Celts and Romans (52 B.C.-A.D. 500)
Border Wars with England (1066-1500)
Renaissance and Religious Wars (1500s)
Louis XIV, the Absolute Monarch (1600s)
Decadence and Revolution (1700s)
Elected Emperors and Constitutional Kings (1800s)
War and Depression (1900-1950)
Julius Caesar conquered the Parisii, turning Paris from a tribal fishing village into a European city. The mix of Latin (southern) and Celtic (northern) cultures, with Paris right in the middle, defined the French character.
Related Sights: Cluny Museum (Roman baths), Louvre (Roman antiquities), Paris Archaeological Crypt (in front of Notre-Dame)
Roman Paris fell to German pirates known as the Franks (hence “France”), and later to the Vikings (a.k.a. Norsemen, which became “Normans”). During this turbulent time, Paris was just another island-state (“Ile de France”) in the midst of many warring kingdoms. The lone bright spot was the reign of Charlemagne (A.D. 768-814), who briefly united the Franks, giving a glimpse of the modern nation-state of France.
Related Sights: Cluny Museum (artifacts), Statue of Charlemagne (near Notre-Dame)
In 1066, the Norman duke William the Conqueror invaded and conquered England. This united England, Normandy, and much of what is today western France; sparked centuries of border wars; and produced many kings of England who spoke French. In 1328 King Charles IV died without an heir, and the Norman king of England tried to claim the throne of France, which led to more than a century of Franco-Anglo battles, called the Hundred Years’ War. Rallied by the teenage visionary Joan of Arc in 1429, the French finally united north and south, and drove the English across the Channel in 1453. Modern France was born, with Paris as its capital.
Related Sights: Notre-Dame Cathedral, Sainte-Chapelle, Cluny Museum (tapestries), Carnavalet Museum, Sorbonne, Latin Quarter
A strong, centralized France emerged, with French kings setting Europe’s standard. François I made Paris a cultural capital, inviting Leonardo and Mona Lisa to visit. Catholics and Protestants fought openly, with 2,000 Parisians slaughtered in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in 1572. The Wars of Religion subsided for a while when the first Bourbon king, Henry IV, took the throne in 1589 after converting to Catholicism. In 1598, he signed the Edict of Nantes, which instituted freedom of religious worship.
Related Sights: Louvre (palace and Renaissance art), Pont Neuf, Place des Vosges, Fontainebleau
Louis XIV solidified his power, neutered the nobility, revoked the Edict of Nantes, and moved the capital to Versailles, which also became the center of European culture. France’s wealth sparked “enlightened” ideas that became the seeds of democracy.
Related Sights: Versailles, Vaux-le-Vicomte, Hôtel des Invalides, paintings by Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain
This was the age of Louis XV, Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Maximilien de Robespierre, and Napoleon. A financial crunch from wars and royal excess drove the French people to revolt. On July 14, 1789, they stormed the Bastille. A couple of years later, the First French Republic arrested and then beheaded the king and queen. Thousands lost their heads—guillotined if suspected of hindering the Revolution’s progress. A charismatic commoner promising stability rose amid the chaos: Napoleon Bonaparte.
Related Sights: Versailles, Place de la Concorde, Place de la Bastille, Conciergerie, paintings by Watteau, Boucher, Fragonard, and David (Louvre)
Napoleon conquered Europe, crowned himself emperor, invaded Russia, was defeated on the battlefields of Waterloo, and ended up exiled to an island in the Atlantic. The monarchy was restored, but rulers toed the democratic line—or were deposed in the popular uprisings of 1830 and 1848. The latter resulted in the Second French Republic, whose first president was Napoleon’s nephew. He rewrote the constitution with himself as Emperor Napoleon III, and presided over a wealthy, middle-class nation with a colonial empire in slow decline. The disastrous Franco-Prussian War in 1870 ended his reign, leading to the Third Republic. France’s political clout was fading, even as Paris remained the world’s cultural center during the belle époque—the “beautiful age.”
Related Sights: Arc de Triomphe, Baron Haussmann’s wide boulevards, Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides and Napoleon’s Tomb, Pont Alexandre III, Grand Palais, Petit Palais, Montmartre, Opéra Garnier, paintings by Ingres and Delacroix (Louvre), Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings (Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cézanne, and so on) at the Orsay, Marmottan, and Orangerie museums
France began the turn of the 20th century as top dog, but two world wars with Germany (and the earlier Franco-Prussian War) wasted the country. France lost millions of men in World War I, sank into an economic depression, and was easily overrun by Hitler in World War II. Paris, now dirt cheap, attracted foreign writers and artists.
This was the age of Pablo Picasso, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, Igor Stravinsky, Vaslav Nijinsky, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, Jean-Paul Sartre, Edith Piaf, and Maurice Chevalier.
Related Sights: Picasso Museum, Deportation Memorial, Holocaust Memorial, Pompidou Center (art from this period)
After the war, France reestablished a democracy with the Fourth Republic. But France’s colonial empire dissolved after bitter wars in Algeria and Vietnam, which helped mire an already unsteady government. Wartime hero Charles de Gaulle was brought back in 1958 to assist with France’s regeneration. He rewrote the constitution, beginning the Fifth (and current) Republic. Immigrants from former colonies flooded Paris. The turbulent ’60s, progressive ’70s, socialist-turned-conservative ’80s, and the middle-of-the-road ’90s bring us to the début de siècle, or the beginning of the 21st century.
Related Sights: Montparnasse Tower, La Défense, Louvre’s pyramid, Pompidou Center (modern art)
History comes to life when you visit a centuries-old church. Even if you wouldn’t know your apse from a hole in the ground, learning a few simple terms will enrich your experience. Note that not every church has every feature, and a “cathedral” isn’t a type of church architecture, but rather a designation for a church that’s a governing center for a local bishop.
Aisles: The long, generally low-ceilinged arcades that flank the nave.
Altar: The raised area with a ceremonial table (often adorned with candles or a crucifix), where the priest prepares and serves the bread and wine for Communion.
Apse: The space beyond the altar, generally bordered with small chapels.
Barrel Vault: A continuous round-arched ceiling that resembles an extended upside-down U.
Choir: A cozy area, often screened off, located within the church nave and near the high altar, where services are sung in a more intimate setting.
Cloister: Covered hallways bordering a square or rectangular open-air courtyard, traditionally where monks and nuns got fresh air.
Facade: The exterior surface of the church’s main (west) entrance, generally highly decorated.
Groin Vault: An arched ceiling formed where two equal barrel vaults meet at right angles. Less common usage: term for a medieval jock strap.
Narthex: The area (portico or foyer) between the main entry and the nave.
Nave: The long, central section of the church (running west to east, from the entrance to the altar) where the congregation sits or stands through the service.
Transept: In a traditional cross-shaped floor plan, the transept is one of the two parts forming the “arms” of the cross. The transepts run north-south, perpendicularly crossing the east-west nave.
West Portal: The main entry to the church (on the west end, opposite the main altar).
Today, the main political issue in France is—like everywhere—the economy. Initially, France weathered the 2008 downturn better than the US, because it was less invested in risky home loans and the volatile stock market. But now France, along with the rest of Europe, has been struggling. French unemployment remains high (over 10 percent) and growth has flatlined. France has not balanced its books since 1974, and public spending, at 56 percent of GDP, chews up a bigger chunk of output than in any other eurozone country. Abroad, the entire eurozone has been dragged down by countries heavily in debt—Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Ireland. The challenge for French leadership is to address its economic problems while maintaining the high level of social services that the French people expect from their government.
France has its economic strengths: a well-educated workforce, an especially robust services sector and high-end manufacturing industry, and more firms big enough to rank in the global Fortune 500 than any other European country. Ironically, while France’s economy may be one of the world’s largest, the French remain skeptical about the virtues of capitalism and the work ethic. Globalization conflicts in a fundamental way with French virtues—many fear losing what makes their society unique in the quest for a bland, globalized world. Business conversation is generally avoided, as it implies a fascination with money that the French find vulgar. (It’s considered gauche even to ask what someone does for a living.) In France, CEOs are not glorified as celebrities—chefs are.
The French believe that the economy should support social good, not vice versa. This has produced a cradle-to-grave social security system of which the French are proud. France’s poverty rate is half of that in the US, proof to the French that they are on the right track. On the other hand, if you’re considering starting a business in France, think again—taxes are formidable (figure a total small-business tax rate of around 66 percent—and likely to increase). French voters are notorious for their belief in the free market’s heartless cruelty, and they tend to see globalization as a threat rather than a potential benefit. France is routinely plagued with strikes, demonstrations, and slowdowns as workers try to preserve their hard-earned rights in the face of a competitive global economy.
France is part of the 28-member European Union, a kind of “United States of Europe” that has successfully dissolved borders and implemented a common currency, the euro. France’s governments have been decidedly pro-EU. But many French are Euro-skeptics, afraid that EU meddling threatens their job security and social benefits.
The French political scene is complex and fascinating. France is governed by a president (currently François Hollande), elected by popular vote every five years. The president then selects the prime minister, who in turn chooses the cabinet ministers. Collectively, this executive branch is known as the gouvernement. The parliament consists of a Senate (348 seats) and the 577-seat Assemblée Nationale.
In France, compromise and coalition-building are essential to keeping power. Unlike America’s two-party system, France has a half-dozen major political parties, plus more on the fringes. A simple majority is rare. Even the biggest parties rarely get more than a third of the votes. Since the parliament can force the gouvernement to resign at any time, it’s essential that the gouvernement work with them.
For a snapshot of the current political landscape, look no further than the 2012 elections that brought François Hollande to power. He faced incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy of the center-right Popular Movement Union (UMP)—the man who had cut taxes, reduced the size of government, limited the power of unions, cut workers’ benefits, and (most controversially) raised the retirement age from 60 to 62.
Hollande of the Socialist Party (PS) was Sarkozy’s main challenger. But other parties were in the mix. The radical Left Front Party (which includes the once-powerful Communists) proposed raising the minimum wage to $2,200 a month, while the environmental Green Party (Les Verts) promised to stimulate the economy with half a million new green jobs. On the far-right was the National Front party (FN), led by Marine Le Pen. She called for expulsion of ethnic minorities, restoration of the French franc as the standard currency, secession from the EU, and broader police powers.
After several months and one TV debate (yes, the French election season is that short), Hollande emerged victorious. And just one month later, his Socialist Party captured more than half of the 577 seats of the Assemblée Nationale. Nevertheless, Hollande has to work closely with legislators, of whom a strong minority are from opposing parties.
François Hollande is politically moderate and personally modest, even boring. Raised in a suburban Parisian middle-class home, he rose quietly through the ranks: assemblyman from a nondescript département, small-town mayor, secretary of the Socialist Party. He’s never before held a major elected office. Though Hollande is a “Socialist” (a word that spooks Rush Limbaugh), he’s in the mainstream of the European political spectrum.
Hollande moved into the Elysée Palace (the French White House) with his “Première Dame” (or first lady), Valerie Trierweiler. Trierweiler is a well-known journalist who writes for the magazine Paris Match (the French counterpart to Time). She was the first unwed first lady to occupy the Elysée Palace. But in January 2014, it was revealed that Hollande was cheating on her (his personal guards drove him on a Vespa to his lover’s apartment in the wee hours), which brought the relationship to an end. Oh-la-la—imagine this drama in the States. Reaction in France has been predictably understated, as one’s personal business is, after all, personal.
But Hollande faces challenges beyond his home life. On the sluggish economy, he favors government expansion and stimulus rather than austerity: hiring thousands of teachers, building hundreds of thousands of homes, and taxing all income above a million euros at 75 percent. Abroad, he’s run into trouble working with Germany to shore up weaker members of the eurozone. And he’s had to abandon his promise to return the retirement age—at least for some workers—to 60. Hollande’s lune de miel (honeymoon) has clearly passed, with liberals and conservatives who are furious over his economic policies. By the summer of 2014, his approval rating had dropped to just 18 percent.
An ongoing issue that any French leader must address is immigration, which is shifting the country’s ethnic and cultural makeup. Ten percent of France’s population is of North African descent, mainly immigrants from former colonies. The increased number of Muslims raises more questions, particularly in tight economic times. The French have (quite controversially) made it illegal for women to wear a full, face-covering veil (niqāb) in public. They continue to debate whether banning the veil enforces democracy—or squelches diversity.
Finally, a prominent Socialist whom Hollande must contend with is Ségolène Royal. She lost to Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential election, and lost to Hollande in the 2011 primary. In 2014, she was appointed France’s Minister of Ecology. As it happens, Royal and Hollande know each other well: They met in college, lived together for 30 years, and raised four children before splitting up in 2007. They never married. French politics makes strange bedfellows. But that’s personal...
For more about French history, consider Europe 101: History and Art for the Traveler by Rick Steves and Gene Openshaw, available at www.ricksteves.com.