Paris of today is a gorgeous combination of creative civic planning, geography and reverence for history. To visit is to imbibe the freshness of fine architecture mixed with the greenery so vital to a thriving city. To visit also imbues one with devotion so many had to maintaining the necessities to keep people in the metropolitan area fed, clothed, moving, working and living well.

It was not always so.

The transformation of a medieval hub of civilization into a metropolis of beauty and renown occurred over centuries. Sometimes that happened in spurts; others over decades. Sometimes it happened with prudent planning; others by accident.

I designed this course mainly for authors who write in this period and wish to convey facts essential to readers’ education and delight. My endeavor here is to provide you with suitable background so that you can portray Paris accurately in your works. I do not cover in any detail and only occasionally summarize political, international and military matters. I leave those general outlines of events to you, the author.

This course gives you a background in Paris and Parisians from the changes of the first French Revolution’s most violent period from approximately 1791-92 through the upheavals to the end of the Second Occupation of Paris in 1818. Over the decades as politicians changed and mobs attacked people and places, the French changed the looks of the city. The population shifted, shrank and then grew again. Citizens also changed the economy, infrastructure and support services. 

Paris was born on an island and expanded and survived through centuries of dynamic changes. The Paris we see today maintains vestiges of all those eras. Touring them is a delight and because the French value their patronomie, they have preserved all they could from the past.

Before it was the City of Light, Paris was many other towns. It was a Roman village, the city in the first European union, the city of religious war, the capital of filth and fashion, the city of the Le Rasoir National (the national razor of the guillotine), the city of imperial glory and the city occupied by her enemies in disgrace.

Files include:
          Photos: Public domain and personal to Jo-Ann Power/aka Cerise DeLand
          Maps: Public domain
          Bibliography
          Recommendations for travel in Paris and environs