Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The French receive free education and health care, state-subsidised child care, travel con-
cessions for families, ample leisure time and a 35-hour working week.
TIMELINE
3rd century BC
Celtic Gauls called Parisii arrive in the Paris area and set up wattle-and-daub huts on
the Seine, possibly in the Nanterre area.
52 BC
Roman legions under Titus Labienus crush a Celtic revolt on Mons Lutetius (site of
today's Panthéon) and establish the town of Lutetia (Lutèce in French).
AD 250
St-Denis, who brought Christianity to Lutetia, is executed on Montmartre. According
to legend, he then carries his head 10km north, to the site of the future royal necropol-
is of St-Denis.
451
Attila the Hun unexpectedly turns away from Paris to march south; credit is given to
the prayers of Geneviève, who later becomes the city's patron saint.
509
Clovis I becomes the first king of the Franks and the first Frankish ruler to convert to
Christianity. He declares Paris the seat of his new kingdom.
845-86
Paris is repeatedly raided by Vikings for over four decades, including the siege of
885-86 by Siegfried the Saxon, which lasts 10 months but ends in victory for the
French.
987
Five centuries of Merovingian and Carolingian rule ends with the crowning of Hugh
Capet; a dynasty that will rule one of Europe's most powerful countries for the next
eight centuries.
