22 Cool Paris Facts Most People Go Their Whole Life Without Knowing

There's more to the City of Lights than the Eiffel Tower and cheese.

1. Paris has its own Statue of Liberty.

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The Statue of Liberty might have been gifted to the US from France in 1886, but a few years later, the American community in Paris gave the French a quarter-scale replica, which now sits on a man-made island in the Seine.

The city also has a Flame of Liberty — a full-sized replica of the flame from the original Statue of Liberty — that has evolved into a shrine for Princess Diana, who was killed in car crash in the nearby Alma bridge tunnel.

2. When the Eiffel Tower was first being constructed, Parisians despised it — and some still do.

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It’s hard to imagine Paris without the Eiffel Tower, but when it was first being built (for the World’s Fair in 1889), many Parisians were vehemently opposed to the tower — including renowned writers and artists. Insults for the design and structure included: "this truly tragic lamppost," "this belfry skeleton," and "this mast of iron gymnasium apparatus, incomplete, confused, and deformed.” Ouch. Even today, many Parisians find the Eiffel Tower to be a scar on the city's otherwise beautiful architecture.

3. Paris retains an army of carrier pigeons.

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Outside the city in a 19th-century fortress is a flock of carrier pigeons whose ancestors once carried the country's most sensitive messages. The pigeons are kept on standby should more advanced forms of communication fail.

If that isn't cute and oddly romantic, I don't know what is.

4. There’s an annual competition to determine the best baguette in Paris. And, as you'd imagine, it's serious business.

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Every year since 1994, Le Grand Prix de la Baguette takes place: a competition that relies on a jury of baking pros and six randomly chosen Parisians to determine the city’s best baguette. These lucky bread lovers get to eat baguettes all day long — judging each loaf for taste, texture, smell, and aesthetics — and the winning boulangerie (bakery) gets a line around the block and national notoriety.

Bonus bread fact: According to the BBC, the country’s official Observatoire du Pain (Bread Observatory — told you they love their bread) reports that the French consume 320 baguettes every second, which works out to be an average of half a baguette per human, per day. Pass the butter, please!

5. Paris is broken up into 20 arrondissements (or neighborhoods) that are numbered to resemble the spiral of a snail shell.

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Starting with the first arrondissement, which is found in the center of the city near the Seine River (and houses the Louvre), the arrondissements are numbered in a clockwise spiral. If you zoom out, the placement of arrondissements resembles the swirl of a snail shell, which just so happens to be one of the foods associated with the French.

6. The city's first café has been in business 90 years longer than the US has been a country.

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The oldest café in Paris Le Procope opened in 1686, almost a century before the US was founded in 1776.

7. Built in the 17th century, one of the city's oldest buildings is now home to a (delicious) Vietnamese restaurant.

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Nestled in the center of Paris is 3 Rue Volta, one of the oldest buildings in Paris, is the current home to Song Heng, a popular Vietnamese restaurant that almost always has a line of people waiting to tuck into a bowl of pho.

8. There are 14 cemeteries in Paris, including one that houses the tomb of Jim Morrison and another that’s home to a horde of stray cats.

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The cemeteries in Paris are beautiful and historic; people come to eat their lunch on the benches or walk the cobblestone pathways over the weekend.

At Paris’s most famous cemetery Père Lachaise, you can visit the grave of Jim Morrison (frontman for the Doors). And at another well-known resting place, Montmartre Cemetery, you’ll find a crew of skittish felines getting comfy on and around the gravestones.

9. The city has two natural islands (and several artificial ones).

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France's capital may be landlocked, but nestled in the Seine river (which splits the city in two) are two natural river islands: Île de la Cité and Île Saint-Louis, which are connected to each other and the rest of Paris by bridge.

Île de la Cité was Paris's historical center and has a collection of gothic buildings (most notably the Notre-Dame Cathedral), while the much smaller Île Saint-Louis has only eight streets and an iconic ice cream shop, Berthillon.

10. Every summer, the city hauls in tons of sand and palm trees and brings the beach to Paris.

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During July and August, sand, palm trees, beach chairs, and umbrellas pop up alongside the city’s waterways, including the Seine. In addition to enticing the sun lovers of Paris, the annual “beach festival” offers daily theater workshops, live music, water sports, and tai chi classes.

11. The quality of water in France is top-notch and you’ll find free sparkling water fountains throughout Paris.

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France is known for their water. After all, bottled water companies like Le Perrier and Evian originated in France. But you don’t need to buy pricey bottled water to enjoy one of the country’s most celebrated resources (after wine, of course); you can enjoy it for free, right from the tap.

And, if you like your water avec gas (with bubbles), all you have to do is seek out one of the city’s free sparkling water fountains.

12. Some people who visit Paris suffer from Paris Syndrome: a feeling of disappointment that the city wasn’t what they expected.

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Paris is so hyped up (romance! wine! art! cobblestones!) that some visitors leave their Paris vacation feeling disappointed. The effect is so common that it’s been given a name: Paris Syndrome. According to the Atlantic, in the summer of 2011, at least 20 people fell victim to this particular ailment.

13. Below the streets of Paris is a subterranean labyrinth of tunnels that house the bodies of over 6 million people.

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When overflowing Paris cemeteries were tied to public health issues in the late 18th century, bodies were taken from their aboveground resting places at night and dropped into quarries. Workers then distributed the piles of bones and bodies in a network of deep, underground galleries. Not exactly what you imagine when you think of romantic Parieee.

And a portion of this eerie world, the Paris Catacombs, is open to the public: You can descend 65 feet (20 meters) below the Earth’s surface and wander through a mile-long section of the maze of skulls and femur bones for yourself...if you're into that sort of thing.

14. But, only a select few know how to access the full 170+ miles of underground tunnels and chambers beyond the Catacombs.

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A small and secretive community of Parisians — often called cataphiles — know how to access and travel through the closed-off portions of this massive underground network. They roam the more than 170 miles of tunnels and chambers, mark the walls with art, and set up elaborate hangout spots — like the huge cavern found by police in 2004 that had a movie theater, restaurant, and bar.

15. These same tunnels also connect to bomb shelters that were used as protection during World War II.

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These bomb shelters and living quarters were used during the German occupation in World War II. One chamber was even equipped to house up to 60 people.

16. Many Parisians take a monthlong vacation in August, leaving the city empty.

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France is often envied for its generous number of vacation days, and the French are known for taking a chunk of that vacation time (usually around 30 days) in August. The city empties out; many restaurants, offices, and boutiques temporarily close; and those who stick around (or plan a Paris trip in August) have the city to themselves.

17. Some of the city’s metro stations are elaborately decorated, including one that feels like the inside of a submarine.

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The French are proud of their history and culture; so naturally, they showcase some of that pride in the metro, where they have the undivided attention of commuters and tourists. The Arts et Métiers station was designed to resemble the interior of a submarine, while the metro stop for the Louvre is decorated with replica works of art.

18. And some have metro entrances that look like they're crawling with snakes (at least to me).

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Certain metro entrances are more interesting (and spooky) than others. The dark green, Art Nouveau–inspired entrances, created by Hector Guimard around the beginning of the 20th century, have serpentine-like features, glowing red lights, and lettering that feels horror film–esque.

19. A deserted railway line circles Paris, much of which is overgrown with plants and closed to the public.

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Hidden just outside of some of Paris’s busiest neighborhoods is the abandoned Petite Ceinture (or “little belt”) railroad. Certain parts of this track have been transformed into parks or walking paths, but a lot of the railway remains abandoned, only accessed by urban explorers and those who have made the hidden track and underground tunnels their home.

20. The first known photo featuring people was shot in Paris in 1838.

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The earliest photograph ever was taken in the French region of Burgundy in 1826, but the first pic featuring a human was snapped years later in Paris by Louis Daguerre. It features Boulevard du Temple and a person having their shoes shined (look closely in the bottom left corner).

21. If you tried to see every piece of art in the Louvre, Paris's most famous museum, it would take you around eight months.

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Musée du Louvre spans 73,000 square meters (over 785,000 square feet) and houses around 35,000 artworks. If you looked at each of these pieces for 30 seconds, you'd be there for roughly 200 (!!) days. It's also the most visited museum in the world: 10.2 million people stopped by in 2018 alone.

22. And finally, Leonardo da Vinci's famous Mona Lisa painting was once stolen from the Louvre — and it took over a day for anyone to notice it was missing.

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Leonardo da Vinci was born and raised in Italy but died in France, and both countries claim the artist as their own. His most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, was put on display in the Lourve in 1804, but was later stolen by Italian national Vincenzo Peruggia in 1911. Peruggia dressed up like an employee and took the painting off the wall when no one was looking. He was caught two years later and the Mona Lisa was returned to the Louvre, further fueling the two countries' feud over the artist.

Any interesting facts about Paris I missed? Chime in below!

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