new line 14 was inaugurated after a 70-year hiatus in inagurating fully new métro lines.

There are two tangential tramway lines in the suburbs: Line T1 runs from Saint-Denis to Noisy-le-Sec, line T2 runs from La Défense to Issy.

Autoroutes

The city is also the hub of France's motorway network, and is surrounded by three orbital freeways : the Périphérique which follows the approximate path of 19th-century fortifications around Paris, the A86 autoroute motorway in the inner suburbs, and finally the Francilienne motorway, also known as the A104 (and N184), in the outer suburbs. The financial (La Défense) business district, the main food wholesale market (Rungis), major renowned schools (École Polytechnique, HEC, ESSEC, INSEAD, etc.), world famous research laboratories (in Saclay or Évry), the largest sport stadium (Stade de France), and some ministries (namely the Ministry of Transportation) are located outside of the city of Paris. Paris would only have its first constant and plentiful source of drinkable water from the late 19th-century: from 1857, under Napoleon III's Préfet Haussmann, the civil engineer Eugène Belgrand oversaw the construction of a series of new aqueducts that would bring sources from distant locations to reservoirs built in the highest points of the Capital. Most of these even today date from the late 19th century, a result of the combined plans of the Préfet Haussmann and the civil engineer Eugène Belgrand to improve the then very unsanitary conditions in the Capital.

Parks and gardens

Two of Paris's oldest and famous gardens are the Tuileries Garden, created from the 16th century for a palace on the banks of the Seine near the Louvre, and the Left bank Luxembourg Garden, another formerly private garden belonging to a château built for the Marie de' Medici in 1612. The Jardin des Plantes, created by Louis XIII's doctor Guy de La Brosse for the cultivation of medicinal plants, was Paris' first public garden.

A few of Paris' other large gardens are Second Empire creations: the formerly suburban parks of Montsouris, Buttes Chaumont and Parc Monceau (formerly known as the "folie de Chartres"), were creations of

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