Coordinates	3°8′51″N101°41′36″N
Name	Paris
Common name	Paris
Image size	280px
Image flag size	85px
Image coat of arms	Grandes Armes de Paris.svg
Image coat of arms size	120px
Coat of arms legend	City coat of arms
City motto	''Fluctuat nec mergitur'' (Latin: "It is tossed by the waves, but does not sink")
Latitude	48.856667
Longitude	2.350833
Time zone	CET (UTC +1)
Region	Île-de-France
Department	Paris (75)
Mayor	Bertrand Delanoë
Party	PS
Term	2008–2014
Subdivisions entry	Subdivisions
Subdivisions.	20 arrondissements
Area km2	105.4
Area footnotes
Insee	75056
Postal code	75001-75020, 75116
Population	2211297
Population date	Jan. 2008
Population ranking	1st in France
Urban area km2	2,723
Urban area date	1999
Urban pop	10,247,794
Urban pop date	Jan. 2008
Metro area km2	14518.3
Metro area date	1999
Metro area pop	11,899,544
Metro area pop date	Jan. 2008
Website	paris.fr }}

Paris (; French: ) is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region (or Paris Region, ). The city of Paris, within its administrative limits largely unchanged since 1860, has an estimated population of 2,211,297 (January 2008), but the Paris metropolitan area has a population of 11,899,544 (January 2008), and is one of the most populated metropolitan areas in Europe. Paris was the largest city in the Western world for about 1,000 years, prior to the 19th century, and the largest in the entire world between the 16th and 19th centuries.

Paris is today one of the world's leading business and cultural centres, and its influences in politics, education, entertainment, media, fashion, science, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities. In 2009 and 2010 Paris was ranked among the three most important and influential cities in the world, among the first three "European cities of the future" – according to research published by the Financial Times and among the top ten most liveable cities in the world according to the British review Monocle. Paris also ranked among the ten greenest European cities in 2010. Paris hosts the headquarters of many international organizations such as UNESCO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the informal Paris Club.

Paris and the Paris Region, with €552.1 billion in 2009, produce more than a quarter of the gross domestic product of France. According to 2008 estimates, the Paris agglomeration is, scantily after London, Europe's second biggest city economy and the sixth largest in the world. The Paris Region hosts 37 of the Fortune Global 500 companies in several business districts, notably La Défense, the largest dedicated business district in Europe. According to the latest survey from Economist Intelligence Unit in 2010, Paris is the world's most expensive city in which to live. With about 42 million tourists per year (28 intra-muros of which 17 million are foreign visitors), Paris is the most visited city in the world. The city and its region contain 3,800 historical monuments and four UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Etymology

The name ''Paris'' derives from that of its earliest inhabitants, the Gaulish tribe known as the ''Parisii''. The city was called ''Lutetia'' (more fully, ''Lutetia Parisiorum'', "Lutetia of the Parisii"), during the Roman era of the 1st to the 6th century, but during the reign of Julian the Apostate, (360–363) the city was renamed Paris.

It is considered that the name of the ''Parisii'' tribe comes from the Celtic Gallic word ''parisio'' meaning "the working people" or "the craftsmen."

Since the mid-19th century, Paris has been known as ''Paname'' () in the Parisian slang called argot (File:ltspkr.png ''Moi j'suis d'Paname'', i.e. "I'm from Paname"). The singer Renaud repopularized the term amongst the young generation with his 1976 album ''Amoureux de Paname'' ("In love with Paname").

Paris has many nicknames, but its most famous is "La Ville-Lumière" ("The City of Light" or "The Illuminated City"), a name it owes first to its fame as a centre of education and ideas during the Age of Enlightenment, and later to its early adoption of street lighting.

Paris' inhabitants are known in English as "Parisians" and in French as ''Parisiens'' (). Parisians are often pejoratively called ''Parigots'' (), a term first used in 1900 by those living outside the Paris region, but now the term may be considered endearing by Parisians themselves.

:''See Wiktionary for the name of Paris in various languages other than English and French.''

History

Origins

The earliest archaeological signs of permanent settlements in the Paris area date from around 4200 BC. The ''Parisii'', a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the area near the river Seine from around 250 BC. The Romans conquered the Paris basin in 52 BC, with a permanent settlement by the end of the same century on the Left Bank Sainte Geneviève Hill and the Île de la Cité. The Gallo-Roman town was originally called Lutetia, but later Gallicised to ''Lutèce''. It expanded greatly over the following centuries, becoming a prosperous city with a forum, palaces, baths, temples, theatres, and an amphitheatre.  

The collapse of the Roman empire and the 5th-century Germanic invasions sent the city into a period of decline. By AD 400, ''Lutèce'', largely abandoned by its inhabitants, was little more than a garrison town entrenched into a hastily fortified central island. The city reclaimed its original appellation of "Paris" towards the end of the Roman occupation.

Merovingian and Feudal Eras

The Paris region was under full control of the Germanic Franks by the late 5th century. The Frankish king Clovis the Frank, the first king of the Merovingian dynasty, made the city his capital from 508. The late 8th century Carolingian dynasty displaced the Frankish capital to Aachen; this period coincided with the beginning of Viking invasions that had spread as far as Paris by the early 9th century.

Repeated invasions forced Parisians to build a fortress on the Île de la Cité. One of the most remarkable Viking raids was on 28 March 845, when Paris was sacked and held ransom, probably by Ragnar Lodbrok, who left only after receiving a large bounty paid by the crown. The weakness of the late Carolingian kings of France led to the gradual rise in power of the Counts of Paris; Odo, Count of Paris was elected king of France by feudal lords, and the end of the Carolingian empire came in 987, when Hugh Capet, count of Paris, was elected king of France. Paris, under the Capetian kings, became a capital once more.

Middle Ages to 19th century

Paris's population was around 200,000 when the Black Death arrived in 1348, killing as many as 800 people a day; and 40,000 died from the plague in 1466. During the 16th and 17th centuries, plague visited the city for almost one year out of three. Paris lost its position as seat of the French realm during occupation of the English-allied Burgundians during the Hundred Years' War, but regained its title when Charles VII of France reclaimed the city from English rule in 1436. Paris from then on became France's capital once again in title, but France's real centre of power would remain in the Loire Valley until King Francis I returned France's crown residences to Paris in 1528.

During the French Wars of Religion, Paris was a stronghold of the Catholic party. In August 1572, under the reign of Charles IX, while many noble Protestants were in Paris on the occasion of the marriage of Henry of Navarre – the future Henry IV – to Margaret of Valois, sister of Charles IX, the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre occurred; begun on 24 August, it lasted several days and spread throughout the country.

In 1590 Henry IV unsuccessfully laid siege to the city in the Siege of Paris. During the Fronde, Parisians rose in rebellion and the royal family fled the city (1648). King Louis XIV then moved the royal court permanently to Versailles, a lavish estate on the outskirts of Paris, in 1682. A century later, Paris was the centre stage for the French Revolution, with the Storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 and the overthrow of the monarchy in September 1792.

19th century

Paris was occupied by Russian Cossack and Kalmyk cavalry units upon Napoleon's defeat on the 31 March 1814; this was the first time in 400 years that the city had been conquered by a foreign power. The ensuing Restoration period, or the return of the monarchy under Louis XVIII (1814–1824) and Charles X, ended with the July Revolution Parisian uprising of 1830. The new 'constitutional monarchy' under Louis-Philippe ended with the 1848 "February Revolution" that led to the creation of the Second Republic.

Throughout these events, cholera epidemics in 1832 and 1849 ravaged the population of Paris; the 1832 epidemic alone claimed 20,000 of the population of 650,000.

The greatest development in Paris's history began with the Industrial Revolution creation of a network of railways that brought an unprecedented flow of migrants to the capital from the 1840s. The city's largest transformation came with the 1852 Second Empire under Napoleon III; his ''préfet'', Baron Haussmann, levelled entire districts of Paris' narrow, winding medieval streets to create the network of wide avenues and neo-classical façades that still make up much of modern Paris; the reason for this transformation was twofold, as not only did the creation of wide boulevards beautify and sanitize the capital, it also facilitated the effectiveness of troops and artillery against any further uprisings and barricades for which Paris was so famous.

The Second Empire ended in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), and a besieged Paris under heavy bombardment surrendered on 28 January 1871. The discontent of Paris' populace with the new armistice-signing government seated in Versailles resulted in the creation of the Paris Commune government, supported by an army created in large part of members of the city's former National Guard that would both continue resistance against the Prussians and oppose the army of the "Versaillais" government. The Paris Commune ended with the ''Semaine Sanglante'' ("Bloody Week"), during which roughly 20,000 "Communards" were executed before the fighting ended on 28 May 1871. The ease with which the ''Versaillais'' army overtook Paris owed much to Baron Haussmann's renovations.

France's late 19th-century Universal Expositions made Paris an increasingly important centre of technology, trade, and tourism. Its most famous were the 1889 ''Exposition universelle'' to which Paris owes its "temporary" display of architectural engineering progess, the Eiffel Tower, a structure that remained the world's tallest building until 1930; the 1900 Universal Exposition saw the opening of the first Paris Métro line.

20th century

During World War I, Paris was at the forefront of the war effort, having been spared a German invasion by the French and British victory at the First Battle of the Marne in 1914. In 1918–1919, it was the scene of Allied victory parades and peace negotiations. In the inter-war period Paris was famed for its cultural and artistic communities and its nightlife. The city became a gathering place of artists from around the world, from exiled Russian composer Stravinsky and Spanish painters Picasso and Dalí to American writer Hemingway.

On 14 June 1940, five weeks after the start of the Battle of France, an undefended Paris fell to German occupation forces. The Germans marched past the Arc de Triomphe on the 140th anniversary of Napoleon's victory at the Battle of Marengo. German forces remained in Paris until the city was liberated in August 1944 after a resistance uprising, two and a half months after the Normandy invasion. Central Paris endured World War II practically unscathed, as there were no strategic targets for Allied bombers (train stations in central Paris are terminal stations; major factories were located in the suburbs). Also, German General von Choltitz did not destroy all Parisian monuments before any German retreat, as ordered by Adolf Hitler, who had visited the city in 1940.

In the post-war era, Paris experienced its largest development since the end of the ''Belle Époque'' in 1914. The suburbs began to expand considerably, with the construction of large social estates known as ''cités'' and the beginning of the business district La Défense. A comprehensive express subway network, the RER, was built to complement the Métro and serve the distant suburbs, while a network of freeways was developed in the suburbs, centred on the ''Périphérique'' expressway encircling the city.

Since the 1970s, many inner suburbs of Paris (especially the northern and eastern ones) have experienced deindustrialization, and the once-thriving ''cités'' have gradually become ghettos for immigrants and oases of unemployment. At the same time, the city of Paris (within its ''Périphérique'' expressway) and the western and southern suburbs have successfully shifted their economic base from traditional manufacturing to high-value-added services and high-tech manufacturing, generating great wealth for their residents whose per capita income is among the highest in Europe. The resulting widening social gap between these two areas has led to periodic unrest since the mid-1980s, such as the 2005 riots which were concentrated for the most part in the northeastern suburbs.

Diana, Princess of Wales, died at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris on 31 August 1997, after a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel.

21st century

In order to alleviate social tensions in the inner suburbs and revitalise the metropolitan economy of Paris, several plans are currently underway. The office of Secretary of State for the Development of the Capital Region was created in March 2008 within the French government. Its office holder, Christian Blanc, is in charge of overseeing President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans for the creation of an integrated ''Grand Paris'' ("Greater Paris") metropolitan authority (see Administration section below), as well as the extension of the subway network to cope with the renewed growth of population in Paris and its suburbs, and various economic development projects to boost the metropolitan economy such as the creation of a world-class technology and scientific cluster and university campus on the Saclay plateau in the southern suburbs.

In parallel, President Sarkozy also launched in 2008 an international urban and architectural competition for the future development of metropolitan Paris. Ten teams, which bring together architects, urban planners, geographers, and landscape architects, will offer their vision for building a Paris metropolis of the 21st century in the Kyoto Protocol era and will make a prospective diagnosis for Paris and its suburbs that will define future developments in Greater Paris for the next 40 years. The goal is not only to build an environmentally sustainable metropolis but also to integrate the inner suburbs with the central City of Paris through large-scale urban planning operations and iconic architectural projects.

Meanwhile, in an effort to boost the global economic image of metropolitan Paris, several skyscrapers ( and higher) have been approved since 2006 in the business district of La Défense, to the west of the city proper, and are scheduled to be completed by the early 2010s. Paris authorities also stated publicly that they are planning to authorise the construction of skyscrapers within the city proper by relaxing the cap on building height for the first time since the construction of the Tour Montparnasse in the early 1970s.

Geography

Paris is located in the north-bending arc of the river Seine and includes two islands, the Île Saint-Louis and the larger Île de la Cité, which form the oldest part of the city. Overall, the city is relatively flat, and the lowest point is above sea level. Paris has several prominent hills, of which the highest is Montmartre at .

Excluding the outlying parks of Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes, Paris covers an oval measuring in area. The city's last major annexation of outlying territories in 1860 not only gave it its modern form but also created the twenty clockwise-spiralling arrondissements (municipal boroughs). From the 1860 area of , the city limits were expanded marginally to in the 1920s. In 1929, the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes forest parks were officially annexed to the city, bringing its area to the present .

Climate

Paris has the typical Western European oceanic climate which is affected by the North Atlantic Current. Over a year, Paris' climate can be described as mild and moderately wet.

Summer days are usually warm and pleasant with average temperatures hovering between 15 and 25 °C, and a fair amount of sunshine. Each year, however, there are a few days where the temperature rises above . Some years have even witnessed some long periods of harsh summer weather, such as the heat wave of 2003 where temperatures exceeded for weeks, surged up to on some days and seldom cooled down at night. More recently, the average temperature for July 2011 was +17.6 °C, with an average minimum temperature of 12.9 ° and an average maximum temperature of 23.7 °C.

Spring and autumn have, on average, mild days and fresh nights, but are changing and unstable. Surprisingly warm or cool weather occurs frequently in both seasons.

In winter, sunshine is scarce; days are cold but generally above freezing with temperatures around . Light night frosts are however quite common, but the temperature will dip below for only a few days a year. Snowfall is rare, but the city sometimes sees light snow or flurries with or without accumulation. Recently, notably in 2009 and 2010, cold waves brought repeated heavy snowfalls ( in 2010) and temperatures plummeting to and in the Paris suburbs.

Rain falls throughout the year, and although Paris is not a very rainy city, it is known for heavy sudden showers. Average annual precipitation is with light rainfall fairly distributed throughout the year. The highest recorded temperature is on 28 July 1948, and the lowest is a on 10 December 1879.

Cityscape

Architecture

Much of contemporary Paris is the result of the vast mid-19th century urban remodelling. For centuries, the city had been a labyrinth of narrow streets and half-timber houses, but, beginning with Haussman's advent, entire quarters were leveled to make way for wide avenues lined with neo-classical stone buildings of ''bourgeoisie'' standing. Most of this 'new' Paris is the Paris we see today. The building code has seen few changes since, and the Second Empire plans are in many cases still followed. The "''alignement''" law is still in place, which regulates building façades of new constructions according to a pre-defined street width. A building's height is limited according to the width of the streets it borders, and under the regulation, it is difficult to get an approval to build a taller building.

Many of Paris' important institutions are located outside the city limits. The financial (La Défense) business district; the main food wholesale market (Rungis); schools (''École Polytechnique''; ESSEC; INSEAD; HEC); research laboratories (in Saclay or Évry); the largest stadium (the ''Stade de France''), and the government offices (Ministry of Transportation) are located in the city's suburbs.

Districts and historical centres

City of Paris

Place de la Bastille (4th, 11th and 12th arrondissements, right bank) is a district of great historical significance, for not just Paris, but also all of France. Because of its symbolic value, the square has often been a site of political demonstrations.

Place de la Concorde (8th arrondissement, right bank) is at the foot of the Champs-Élysées, built as the "Place Louis XV", site of the infamous guillotine. The Egyptian obelisk is Paris' "oldest monument". On this place, on either side of the ''Rue Royale'', there are two identical stone buildings: The eastern one houses the French Naval Ministry, the western the luxurious ''Hôtel de Crillon''. Nearby Place Vendôme is famous for its fashionable and deluxe hotels (Hôtel Ritz and Hôtel de Vendôme) and its jewellers. Many famous fashion designers have had their salons located here.

Champs-Élysées (8th arrondissement, right bank) is a 17th century garden-promenade-turned-avenue connecting Place de la Concorde and ''Arc de Triomphe''. It is one of the many tourist attractions and a major shopping street of Paris.

Les Halles (1st arrondissement, right bank) was formerly Paris' central meat and produce market, and, since the late 1970s, is a major shopping centre around an important metro connection station (Châtelet-Les Halles, the biggest in the World). The old Les Halles was destroyed in 1971 and replaced by the Forum des Halles. The central market of Paris, the biggest wholesale food market in the world, was transferred to Rungis, in the southern suburbs.

Le Marais (3rd and 4th arrondissements) is a trendy Right Bank district. It is architecturally very well-preserved, and some of the oldest houses and buildings of Paris can be found there. It is a very culturally open place. It is also known for its Chinese, Jewish and gay communities.

Avenue Montaigne (8th arrondissement), next to the Champs-Élysées, is home to luxury brand labels such as Chanel, Louis Vuitton (LVMH), Dior and Givenchy.

Montmartre (18th arrondissement, right bank) is a historic area on the Butte, home to the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur. Montmartre has always had a history with artists and has many studios and cafés of many great artists in that area.

Montparnasse (14th arrondissement) is a historic Left Bank area famous for artists' studios, music halls, and café life. The large Montparnasse – Bienvenüe ''métro'' station and the lone Tour Montparnasse skyscraper are located there.

Avenue de l'Opéra (9th arrondissement, right bank) is the area around the Opéra Garnier and the location of the capital's densest concentration of both department stores and offices. A few examples are the Printemps and Galeries Lafayette ''grands magasins'' (department stores), and the Paris headquarters of financial giants such as BNP Paribas and American Express.

Quartier Latin (5th and 6th arrondissements, left bank) is a 12th-century scholastic centre formerly stretching between the Left Bank's Place Maubert and the Sorbonne campus. It is known for its lively atmosphere and many bistros. Various higher-education establishments, such as Sciences Po Paris, the École Normale Supérieure, TELECOM ParisTech, and the Jussieu university campus, make it a major educational centre in Paris.

Faubourg Saint-Honoré (8th arrondissement, right bank) is one of Paris' high-fashion districts, home to labels such as Hermès and Christian Lacroix.

In the Paris area

La Défense (straddling the communes of Courbevoie, Puteaux, and Nanterre, west of the city proper) is a key suburb of Paris and one of the largest business centres in the world. Built at the western end of a westward extension of Paris' historical axis from the Champs-Élysées, La Défense consists mainly of business high-rises. Initiated by the French government in 1958, the district hosts of offices, making it the largest district in Europe developed specifically for business. The Grande Arche (Great Arch) of la Défense, housing a part of the French Transports Minister's headquarters, ends at the central Esplanade, around which the district is organised. Plaine Saint-Denis (straddling the communes of Saint-Denis, Aubervilliers, and Saint-Ouen, immediately north of the 18th arrondissement, across the ''Périphérique'' ring road) is a former derelict manufacturing area that has undergone large-scale urban renewal in the last 10 years. It now hosts the Stade de France, around which is being built the new business district of LandyFrance, with two RER stations (on RER line B and D) and possibly some skyscrapers. In the Plaine Saint-Denis are also located most of France's television studios as well as some major movie studios.

Val de Seine (straddling the 15th arrondissement and the communes of Issy-les-Moulineaux and Boulogne-Billancourt to the southwest of central Paris) is the new media hub of Paris and France, hosting the headquarters of most of France's TV networks (TF1 in Boulogne-Billancourt, France 2 in the 15th arrondissement, Canal+ and the international channels France 24 and Eurosport in Issy-les-Moulineaux), as well as several telecommunication and IT companies such as Neuf Cegetel in Boulogne-Billancourt or Microsoft's Europe, Africa & Middle East regional headquarters in Issy-les-Moulineaux.

Monuments and landmarks

Three of the most famous Parisian landmarks are the 12th-century cathedral Notre Dame de Paris on the Île de la Cité, the Napoleonic Arc de Triomphe and the 19th-century Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower was a "temporary" construction by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 Universal Exposition, but the tower was never dismantled and is now an enduring symbol of Paris. The Historical axis is a line of monuments, buildings, and thoroughfares that run in a roughly straight line from the city-centre westwards: The line of monuments begins with the Louvre and continues through the Tuileries Gardens, the Champs-Élysées, and the Arc de Triomphe, centred in the Place de l'Étoile circus. From the 1960s, the line was prolonged even farther west to the La Défense business district dominated by a square-shaped triumphal Grande Arche of its own; this district hosts most of the tallest skyscrapers in the Paris urban area. The Invalides museum is the burial place for many great French soldiers, including Napoleon; and the Panthéon church is where many of France's illustrious men and women are buried. The former Conciergerie prison held some prominent ''Ancien Régime'' members before their deaths during the French Revolution. Another symbol of the Revolution are the two Statues of Liberty located on the Île aux Cygnes on the Seine and in the Luxembourg Garden. A larger version of the statues was sent as a gift from France to America in 1886 and now stands in New York City's harbour. The Palais Garnier, built in the later Second Empire period, houses the Paris Opéra and the Paris Opera Ballet, while the former palace of the Louvre now houses one of the most renowned museums in the world. The Sorbonne is the most famous part of the University of Paris and is based in the centre of the Latin Quarter. Apart from Notre Dame de Paris, there are several other ecclesiastical masterpieces, including the Gothic 13th-century Sainte-Chapelle palace chapel and the Église de la Madeleine.

Parks and gardens

Two of Paris' oldest and famous gardens are the Tuileries Garden, created in the 16th century for a palace on the banks of the Seine near the Louvre, and the Left bank Luxembourg Garden, another former private garden belonging to a château built for Marie de' Medici in 1612. The Jardin des Plantes, created by Louis XIII's doctor Guy de La Brosse for the cultivation of medicinal plants, was Paris' first public garden.

A few of Paris' other large gardens are Second Empire creations: The former suburban parks of Montsouris, Parc des Buttes Chaumont, and Parc Monceau (formerly known as the "folie de Chartres") are creations of Napoleon III's engineer Jean-Charles Alphand. Another project executed under the orders of Baron Haussmann was the re-sculpting of Paris' western Bois de Boulogne forest-parklands; the Bois de Vincennes, on the city's opposite eastern end, received a similar treatment in years following.

Newer additions to Paris' park landscape are the Parc de la Villette, built by the architect Bernard Tschumi on the location of Paris' former slaughterhouses; the Parc André Citroën, and gardens being laid to the periphery along the traces of its former circular "Petite Ceinture" railway line: Promenade Plantée.

Water and sanitation

Paris in its early history had only the Seine and Bièvre rivers for water. Later forms of irrigation were a 1st-century Roman aqueduct from southerly Wissous (later left to ruin); sources from the Right bank hills from the late 11th century; from the 15th century, an aqueduct built roughly along the path of the abandoned Wissous aqueduct; also, from 1809, the canal de l'Ourcq, providing Paris with water from less-polluted rivers to the northeast of the capital, and "God's Tears", a bi-annual rainstorm, which stopped in the early 20th century as a natural phenomenon. Paris would have its first constant and plentiful source of drinkable water only from the late 19th century: From 1857, the civil engineer Eugène Belgrand, under Napoleon III's Préfet Haussmann, oversaw the construction of a series of new aqueducts that brought water from locations all around the city to several reservoirs built atop the Capital's highest points of elevation. From then on, the new reservoir system became Paris' principal source of drinking water, and the remains of the old system, pumped into lower levels of the same reservoirs, were from then on used for the cleaning of Paris' streets. This system is still a major part of Paris' modern water-supply network.

Paris has over 2,400 km of underground passageways dedicated to the evacuation of Paris' liquid wastes. Most of these date from the late 19th century, a result of the combined plans of the Préfet Baron Haussmann and the civil engineer Eugène Belgrand to improve the then-very unsanitary conditions in the Capital. Maintained by a round-the-clock service since their construction, only a small percentage of Paris' sewer ''réseau'' has needed complete renovation.

In 1982, then mayor Jacques Chirac introduced the motorcycle-mounted Motocrotte to remove dog faeces from Paris streets. The project was abandoned in 2002 for a new and better enforced local law which now fines dog owners up to Euros 500 for not removing their dog faeces. It was estimated at the time of their removal, that the fleet of 70 Motocrottes were cleaning up only 20% of dog faeces on Parisian street – at an annual cost of £3million.

Cemeteries

Paris' main cemetery was located to its outskirts on its Left Bank from the beginning of its history, but this changed with the rise of Catholicism and the construction of churches towards the city-centre, many of them having adjoining burial grounds for use by their parishes. Generations of a growing city population soon filled these cemeteries to overflowing, creating sometimes very unsanitary conditions. Condemned from 1786, the contents of all Paris' parish cemeteries were transferred to a renovated section of Paris' then suburban stone mines outside the Left Bank "Porte d'Enfer" city gate (today 14th arrondissement's place Denfert-Rochereau). After a tentative creation of several smaller suburban cemeteries, Napoleon Bonaparte provided a more definitive solution in the creation of three massive Parisian cemeteries outside the city tax wall called the ''Wall of the Farmers-General''. Open from 1804, these were the cemeteries of Père Lachaise, Montmartre, Montparnasse, and later Passy.

When Paris annexed all communes to the inside of its much larger ring of suburban fortifications in 1860, its cemeteries were once again within its city walls. New suburban cemeteries were created in the early 20th century: The largest of these are the ''Cimetière Parisien de Saint-Ouen'', the ''Cimetière Parisien de Bobigny-Pantin'', the ''Cimetière Parisien d'Ivry'', and the ''Cimetière Parisien de Bagneux.''

Culture

Entertainment and performing arts

The largest opera houses of Paris are the 19th century Opéra Garnier (historical Paris Opéra) and modern Opéra Bastille; the former tends towards the more classic ballets and operas, and the latter provides a mixed repertoire of classic and modern. In middle of 19th century, there were two other active and competing opera houses: Opéra-Comique (which still exists to this day) and Théâtre Lyrique (which in modern times changed its profile and name to Théâtre de la Ville).

Theatre traditionally has occupied a large place in Parisian culture. This still holds true today; and many of its most popular actors today are also stars of French television. Some of Paris' major theatres include Bobino, Théâtre Mogador, and the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Montparnasse. Some Parisian theatres have also doubled as concert halls. Many of France's greatest musical legends, such as Édith Piaf, Maurice Chevalier, Georges Brassens, and Charles Aznavour, found their fame in Parisian concert halls: Legendary yet still-showing examples of these are Le Lido, Bobino, l'Olympia and le Splendid.

The ''Élysées-Montmartre'', much reduced from its original size, is a concert hall today. The ''New Morning'' is one of few Parisian clubs still holding jazz concerts, but the same also specialises in 'indie' music. In more recent times, the ''Le Zénith'' hall in Paris, La Villette quarter and a "''parc-omnisports''" stadium in Bercy serve as large-scale rock concert halls. Several yearly festivals take place in Paris, such as Rock en Seine.

Parisians tend to share the same movie-going trends as many of the world's global cities, that is to say with a dominance of Hollywood-generated film entertainment. French cinema comes a close second, with major directors (''réalisateurs'') such as Claude Lelouch, François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, and Luc Besson, and the more slapstick/popular genre with director Claude Zidi as an example. European and Asian films are also widely shown and appreciated. A specialty of Paris is its very large network of small movie theatres. In a given week, the movie fan has the choice between around 300 old or new movies from all over the world.

Many of Paris' concert/dance halls were transformed into movie theatres when the media became popular beginning in the 1930s. Later, most of the largest cinemas were divided into multiple, smaller rooms: Paris' largest cinema today is by far ''le Grand Rex'' theatre with 2,800 seats, whereas other cinemas all have fewer than 1,000 seats. There is now a trend toward modern multiplexes that contain more than 10 or 20 screens.

Cuisine

Paris' culinary reputation has its base in the diverse origins of its inhabitants. In its beginnings, it owed much to the 19th-century organisation of a railway system that had Paris as a centre, making the capital a focal point for immigration from France's many different regions and gastronomical cultures. This reputation continues through today in a cultural diversity that has since spread to a worldwide level thanks to Paris' continued reputation for culinary ''finesse'' and further immigration from increasingly distant climes.

Hotels were another result of widespread travel and tourism, especially Paris' late-19th-century ''Expositions Universelles'' (World's Fairs). Of the most luxurious of these, the Hôtel Ritz, appeared in the Place Vendôme in 1898, and the Hôtel de Crillon opened its doors on the north side of the Place de la Concorde, starting in 1909.

Tourism

Name	Paris, Banks of the Seine
Imagecaption	Notre Dame de Paris on the Île de la Cité, on the River Seine
State party	France
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, ii, iv
Id	600
Region	Europe and North America
Year	1991 }}

Since 1848, Paris is a popular destination by rail network, with Paris at its centre. Among Paris' first mass attractions drawing international interest were the above-mentioned ''Expositions Universelles'' that were the origin of Paris' many monuments, namely the Eiffel Tower from 1889. These, in addition to the capital's Second Empire embellishments, did much to make the city itself the attraction it is today.

Paris' museums and monuments are among its highest-esteemed attractions; tourism has motivated both the city and national governments to create new ones. The city's most prized museum, the Louvre, welcomes over 8 million visitors a year, being by far the world's most-visited art museum. The city's cathedrals are another main attraction: Notre Dame de Paris and the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur receive 12 million and eight million visitors, respectively. The Eiffel Tower, by far Paris' most famous monument, averages over six million visitors per year and more than 200 million since its construction. Disneyland Paris is a major tourist attraction for visitors to not only Paris but also the rest of Europe, with 14.5 million visitors in 2007.

The Louvre is one of the world's largest and most famous museums, housing many works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' (''La Joconde'') and the ''Venus de Milo'' statue. Works by Pablo Picasso and Auguste Rodin are found in ''Musée Picasso'' and ''Musée Rodin'', respectively, while the artistic community of Montparnasse is chronicled at the ''Musée du Montparnasse''. Starkly apparent with its service-pipe exterior, the Centre Georges Pompidou, also known as ''Beaubourg'', houses the ''Musée National d'Art Moderne''. Art and artifacts from the Middle Ages and Impressionist eras are kept in ''Musée Cluny'' and ''Musée d'Orsay'', respectively, the former with the prized tapestry cycle The Lady and the Unicorn. Paris' newest (and third-largest) museum, the ''Musée du quai Branly'', opened its doors in June 2006 and houses art from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas.

Many of Paris' once-popular local establishments have come to cater to the tastes and expectations of tourists, rather than local patrons. ''Le Lido'', the ''Moulin Rouge'' cabaret-dancehall, for example, is a staged dinner theatre spectacle, a dance display that was once but one aspect of the cabaret's former atmosphere. All of the establishment's former social or cultural elements, such as its ballrooms and gardens, are gone today. Much of Paris' hotel, restaurant and night entertainment trades have become heavily dependent on tourism.

Sports

Paris' most popular sport clubs are the association football club Paris Saint-Germain FC, the basketball team Paris-Levallois Basket, and the rugby union club Stade Français. The 80,000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located in Saint-Denis. It is used for football, rugby union and track and field athletics. It hosts annually French national rugby team's home matches of the Six Nations Championship, French national association football team for friendlies and major tournaments qualifiers, and several important matches of the Stade Français rugby team.

In addition to Paris Saint-Germain FC, the city has a number of other amateur football clubs: Paris FC, Red Star, RCF Paris and Stade Français Paris. The last is the football section of the omnisport club of the same name, most notable for its rugby team.

The Paris region currently boasts two teams in the top level of French rugby union, Top 14. Currently, the most prominent side is Stade Français, which is also the only one of the two to be based in the city proper. The other Top 14 team in the region is Racing Métro 92, currently based in the western suburb of Colombes. Racing Métro is the successor to Racing Club de France, which contested the first-ever French championship final against Stade Français in 1892.

Paris also hosted the 1900 and 1924 Olympic Games and was venue for the 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cups and for the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

Although the starting point and the route of the famous Tour de France varies each year, the final stage always finishes in Paris, and, since 1975, the race has finished on the Champs-Elysées. Tennis is another popular sport in Paris and throughout France. The French Open, held every year on the red clay of the ''Roland Garros'' National Tennis Centre near the ''Bois de Boulogne'', is one of the four ''Grand Slam'' events of the world professional tennis tour. The 2006 UEFA Champions League Final between Arsenal and FC Barcelona was played in the Stade de France. Paris hosted the 2007 Rugby World Cup final at Stade de France on 20 October 2007.

Economy

With a 2009 GDP of €552.1 billion (US$768.9 billion), the Paris region has one of the highest GDPs in Europe, making it an engine of the global economy; were it a country, it would rank as the seventeenth-largest economy in the world, almost as large as the Dutch economy. The Paris Region is France's premier centre of economic activity: While its population accounted for 18.8% of the total population of metropolitan France in 2009, its GDP accounted for 29.5% of metropolitan France's GDP. Activity in the Paris urban area, though diverse, does not have a leading specialised industry (such as Los Angeles with entertainment industries or London and New York with financial industries in addition to their other activities). Recently, the Paris economy has been shifting towards high-value-added service industries (finance, IT services, etc.) and high-tech manufacturing (electronics, optics, aerospace, etc.).

The Paris region's most intense economic activity through the central Hauts-de-Seine département and suburban La Défense business district places Paris' economic centre to the west of the city, in a triangle between the Opéra Garnier, La Défense, and the Val de Seine. Paris' administrative borders have little consequences on the limits of its economic activity: Although most workers commute from the suburbs to work in the city, many commute from the city to work in the suburbs. Although the Paris economy is largely dominated by services, it remains an important manufacturing powerhouse of Europe, especially in industrial sectors such as automobiles, aeronautics, and electronics. Over recent decades, the local economy has moved towards high-value-added activities, in particular business services.

The 1999 census indicated that, of the 5,089,170 persons employed in the Paris urban area, 16.5% worked in business services, 13.0% in commerce (retail and wholesale trade), 12.3% in manufacturing, 10.0% in public administrations and defence, 8.7% in health services, 8.2% in transportation and communications, 6.6% in education, and the remaining 24.7% in many other economic sectors. In the manufacturing sector, the largest employers were the electronic and electrical industry (17.9% of the total manufacturing workforce in 1999) and the publishing and printing industry (14.0% of the total manufacturing workforce), with the remaining 68.1% of the manufacturing workforce distributed among many other industries. Tourism and tourist related services employ 6.2% of Paris' workforce, and 3.6% of all workers within the Paris Region. Unemployment in the Paris "immigrant ghettos" ranges from 20 to 40%, according to varying sources.

Sociology

Paris Ouest (ie: Western Paris) is an expression referring to the wealthiest, most exclusive and prestigious residential area of France.

Located in the central and western part of Paris, it roughly follows Paris' ''Voie Royale'' (''Royal Way'') or ''Axe historique'' (''historical axis''): a line of monuments, buildings and thoroughfares that extends from the former royal Palace of the Louvre through the Tuileries, the Place de la Concorde, the Champs Élysées, the Place de l'Etoile and all the way to Neuilly-sur-Seine.

Paris Ouest has long been known as French high society's favorite place of residence, comparable to New York's Upper East Side, LA's Beverly Hills or London's Mayfair and Belgravia, to such an extent that the phrase ''"Paris Ouest"'' has been associated with great wealth, elitism and social hegemony in French popular culture as well as in some masterpieces of French literature such as Balzac's ''La comédie humaine'' or Proust's ''In Search of Lost Time''.

The cultural, social and economic influence of the area has played a prominent role throughout French history and is still highly vivid in nowadays' French elite. ''Paris Ouest'''s standards of life were also highly influential in educating foreign elites, especially in Europe, Russia and Northern America (see Frick Collection). As so ''Paris Ouest'' should not only be seen as a geographic area but also as a social attitude symbolized by French high society's habits and way of life.

The "Rive Gauche" (''Left Bank'' of the Seine) generally implies a sense of bohemianism and creativity as it was the Paris of artists, writers, philosophers and students. The counterpart of the Rive Gauche of Paris is the Rive Droite (''Right Bank''), a term used to refer to a level of elegance and sophistication not found in the more bohemian Left Bank.

Demographics

The population of the city of Paris was 2,125,246 at the 1999 census, lower than its historical peak of 2.9 million in 1921. The city's population loss mirrors the experience of most other core cities in the developed world that have not expanded their boundaries. The principal factors in the process are a significant decline in household size, and a dramatic migration of residents to the suburbs between 1962 and 1975. Factors in the migration include de-industrialisation, high rent, the gentrification of many inner quarters, the transformation of living space into offices, and greater affluence among working families. The city's population loss was one of the most severe among international municipalities and the largest for any that had achieved more than 2,000,000 residents. These losses are generally seen as negative for the city; the city administration is trying to reverse them with some success, as the population estimate of July 2004 showed a population increase for the first time since 1954, reaching a total of 2,144,700 inhabitants.

Density

Paris is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Its density, excluding the outlying woodland parks of Boulogne and Vincennes, was 24,448 inhabitants per square kilometre (63,320/sq mi) in the 1999 official census, which could be compared only with some Asian megapolis. Even including the two woodland areas, its population density was 20,164 inhabitants per square kilometre (52,224.5/sq mi), the fifth-most-densely populated commune in France following Le Pré-Saint-Gervais, Vincennes, Levallois-Perret, and Saint-Mandé, all of which border the city proper. The most sparsely populated quarters are the western and central office and administration-focussed ''arrondissements''. The city's population is densest in the northern and eastern arrondissements; the 11th arrondissement had a density of 40,672 inhabitants per square kilometre (105,340/sq mi) in 1999, and some of the same arrondissement's eastern quarters had densities close to 100,000/km² (260,000/sq mi) in the same year.

Paris agglomeration

The city of Paris covers an area much smaller than the urban area of which it is the core. At present, Paris' real urbanisation, defined by the pôle urbain (urban area) statistical area, covers , or an area about 26 times larger than the city itself. The administration of Paris' urban growth is divided between itself and its surrounding départements: Paris' closest ring of three adjoining departments, or petite couronne ("small ring") are fully saturated with urban growth, and the ring of four departments outside of these, the grande couronne départements, are only covered in their inner regions by Paris' urbanisation. These eight départements form the larger administrative Île-de-France région; most of this region is filled, and overextended in places, by the Paris aire urbaine.

The Paris agglomeration has shown a steady rate of growth since the end of the late 16th century French Wars of Religion, save brief setbacks during the French Revolution and World War II. Suburban development has accelerated in recent years: With an estimated total of 11.4 million inhabitants for 2005, the Île-de-France région shows a rate of growth double that of the 1990s.

Immigration

By law, French censuses do not ask questions regarding ethnicity or religion, but do gather information concerning one's country of birth. From this it is still possible to determine that Paris and its ''aire urbaine'' (metropolitan area) is one of the most multi-cultural in Europe: At the 1999 census, 19.4% of its total population was born outside of metropolitan France. At the same census, 4.2% of the Paris ''aire urbaine'''s population were recent immigrants (people who had immigrated to France between 1990 and 1999), in their majority from Asia and Africa. 37% of all immigrants in France live in the Paris region.

The first wave of international migration to Paris started as early as 1820 with the arrivals of German peasants fleeing an agricultural crisis in their homeland. Several waves of immigration followed continuously until today: Italians and central European Jews during the 19th century; Russians after the revolution of 1917 and Armenians fleeing genocide in the Ottoman Empire; colonial citizens during World War I and later; Poles between the two world wars; Spaniards, Italians, Portuguese, and North Africans from the 1950s to the 1970s; North African Jews after the independence of those countries; Africans and Asians since then. The Paris metropolitan region or "aire urbaine" is home to some 1.7 million Muslims of all races making up between 10%–15% of the areas population. According to the North American Jewish Data Bank, an estimated 284,000 Jews also live in Paris and the surrounding Île-de-France region, an area with a population of 11.7 million inhabitants. Paris has historically been a magnet for immigrants, hosting one of the largest concentrations of immigrants in Europe today.

Administration

Paris, its administrative limits unchanged since 1860 (save for the addition of two large parks), is one of a few cities that have not evolved politically with its real demographic growth; this issue is at present being discussed in plans for a "Grand Paris" (Greater Paris) that will extend Paris' administrative limits to embrace much more of its urban tissue.

Capital of France

As the capital, Paris is the seat of France's national government. For the executive, the two chief officers each have their own official residences, which also serve as their offices. The President of France resides at the Élysée Palace in the 8th arrondissement, while the Prime Minister's seat is at the Hôtel Matignon in the 7th arrondissement. Government ministries are located in various parts of the city; many are located in the 7th arrondissement, near the Matignon. The two houses of the French Parliament are also located on the Left Bank. The upper house, the Senate, meets in the Palais du Luxembourg in the 6th arrondissement, while the more important lower house, the Assemblée Nationale, meets in the Palais Bourbon in the 7th. The President of the Senate, the second-highest public official in France after the President of the Republic, resides in the "Petit Luxembourg", a smaller palace annex to the Palais du Luxembourg.

France's highest courts are located in Paris. The Court of Cassation, the highest court in the judicial order, which reviews criminal and civil cases, is located in the Palais de Justice on the ''Île de la Cité'', while the Conseil d'État, which provides legal advice to the executive and acts as the highest court in the administrative order, judging litigation against public bodies, is located in the Palais Royal in the 1st arrondissement.

The Constitutional Council, an advisory body with ultimate authority on the constitutionality of laws and government decrees, also meets in the Palais Royal.

City government

Paris has been a ''commune'' (municipality) since 1834 (and also briefly between 1790 and 1795). At the 1790 division (during the French Revolution) of France into communes, and again in 1834, Paris was a city only half its modern size, but, in 1860, it annexed bordering communes, some entirely, to create the new administrative map of twenty ''municipal arrondissements'' the city still has today. These municipal subdivisions describe a clockwise spiral outward from its most central, the 1st arrondissement.

In 1790, Paris became the ''préfecture'' (seat) of the Seine ''département'', which covered much of the Paris region. In 1968, it was split into four smaller ones: The city of Paris became a distinct ''département'' of its own, retaining the Seine's departmental number of 75 (originating from the Seine ''département'''s position in France's alphabetical list), while three new ''départements'' of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne were created and given the numbers 92, 93, and 94, respectively. The result of this division is that today Paris' limits as a ''département'' are exactly those of its limits as a ''commune'', a situation unique in France.

Municipal offices

Each of Paris' twenty arrondissements has a directly elected council (''conseil d'arrondissement''), which, in turn, elects an arrondissement mayor. A selection of members from each arrondissement council form the Council of Paris (''conseil de Paris''), which, in turn, elects the mayor of Paris.

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In medieval times, Paris was governed by a merchant-elected municipality whose head was the provost of the merchants. In addition to regulating city commerce, the provost of the merchants was responsible for some civic duties such as the guarding of city walls and the cleaning of city streets. The creation of the provost of Paris from the 13th century diminished the merchant Provost's responsibilities and powers considerably. A direct representative of the king, in a role resembling somewhat the ''préfet'' of later years, the Provost (''prévôt'') of Paris oversaw the application and execution of law and order in the city and its surrounding ''prévôté'' (county) from his office in the Grand Châtelet. Many functions from both provost offices were transferred to the office of the crown-appointed lieutenant general of police upon its creation in 1667. For centuries, the ''prévôt'' and magistrates of the Châtelet clashed with the administrators of the Hôtel de Ville over jurisdiction; the latter notably included the ''quartiniers'', each of whom was responsible for one of the sixteen ''quartiers'' (which were in turn divided into four ''cinquantaines'', each with its ''cinquantainier'', and those in turn were divided into ''dizaines'', administered by ''dizainiers''):

All of these men were in principle elected by the local bourgeois. At any one time, therefore, 336 men had shared administrative responsibility for street cleaning and maintenance, for public health, law, and order. The ''quartiniers'' maintained the official lists of ''bourgeois de Paris'', ran local elections, could impose fines for breaches of the bylaws, and had a role in tax assessment. They met at the Hôtel de Ville to confer on matters of citywide importance and each year selected eight of "the most notable inhabitants of the quarter," who together with other local officials would elect the city council.

Even though in the course of the 18th century these elections became purely ceremonial, choosing candidates already selected by the royal government, the memory of genuine municipal independence remained strong: "The Hôtel de Ville continued to bulk large in the awareness of bourgeois Parisians, its importance extending far beyond its real role in city government." Paris' last ''Prévôt des marchands'' was assassinated the afternoon of the 14 July 1789 uprising that was the French Revolution Storming of the Bastille. Paris became an official "commune" from the creation of the administrative division on 14 December the same year, and its provisional "Paris commune" revolutionary municipality was replaced with the city's first municipal constitution and government from 9 October 1790. Through the turmoil of the 1794 Thermidorian Reaction, it became apparent that revolutionary Paris' political independence was a threat to any governing power: The office of mayor was abolished the same year, and its municipal council one year later.

Although the municipal council was recreated in 1834, for most of the 19th and 20th centuries Paris, along with the larger Seine ''département'' of which it was a centre, was under the direct control of the state-appointed ''préfet'' of the Seine, in charge of general affairs there; the state-appointed Prefect of Police was in charge of police in the same jurisdiction. Save for a few brief occasions, the city did not have a mayor until 1977, and the Paris Prefecture of Police is still under state control today.

Despite its dual existence as ''commune'' and ''département'', Paris has a single council to govern both; the Council of Paris, presided over by the mayor of Paris, meets as either as a municipal council (''conseil municipal'') or a departmental council (''conseil général''), depending on the issue to be debated.

Paris' modern administrative organisation still retains some traces of the former Seine ''département'' jurisdiction. The ''Prefecture of Police'' (also directing Paris' fire brigades), for example, has still a jurisdiction extending to Paris' ''petite couronne'' of bordering three ''départements'' for some operations such as fire protection or rescue operations, and is still directed by France's national government. Paris has no municipal police force, although it does have its own brigade of traffic wardens.

Capital of the Île-de-France ''région''

As part of a 1961 nation-wide administrative effort to consolidate regional economies, Paris as a ''département'' became the capital of the new ''région'' of the District of Paris, renamed the Île-de-France ''région'' in 1976. It encompasses the Paris ''département'' and its seven closest ''départements''. Its regional council members, since 1986, have been chosen by direct elections. The prefect of the Paris ''département'' (who served as the prefect of the Seine ''département'' before 1968) is also prefect of the Île-de-France ''région'', although the office lost much of its power following the creation of the office of mayor of Paris in 1977.

Intercommunality

Few of the above changes have taken into account Paris' existence as an agglomeration. Unlike in most of France's major urban areas such as Lille and Lyon, there is no intercommunal entity in the Paris urban area, no intercommunal council treating the problems of the region's dense urban core as a whole; Paris' alienation of its suburbs is indeed a problem today, and considered by many to be the main causes of civil unrest such as the suburban riots in 2005. A direct result of these unfortunate events is propositions for a more efficient metropolitan structure to cover the city of Paris and some of the suburbs, ranging from a socialist idea of a loose "metropolitan conference" (''conférence métropolitaine'') to the right-wing idea of a more integrated ''Grand Paris'' ("Greater Paris").

One of the main reasons for such incoherence has been the fear felt by the French State in front of such a huge agglomeration and the desire to tap its wealth. Since the Middle Ages and particularly since the 1649 troubles (La Fronde), Paris has been considered as a source of danger. The authoritarian king Louis the XIVth built Versailles as a new political center, away from the dangerous city crowds. The conflict between the State and the City reached a climax with the Revolution of 1871 (La Commune) : the French Assembly in Bordeaux decided Paris would no longer be the capital city, while the Paris Commune discussed declaring Paris independent of France. Since then, one of the foundations of the centralized French State has been to widely distribute Paris wealth while depriving the agglomeration and keeping it divided into 8 departments and 1 200 communes. (For an analysis of the long hostility against Paris, see ). From the 22 metropolitan French regions, 19 are regularly subsidized, mostly by Paris resources, while Paris suburbs lack necessary equipment.

Education

In the early 9th century, the emperor Charlemagne mandated all churches to give lessons in reading, writing and basic arithmetic to their parishes, and cathedrals to give a higher-education in the finer arts of language, physics, music, and theology; at that time, Paris was already one of France's major cathedral towns and beginning its rise to fame as a scholastic centre. By the early 13th century, the Île de la Cité Notre-Dame cathedral school had many famous teachers, and the controversial teachings of some of these led to the creation of a separate Left-Bank Sainte-Genevieve University that would become the centre of Paris' scholastic Latin Quarter best represented by the Sorbonne university.

Twelve centuries later, education in Paris and the Paris region (Île-de-France ''région'') employs approximately 330,000 persons, 170,000 of whom are teachers and professors teaching approximately 2.9 million children and students in around 9,000 primary, secondary, and higher education schools and institutions.

Primary and secondary education

Paris is home to several of France's most prestigious high-schools such as Lycée Louis-le-Grand and Lycée Henri-IV. Other high-schools of international renown in the Paris area include the Lycée International de Saint Germain-en-Laye and the École Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel.

Higher-education

As of the academic year 2004–2005, the Paris Region's 17 public universities, with its 359,749 registered students, comprise the largest concentration of university students in Europe. The Paris Region's prestigious ''grandes écoles'' and scores of university-independent private and public schools have an additional 240,778 registered students, that, together with the university population, creates a grand total of 600,527 students in higher education that year.

Universities

The cathedral of Notre-Dame was the first centre of higher-education before the creation of the University of Paris. The ''universitas'' was chartered by King Philip Augustus in 1200, as a corporation granting teachers (and their students) the right to rule themselves independently from crown law and taxes. At the time, many classes were held in open air. Non-Parisian students and teachers would stay in hostels, or "colleges", created for the ''boursiers'' coming from afar. Already famous by the 13th century, the University of Paris had students from all of Europe. Paris' Rive Gauche scholastic centre, dubbed "Latin Quarter" as classes were taught in Latin then, would eventually regroup around the college created by Robert de Sorbon from 1257, the Collège de Sorbonne. The University of Paris in the 19th century had six faculties: law, science, medicine, pharmaceutical studies, literature, and theology. Following the 1968 student riots, there was an extensive reform of the University of Paris, in an effort to disperse the centralised student body. The following year, the former unique University of Paris was split between thirteen autonomous universities ("Paris I" to "Paris XIII") located throughout the City of Paris and its suburbs. Each of these universities inherited only some of the departments of the old University of Paris, and are not generalist universities. Paris I, II, V, and X, inherited the Law School; Paris V inherited the School of Medicine as well; Paris VI and VII inherited the scientific departments; etc.

In 1991, four more universities were created in the suburbs of Paris, reaching a total of seventeen public universities for the Paris (Île-de-France) ''région''. These new universities were given names (based on the name of the suburb in which they are located) and not numbers like the previous thirteen: University of Cergy-Pontoise, University of Évry Val d'Essonne, University of Marne-la-Vallée, Ecole supérieure Robert De Sorbon and University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.

''Grandes écoles''

The Paris region hosts France's highest concentration of the prestigious ''grandes écoles'' – specialised centres of higher-education outside the public university structure. The prestigious public universities are usually considered ''grands établissements''. Most of the ''grandes écoles'' were relocated to the suburbs of Paris in the 1960s and 1970s, in new campuses much larger than the old campuses within the crowded city of Paris, though the École Normale Supérieure has remained on rue d'Ulm in the 5th arrondissement. The Paris area has a high number of engineering schools, led by the prestigious Paris Institute of Technology (ParisTech) which comprises several colleges such as ''École Polytechnique'', ''École des Mines'', ''Télécom Paris'', ''Arts et Métiers'', and ''École des Ponts et Chaussées''. There are also many business schools, including INSEAD, ESSEC, HEC and ESCP Europe. Although the elite administrative school ENA has been relocated to Strasbourg, the political science school Sciences-Po is still located in Paris' Left bank 7th arrondissement.

The ''grandes écoles'' system is supported by a number of preparatory schools that offer courses of two to three years' duration called Classes Préparatoires, also known as ''classes prépas'' or simply ''prépas''. These courses provide entry to the grandes écoles. Many of the best prépas are located in Paris, including Lycée Louis-le-Grand, Lycée Henri-IV, Lycée Saint-Louis, Lycée Janson de Sailly, and Lycée Stanislas. Two other top-ranking ''prépas'' (Lycée Hoche and Lycée privé Sainte-Geneviève) are located in Versailles, near Paris. Student selection is based on school grades and teacher remarks. ''Prépas'' are known to be very demanding in terms of work load and psychological stress.

Libraries

The Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) operates libraries in Paris, among them François-Mitterrand Library, Richelieu Library, Louvois, Opéra Library, and Arsenal Library.

The American Library in Paris opened in 1920. It is a part of a private, non-profit organization. The modern library originated from cases of books sent by the American Library Association to U.S. soldiers in France. An incarnation existed in the 1850s.

Transport

Paris has been building its transportation system throughout history and continuous improvements are on-going. The Syndicat des transports d'Île-de-France (STIF), formerly ''Syndicat des transports parisiens'' (STP) oversees the transit network in the region.

The members of this syndicate are the Île-de-France region and the eight departments of this region. The syndicate coordinates public transport and contracts it out to the RATP (operating 654 bus lines, the Métro, three tramway lines, and sections of the RER), the SNCF (operating suburban rails, a tramway line and the other sections of the RER) and the Optile consortium of private operators managing 1,070 minor bus lines.

The Métro is Paris' most important transportation system. The system, with 300 stations (384 stops) connected by of rails, comprises 16 lines, identified by numbers from 1 to 14, with two minor lines, 3bis and 7bis, so numbered because they used to be branches of their respective original lines, and only later became independent. In October 1998, the new line 14 was inaugurated after a 70-year hiatus in inaugurating fully new métro lines. Because of the short distance between stations on the Métro network, lines were too slow to be extended further into the suburbs, as is the case in most other cities. As such, an additional express network, the RER, has been created since the 1960s to connect more-distant parts of the urban area. The RER consists in the integration of modern city-centre subway and pre-existing suburban rail. Nowadays, the RER network comprises five lines, 257 stops and of rails.

In addition, Paris is served by a light rail network of four lines, the tramway: Line T1 runs from Saint-Denis to Noisy-le-Sec, line T2 runs from La Défense to Porte de Versailles, line T3 runs from Pont de Garigliano to Porte d'Ivry, line T4 runs from Bondy to Aulnay-sous-Bois. Six new light rail lines are currently in various stages of development.

The new ferry service Voguéo has been inaugurated in June 2008, on the rivers Seine and Marne. Paris is a central hub of the national rail network. The six major railway stations, Gare du Nord, Gare Montparnasse, Gare de l'Est, Gare de Lyon, Gare d'Austerlitz, and Gare Saint-Lazare, are connected to three networks: The TGV serving four High-speed rail lines, the normal speed Corail trains, and the suburban rails (Transilien). Paris is served by two major airports: Orly Airport, which is south of Paris, and the Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, near Roissy-en-France, which is one of the busiest in the world and is the hub for the unofficial Flag carrier Air France. A third and much smaller airport, Beauvais Tillé Airport, located in the town of Beauvais, to the north of the city, is used by charter and low-cost airlines. The fourth airport, Le Bourget nowadays only hosts business jets, air trade shows and the aerospace museum.

The city is also the most important hub of France's motorway network, and is surrounded by three orbital freeways: the Périphérique, which follows the approximate path of 19th-century fortifications around Paris, the A86 motorway in the inner suburbs, and finally the Francilienne motorway in the outer suburbs. Paris has an extensive road network with over of highways and motorways. By road, Brussels can be reached in three hours, Frankfurt in six hours and Barcelona in 12 hours. By train, London is now just two hours and 15 minutes away, Brussels can be reached in 1 hour and 22 minutes (up to 26 departures/day), Amsterdam in 3 hours and 18 minutes (up to 10 departures/day), Cologne in 3 hours and 14 minutes (6 departures/day), and Marseille, Bordeaux, and other cities in southern France in three hours.

Cycling

Paris offers a bike sharing system called Vélib' with more than 20,000 public bicycles distributed at 1,450 parking stations, which can be rented for short and medium distances including one way trips.

Health

Health care and emergency medical service in the city of Paris and its suburbs are provided by the ''Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP)'', a public hospital system that employs more than 90,000 people (practitioners and administratives) in 44 hospitals. It is the largest hospital system in Europe.

International relations

Paris has numerous partner cities, but according to the motto "Only Paris is worthy of Rome; only Rome is worthy of Paris.", the only sister city of Paris is Rome.

Gallery

See also

Large Cities Climate Leadership Group

Megacity

Paris chronology

Paris Exposition

References

Further reading

External links

Official Paris website

Category:3rd-century BC establishments Category:Capitals in Europe Category:Host cities of the Summer Olympic Games Category:World Heritage Sites in France Category:European Capitals of Culture Category:Companions of the Liberation Category:IOC Session Host Cities Category:Olympic Congress Host Cities

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Coordinates	3°8′51″N101°41′36″N
name	Count Basie
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
birth name	William James Basie
born	August 21, 1904Red Bank, New Jersey, U.S.
died	April 26, 1984Hollywood, Florida, U.S.
instrument	Piano, organ
genre	Swing, big band, piano blues
occupation	Musician, bandleader, composer
years active	1924–1984
notable instruments	}}

William "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years. Many notable musicians came to prominence under his direction, including tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry "Sweets" Edison and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams. Basie's theme songs were "One O'Clock Jump" and "April In Paris".

Biography

Early life

William James Basie was born to Harvey Lee Basie, and Lilly Ann Childs, who lived on Mechanic Street in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father worked as a coachman and caretaker for a wealthy judge. After automobiles replaced horses, his father became a groundskeeper and handyman for several families in the area. His mother, a piano player who gave Basie his first piano lessons, took in laundry and baked cakes for sale and paid 25 cents a lesson for piano instruction for him.

Basie was not much of a scholar and instead dreamed of a traveling life, inspired by the carnivals which came to town. He only got as far as junior high school. He would hang out at the Palace Theater in Red Bank and did occasional chores for the management, which got him free admission to the shows. He also learned to operate the spotlights for the vaudeville shows. One day, when the pianist failed to arrive by show time, Basie took his place. Playing by ear, he quickly learned to improvise music appropriate to silent movies.

Though a natural at the piano, Basie preferred drums. However, the obvious talents of another young Red Bank area drummer, Sonny Greer (who was Duke Ellington's drummer from 1919 to 1951), discouraged Basie and he switched to piano exclusively by age 15. When not playing a gig, he hung out at the local pool hall with other musicians where he picked up on upcoming play dates and gossip. He got some jobs in Asbury Park, New Jersey, playing at the Hong Kong Inn, until a better player took his place.

Early career

Around 1924, he went to Harlem, a hotbed of jazz, living down the block from the Alhambra Theater. Early after his arrival, he bumped into Sonny Greer, who was by then the drummer for the Washingtonians, Duke Ellington's early band. Soon, Basie met many of the Harlem musicians who were making the scene, including Willie "the Lion" Smith and James P. Johnson.

Basie toured in several acts between 1925 and 1927, including ''Katie Krippen and Her Kiddies'' as part of the ''Hippity Hop'' show; on the Keith, the Columbia Burlesque, and the Theater Owners Bookers Association (T.O.B.A.) vaudeville circuits; and as a soloist and accompanist to blues singers Katie Krippen and Gonzelle White. His touring took him to Kansas City, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Chicago. Throughout his tours, Basie met many great jazz musicians, including Louis Armstrong.

Back in Harlem in 1925, Basie got his first steady job at Leroy's, a place known for its piano players and its "cutting contests." The place catered to "uptown celebrities," and typically the band winged every number without sheet music (using "head" arrangements). He met Fats Waller, who was playing organ at the Lincoln Theater accompanying silent movies, and Waller taught him how to play that instrument (Basie later played organ at the Eblon Theater in Kansas City). As he did with Duke Ellington, Willie "the Lion" Smith helped Basie out during the lean times arranging gigs at house-rent parties, introducing him to other top musicians, and teaching him some piano technique.

In 1928 Basie was in Tulsa and heard Walter Page and his Famous Blue Devils, one of the first big bands, which featured Jimmy Rushing on vocals. A few months later, he was invited to join the band, which played mostly in Texas and Oklahoma. It was at this time that he began to be known as "Count" Basie (see Jazz royalty).

Kansas City years

The following year, Basie became the pianist with the Bennie Moten band based in Kansas City, inspired by Moten's ambition to raise his band to the level of Duke Ellington's or Fletcher Henderson's. Where the Blue Devils were "snappier" and more "bluesy," the Moten band was classier and more respected, and played in the "Kansas City stomp" style. In addition to playing piano, Basie was co-arranger with Eddie Durham, who actually did the notating. During a stay in Chicago, Basie recorded with the band. He occasionally played four-hand piano and dual pianos with Moten, who also conducted. The band improved with several personnel changes, including the addition of tenor saxophonist Ben Webster.

When the band voted Moten out, Basie took over for several months as Count Basie and his Cherry Blossoms until the band folded, when he returned to Moten's newly re-organized band. When Moten died in 1935 after a surgical procedure, the band unsuccessfully attempted to stay together. Then Basie formed a new band, which included many Moten alumni, with the important addition of tenor player Lester Young. They played at the Reno Club and sometimes were broadcast on local radio. Late one night with time to fill, the band started improvising. Basie liked the results and named the piece "One O'Clock Jump." According to Basie, "we hit it with the rhythm section and went into the riffs, and the riffs just stuck. We set the thing up front in D-flat, and then we just went on playing in F." It became his signature tune.

Hammond and first recordings

At the end of 1936, Basie and his band, now billed as Count Basie and His Barons of Rhythm, moved from Kansas City and honed their repertoire at a long engagement at the Grand Terrace Ballroom in Chicago. Right from the start, Basie's band was noted for its rhythm section. Another Basie innovation was the use of two tenor saxophone players; at the time, most bands had just one. When Lester Young complained of Herschel Evans' vibrato, the two were split apart and placed one on each side of the alto players, and soon Basie had the tenor players engaged in "duels". Many other bands later adapted the split tenor arrangement.

In that city in October 1936, members of the band participated in a recording session which producer John Hammond later described as "the only perfect, completely perfect recording session I've ever had anything to do with". Hammond, according to Basie, had heard Basie's band over short-wave radio, then he went to Kansas City to check them out. The results were Lester Young's earliest recordings. Those four sides were released under the name Jones-Smith Incorporated, because Basie had already signed with Decca Records but had not started recording for them (his first Decca session was January 1937). The sides were "Shoe Shine Boy", "Evening", "Boogie Woogie", and "Oh, Lady Be Good".

By now, Basie's sound was characterized by a "jumping" beat and the contrapuntal accents of his own piano. His personnel around 1937 included: Lester Young and Herschel Evans (tenor sax), Freddie Green (guitar), Jo Jones (drums), Walter Page (bass), Earle Warren (alto sax), Buck Clayton and Harry Edison (trumpet), Benny Morton and Dickie Wells (trombone). Lester Young, known as "Prez" by the band, came up with nicknames for all the other band members. Basie became known as "Holy Man", "Holy Main", and just plain "Holy".

Basie favored blues, and he showcased some of the most notable blues singers of the era: Billie Holiday, Jimmy Rushing, Big Joe Turner, Helen Humes, and Joe Williams. He also hired arrangers who knew how to maximize the band's abilities, such as Eddie Durham and Jimmy Mundy.

New York City and the Swing years

When they arrived in New York, they made the Woodside Hotel their base (where they often rehearsed in the basement). Soon, they were booked at the Roseland Ballroom for the Christmas show. Basie recalled a review, which in his words was something like, "We caught the great Count Basie band which is supposed to be so hot he was going to come in here and set the Roseland on fire. Well, the Roseland is still standing". Compared to the reigning band of Fletcher Henderson, Basie's band lacked polish and presentation. Hammond advised and encouraged them, and they soon came up with some adjustments, including softer playing, more solos, more standards, and saving their hottest numbers for later in the show to give the audience a chance to warm up. His first official recordings for Decca followed, under contract to agent MCA, including "Pennies from Heaven" and "Honeysuckle Rose".

Hammond introduced Basie to Billie Holiday who was soon singing with the band. (Holiday didn't record with Basie, however, as she had her own record contract and preferred working with small combos). The band's first appearance at the Apollo Theater followed, with vocalists Holiday and Rushing getting the most attention. Eddie Durham came back to help with arranging and composing, but for the most part their numbers were worked out in rehearsal, with Basie, guiding the proceedings, and the results written out little if at all. Once they found what they liked, they usually were able to repeat it using their collective memory.

Next, Basie played at the Savoy, which was noted more for jitterbugging, while the Roseland was more of a place for fox-trots and congas. In early 1938, the Savoy was the meeting ground for a "battle of the bands" with Chick Webb's group. Basie had Holiday and Webb countered with Ella Fitzgerald. As ''Metronome'' magazine proclaimed, "Basie's Brilliant Band Conquers Chick's", then it went on in detail, : "Throughout the fight, which never let down in its intensity during the whole fray, Chick took the aggressive, with the Count playing along easily and, on the whole, more musically scientifically. Undismayed by Chick's forceful drum beating, which sent the audience into shouts of encouragement and appreciation and casual beads of perspiration to drop from Chick's brow onto the brass cymbals, the Count maintained an attitude of poise and self-assurance. He constantly parried Chick's thundering haymakers with tantalizing runs and arpeggios which teased more and more force from his adversary". The publicity over the battle, before and after, gave the Basie band a big boost and they gained wider recognition, as evidenced by Benny Goodman's recording of ''One O'Clock Jump'' shortly thereafter.

A few months later, Holiday left for Artie Shaw's band, and was replaced by Helen Humes; she was also ushered in by John Hammond, and stayed with Basie for four years. Co-arranger and trombone player Eddie Durham left for Glenn Miller's orchestra and was replaced by Dicky Wells. Basie's 14-man band began playing at the Famous Door, a mid-town nightspot, with a CBS network feed and air conditioning. Their fame took a huge leap. Adding to their play book, Basie received arrangements from Jimmy Mundy (who had also worked with Benny Goodman and Earl Hines) particularly for "Cherokee", "Easy Does It", and "Super Chief". In 1939, Basie and his band made a major cross-country tour, including their first West Coast dates. A few months later, Basie quit MCA and signed with the William Morris Agency, who got them better fees.

In 1942, Basie moved to Queens with Catherine Morgan, after being married to her for a few years. On the West Coast, the band did a spot in ''Reveille With Beverly'', a musical starring Ann Miller, and also a "Command Performance" for Armed Forces Radio with Hollywood stars Clark Gable, Bette Davis, Carmen Miranda, Jerry Colonna, and singer Dinah Shore. Other minor movie spots followed including ''Choo Choo Swing'', ''Crazy House'', ''Top Man'', and ''Hit Parade of 1943''. They also started to record with RCA. The war years caused a lot of member turn over, and the band worked many play dates with lower pay. Dance hall bookings were down sharply as swing began to fade, the effects of the musicians' strikes of 1942-44 and 1948 began to be felt and the public's growing taste for singers.

Post-war and later years

The big band era appeared to have ended after the war, and Basie disbanded the group. For a while, he performed in combos, sometimes stretched to an orchestra. In 1950, he headlined the Universal-International short film ''"Sugar Chile" Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet.'' He reformed his group as a 16-piece orchestra in 1952. Basie credits Billy Eckstine, a top male vocalist of the time, for prompting his return to Big Band and Norman Granz for getting him into the Birdland club and promoting the new band through recordings on the Mercury, Clef, and Verve labels. The jukebox era had begun, and Basie shared the exposure along with early rock'n'roll and rhythm and blues artists. Basie's new band was more of an ensemble group, with fewer solo turns, and relying less on "head" and more on written arrangements.

Basie added touches of bebop "so long as it made sense", and he required that "it all had to have feeling". Basie's band was sharing Birdland with bebop greats Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis. Behind the occasional bebop solos, though, he always kept his strict rhythmic pulse, "so it doesn't matter what they do up front; the audience gets the beat". Basie also added flute to some numbers, a novelty at the time that became widely copied. Soon, they were touring and recording again. The new band included: Paul Campbell, Tommy Turrentine, Johnny Letman, and Idrees Sulieman, Joe Newman (trumpet); Jimmy Wilkins, Benny Powell, Matthew Gee (trombone); Paul Quinichette and Floyd Johnson (tenor sax); Marshall Royal and Ernie Wilkins (alto sax); and Charlie Fowlkes (baritone sax). ''Down Beat'' said "(Basie) has managed to assemble an ensemble that can thrill both the listener who remembers 1938 and the youngster who has never before heard a big band like this".

In 1954, the band made its first European tour. Jazz was especially strong in France, The Netherlands, and Germany in the 1950s; These countries were the stomping grounds for many expatriate jazz stars who were either resurrecting their careers or sitting out the years of racial divide in the United States. Neal Hefti began to provide arrangements, notably "Lil Darlin'". By the mid-1950s, Basie's band had become one of the preeminent backing big bands for some of the most prominent jazz vocalists of the time. They also toured with the "Birdland Stars of 1955", whose lineup included Sarah Vaughan, Erroll Garner, Lester Young, George Shearing, and Stan Getz.

In 1957, Basie released the live album ''Count Basie at Newport''. "April in Paris" (arrangement by Wild Bill Davis) was a best-selling instrumental and the title song for the hit album. The Basie band made two tours in the British Isles and on the second, they put on a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II, along with Judy Garland, Vera Lynn, and Mario Lanza. He was a guest on ABC's ''The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom,'' a venue also opened to several other black entertainers. In 1959, Basie's band recorded a "greatest hits" double album ''The Count Basie Story'' (Frank Foster, arranger) and "Basie and Eckstine, Inc.": album featuring Billy Eckstine, Quincy Jones (as arranger) and the Count Basie Orchestra. It was released by Roulette Records, then later reissued by Capital Records.

Later that year, Basie appeared on a television special with Fred Astaire, featuring a dance solo to "Sweet Georgia Brown", followed in January 1960 by Basie performing at one of the five John F. Kennedy Inaugural Balls. That summer, Basie and Duke Ellington combined forces for the recording ''First Time! The Count Meets the Duke'', each providing four numbers from their play books.

During the balance of the 1960s, the band kept busy with tours, recordings, television appearances, festivals, Las Vegas shows, and travel abroad, including cruises. Some time around 1964, Basie adopted his trademark yachting cap.

Through steady changes in personnel, Basie led the band into the 1970s. Basie made a few more movie appearances, such as the Jerry Lewis film ''Cinderfella'' (1960) and the Mel Brooks movie ''Blazing Saddles'' (1974), playing his arrangement of "April in Paris".

Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida on April 26, 1984 at the age of 79.

Count Basie and His Orchestra

The musicians associated with Count Basie over the years included the following:

c.1937: Joe Keyes, Buck Clayton, Carl Smith, George Hunt, Dan Minor, Caughey Roberts, Herschel Evans, Lester Young, Jack Washington, Claude Williams, Walter Page, Jo Jones.

c.1939: Ed Lewis, Buck Clayton, Shad Collins, Harry Edison, Earle Warren, Buddy Tate, Benny Morton, Dicky Wells, Freddie Green.

1940: Al Killian, Vic Dickenson.

1943: Joe Newman, Snooky Young, Eli Robinson, Robert Scott, Louis Taylor, Jimmy Powell, Rudy Rutherford, Rodney Richardson.

The Singers

Basie hitched his star to some of the most famous vocalists of the 1950s and 1960s, which helped keep the Big Band sound alive and added greatly to his recording catalog. Jimmy Rushing sang with Basie in the late 1930s. Joe Williams toured with the band and was featured on the 1957 album ''One O'Clock Jump'', and 1956's ''Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings'', with "Every Day (I Have the Blues)" becoming a huge hit. With Billy Eckstine on the album Basie-Eckstine Inc., in 1959. Ella Fitzgerald made some memorable recordings with Basie, including the 1963 album ''Ella and Basie!''. With the 'New Testament' Basie band in full swing, and arrangements written by a youthful Quincy Jones, this album proved a swinging respite from her ''Songbook'' recordings and constant touring she did during this period. She even toured with the Basie Orchestra in the mid-1970s, and Fitzgerald and Basie also met on the 1979 albums ''A Classy Pair'', ''Digital III at Montreux'', and ''A Perfect Match'', the last two also recorded live at Montreux. In addition to Quincy Jones, Basie was using arrangers such as Benny Carter ''(Kansas City Suite)'', Neal Hefti ''(The Atomic Mr Basie)'', and Sammy Nestico ''(Basie-Straight Ahead)''.

Frank Sinatra recorded for the first time with Basie on 1962's ''Sinatra-Basie'' and for a second studio album on 1964's ''It Might as Well Be Swing'', which was arranged by Quincy Jones. Jones also arranged and conducted 1966's live ''Sinatra at the Sands''. In May 1970, Sinatra performed in London's Royal Festival Hall with the Basie orchestra, in a charity benefit for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Sinatra later said of this concert "I have a funny feeling that those two nights could have been my finest hour, really. It went so well; it was so thrilling and exciting".

Basie also recorded with Tony Bennett in the early 1960s — their albums together included the live recording at Las Vegas and ''Strike Up the Band'', a studio album. Basie also toured with Bennett, including a date at Carnegie Hall. Other notable recordings were with Sammy Davis, Jr., Bing Crosby, and Sarah Vaughan. One of Basie's biggest regrets was never recording with Louis Armstrong, though they shared the same bill several times.

Legacy

Count Basie introduced several generations of listeners to the Big Band sound and left an influential catalog. Basie is remembered by many who worked for him as being considerate of musicians and their opinions, modest, relaxed, fun-loving, dryly witty, and always enthusiastic about his music. As he summed up the key to his understated style, in his autobiography, "I think the band can really ''swing'' when it swings ''easy'', when it can just play along like you are cutting butter".

Other cultural connections include Jerry Lewis using "Blues in Hoss' Flat" from Basie's ''Chairman of the Board'' album, as the basis for his own "Chairman of the Board" routine in the movie ''The Errand Boy'', in which Lewis pantomimed the movements of a corporate executive holding a board meeting. (In the early 1980s, Lewis revived the routine during the live broadcast of one of his Muscular Dystrophy Association telethons). ''Blues in Hoss' Flat'', composed by Basie band member Frank Foster, was also the longtime theme song of San Francisco and New York radio DJ Al "Jazzbeaux" Collins. In addition, Basie is one of the producers of the "world's greatest music" that Brenda Fricker's "Pigeon Lady" character claims to have heard in Carnegie Hall in 1992's ''Home Alone 2: Lost in New York''. Drummer Neil Peart of the Canadian rock band Rush recorded a version of "One O'Clock Jump" with the Buddy Rich Big Band, and has used it at the end of his drum solos on the 2002 Vapor Trails Tour and Rush's 30th Anniversary Tour.

The Count Basie Theatre and Count Basie Field in his hometown of Red Bank, New Jersey were named in his honor. The street on which he lived, Mechanic Street has the honorary title of Count Basie Way.

On September 26, 2009, Edgecombe Avenue and 160th Street in Washington Heights, Manhattan, were renamed as Paul Robeson Boulevard and Count Basie Place. The corner is the location of 555 Edgecombe Avenue, also known as the Paul Robeson Home, a National Historic Landmark building where Count Basie and Paul Robeson lived.

Discography

The majority of Basie's recordings were made with his big band, see Count Basie Orchestra Discography.

Basie also made several small group recordings without his band:

''Count Basie Sextet'' (1954, Clef)

''Count Basie and the Kansas City 7'' (1962, Impulse!)

''Basie Swingin' Voices Singin''' (1966, EMI)

''Loose Walk'' (with Roy Eldridge) (1972, Pablo)

''Basie Jam'' (1973, Pablo)

''The Bosses'' (with Big Joe Turner) (1973)

''For the First Time'' (1974, Pablo)

''Satch and Josh'' (with Oscar Peterson)

''Basie & Zoot'' (with Zoot Sims) (1975, Pablo)

''For the Second Time'' (1975, Pablo)

''Basie Jam 2'' (1976, Pablo)

''Basie Jam 3'' (1976, Pablo)

''Kansas City 5'' (1977, Pablo)

''The Gifted Ones'' (with Dizzy Gillespie) (1977, Pablo)

''Basie Jam: Montreux '77'' (live) (1977, Pablo)

''Satch and Josh...Again'' (with Oscar Peterson) (1977, Pablo)

''Night Rider'' (with Oscar Peterson) (1978, Pablo)

''Count Basie Meets Oscar Peterson – The Timekeepers'' (with Oscar Peterson) (1978, Pablo)

''Yessir, That's My Baby'' (with Oscar Peterson) (1978, Pablo)

''Kansas City 8: Get Together'' (1979, Pablo)

''Kansas City 7'' (1980, Pablo)

''Kansas City 6'' (1981, Pablo)

''Mostly Blues...and Some Others'' (1983, Pablo)

Filmography

''Sugar Chile Robinson, Billie Holiday, Count Basie and His Sextet'' (1950) – as himself

''Cinderfella'' (1960) – as himself

''Blazing Saddles'' (1974) – as himself with his orchestra

Awards

Grammy Awards

{| class=wikitable |- | colspan=5 align=center | Count Basie Grammy Award History |- |- ! Year ! Category ! Title ! Genre ! Results |- align=center | 1982 | Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band | ''Warm Breeze'' | Jazz | Winner |- align=center | 1984 | Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band | ''88 Basie Street'' | Jazz | Winner |- align=center | 1980 | Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band | ''On The Road'' | Jazz | Winner |- align=center | 1977 | Best Jazz Performance By A Big Band | ''Prime Time'' | Jazz | Winner |- align=center | 1976 | Best Jazz Performance By A Soloist (Instrumental) | ''Basie And Zoot'' | Jazz | Winner |- align=center | 1963 | Best Performance By An Orchestra – For Dancing | ''This Time By Basie! Hits Of The 50's And 60's'' | Pop | Winner |- align=center | 1960 | Best Performance By A Band For Dancing | ''Dance With Basie'' | Pop | Winner |- align=center | 1958 | Best Performance By A Dance Band | ''Basie'' | Pop | Winner |- align=center | 1958 | Best Jazz Performance, Group | ''Basie'' | Jazz | Winner |- align=center |}

Grammy Hall of Fame

By 2011, four recordings of Count Basie had been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least 25 years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."

{| class=wikitable |- | colspan=5 align=center | Count Basie Grammy Hall of Fame Awards |- ! Year Recorded ! Title ! genre ! Label ! Year Inducted |- align=center | 1939 | Lester Leaps In | Jazz (Single) | Vocalion | 2005 |- align=center | 1955 | Everyday (I Have the Blues) | Jazz (Single) | Clef | 1992 |- align=center | 1955 | April in Paris | Jazz (Single) | Clef | 1985 |- align=center | 1937 | One O'Clock Jump | Jazz (Single) | Decca | 1979 |- align=center |}

Honors and Inductions

On May 23, 1985, William "Count" Basie was presented, posthumously, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan. The award was received by his son, Aaron Woodward.

On September 11, 1996 the U.S. Post Office issued a Count Basie 32 cents postage stamp. Basie is a part of the Big Band Leaders issue, which, is in turn, part of the Legends of American Music series.

{| class=wikitable |- | colspan=5 align=center | Count Basie Award History |- ! Year ! Category ! Result ! Notes |- align=center | 2007 | Long Island Music Hall of Fame | Inducted | |- align=center | 2005 | Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame | Inducted | |- align=center | 2002 | Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award | Winner | |- align=center | 1983 | NEA Jazz Masters | Winner | |- align=center | 1981 | Grammy Trustees Award | Winner | |- align=center | 1981 | Kennedy Center Honors | Honoree | |- align=center | late 1970s | Hollywood Walk of Fame | Honoree | at 6508 Hollywood Blvd. |- align=center | 1970 | Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia | Initiated | Mu Nu Chapter |- align=center | 1958 | Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame | Inducted | |- align=center |}

National Recording Registry

In 2005, Count Basie's song "One O'Clock Jump" (1937) was included by the National Recording Preservation Board in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. The board selects songs in an annual basis that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

References

External links

International Jose Guillermo Carrillo Foundation

Basie biography at swingmusic.net

BBC Profile of Count Basie

Downbeat Magazine

U.S. Postal Service Biography

''Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony for the Presidential Medal of Freedom – May 23, 1985''

Basie biography and album list

Category:1904 births Category:1984 deaths Category:People from Red Bank, New Jersey Category:Swing pianists Category:Swing bandleaders Category:African American actors Category:African American musicians Category:African American pianists Category:American bandleaders Category:American jazz bandleaders Category:American jazz pianists Category:American jazz organists Category:Apex Records artists Category:Big band bandleaders Category:Cancer deaths in Florida Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer Category:Decca Records artists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Mercury Records artists Category:Musicians from New Jersey Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Vocalion Records artists Category:Vaudeville performers Category:Reprise Records artists

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Coordinates	3°8′51″N101°41′36″N
name	Twila Paris
background	solo_singer
birth date	December 28, 1958
origin	Fort Worth, Texas, United States
instrument	Voice, piano
genre	CCM
years active	1980–present
label	Milk and HoneyStarSongBensonSparrowINOMountain Spring Music
website	TwilaParis.com
notable instruments	}}

Twila Paris Wright (born December 28, 1958 in Fort Worth, Texas) is a Contemporary Christian Music songwriter, author, vocalist and pianist.

Biography

Musical career

Since 1980, Twila Paris has released 22 albums, amassed 33 number one Christian Radio singles, and was named the ''Gospel Music Association Female Vocalist of the Year'' three years in a row. Many of her earlier songs such as "He Is Exalted", "We Will Glorify," "Lamb of God," and "We Bow Down," are found in church hymnals or otherwise sung in church settings.

As a child she released her first album, ''Little Twila Paris'', in 1965. The album included songs drawn from among those she sang with her family in their evangelistic outreaches.

Paris released her first full-length album, ''Knowin' You're Around'', in 1980, and along the way she has written books, recorded children's music, and created worship songs. Her song "God Is In Control" won a GMA Song of the Year award in 1995 and her 1992 ''Sanctuary'' release won the GMA Praise & Worship Album of the Year. She has won five GMA Dove Awards and three American Songwriter Awards.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Paris released mainly contemporary Christian pop songs. But in recent years, she has focused on recording new versions of some of her worship standards and writing new praise and worship music. Her 2005 album ''He Is Exalted: Live Worship'' collects a number of favorite songs commonly used in praise and worship of Paris's and presents them in a more typical style of live worship music. After her song "He Is Exalted" was used in churches in Brazil, Paris re-recorded it in the Portuguese translation they were using. This version appears on her 1992 album ''Sanctuary''.

Although associated for much of her career with Star Song Communications, EMI switched her to Sparrow Records in 1996, before her contract ended after 2003. In 2005, she switched to the praise and worship label Integrity Music for ''He Is Exalted: Live Worship''.

Twila released ''Small Sacrifice'' on December 26, 2007. which was available only through her website and at Lifeway Christian Stores. This album married the two parts of her career by including both inspirational pop/adult contemporary songs and original praise and worship compositions. Her first radio single from ''Small Sacrifice'' was "Live to Praise." ''Small Sacrifice'' was released for wider distribution by Koch Records on February 24, 2009.

Musical influence

Paris has created a body of work in a modern hymn style. Her compositions are included in hymnals used by several Christian denominations and various Charismatic churches. Paris was influenced in her early career by the music of Keith Green, Kelly Willard, and Jamie Owens-Collins. Her #1 single, "Do I Trust You" was written in response to Keith Green's untimely death in 1982. Willard and Owens-Collins sang background vocals for her on her ''Keeping My Eyes On You'' album and sang as a trio on the hymn "Leaning On The Everlasting Arms" on ''The Warrior Is A Child.''

Personal life

Twila Paris is the daughter of Oren II and Rachel Inez Paris. Oren Paris II is the founder and Chancellor of Ecclesia College in Springdale, Arkansas. Twila has been married to Jack Wright for more than 25 years, and has a son, Jack Paris Wright who was born in 2001. She has three siblings: Starla Novak, Oren Paris III, and Angie Paris Snyder.

Discography

''Little Twila Paris'' (1965)

''Knowin' You're Around'' (1980)

''Keepin' My Eyes On You'' (1982)

''The Warrior Is A Child'' (1984)

''Kingdom Seekers'' (1985)

''Same Girl'' (1987)

''For Every Heart'' (1988)

''It's The Thought'' (1989)

''Cry For The Desert'' (1990)

''Sanctuary'' (1991)

''A Heart That Knows You'' (1992)

''Beyond A Dream'' (1993)

''The Time Is Now'' (1995)

''The Early Years'' (1996)

''Where I Stand'' (1996)

''Perennial: Songs For The Seasons Of Life'' (1998)

''True North'' (1999)

''Signature Songs'' (2000)

''Bedtime Prayers'' (2001)

''Greatest Hits: Time & Again'' (2001)

''House of Worship'' (2003)

''8 Great Hits'' (2004)

''Simply'' (2005)

''He Is Exalted: Live Worship'' (2005)

''Ultimate Collection'' (2006)

''Looking Up'' (2006)

''Small Sacrifice'' (2007)

Source: www.twilaparis.com

Top Ten Singles in the 1980s and 1990s (Adult Contemporary Christian Charts)

No. 1 "The Warrior is a Child" (11/2/84)

No. 2 "Do I Trust You" (12/26/84)

No. 1 "Runner" (4/1/86)

No. 2 "Lamb of God" (6/25/86)

No. 10 "He is Exalted" (10/20/86)

No. 1 "Prince of Peace" (9/7/87)

No. 7 "Holy is the Lord" (11/16/87)

No. 2 "Bonded Together" (3/21/88)

No. 4 "Send Me" (6/13/88)

No. 1 "Every Heart That is Breaking" (10/31/88)

No. 1 "True Friend" (2/6/89)

No. 3 "Never Ending Love" (5/15/89)

No. 1 "Sweet Victory" (9/4/89)

No. 1 "I See You Standing" (9/17/90)

No. 6 "How Beautiful" (1/7/91)

No. 7 "Cry For the Desert" (3/18/91)

No. 1 "Nothing But Love" (7/22/91)

No. 7 "Undivided Heart" (10/14/91)

No. 1 "The Joy of the Lord" (2/10/92)

No. 1 "I'm Still Here" (w/Bruce Carroll)" (5/25/92)

No. 1 "Destiny" (1/18/93)

No. 5 "A Heart That Knows You" (4/12/93)

No. 1 "God is in Control" (2/21/94)

No. 1 "Neither Will I" (6/13/94)

No. 2 "Watch and Pray" (9/19/94)

No. 4 "Seventy Years Ago" (1/23/95)

No. 1 "The Time is Now" (4/24/95)

No. 4 "Faithful Friend" (with Steven Curtis Chapman) (5/13/96)

No. 1 "(I Am) Not Afraid Anymore" (8/26/96)

No. 1 "Run to You" (10/25/99)

Gospel Music Association Awards

Praise and Worship Album of the Year, ''Sanctuary'', 1992

Female Vocalist of the Year, 1993

Female Vocalist of the Year, 1994

Female Vocalist of the Year, 1995

Song of the Year, "God is in Control", 1995

Special Event Album of the Year, ''My Utmost For His Highest'', 1996

Special Event Album of the Year, ''Tribute - The Songs of Andrea Crouch'', 1997

Special Event Album of the Year, ''God With Us - A Celebration of Christmas Carols'', 1998

Long Form Music Video of the Year, ''My Utmost for His Highest'', 1999

Children's Music Album of the Year, ''Bedtime Prayers, Lullabies and Peaceful Worship'', 2002

Source: www.doveawards.com

Books

''Making A Christmas Memory'' (1990) (With Jeanie Price)

''In This Sanctuary: An Invitation To Worship The Savior'' (1992) (co-authored with Dr. Robert Webber)

''Celebrate The Gift of Jesus Every Day '' (1993, 1994)

''Perennial: Mediations For The Seasons Of Life'' (1998)

''Bedtime Prayers and Lullabies'' (2001)

References

External links

TwilaParis.com- Official Web Page

- Stats and Bio about Twila

Category:American pop singers Category:American Christians Category:American composers Category:American female singers Category:People from Arkansas Category:People from Fort Worth, Texas Category:American performers of Christian music Category:1958 births Category:Living people

de:Twila Paris fr:Twila Paris nl:Twila Paris fi:Twila Paris

Coordinates	3°8′51″N101°41′36″N
name	After Forever
landscape	Yes
background	group_or_band
origin	Netherlands
genre	Symphonic metal, progressive metal
years active	1995–2009
label	Nuclear Blast
associated acts	Epica, Ayreon, Star One, HDK, ReVamp
current members	Floor JansenSander GommansLuuk van GervenAndré BorgmanBas MaasJoost van den Broek
past members	Mark JansenJoep BeckersJack DriessenLando van Gils }}

After Forever was a Dutch symphonic metal band with strong progressive metal influences. The band relied on the use of both soprano vocals and death grunts. In February 2009, it was announced that After Forever had disbanded.

Biography

After Forever was originally assembled in 1995 under the name ''Apocalypse'', playing death metal, with harsh male vocals. With the joining of vocalist Floor Jansen in 1997, their style and sound shifted towards symphonic metal, in order to give emphasis to her soprano voice, in contrast with the grunts and screams provided by Gommans and Mark Jansen. Their line-up at this point comprised Floor Jansen, Mark Jansen, Sander Gommans, Luuk van Gerven, Jack Driessen and Joep Beckers.

In 1999 the band began composing their own songs and recorded two demos entitled ''Ephemeral'' and ''Wings Of Illusion'', which drew the attention of the Dutch Transmission Records label, with whom the band signed a contract.

Their debut album ''Prison Of Desire'' was recorded in 2000, featuring the guest appearance of Sharon Den Adel of the Dutch band Within Temptation on the song "Beyond Me". The album obtained very good reviews in Europe. By the end of the year, drummer André Borgman and keyboardist Lando van Gils joined the band, replacing Joep Beckers and Jack Driessen. During the year 2000, Floor Jansen was invited to guest sing in Ayreon's ''Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer'' album. Ayreon is the most successful of the many projects by Dutch guitarist Arjen Anthony Lucassen and this album is only the first of many other collaborations with Floor Jansen.

In 2001, the band released the album ''Decipher'', that featured for the first time live classical instruments and a live choir. The complex arrangements of the new compositions pushed After Forever's music even more towards the symphonic metal genre. In 2002 Mark Jansen, one of the main composers of the band, was fired from After Forever and subsequently assembled the band Epica, where he continued to pursue the contamination of symphonic metal with death metal elements, already present in the first two albums by After Forever. He was replaced by Bas Maas, who had been a roadie for the band for years. In 2003, the new line-up of After Forever released the EP and DVD ''Exordium''.

In 2004, the concept album ''Invisible Circles'' was released. The album, that deals with childhood traumas and abuse, introduced progressive metal elements to the music of After Forever and the use of a clean male voice. The album reached 24th place in the Dutch Top 100 musical chart. In the same year, Lando van Gils also left the band and was replaced by Joost van den Broek, a keyboard player that Floor Jansen had met during her tour with Star One .

In early September 2005, the band released their fourth album ''Remagine''. The album was produced using pre-recorded drum tracks by André Borgman, who had to take a long leave of absence to cure his illness. The songs of the album are simpler and more straight-forward than in the previous albums, preserving anyway the usual dual voice dynamic in the sound of the band. On March 3, 2006, the band left the Transmission Records label, due to the scarce promotion that the label was providing to their albums. Following this departure, Transmission Records released the ''Mea Culpa'' compilation, with plenty of rarities and b-sides. By October of the same year, After Forever had signed to Nuclear Blast Records.

In the end of 2006 the band recorded their final and only album on the Nuclear Blast label, self titled ''After Forever''. It features guest appearances from Annihilator guitarist Jeff Waters and Doro Pesch. Videos of the recording sessions were available for download on the band's website. The album was released on April 23, 2007.

In January 2008, After Forever announced on their website that the band would be taking a break of at least a year, mainly to assess the health problems of vocalist and guitarist Sander Gommans, who had been absent during most of the tour supporting the album ''After Forever''. In an interview with Ragnarök radio, Floor said the band would get together early 2009 to discuss After Forever's future.

On February 5, 2009 , After Forever announced that they decided to call it quits. The long break, during 2008 and 2009, had made them realize that they did not feel the passion towards the band any longer.

After the split up of the band, Sander Gommans published in 2009 the album ''System Overload'' with his solo project HDK and continues working as a high school art teacher. Floor Jansen started a new band called ReVamp and signed in 2010 a contract with Nuclear Blast for their first eponymous album. Joost van den Broek collaborated with both Gommans and Jansen on their new musical projects, meanwhile producing the Christmas Metal Symphony shows in 2008 and 2009 and Stream of Passion's second album ''The Flame Within''. Guitarist Bas Maas joined the live band supporting German hard rock singer Doro Pesch in 2008.

Line-up

Final line-up

Floor Jansen - Lead vocals (1997–2009)

Sander Gommans - Guitar, grunts (1995–2009)

Bas Maas – Guitar, vocals (2002–2009)

Luuk van Gerven - Bass guitar(1996–2009)

André Borgman - Drums, percussion (2000–2009)

Joost van den Broek - Keyboards (2004–2009)

Former members

Mark Jansen - Guitars, grunts (1995–2002)

Joep Beckers - Drums, percussion (1995–2000)

Jack Driessen - Keyboards (1995–2000)

Lando van Gils - Keyboards (2000–2004)

Guests

Sharon den Adel - Guest vocals on song "Beyond Me" (''Prison Of Desire'')

Melissa 't Hart - Soprano on songs "Mea Culpa", "Leaden Legacy", "Follow In The Cry", "Silence From Afar" and "Yield To Temptation" (''Prison Of Desire'')

Simone Simons - Vocals on song "Beyond Me" (Live in Hardenberg 26 December 2007)

Irene Jansen - Vocals on song "Who I Am" (Live in Tilburg 23 December 2007)

George Oosthoek - Vocals on the 2007 tour, replacing Sander Gommans

Doro Pesch - Vocals on song "Who I Am" (Release Party @ Tivoli 17. April 2007 Tilburg)

Mark Jansen - Guitars and vocals on song "Beyond Me" (Live in Hardenberg 26 December 2007)

Arjen Anthony Lucassen - Guitars on song "Who Wants to Live Forever" (''Emphasis/Who Wants to Live Forever'')

Jeff Waters - Guitars on song "De-Energized" (''After Forever'')

Rannveig Sif Sigurdardottir - Mezzo-soprano (''After Forever'')

Amanda Somerville - Alto (''Remagine, After Forever'')

Yvonne Rooda - Alto (''Prison Of Desire'')

Previn Moore - Bass (''After Forever'')

Hans Cassa - Bass (''Prison Of Desire'')

Caspar De Jonge - Tenor (''Prison Of Desire'')

Discography

Studio albums

''Prison of Desire'' (2000)

''Decipher'' (2001)

''Invisible Circles'' (2004)

''Remagine'' (2005)

''After Forever'' (2007)

EPs

''Exordium'' (2003)

Singles

"Follow In The Cry" (2000)

"Emphasis/Who Wants To Live Forever" (2002)

"Monolith Of Doubt" (2002)

"My Choice/The Evil That Men Do" (2003)

"Digital Deceit" (2004)

"Being Everyone" (2005)

"Two Sides/Boundaries Are Open" (2006)

"Energize Me" (2007)

"Equally Destructive" (2007)

Demos

''Ephemeral'' (1999)

''Wings of Illusion'' (1999)

Compilations

''Mea Culpa'' (2006)

Interviews

Interview of Floor Jansen (August 2007) - From www.metal-ways.com

Floor Jansen and Lori Linstruth (December 2008)">Ragnarok Radio Interview with Floor Jansen and Lori Linstruth (December 2008)

References

External links

Official website

Pictures of After Forever concerts

After Forever videography

Category:Dutch symphonic metal musical groups Category:Dutch progressive metal musical groups Category:Musical groups established in 1995 Category:Musical groups disestablished in 2009 Category:Musical sextets

bg:After Forever da:After Forever de:After Forever es:After Forever fa:افتر فوراور fr:After Forever it:After Forever he:After Forever lt:After Forever nl:After Forever ja:アフター・フォーエヴァー no:After Forever pl:After Forever pt:After Forever ro:After Forever ru:After Forever sco:After Forever sk:After Forever fi:After Forever sv:After Forever th:แอฟเตอร์ฟอร์เอเวอร์ tr:After Forever uk:After Forever zh:萬世沉淪

Coordinates	3°8′51″N101°41′36″N
Name	Lakshmi Mittal
Birth date	June 15, 1950
Birth place	Sadulpur, Rajasthan, India
Residence	London, England, UK
Nationality	Indian
Ethnicity	Marwaris
Citizenship	India
Alma mater	St. Xavier's College, Calcutta
Occupation	Chairman & CEO of ArcelorMittalDirector of Goldman SachsOwner of Karrick LimitedCo-owner ofQueens Park Rangers F.C.
Net worth	US$31.1 billion (2011)
children	Vanisha MittalAditya Mittal
religion	Hinduism
awards	}}

Lakshmi Narayan Mittal (born 15 June 1950) is an Indian steel magnate. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaking company.

Mittal is the richest man in the United Kingdom, second richest man in Europe and is presently the sixth richest individual in the world with a personal wealth of . He is the 44th "most powerful person" of the 68 individuals named in Forbes's Most Powerful People list. His daughter Vanisha Mittal's wedding was the most expensive in the recorded history of the world.

Mittal is an independent director of Goldman Sachs, member of the Board of Directors of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, World Steel Association, Foreign Investment Council in Kazakhstan, the International Investment Council in South Africa, the Investors' Council to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council, the World Steel Association's Executive Committee, the Presidential International Advisory Board of Mozambique and the International Iron and Steel Institute’s Executive Committee.

He also presently serves as a board council member of the Prime Minister of India's Global Advisory Council of Overseas Indians. and members in the Advisory Board of the Kellogg School of Management, Executive Board at Indian School of Business and St. Xavier's College, Calcutta Alumni Association, London Chapter.

In 2006, ''Financial Times'' named him "Person of the Year". In 2007, ''Time'' magazine included him in their "100 most influential persons in the world".

Early life and education

Lakshmi Niwas Mittal was born into a Marwari business family in Churu district of Rajasthan, India. His family moved from (Rajgarh)Sadulpur, Rajasthan to Calcutta in West Bengal. He graduated from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta where he graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in business and accounting with first class.He also studied at Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management- The First B-School of India. He has two siblings (brothers) named Pramod Mittal and Vinod Mittal. His father, Mohan Lal Mittal, ran a steel business, Nippon Denro Ispat. Until the 1990s, the family's main assets in India were a cold-rolling mill for sheet steels in Nagpur and an alloy steels plant near Pune. Today, the family business, including a large integrated steel plant near Mumbai, is run by Lakshmi's brothers, Pramod and Vinod, but Lakshmi has no connection with it.

Mittal started his career working in the family's steel making business in India, and in 1976, when the family founded its own steel business, he set out to establish its international division, beginning with the buying of a run-down plant in Indonesia. Shortly afterwards he married Usha, the daughter of a well-to-do moneylender. In 1976, due to differences with his father, mother and brothers,branched out on his the LNM Group, and he has been responsible for the development of its businesses ever since. Mittal Steel is a global steel producer with operations in 14 countries.

Mittal pioneered the development of integrated mini-mills and the use of direct reduced iron or "DRI" as a scrap substitute for steelmaking and led the consolidation process of the global steel industry. Mittal Steel is the largest steelmaker in the world, with shipments of 42.1 million tons of steel and profits of over $22 billion in 2004.

Philanthropy

After witnessing India win only one medal, bronze, in the 2000 Summer Olympics, and one medal, silver, at the 2004 Summer Olympics, Mittal decided to set up Mittal Champions Trust with US$9 million to support 10 Indian athletes with world-beating potential. In 2008, Mittal awarded Abhinav Bindra with Rs. 1.5 Crore (Rs. 15 million), for getting India its first individual Olympic gold medal in shooting.

For ''Comic Relief 2007'', he matched the money raised (~£1 million) on the celebrity special BBC programme, ''The Apprentice''.

ArcelorMittal also has a very active CSR program under which it sets out its path to produce Safe Sustainable Steel. The company also operates the ArcelorMittal Foundation, which provides support to many different community projects around the world in the countries where ArcelorMittal operates.

India: University education formation

In 2002, Lakshmi Niwas Mittal and Usha Mittal foundation and the Government of Rajasthan partnered together to establish a university named the LNM Institute of Information Technology (LNMIIT) in Jaipur as an autonomous non-profit organization. The university will provide quality education having research focus, so that students graduating out of the Institute can make significant contributions to the industries and society.

Criticism and allegations

PHS

Lakshmi Mittal successfully employed Marek Dochnal's consultancy to influence Polish officials in the privatization of PHS steel group, which was Poland's largest. Dochnal was later arrested for bribing Polish officials on behalf of Russian agents in a separate affair.

In 2007, Polish government said it wants to renegotiate the 2004 sale to Arcelor Mittal.

Slave-labour allegations and abhorrent safety records

Employees of Mittal have accused him of "slave labour" conditions after multiple fatalities in his mines. During December 2004, twenty-three miners died in explosions in his mines in Kazakhstan caused by faulty gas detectors.

Mr. Mittal has been accused of running a series of coal mines in Kazakhstan with abhorrent safety records. Between 2004 and 2007, the lax standards were responsible for the deaths of 91 coalminers and the subject of a criminal investigation. Witnesses to a 2006 explosion, which claimed the lives of 41 people, maintain that, despite the plumes of flammable gas, managers at the mines pushed the employees to work so that they could meet their production as well as other targets. One employee even told the Times, "The pressures local managers put us under to meet targets so that they can collect their bonuses are more and more stressful. We are being exploited like animals." Former miner turned trade unionist Pavel Shumkin even claimed, "The miners all agree: compared with life now under Mittal, for them everything was better in Soviet times."

The Mittal Affair: "Cash for Influence"

Controversy erupted in 2002 as Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price exposed the link between UK prime minister Tony Blair and Mittal in the Mittal Affair, also known as 'Garbagegate' or ''Cash for Influence''. Mittal's LNM steel company, registered in the Dutch Antilles and maintaining less than 1% of its 100,000 plus workforce in the UK, sought Blair's aid in its bid to purchase Romania's state steel industry. The letter from Blair to the Romanian government, a copy of which Price was able to obtain, hinted that the privatisation of the firm and sale to Mittal might help smooth the way for Romania's entry into the European Union.

The letter had a passage in it removed just prior to Blair's signing of it, describing Mittal as "a friend."

Queens Park Rangers

Recently, Mittal had emerged as a leading contender to buy and sell Barclays Premiership clubs Wigan and Everton. However on 20 December 2007 it was announced that the Mittal family had purchased a 20 per cent shareholding in Queens Park Rangers football club joining Flavio Briatore and Mittal's friend Bernie Ecclestone. As part of the investment Mittal's son-in-law, Amit Bhatia, took a place on the board of directors. The combined investment in the struggling club sparked suggestions that Mittal might be looking to join the growing ranks of wealthy individuals investing heavily in English football and emulating other similar benefactors such as Roman Abramovich.

On 19 February 2010, Flavio Briatore resigned as QPR chairman, and sold further shares in the club to Ecclestone, making Ecclestone the single largest shareholder.

Environmental damage

Mittal purchased the Irish Steel plant based in Cork from the government for a nominal fee of £1 m. Three years later in 2001, it was closed, leaving 400 people redundant. Subsequent environmental issues at the site have been a cause for criticism. The Government tried to sue in the High Court to have him pay for the clean-up of Cork Harbour but failed. The clean up was expected to cost €70m.

Personal life

His residence at 18-19 Kensington Palace Gardens which was purchased from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone in 2004 for £57 million (US$128 million), making it the world's most expensive house at the time. Mittal's house in Kensington, London is decorated with marble taken from the same quarry that supplied the Taj Mahal. The extravagant show of wealth has been referred to as the "Taj Mittal". It has 12 bedrooms, an indoor pool, Turkish baths and parking for 20 cars.

Mittal bought No. 6 Palace Greens, Kensington Gardens, formerly owned by financier Noam Gottesman, at £117 million for his son Aditya Mittal who is married to Megha Mittal owner and director of the Board of the German fashion luxury brand Escada.

Mittal bought No. 9A Palace Greens, Kensington Gardens, formerly the Filipino embassy, at £70 million in 2008 for his daughter Vanisha Mittal Bhatia Bhatia who is married to Amit Bhatia a businessman and a philanthropist.

Mittal owns three prime properties collectively worth £500 million on the "Billionaire's Row" at Kensington Palace Gardens.

Mittal also owns a house called Summer Palace at 46B, The Bishops Avenue, which is dubbed as "Millionares Row" and is reportedly for sale at £40 million.

Mittal also owns a 5,500 Sq.Ft. Penthouse Apartment at 148-150 Old Park Lane London, just above Hard Rock Cafe which he purchased for £7 million in July 2002 from none other than Lord Sugar of Amstrad.

In 2005, he also bought a colonial bungalow for $30 million at No.22, Aurangzeb Road in New Delhi, India, the most exclusive street in the city occupied by embassies and millionaires, and rebuilt it as a house.

In January 2011 Lakshmi Mittal bought a luxury home in Scotland. Mittal has knocked down a £4 million property to build his new home, valued at around £15 million, making it Scotland’s most expensive home. The Mittal mansion is coming up in one of the most elite neighbourhoods, right near the Gleneagles golf course in Perthshire County. This luxury villa has six bedrooms and two kitchens. The wallpaper and furniture are from Ralph Lauren’s home collection. The wooden flooring and tiles have been flown in from Germany and a super luxe bathroom is estimated to be worth £80,000.

Mittal is now planning to build a "Zero Carbon" Footprint estate in Surrey a 340 acre estate also called Alderbrook Park which was built as a country estate during the 19th century but was part-demolished in the 1950s and replaced with a less-attractive home. He purchased the estate for £5.25 million ands is planning to spend £25 million on it to make it 100 per cent self-sufficient and eco-friendly. The unique modern design will not only ensure the house is zero-carbon, but will make the entire 340-acre estate carbon negative. The house will be built on a stone plinth, which will provide various terraces on which to enjoy the cocktail hour. It will have at least 10 bedrooms, outdoor and indoor swimming pools, a fitness centre, an under-ground art gallery, tennis courts, sculpture garden, an arboretum and croquet lawn.

Awards and Honours

! Year of Award or Honor !! Name of Award or Honor !! Awarding Organization
2010	"Dostyk" 1
2008	Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award	Forbes.
2007	Padma Vibhushan	President of India.
2007	Grand Cross of Civil Merit	Government of Spain.
2007	Dwight D. Eisenhower Global Leadership Award	Business Council for International Understanding.
2007	Fellowship	King's College London.
2004	European Businessman of the Year	Forbes.
2004	Entrepreneur of the Year	Wall Street Journal.
2004	8th honorary Willy Korf Steel Vision Award	American Metal Market and World Steel Dynamics.
1996	Steel Maker of the Year	New Steel.

2007: He was the commencement speaker of class of 2007's MBA commencement at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Bibliography

Tim Bouquet and Byron Ousey - ''Cold Steel'' (Little, Brown, 2008).

Yogesh Chabria - ''Invest The Happionaire Way'' (CNBC - Network18, 2008).

Navalpreet Rangi-''Documentary Film''( The Man With A Mission ,2010).

See also

Arcelor Mittal

Marwaris

References

External links

Profile at ArcelorMittal

Profile at Forbes

Profile at ''BBC News''

Article on Mittal with background on Arcelor takeover bid - ''Time''

Lakshmi Mittal collected news and commentary at ''The Bloomberg Businessweek''

Lakshmi Mittal collected news and commentary at ''The Times of India''

BBC - ""Glimpsing a Fairytale Wedding"" - BBC News

''Mittal Steel Cleveland Works''

Article on Mittal Family purchase of Escada - Bloomberg

Category:1950 births Category:Living people * Category:Businesspeople in steel Category:Businesspeople of Indian descent Category:Fellows of King's College London Category:Indian billionaires Category:Indian businesspeople Category:Indian expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:Indian Hindus Category:Indian emigrants to the United Kingdom Category:Indian vegetarians Category:Labour Party (UK) people Category:Recipients of the Padma Vibhushan Category:Political scandals in the United Kingdom Category:People from Churu district Category:Alumni of St. Xavier's College, Calcutta Category:Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management alumni Category:University of Calcutta alumni Category:Rajasthani people Category:People from Westminster (district)

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