Are you ready to test your knowledge? Check out these 10 fun facts about Paris.
Paris is an incredible city, and there’s no wonder why millions of travelers visit or move in there every year. And if you’ve seen the city, you must already know how much its history and beauty reveal themselves in everyday life through its art, architecture, and even food culture.
But do you believe you know everything about the City of Lights? We bet you don’t. To feed your curiosity, read some fun facts about Paris you might have never heard before.
10 Fun Facts Abour Paris
1. A urban legend states that the glass panes in the Louvre Pyramid number exactly 666
The story of the 666 panes originated in the 1980s when the official brochure published during construction did indeed cite this number. The number 666 was also mentioned in various newspapers.
However, elementary math allows for easy counting of the panes: each of the three sides of the pyramid without an entrance has 18 triangular panes and 17 rows of rhombic ones arranged in a triangle, thus giving 17*(17+1)/2 = 153 rhombic panes (171 panes total). The side with the entrance has 11 panes fewer (9 rhombic, 2 triangular), so the whole pyramid should consists of 4*153-9 = 603 rhombi and 4*18-2=70 triangles, 673 panes total. However, the myth resurfaced in 2003 when Dan Brown incorporated this theory in his best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code.
2. There’s only one stop sign in Paris.
The only traffic rule is “priorit droite”, which means the driver approaching an intersection on the right gets the right-of-way and anyone else better slow down. The only stop sign in the city can be found at the exit of a building company in the 16th arrondissement, as was also confirmed by Paris police. Parisians state that the right side right-of-way is more than enough to keep all motorists in check. So, crossing the street in Paris? Look both ways, then run.
3. Many outraged French intellectuals vigorously opposed the Eiffel Tower‘s construction.
Guy de Maupassant, a French author, hated the Eiffel Tower so much that he used to eat lunch at the bottom of it almost every day, because it was the only place in Paris where he couldn’t see the tower. Today, the Eiffel Tower is a national icon and the title of ‘monstrosity’ now belongs to the Montparnasse Tower whose summit offers a spectacular view over Paris… without the skyscraper itself.
4. There is a Statue of Liberty in Paris that faces the Statue of Liberty in the US
The statue symbolizes the friendship between the two countries, but the size is only 1/3 of the original. It was given to the French government in 1889 by the American community in Paris and stands on a small island in the Seine. Even nowadays the statue looks down the river toward the Atlantic Ocean and New York City.
5. Île de la Cité is the birthplace of Paris.
When you’re wandering around the Île de la Cité admiring Notre Dame Cathedral or crossing Pont Neuf, take a look around and try to imagine what it must have been like in 53 BC when Roman troops first joined the Celtic settlers living on the tiny island.
6. They passed a resolution in Paris to prohibit Tom Cruise from becoming an honorary citizen of the city.
As some of you may know, Tom Cruise is a member of Scientology, a religious organization with a controversial body of beliefs and practices. Since 1995, France has classified the Church of Scientology as a cult, and thus generally opposes the organization.
In 2005, Tom Cruise was working to become an honorary citizen of the city of Paris. However, the municipal government of Paris blocked that move by passing an official resolution that prohibited Tom Cruise from becoming an honorary citizen because of his affiliation with Scientology.
7. Do you know why Paris is called the City of Light?
It has nothing to do with the power used to illuminate the Eiffel Tower or the streetlights of the city. Lights, in this case, means intellectuals, referring to the high concentration of writers, artists, and academics that have always been drawn to the city.
8. There are more dogs in Paris than there are children
Dogs are truly man’s best friends, but in Paris best friend is taken to a whole other level. In Paris, we see that the Parisians are truly caring towards their pets, spending nearly half a million dollars just to make sure their dogs are groomed and cared for.
9. Shakespeare & Company is the most famous English-language bookshop in Paris
and it is named after the original store, owned by Sylvia Beach, which published James Joyce’s classic novel Ulysses in 1922.
Now, people from all over the world rush to Shakespeare and Company for the opportunity to shop there but, more interestingly, to sleep there! If you are lucky enough to visit at the right time, you might get a bed for working something like two hours per day. You may or may not fit in (and there is a serious lack of personal space of course) but who cares? You’re living in Paris for free in one of the most famous bookstores in the world, and your only real job is to read and organize books.
10. “Paris Syndrome” is a severe form of cultural shock
Here’s your last fun fact about Paris: simply put, the Paris Syndrome is a collection of physical and psychological symptoms (like depression, anxiety, sweating, hallucinations, and “feelings of persecution”) experienced by first-time visitors realizing that Paris isn’t, in fact, what they thought it would be. Japanese visitors are observed to be especially susceptible and unable to separate their idyllic view of the city, seen in such films as Amelie, from the reality of a modern, bustling metropolis.
Keep reading
fun facts about Paris; fun fact about Paris;