NIE ACTIVITY
GEOGRAPHY Connections
This yearlong series is presented in collaboration with the Connecticut Geographic Alliance. For more information about NIE visit www.courantnie.com or call 241-3144.
PARIS, France
Kathleen Ryan,
Connecticut Geographic Alliance
CITY VIEW:
Bonjour! Welcome to Paris, the City of Light! Paris, located
on the Seine River, is the capital and largest city of France.
The Parisii people had lived in the area for centuries when
the Romans arrived here in 52 BCE and established a
permanent settlement on an island in the Seine River.
Today Paris is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Let’s
explore Paris and its many historic sites.
Probably the most recognizable structure in Paris is the
Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Paris Exposition or world’s
fair. It is not the tallest building in Paris. That designation
belongs to the Montparnasse Tower, completed in 1972 in
the Montparnasse neighborhood of Paris.
Another famous Paris building is the Cathedral of Notre
Dame, completed in the 14th century on the Ile de la Cite,
an island in the Seine River. It is renowned for its soaring
Gothic architecture of flying buttresses and stained glass
windows.
Paris’ bridges over the Seine River connect the Left Bank
with the Right Bank sides of the river. Two of the most
famous bridges are the Alexander III Bridge and the Pont
Neuf or “New Bridge.”
Paris is famed for its broad boulevards and avenues. The
most famous is the mile-long Champs-Elysees, which runs
from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde. This
avenue is lined with theaters, cafés and restaurants, luxury
specialty shops, and famous buildings such as the Grand
Palais.
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TAKE 5
Location: Paris is located at 48
degrees North latitude 2 degrees East
longitude on the Seine River in northern
France.
Place: Paris is known as the City of
Light for its culture and its early use of
modern street lighting.
Human/Environmental Interaction:
Paris was redesigned as a city in the
19th century under the leadership
of Baron Haussmann. Entire
neighborhoods of narrow medieval
streets and their buildings were
replaced with broad boulevards and
Neoclassical buildings that are so
famous today.
Movement: Besides being the fourth
largest port in France, Paris is a major
rail, highway, and air transportation
center. Paris’ train station Le Gard
du Nord is the busiest train station in
Europe. The city’s subway system,
Use the Internet to discover 15 historic sites of Paris and locate these on a city map of Paris.
Le Metro, opened in 1900. Orly,
Paris-Charles de Gaulle, and le Bourget
Airports serve the city.
Region: Paris is the political, cultural,
and economic center of France. It
is the home of UNESCO, the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization.
DID YOU KNOW?
An increasingly popular way to get
around Paris is by bicycle. There are
440 kilometers (more than 250 miles) of
bicycle paths and routes in Paris. The
city has a bicycle-sharing system called
Velib, with more than 20,000 public
bicycles distributed at 1,450 parking
stations around Paris.
Bicycle riders along the Boulevard de Montparnasse, Paris (Photo courtesy of Kathleen Ryan)
MAP IT OUT
Paris is one of the major cities of the world to be visited by the Black Death, during the second
pandemic (worldwide) epidemic of 1347-1352. From 1347-1771 it is estimated that perhaps 50
million people perished as a result. Using a blank map of Eurasia map the following cities where
the plague was a scourge:
Istanbul, Messina (Sicily) 1347
Paris, Cairo, Barcelona 1348
London, Vienna, Baghdad 1348-49
Stockholm, Budapest 1350
Warsaw 1351
Moscow 1352
Questions of a geospatial nature
(the why of where):
1. What forms of transportation may have led to this accelerated spread of the disease?
2. What was the cause or carrier of the disease?
3. Trace the possible route the disease may have taken to spread over Europe.
4. List other pandemics that have occurred in world history.
Source: National Geographic Almanac of World History, Patricia Daniels and Stephen
Hyslop,
Washington, DC, National Geographic, c. 2006
Community Connections Activity
Then write a travelogue explaining why each site is historically and culturally important to
Paris, to France, and to the world. Include photographs of each site.
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/600/
http://mappery.com/maps/Paris-France-Tourist-Map-4.jpg
NEXT PAGE - December 6th
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11/7/12 10:44 AM