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Paris
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Paris, nicknamed 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 was founded in the 3rd century BC by a Celtic people called the Parisii, who gave the city its name. By the 12th century, Paris was the largest city in the western world, a prosperous trading center, and the home of the University of Paris, one of the first in Europe. In the 18th century, it was the center stage for the French Revolution, and became an important center of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, a position it still retains today. Paris is the home of the most visited art museum in the world, the Louvre. The city is a major rail, highway, and air-transport hub, served by: two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly; the city's subway system, the Paris Métro, and; the national road network.

As the national capital, Paris is the seat of France's national government, which includes the residences of the President and the Prime Minister, the two houses of the Parliament, and the highest courts. Several international organizations are also headquartered in Paris.

The skyline of modern Paris is defined by the Eiffel Tower.

Paris in Atlantis[]

Custis Cawthorne spent most of the Atlantean War of Independence in Paris. He reckoned it the best place on Earth to live, but only for people with the means to live well. The local peasantry had grim grievances against their government which made Atlanteans' grievance against England seem light as a feather on the breeze.[1]

About a century later, Athelstan Helms admitted that he found Paris to be a less impressive city than his own London, but more impressive than Hanover, Atlantis.[2]

Paris in "Coming Across"[]

During his time on Earth in the 13th century, Lingol visited Paris among other human cities.[3]

Paris in Crosstime Traffic[]

Paris in Curious Notions[]

In the alternate designated as 3477 by Crosstime Traffic, the capture of Paris helped end the War of 1914 with a swift German victory.[4]

In the late 21st century, the German Emperor was in the frequent habit of visiting Paris for unspecified "reasons of state." Most people suspected that the Kaiser simply sought entertainment which was not available in Berlin.[5]

Paris in In High Places[]

In an alternate where 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. Despite its poverty, Paris was still rich by the standards of Europe. For instance, its streets had cobblestones. In 2096, 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.

As far as Annette Klein could determine, the Notre Dame Cathedral - completed centuries before the break-point - was the only building which existed 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, including a memorial to Henri, God's second son.

Paris in The Hot War[]

As a major transportation hub, Paris was critical to the Allied efforts early in World War III. Consequently, in June 1951, the Soviet Union dropped an atomic bomb on the center of Paris.[6] The bomb landed near the Arc de Triomphe and partly melted and toppled the famous Eiffel Tower.[7]

Boris Gribkov's Tu-4 was assigned the mission. His regular radio operator was replaced by Klement Gottwald who could speak English. The plan was to fly low the entire distance from an improvised airfield outside Munich and not climb at Paris to drop the bomb. Instead, the bomb would be released at low altitude and allowed to parachute to the ground. A 30 second delay would allow Gribkov's aircraft time to escape the blast radius. In addition, the Soviets began jamming the defenders' radio and radar a week before the mission. The actual flight followed the plan with Gottwald needing to reply to a challenge only once. The Soviet bombers successfully destroyed the heart of Paris.[8]

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 Joe Steele[]

After the Allies drove the Germans from Paris in 1944, Parisians were so happy to be liberated, there were practically orgies in the streets when the Allied troops entered the city. The stories told varied only with the imagination of those telling them.[9]

In 1949, when US President Joe Steele informed Soviet Ambassador Andrei Gromyko that the U.S. might end the Chinese Civil War by deploying atomic bombs against Mao Tse-Tung's forces, Gromyko confirmed that the USSR would drop their own bombs on Paris and other European cities in response.

Paris in The Man With the Iron Heart[]

In 1946, Jürgen Voss, an agent of the German Freedom Front, drove into Paris with explosives, parked his truck at the base of the Eiffel Tower, and then detonated the explosives in his truck, killing himself. The blast toppled the Eiffel Tower into the Seine River.

Paris in Or Even Eagle Flew[]

As World War II was turning against France in May, 1940, Amelia Earhart, Red Tobin, Andrew Mamedoff, and Short Keough arrived in a Paris that was in a panic and enduring nightly German bombing attacks.[10]

The French government fled Paris for Tours beginning on June 10. The four American flyers did the same, as did a number of Paris citizens. France declared Paris an open city to prevent further bombing, and the Germans entered the city in short order.[11]

Paris in "Someone is Stealing the Great Throne Rooms of the Galaxy"[]

Rufus Q Shupilluliumash landed near Paris en route to the Versailles crime scene, causing him to think of himself as a furry version of Charles Lindbergh.[12]

Paris in Southern Victory[]

Paris Bomb

The stump of the Eiffel Tower in the ruins of Paris, July 1944

Paris Bomb 2

Another image of the damaged Eiffel Tower in the ruins of Paris in July 1944.

Paris was the capital of France, and its most important city. During the Franco-Prussian War, the capital was captured, a humiliation the French vowed would never happen again.

When the Great War began in 1914, the Germans initiated a drive to capture 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 in 1917. Even in victory, Germany did not take Paris.

After the war ended, Paris was the site of many great riots and demonstrations as the country's economy spun out of control, first in the aftermath of the Great War, and later during the Great Depression. Most violent among these were the riots led by Action Francaise, which agitated for stronger revanchism and a restoration of the monarchy throughout the 1920s, finally achieving their goal 1930 with the ascent of King Charles XI to the throne.

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 favor, 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 in 1944, Paris was destroyed by a German superbomb, resulting in the death of King Charles XI.[13] While his successor Louis XIX was initially defiant,[14] the death of Paris was too much, and the French government sued for peace.

Paris in The Two Georges[]

During the reign of King Louis XVI, a crowd attempted to storm the Bastille in Paris. Lieutenant Colonel Napoleon Bonaparte prevented this by ordering troops under his command to open fire, declaring "Ils ne passeront pas" ("they shall not pass"). Respectable society viewed Bonaparte as a great man who preserved peace and order, although radical elements viewed it as a tragedy, a viewpoint expressed in the "Fallen Innocents" symphony.

In the late 20th century, Paris remained France's official capital, although the Royal Court met in Versailles.

Paris in "Uncle Alf"[]

Paris fell to Germany during the Great War in 1914, when General Alfred von Schlieffen personally oversaw his plan for a two-front war. In 1929, France was still occupied by the Kaiserreich and was quite restive.[15]

Paris in The War That Came Early[]

In the winter of 1938-9, 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 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. The war ended in 1944 with the Germans never entering Paris.

Paris in Worldwar[]

Paris had been the capital of France until it was subdued and occupied by Germany in 1940.

After the arrival of the Race's Conquest Fleet, the city was subject to aerial attacks though it escaped relatively unscathed. 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. After the war ended, it remained an important administrative center for France, as the whole country was recognized as territory 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 newly created Fourth Republic after Germany's defeat. The Race, which became France's new patron, increased its presence in Paris.

See also[]

References[]

  1. The United States of Atlantis, pg. 402.
  2. See e.g. Atlantis and Other Places, pg. 396.
  3. Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy, pg. 368.
  4. Curious Notions, pg. 18, mmp.
  5. Ibid., pg. 43.
  6. Bombs Away, pgs. 427-430, ebook.
  7. Armistice, p. 154.
  8. Ibid.
  9. Joe Steele, pgs. 295-296, HC.
  10. Or Even Eagle Flew, pgs. 18-20, loc. 242-261.
  11. Ibid., pgs. 22-24, loc. 283-304.
  12. See, e.g., Atlantis and Other Places, pg. 325.
  13. In at the Death, pg. 294.
  14. Ibid.
  15. See e.g.: Atlantis and Other Places, pgs. 341-342, HC.
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