Paris

Paris (also known as the "City of Light") is the capital city of France. It is situated on the Seine River, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region ("Région parisienne").

Paris in Curious Notions
At the end of the 21st century, the German Kaiser, who was virtually the absolute ruler of Europe and of the entire world, was in the frequent habit of visiting Paris, for unspecified "reasons of state". People who read of such visits in their papers, where they were always a worldwide news item, suspected that the Kaiser simply sought entertainment which was not available in Berlin.

Paris in In High Places
As this Paris had taken centuries to recover from the Great Black Deaths, the City of Light remained a small, dirty, medieval city, the capital of the Kingdom of Versailles. In the twenty-first century, it was ruled by Duke Raoul, a cunning politician who nonetheless remained aware of the fact that he ruled a Christian backwater surrounded by powerful Muslim states.

Crosstime Traffic employed the Klein family as trade merchants in acquiring resources, although they did not escape Raoul's suspicion.

Despite its poverty, Paris was still rich by the standards of Europe--it had cobblestones by 2096, for example.

As far as Annette Klein could detemine, the Notre Dame Cathedral - completed centuries before the Great Black Deaths - was the only building exisiting in both in the Paris of this timeline and in that of the Home timeline, though there were many differences of detail between the two versions of the Cathedral.

Paris in In the Presence of Mine Enemies
Paris was horribly damaged as a consequence of German rule. It was a "monument" to greater days by 2010.

In 2011, in the wake of changes instituted by Führer Heinz Buckliger, Parisians began marching in the street, chanting the old French Republic slogan of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity".

Paris in Southern Victory
Paris had been captured during the Franco-Prussian War, a humiliation the French vowed would never happen again.

When the Great War began in 1914, the German's aimed another attack with the intention of capturing Paris but they were thwarted by a combined British and French counter attack. For the rest of the war, the Germans claimed Paris fell numerous times, until the war ended.

After the war ended, Paris was the site of many great riots and demonstrations as the country's economy tailspun out of control, first in the aftermath of the Great War, and later during the Great Depression.

When the Second Great War began in 1941, Paris was bombed by the Germans. At first, they weren't able to do much damage, but as the tide of the war turned in their favour, Paris was bombed more and more heavily until by 1944, it vied with Richmond as the most heavily-bombed city in the world.

After France refused to surrender, Paris was destroyed by a German superbomb in 1944, resulting in the death of King Charles XI.

Paris in The Man With the Iron Heart
Paris was attacked by German Freedom Front in 1946. The Eiffel Tower was toppled into the Seine River by a truck-bomb.

Paris in The War That Came Early
In the winter of 1938-1939 Nazi Germany launched an offensive into France with the aim of eventually getting to and occupying Paris. Germany began with a surprise invasion and occupation of the Netherlands and Belgium and going on to penetrate into France by way of the Ardennes, bypassing the Maginot Line. The French Army was thrown off balance and forced to withdraw again and again, but it was not defeated, and continued a fighting retreat back to the outskirts of Paris. The French capital came under heavy aerial bombing, to which German artillery was eventually added, leading to widespread destruction. Among many other buildings, the Eiffel Tower was largely destroyed. Still, the Battle of Paris went on, and eventually the German Army's advance was stopped on the city's outskirts by a mixture of French, British, exiled Czechoslovak and African colonial troops.

Throughout the summer of 1939, Anglo-French forces kept their advance east, forcing the Germans back. German aerial bombardment of Paris continued as a terrorist tactic. Although several landmarks were damaged, Parisians remained resolute.

Paris in Worldwar
Paris had been subdued and occupied by Germany in 1940. While it was subject to attacks by the Race's Conquest Fleet, it escaped relatively unscathed. It remained an important administrative center after the war, when France was under the domination of the Greater German Reich.

Despite its importance, Paris was not attacked during the Race-German War of 1965, and became the capital of the Fourth Republic in 1966, after Germany's defeat.

During the initial invasion, George Bagnall's crew was shot down over Paris. They were able to see first hand the terrible the treatment the city's Jews were receiving at the hands of the Nazis.