Introduction

Paris has long been the world’s most popular destination and, in the view of many, the world’s most beautiful city – the product of two thousand years of continuous improvement and refinement. The Making of Paris is the story of how Paris evolved from a small fishing village on an island in the middle of the Seine River into the City of Light. The focus of the book is on the city as seen from the street, in order to understand the evolution of the urban landscape of Paris through the rues and boulevards and the buildings and monuments from its long and storied past.