Siege of Paris (885–886)

The police prefecture (French: préfecture de police) is the unit of the French Ministry of the Interior that provides police, emergency services, and various administrative services to the population of the city of Paris and the surrounding three suburban départements of Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, and Val-de-Marne. It is headed by the Prefect of Police (Préfet de police). "La PP" (Préfecture de Police), as it is also known, supervises the Paris Police force, the Paris Fire Brigade, and various administrative departments in charge of issuing ID cards and driver licenses or monitoring alien residents. The Prefecture of Police also has security duties in the wider Île-de-France région as the Préfet de Police is also Préfet de Zone de Défense (Prefect for the Defense zone). Since 2017, it has acquired direct responsibility for the three main airports of the Paris area (Charles de Gaulle, Orly and Le Bourget). In addition to the Préfecture de Police, the French government created the Paris Municipal Police (French: Police municipale de Paris) in 2021. In contrast with the Préfecture, the municipal police report to the city government, rather than to the national government. Municipal police officers began patrolling city streets on foot, bicycle, and by car starting on October 18, 2021. The goal of the municipal police is to "make neighbourhoods safer and more peaceful and ensure that public space is shared," for example by enforcing laws on parking, littering, breaking up quarrels, and assisting homeless or elderly residents.The préfecture is a large building located in the Place Louis Lépine on the Île de la Cité. This building was built as a barracks for the Garde républicaine from 1863 to 1867 (architect Pierre-Victor Calliat) and was occupied by the Prefecture in 1871. As it is the capital of France, with government assemblies and offices and foreign embassies, Paris poses special issues of security and public order. Consequently, the national government has been responsible for providing law enforcement and emergency services since the creation of the Lieutenancy General of Police (lieutenance générale de police) by Louis XIV on March 15, 1667. Disbanded at the start of the French Revolution in 1789, it was replaced by the current Prefecture of Police created by Napoléon I on February 17, 1800. This means that, up until 2021, Paris did not have its own police municipale and that the Police Nationale provided all of these services directly as a subdivision of France's Ministry of the Interior. Policemen assigned to "la PP" are part of the Police nationale but the Police Prefect reports directly to the Interior Minister, not to the director of the Police nationale (Directeur général de la Police nationale or DGPN). In Parisian slang, the police were sometimes known as "the archers", a very old slang term in reference to the archers of the long-defunct Royal Watch. Paris also has the "Direction de la Prévention, de la Sécurité et de la Protection" (DPSP) (Prevention, Security and Protection Directorate) which is composed of Agents with municipal police powers titled inspecteurs de sécurité (Security Inspectors). The DPSP reports to the Mayor of Paris.

The Petit Pont (Little Bridge) is a bridge crossing the River Seine in Paris, built in 1853, although a structure has crossed the river at this point since antiquity. The present bridge is a single stone arch linking the 4th arrondissement and the Île de la Cité, with the 5th arrondissement, between quai de Montebello and quai Saint-Michel. The Petit Pont is notable for having been destroyed, at least thirteen times since its original inception during Gallo-Roman times to the mid-19th century. It is served by the Metro station Saint-Michel.

The siege of Paris of 845 was the culmination of a Viking invasion of West Francia. The Viking forces were led by a Norse chieftain named "Reginherus", or Ragnar, who tentatively has been identified with the legendary saga character Ragnar Lodbrok. Reginherus's fleet of 120 Viking ships, carrying thousands of men, entered the Seine in March and sailed up the river. The Frankish king Charles the Bald assembled a smaller army in response but after the Vikings defeated one division, comprising half of the army, the remaining forces retreated. The Vikings reached Paris at the end of the month, during Easter. They plundered and occupied the city, withdrawing after Charles the Bald paid a ransom of 7,000 French livres [2,570 kg (83,000 ozt)] in gold and silver.

Île de la Cité (French: [il də la site]; English: City Island) is an island in the river Seine in the center of Paris. In the 4th century, it was the site of the fortress of the Roman governor. In 508 Clovis I, the first King of the Franks, established his palace on the island. In the 12th century it became an important religious center, the home of Notre-Dame cathedral, and the royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, as well as the city's first hospital: the Hôtel-Dieu. It is also the site of the city's oldest surviving bridge, the Pont Neuf. With the departure of the French kings to the Louvre Palace and then to the Palace of Versailles, the island became France's judicial centre. In 1302 it hosted the first meeting of the Parliament of Paris and was later the site of the trials of aristocrats in the French Revolution. Today, it is the home of the Prefecture de Police, the Palais de Justice, and the Tribunal de commerce de Paris. The Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation, a memorial to the 200,000 people deported from Vichy France to the Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War, is located at the eastern end of the island. The city's most famous landmark, Notre-Dame de Paris, was badly damaged by a fire in 2019 and is closed, but it is expected to reopen in time for the Paris Olympics in 2024. As of 2016, the island's population was 891.

Lutetia, (UK: loo-TEESH-ə, also US: ; Latin: [luːˈteːtia]; French: Lutèce [lytɛz]) also known as Lutetia Parisiorum ( pə-RIZ-i-OR-əm; Latin: [... pariːsiˈoːrʊ̃ː]; lit. 'Lutetia of the Parisii'), was a Gallo–Roman town and the predecessor of modern-day Paris. Traces of an earlier Neolithic settlement (c. 4500 BC) have been found nearby, and a larger settlement was established around the middle of the 3rd century BC by the Parisii, a Gallic tribe. The site was an important crossing point of the Seine, the intersection of land and water trade routes. In the 1st century BC, the settlement was conquered by Romans and a city began to be built. Remains of the Roman forum, amphitheatre, aqueduct and baths can still be seen. In the 5th century it became the capital of the Merovingian dynasty of French kings, and thereafter was known as Paris. Many artifacts from Lutetia have been recovered and are on display at the Musée Carnavalet.

Sainte-Geneviève-des-Ardents (French pronunciation: ​[sɛ̃t ʒə.nə.vjɛv də.z‿aʁ.dɑ̃]), known as Sainte-Geneviève-la-Petite in the Middle Ages, was a church located at present-day Parvis Notre-Dame – Place Jean-Paul-II in the Île de la Cité in Paris, France. It is dedicated to Saint Genevieve, the miracles imputed to whom included "the cessation of a horrible plague, called the mal ardent, which desolated Paris in the reign of Louis le Gros".

The Bouquinistes of Paris, France, are booksellers of used and antiquarian books and rare vintage postcards who ply their trade along large sections of the banks of the Seine: on the right bank from the Pont Marie to the Quai du Louvre, and on the left bank from the Quai de la Tournelle to Quai Voltaire. The Seine is thus described as 'the only river in the world that runs between two bookshelves'.

The place Louis-Lépine is a square in the 4th arrondissement of Paris on the île de la Cité. It is bounded by the rue de la Cité (east), rue de Lutèce (south), rue Aubé (west), the quai de la Corse (north), and is crossed by the allée Célestin-Hennion. It is named after Louis Lépine, a notable prefect of the Paris police. The Metro station Cité has its only entrance on the square. It is the venue for the Marché aux fleurs Reine-Elizabeth-II, a flower and bird market. The prefecture of police is a large building located between the Place Louis Lépine and the Quai du Marché neuf. This building was built as a barracks for the Garde républicaine from 1863 to 1867 (architect Pierre-Victor Calliat) and was occupied by the Prefecture in 1871.

The Marché aux fleurs Reine-Elizabeth-II is a flower market in Paris. It was formerly known as the Marché aux fleurs et aux oiseaux Cité but was renamed for Queen Elizabeth II after a state visit in 2014.It sells caged birds on Sundays but this trade has been forbidden on the grounds of animal welfare and so is expected to cease after a period of renovation and reorganisation scheduled from 2023 to 2025.

On 6 June 2017, at around 16:00 CET, French police shot a man who attacked a police officer with a hammer outside Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral on the Île de la Cité, located in the centre of Paris. The man injured the officer with the hammer, and was found to be in possession of kitchen knives. French police opened a terrorism investigation.The accused is an Algerian-born journalist named Farid Ikken, who won an award for his prize-winning human rights writing in Sweden, before returning to Algeria where he started an online news site, and then, moved to France on a student visa, he was pursuing a PhD in communications at the time of the attack. According to the prosecutor, a video in which he pledged allegiance to ISIS was found at the accused's apartment.

Le Chat Qui Pêche is a Parisian jazz club and restaurant founded in the mid-1950s, located in a cellar in rue de la Huchette in the Latin Quarter, on the left bank of the Seine. It was run by a woman called Madame Ricard, who had been in the French Resistance during the war, and "who looked so small and delicate that people likened her to the 'Little Sparrow', Edith Piaf. According to legend, Ricard had become a heroine of the French Resistance by informing against the Nazis. As she floated through the club she was all maternal warmth, however, calling the musicians 'mes enfants' and housing them in an apartment she kept over the club."According to the recollections of Jimmy Wormworth, who was invited to perform at Le Chat Qui Pêche in August 1957 with his American Jazz Quintet (comprising Wormworth as drummer and leader, Roland Ashby on piano, Sal Amico on trumpet, Barry Rogers on trombone and George Braithwaite on alto saxophone): "I was told that we made her club so successful, because there were many bus tours coming to hear us, that, after us, Madame Ricard hired many famous American jazz musicians, so that she had the funds to add another floor in the club....I don't know if that's true, but I think it was the late Al Levitt, who told me that, because he stayed in Paris, after we came back to the USA."In the 1960s numerous jazz legends played there, including Bud Powell, Chuck Israels, Chet Baker, Eric Dolphy Jackie McLean, Johnny Griffin, Lucky Thompson, Oscar Pettiford Donald Byrd, whose 1958 Au Chat Qui Peche date (with pianist Walter Davis, Jr., bassist Doug Watkins, drummer Art Taylor and featuring Bobby Jaspar on tenor sax) was one of his earliest live recordings as a leader.The club lasted up to 1970, when Madame Ricard sold her license. A restaurant with the same name now operates at the location.

Rue du Chat-qui-Pêche is considered the narrowest street in Paris. It is only 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) wide for the whole of its 29 m (95 ft) length. It is in the 5th arrondissement, on the Rive Gauche of the Seine, and runs from Quai Saint-Michel to Rue de la Huchette,