Paris France Trivia Quiz Questions and Answers
What is Paris?
A: Paris is the capital and most populous city of France.
What is its population?
More than 2,140,526 residents (official estimate, 1 January
2019).
How big is Paris in square miles?
A: 41 square miles (105 square kilometers).
The city is a major railway, highway and air-transport
hub served by how many international airports?
A: Two, Paris-Charles de Gaulle (the second busiest airport in Europe) and
Paris-Orly.
What opened in 1900?
A: The city's subway system, the Paris Métro.
It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after
what?
A: The Moscow Metro.
What was the most visited art museum in the world in
2018?
A: The Louvre with 10.2 million visitors.
Paris received how many visitors in 2018, measured by
hotel stays?
A: 24.5 million.
It was ranked as the second most visited travel
destination in the world in 2018, after what city?
A: Bangkok.
In what years did the city host the Olympic Games?
A: In 1900, 1924 and will host the 2024 Summer Olympics.
The name "Paris" is derived from what?
A: Its early inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe.
The city's name is not related to the what?
A: The Paris of Greek mythology.
Paris is often referred to as the City of what?
A: Light.
Why?
A: Both because of its leading role during the Age of Enlightenment and
because Paris was one of the first large European cities to use gas street
lighting.
By the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were
illuminated by how many gas lamps?
A: 56,000.
The Romans conquered the Paris Basin in 52 BC and began
their settlement where?
A: On Paris' Left Bank.
The Roman town was originally called what?
A: Lutetia (more fully, Lutetia Parisiorum, "Lutetia of the Parisii").
In 1163, during the reign of Louis VII, Maurice de
Sully, bishop of Paris, undertook the construction of what?
A: The Notre Dame Cathedral at its eastern extremity.
In 1328, Paris, the capital of France, was the most
populous city of Europe with how many inhabitants?
A: 200,000.
By comparison, London in 1300 had how many inhabitants.
A: 80,000.
The Hôtel de Sens, one of many remnants of the Middle Ages in Paris
During the Hundred Years' War, Paris was occupied by
whom?
A: England-friendly Burgundian forces.
Paris was occupied by the English when Henry V of England entered the French capital in 1420.
Despite a 1429 effort by Joan of Arc to liberate the
city, it would remain under English occupation until when?
A: 1436.
During the 17th century, Cardinal Richelieu, chief
minister of Louis XIII, was determined to make Paris what?
A: The most beautiful city in Europe.
He built five new bridges, a new chapel for the College
of Sorbonne, and a palace for whom?
A: Himself, the Palais Cardinal.
Due to the Parisian uprisings during the Fronde civil
war, Louis XIV moved his court to what new palace in 1682?
A: Versailles.
In the summer of 1789, Paris became the center stage of
what?
A: The French Revolution.
On 14 July, a mob seized the arsenal at the Invalides,
acquiring thousands of guns, and did what?
A: Stormed the Bastille, a symbol of royal authority.
The population of Paris had dropped by 100,000 during
the Revolution, but between 1799 and 1815, it surged with 160,000 new
residents, reaching what?
A: 660,000.
Napoleon Bonaparte replaced the elected government of
Paris with a prefect reporting only to whom?
A: Him.
The first railway line to Paris opened in 1837,
beginning a new period of what?
A: Massive migration from the provinces to the city.
Louis-Philippe was overthrown by what in 1848?
A: A popular uprising in the streets of Paris.
Late in the 19th century, Paris hosted what two major
international expositions?
A: The 1889 Universal Exposition, which featured the new Eiffel Tower; and
the 1900 Universal Exposition.
By 1901, the population of Paris had grown to how many?
A: 2,715,000.
At the beginning of the century, artists from around
the world including: Pablo Picasso, Modigliani, and Henri Matisse made Paris
their what?
A: Their home.
On 14 June 1940, who marched into Paris, which had been
declared an "open city"?
A: The German army.
On 16–17 July 1942, following German orders, the French
police and gendarmes did what?
A: Arrested 12,884 Jews, including 4,115 children, and sent them to the
extermination camp at Auschwitz.
On 25 August 1944, the city was liberated by whom?
A: The French 2nd Armored Division and the 4th Infantry Division of the
United States Army.
Paris has an average annual rainfall of how much?
A: 25.2 in.
What is the highest recorded temperature in Paris?
A: 42.6 °C (108.7 °F) on 25 July 2019.
Crime in Paris is similar to that in what?
A: In most large cities.
Where is violent crime is relatively rare?
A: In the city center.
Most French rulers since the Middle Ages made a point
of leaving their mark on a city that, contrary to many other of the world's
capitals, has never been what?
A: Destroyed by catastrophe or war.
In modernizing its infrastructure through the
centuries, Paris has preserved even its what?
A: Earliest history in its street map.
Modern Paris owes much of its downtown plan and
architectural harmony to whom?
A: Napoleon III and his Prefect of the Seine, Baron Haussmann.
Sixty-two percent of its buildings date from when?
A: 1949 and before.
Two-thirds of the city's 1.3 million residences are
what?
A: Studio and two-room apartments.
The population of Paris today is lower than its
historical peak of 2.9 million in what year?
A: 1921.
In 2018, Paris was the most expensive city in the world
with what other two cities?
A: Singapore and Hong Kong.