This crystal pyramid sits outside the Louvre. Tremendous lines awaited those who wanted to enter the museum.

MOTTO: “Fluctuat nec mergitur” (Tossed by the waves, she does not sink), a reference to a boat on the city's Coat of Arms.

POPULATION: 2.1 million in the city and 12.1 million in the metro area

AREA: 34 square miles

CLIMATE: Paris has a typical western European oceanic climate and can be described as mild and moderately wet. Temperatures generally range between 41 and 78 degrees with an average temperature of 57 degrees.

TOURISM: Paris is the number one tourist destination in the world with 27 million visitors each year. Sixty percent of hotel customers are foreign, of which one-third are American or British.

INTERESTING FIGURES: There are 60,000 shops in Paris, which has the highest concentration of local shops in France. There are 6,100 streets and 13,260 crossroads, 374 movie screens, 730 film shoots per year and 3,432 days of film shoots, 30 million movie-goers each year, 134 museums and 242 floodlit sites (hotels, churches, statues, fountains, national buildings) and 55 municipal libraries.

SOURCE: City of Paris, France official webpage: www.paris.fr