At the heart of Paris...

The city's blazon is a ship. Its motto -  "Fluctuat nec mergitur : floats but never sinks"- foretells the city's perennity. The confirmation lies in its 2000 years of history. In 52 B.C, Labienus's Roman legions defeated a Celtic population, the Parisii, who had settled in the city, and the Romans revived Lutetia's development. The Gallic city remained on the Ile de la Cité, while a new Roman city arose on the left bank. Lutetia became Paris in 361.

In 508, after becoming the king of Gaul and converting to Christianism, Clovis made Paris the capital of his kingdom. Paris was later abandonned by Charlemagne who chose for capital Aachen also known as Aix-La-Chapelle, and its left bank was devastated by the Norman pirates. With the arrival of the Capetians, Paris regained its prestige as the capital of the new kingdom. In 1163 Bishop Sully  undertook the construction of the Notre Dame cathedral.

Art and civilization in the Middle Ages reached a peak under the reign of Louis XI who continued the construction of Notre Dame, and ordered the construction of both the Saint Chapelle, and the Saint-Germain-des-Prés church. Paris was shaped by kings. Francis I began the construction of the Louvre, and had the City Hall built,  aswell as the College de France.

In the year 1594, Henri IV abjured his Protestantism asserting that "Paris is worth a mass". He entered the capital in 1594 and continued the work on the Tuileries and the Louvre. He finished the Pont-Neuf and the Dauphine Square, where his portrait in bronze stands today. The 1789 Revolution started in the capital, with the storming of the Bastille on July 14th. Napoleon made Paris the capital of his Empire.

He erected important monuments such as the Caroussel and Etoile Triumphal Arches, the Madeleine church and the Palais Brongniart which houses the Paris stock exchange.