Paris, City of Light

Discover a wild Paris where the Seine is an untamed river flooding the valley. Only the summit of Montmartre rises above the water.

On the Île de la Cité, a Celtic tribe built the very first Paris: huts, boats, a ford across the river. You walk among the craftsmen's workshops, close to the gestures, materials and daily life of the Parisii. The birth of a name the city would carry for more than two thousand years.

Rome reshaped the city: baths, a forum, paved roads and, at its heart, the Arènes de Lutèce. You enter the monument at the height of its splendour, its tiers full, its stone architecture overwhelming in its power. Imperial grandeur, recreated at full scale.

Winter 885: hundreds of Norse ships sail up the Seine and crash against the fortified bridges of the Cité. You feel the tension of the siege from the wooden ramparts, amid the cries, the flames and the roar of the assaults. A founding moment: by holding out, Paris becomes a capital.

Paris is now the largest city in Christendom: a maze of alleyways, stalls and merchants' cries. You weave your way between the stands, in the shadow of the first cathedrals under construction. A sensory plunge into the lively, noisy, working-class Paris of the 13th century.

Inaugurated in 1763, Place Louis XV unfolds its royal vistas between the Champs-Élysées and the Tuileries. You discover the future Place de la Concorde in its original form: ordered, sovereign, still intact. The height of monarchical splendour — just a few years before everything tipped over.