Destination Spotlight

Interesting Facts About Paris, Part Deux

Ahhh, Paris, the City of Light and the City of Love. There are so many interesting facts about the bucket-list city, we compiled another list to go along with our original 10 Interesting Facts About Paris post.

• The Louvre is considered the most popular museum in the world, welcoming nine million visitors per year. The iconic museum has a total of 460,000 pieces (the largest collection on the planet), but the public can only view 35,000 of these. That means if a person wanted to view every piece on display for 30 seconds each, it would take 35 days!
  

  

• Reading more your thing? Paris has the most libraries of any city in the world – 830 total to be exact.
• Believe it or not, the Eiffel Tower is not the most visited attraction in Paris. In fact, according to francehotelguide.com, it is actually ranked fourth among the places tourists want to see most. Notre Dame Cathedral ranks first, followed by the Sacre-Coeur Basilica and then the Louvre. Notre Dame welcomes 12 million visitors a year, while the Eiffel Tower only sees seven million.
  

  

• In Paris’ 11^th district, there are five concrete plates that are visible in the middle of the street. This is where the French guillotine used to stand. Located outside what used to be the Grande Roquette prison, this is where public executions used to take place.
• Are you a fan of the Washington Monument in D.C? Paris also has an obelisk. Place de la Concorde was given to France by the vice-king of Egypt back in 1830. Fun fact! It is also used as a sundial. The statue is crossed by lines with Roman numerals written on them, and throughout the day, the shadow of the obelisk tells the time.
  
• The French army still uses carrier pigeons! They train the birds to carry and transmit messages, and see the practice as necessary in case there is a breakdown of current technologies. Now that’s a different king of “tweeting”…
• Buckle up! Until 2012, there was only one stop sign in all of Paris. The sign has since been removed, and if our math is correct, that means there are zero stop signs in the entire city.
• The oldest café in Paris is called Le Procope. It was founded in 1686!

Feeling French and want to discover more? Learn about our WorldStrides programs in France.  – including options to explore Paris, Nice, Provence, and All Around France.