A Comparison Of London And Paris

Let's begin with the differences between the two cities.

1) Paris is very centralized while London is more decentralized. Paris began at the center and grew outward, while London is more like a bunch of towns that kept growing until they merged together. This is also reflected in the most prominent universities of the two countries. The Sorbonne, the University of Paris, is right in the heart of Paris. But Britain's two best-known universities, Oxford and Cambridge, are not in London.

2) Britain still has it's royal family, while France long ago put it's royal family under the guillotine, and this is inevitably reflected in the two capital cities.

3) Paris is a historically Catholic city that tries to keep the old and the new separated. London, since the Reformation of course, is a historically Protestant city that does not hesitate to put the old and the new right next to each other.

But London and Paris are really a lot more alike than they are different, and must have had a lot of influence on each other.

A) Both cities began with a cathedral and a palace on an island in a river. In Paris it was cathedral Notre Dame and the old Palace of the City. In London it was Westminster Abbey and what is now the British Parliament building on what was called Thorney Island in the Thames River. One channel of the river adjacent to the island has long since been filled in so that there is no longer an island.

It was on this island in the Seine River that Paris began, where the original palace and Cathedral Notre Dame are now located.

https://www.google.com/maps/@48.8545669,2.3471584,998m/data=!3m1!1e3

B) Not far from the beginning of each city on an island we see the Louvre and it's courtyard in Paris, where the royal family moved from the Palace of the City, and the similar arrangement of the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square in London. Both the Louvre and National Gallery are art museums but, unlike the Louvre, the National Gallery building was never a palace.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louvre#/media/File:Vista_exterior_del_Museo_del_Louvre.JPG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Gallery#/media/File:National_Gallery_London_2013_March.jpg

But we do see the difference in centralization between the two cities. The best-known art museums of Paris are near the Louvre, the Orsay and Petite Palais. But the best-known art and artifacts museums in London, the British Museum, the Tate Gallery and the Victoria and Albert ( The V & A) are more scattered and further away from the National Gallery.

C) The royal difference, but yet the similar patterns in the two cities, can be seen in how in Paris the Champs Elysees leads from the Arc de Triomphe to the square where the last French king and queen were executed. While in London the Mall leads from the Admiralty Arch to where the British king or queen lives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champs-%C3%89lys%C3%A9es#/media/File:Champs-Elys%C3%A9es,_vue_de_la_Concorde_%C3%A0_l%27Etoile.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_de_la_Concorde#/media/File:Execution_of_Louis_XVI.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mall,_London#/media/File:The_mall_london.jpg

D) It is easy to see the resemblance between Buckingham Palace with the Victoria Monument in front of it,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Memorial,_London#/media/File:BUCKINGHAM_PALACE.jpg

and the buildings facing Place Concorde, where the French king and queen were executed, with the fountain in front of it,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_de_la_Concorde#/media/File:Place_de_la_Concorde_fountain_dsc00774.jpg

E) Buckingham Palace, where the king or queen lives, has a facade very much like that of the two buildings facing the square where the last French king and queen died. One of those buildings is the headquarters of the French Navy, while the Admiralty Arch is a tribute to the British Navy, and is congruent with Paris' Arc de Triomphe which is Napoleon's tribute to his army.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckingham_Palace#/media/File:Buckingham_Palace_from_gardens,_London,_UK_-_Diliff_(cropped).jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B4tel_de_Crillon#/media/File:Fontaine-place-de-la-concorde-paris.jpg

F) The Admiralty Arch leads along The Mall to the palace where the British queen lives,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiralty_Arch#/media/File:Admiralty_Arch_in_London.JPG

just as the Arc de Triomphe leads along the Champs Elysees to the square where the French king and queen were executed,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe#/media/File:Arc_de_Triomphe,_Paris_21_October_2010.jpg

G) Even with the "royal difference" between the two cities, Britain still having it's royal family while the French king and queen were executed, there is still the similarity of Charles I being executed after the English Civil War in a way Paralleling that of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution. Charles I even temporarily escaped in a way similar to Louis and Marie. The forces that executed both were against Catholicism, the difference being that the French revolutionaries were secular while the English Puritans were not. There is even a resemblance between the former Whitehall Palace, where Charles I was executed, and the Tuileries, the former palace near where Louis and Marie were executed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Whitehall#/media/File:Ingo_Jones_plan_for_a_new_palace_at_Whitehall_1638.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louvre_Palace#/media/File:Louvre1615.jpg

H) In Paris the Champs Elysees leads from the Arc de Triomphe to Place Concorde, the square that has an obelisk in it. From there, just across the Seine River, is the lower house of the French Legislature in Palais Bourbon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_de_la_Concorde#/media/File:Paris_ObeliskConcordre_(pixinn.net).jpg

In London Whitehall leads from the Parliament Building that houses the legislature and has Big Ben in the shape of an obelisk past the British government ministry buildings, to Trafalgar Square.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ben#/media/File:Clock_Tower_-_Palace_of_Westminster,_London_-_May_2007.jpg

Just as Place Concorde has the obelisk, Trafalgar Square has Nelson's Monument on a column.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_de_la_Concorde#/media/File:Place_de_la_Concorde_from_the_Eiffel_Tower,_Paris_April_2011.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trafalgar_Square#/media/File:Trafalgar_Square_Grass_-_May_2007.jpg

I) Along the line (Historical Axis of Paris) between the Arc de Triomphe and Place Concorde is the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. This was the horse parade ground built in front of what was then the Tuileries Palace. This is why a merry-go-round with horses for children to ride is called a carousel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe_du_Carrousel#/media/File:Paris_-_Jardin_des_Tuileries_-_Arc_de_Triomphe_du_Carrousel_-_PA00085992_-_003.jpg

In London, Whitehall between the Parliament and Trafalgar Square has the Horse Guards Palace with the parade ground.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_Guards_(building)#/media/File:Horseguardsentry2010.jpg

J) Just as the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel was the entrance arch for the Tuileries Palace, which is no longer there,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe_du_Carrousel#/media/File:Hippolyte_Bellang%C3%A9_-_Un_jour_de_revue_sous_l%E2%80%99Empire_-_1810.jpg

London's Marble Arch was once the entrance arch to Buckingham Palace, but the arch has since been moved elsewhere,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble_Arch#/media/File:Buckingham_Palace_engraved_by_J.Woods_after_Hablot_Browne_%26_R.Garland_publ_1837_edited.jpg

In Paris there is, of course, no active royal palace but the Louvre was once the royal palace. The upper house of the French legislature is in Palais Luxembourg. The distance between the two is almost exactly the same as the distance between Parliament and Buckingham Palace in London.

K) I see a resonance between Palais Royale and Lambeth Palace. Palais Royale was originally the residence of a cardinal, and was actually called Palais Cardinale. Lambeth Palace is the residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The two palaces are in very congruent locations in their respective cities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palais-Royal#/media/File:Conseil_d%27Etat_Paris_WA.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambeth_Palace#/media/File:Lambeth_Palace_London_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1092465.jpg

L) Another definite resonance between the two cities is The Orsay Museum in Paris and the Aquarium in London. The Orsay Museum (originally a train station built for the 1900 Paris Exhibition) is on the bank of the Seine River opposite the Louvre, which was a royal palace.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_d'Orsay#/media/File:Mus%C3%A9e_d%27Orsay,_North-West_view,_Paris_7e_140402.jpg

The London Aquarium is on the bank of the Thames River opposite the Parliament Buildings, which have the status of a royal palace but where a monarch has never actually resided.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3086581

M) London has the Nelson Monument on a column and the Wellington Arch, strikingly similar to Napoleon's Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, while Paris has the monumental tomb for their former foe Napoleon. Napoleon's Tomb is actually at a home for former soldiers, the Invalides. Going back to the centralization difference between the two cities, London has a well-known home for former soldiers also but it is in Chelsea rather than attached to the monuments to Nelson or Wellington.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe_du_Carrousel#/media/File:Paris_-_Jardin_des_Tuileries_-_Arc_de_Triomphe_du_Carrousel_-_PA00085992_-_003.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_Arch#/media/File:London_Wellington_Arch_P1130942.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson%27s_Column#/media/File:Nelson%27s_Column,_Trafalgar_Square,_London.JPG

Brock's Monument, in Niagara, is a copy of Nelson's Monument.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brock%27s_Monument#/media/File:Brock%27s_Monument_2015.JPG

The dome, seen from the top of the Eiffel Tower, is Napoleon's Tomb. The accompanying buildings are actually a home for former soldiers. London's counterpart is the Royal Military Hospital but, in accord with the decentralization of London relative to the centralization of Paris, is in Chelsea rather than in the central city, as in Paris.

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3879/3734/1600/dc_250929.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Hospital_Chelsea#/media/File:The_Royal_Hospital,_Chelsea_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1314762.jpg

N) While both cities have palaces and grand buildings, the residences of both the French President and British prime minister are actually quite modest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lys%C3%A9e_Palace#/media/File:%C3%89lys%C3%A9e_Palace_2009.JPG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_Downing_Street#/media/File:10_Downing_Street._MOD_45155532.jpg

O) Napoleon III, nephew of the original Napoleon, was in exile in London before undertaking his massive renovation of Paris in the Nineteenth Century. The largest park in Paris, Bois Bologne, was modeled on London's Hyde Park. Rue de Rivoli, the first street to be renovated in Paris and a model for the rest of the city, bears a resemblance to Pall Mall in London (Which also has a cigarette named after it). Pall Mall runs alongside St. James palace just as Rue de Rivoli runs alongside the Louvre, which was originally a palace.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pall_Mall,_London#/media/File:Pall_Mall_2009_103.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pall_Mall,_London#/media/File:A_View_of_St_James_Palace,_Pall_Mall_etc_by_Thomas_Bowles,_published_1763.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rue_de_Rivoli#/media/File:Rivoli_Afternoon.JPG

P) In the same way the Strand in London, which runs eastward from the Admiralty Arch parallel to the Thames River, resembles the Champs Elysees, which runs eastward from the Arc de Triomphe parallel to the Seine River.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strand,_London#/media/File:Strand,_London_WC2_-_geograph.org.uk_-_752450.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champs-%C3%89lys%C3%A9es#/media/File:Champs-Elys%C3%A9es,_vue_de_la_Concorde_%C3%A0_l%27Etoile.jpg

There once was palatial homes along The Strand. As far as I can see Somerset House, originally intended as an nobility home, is the only one that remains.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_House#/media/File:Somerset_House_Strand_London.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerset_House#/media/File:II_Somerset_House,_London,_UK.jpg

Q) A central feature of Napoleon III's renovation of Paris was the Palais Garnier, the opera house. It's London counterpart, built around the same time, is the Royal Albert Hall. The Royal Albert Hall was not built in a renovation of the entire city, as was going on in Paris. It was built with funds left over from the Great Exhibition of 1851, which was the first of what would be many such exhibitions. But much of what Paris became is the result of structures left from the great exhibitions that were held there in the late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palais_Garnier#/media/File:Paris_Opera_full_frontal_architecture,_May_2009.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Albert_Hall#/media/File:Royal_Albert_Hall,_London_-_Nov_2012.jpg

R) The entrance arch to the 1889 Exhibition, celebrating the centennial of the French Revolution was to be the tallest structure that the world has ever seen. Today, it is still there and known as the Eiffel Tower. The Grand Palais and Petit Palais, which is another of the art museums not far from the Louvre, are left over from the Exhibition of 1900. The Trocadero in Paris, across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower, is left from the Exhibition of 1937.

In London the institutions of the Kensington area, the Royal Albert Hall, the Victoria and Albert Museum (the V & A which is believed to actually be the largest art museum in the world), the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, Imperial College and, the Royal College of Music are not directly left over from exhibitions, as was London's Crystal Palace, but were built with the money left over from the Great Exhibition of 1851, that was held in nearby Hyde Park.

It was the Eiffel Tower, a structural skyscraper made of wrought iron, and the Crystal Palace, entirely covered in glass that, added together, brought about modern architecture. Both originated as "leftovers" of great exhibitions in Paris and London.

Eiffel Tower (metal structure) + Crystal Palace (glass walls) = Modern Architecture.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_Tower#/media/File:Tour_Eiffel_Wikimedia_Commons_(cropped).jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crystal_Palace#/media/File:Crystal_Palace_General_view_from_Water_Temple.jpg

S) Big Ben, in London, is a clock on an obelisk. In Paris, the Champs Elysees leads from the obelisk in Place Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe. There is no clock but the twelve streets radiate from the Arc de Triomphe just like the numbers of a clock.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ben#/media/File:Clock_Tower_-_Palace_of_Westminster,_London_-_May_2007.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_de_la_Concorde#/media/File:Paris_ObeliskConcordre_(pixinn.net).jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe#/media/File:Collier%27s_1921_Vol_4_Frontispiece_--_Paris.jpg

I have wondered about the possible meaning of the twelve streets that converge at the Arc de Triomphe, like the numbers on a clock. The French Revolutionaries were obsessed with the number 10. There are still clocks in museums with ten hours in a day. They also instituted a calendar with ten days in a week. The one idea of theirs that lasted was, of course, a measurement system based on multiples of ten, which we refer to today as the Metric System.

But when Paris was renovated on a massive scale decades later, were these twelve streets converging like the numbers on a clock intended as a repudiation of the revolutionaries and their ideas?

T) The Arc de Triomphe is a celebration of Napoleon's victories, the road leading westward from it is the Avenue de la Grand Armee. London's Tower bridge bears a resemblance to the Arc de Triomphe but it is built over the river, rather than over an avenue, and the former navy ship, HMS Belfast is moored nearby.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Arc_de_Triomphe,_Paris_21_October_2010.jpg

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3879/3734/1600/dc_250883.jpg

Tower Bridge synchronizes with the adjacent Tower of London, a medieval fortress for which the bridge is named, in the same way that the Arc de Triomphe synchronizes with the Eiffel Tower, both are based on arches. The Eiffel Tower was built as the entrance arch to the 1889 Exhibition.

The Eiffel Tower originated as an entrance arch to the 1889 Paris Exhibition, synchronizing with the nearby Arc de Triomphe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_Tower#/media/File:Tour_Eiffel_Wikimedia_Commons_(cropped).jpg

Tower Bridge synchronizes well with the structure of the Tower of London, which is right next to it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_London#/media/File:Tower_of_London_viewed_from_the_River_Thames.jpg

The Paris equivalent of the Tower of London is, of course, the Conciergerie. Both notorious prisons originated as royal palaces.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conciergerie#/media/File:Quai_de_l%27Horloge,_Paris,_%C3%8Ele-de-France_140320.jpg

It should be noted that what are now the most iconic structures of a city and nation may well not have been very popular when they were built. When Tower Bridge, which we couldn't imagine London without now, was first built, neat the end of the Nineteenth Century, it wasn't well-liked at all. The Eiffel Tower was intended to be only temporary, as the towering entrance arch to the 1889 Paris Exhibition, and there was a movement to dismantle it as planned. But radio broadcasting had begun and the tower was the ideal place for an antenna. That is what I think saved the Eiffel Tower.

London doesn't have an Eiffel Tower but the London Eye serves the same purpose. It is also in a congruent location relative to the Eiffel Tower, on the south bank of the Thames River on the opposite side from Big Ben and the road leading from it to Trafalgar Square just as the Eiffel Tower is on the south (called the Left Bank) of the Seine River on the opposite side from the Champs Elysees lading from the Arc de Triomphe to the obelisk in Place Concorde.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Eye#/media/File:London-Eye-2009.JPG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Eye#/media/File:Eye_Pod_1.jpg

U) The Palace of Versailles was built to the southwest of Paris as a royal getaway from the city just as Hampton Court Palace was built by Henry VIII (The Eighth) to the southwest of London.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Versailles#/media/File:Versaillespanoraama2.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hampton_Court_Palace#/media/File:HamptonCurt.jpg

V) St. Paul's Cathedral in London and Sacre Coeur in Paris are both white in color and are built on the highest point in elevation in their respective cities. Neither was the primary cathedral of their city, St. Paul's was preceded by Westminster Abbey and Sacre Coeur was preceded by Notre Dame.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Paul%27s_Cathedral#/media/File:St_Pauls_aerial_(cropped).jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacr%C3%A9-C%C5%93ur,_Paris#/media/File:Le_sacre_coeur.jpg

W) Paris is where the metric system originated. London is where the Prime Meridian, which is the base for our system of latitude and longitude, originated.

X) Both cities had a medically-capable serial killer. London had Jack the Ripper, Paris had Marcel Petiot.

Y) Paris has the Pompidou Center. London has the Barbican. Both are great libraries and arts centers, that were built in recent decades..

Z) Both cities have "new downtowns", where tall modern buildings are located. La Defense is located to the west of central Paris. Canary Wharf is located to the east of central London.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_D%C3%A9fense#/media/File:Le_quartier_de_la_D%C3%A9fense_vu_de_la_Tour_Saint-Jacques,_Paris_ao%C3%BBt_2014.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_Wharf#/media/File:Canary_Wharf_Skyline_2,_London_UK_-_Oct_2012.jpg


But the differences between the two cities can be seen in their placement of their respective "Cleopatra's Needles". In the Nineteenth Century, three obelisks that had been carved in ancient times were taken from Egypt. The obelisks actually had nothing to do with Cleopatra, who lived in Hellenistic times long after the time of the obelisks. One each of the "needles" was given to the U.S., Britain and, France.

The U.S. put it's obelisk in Central Park.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra%27s_Needle#/media/File:Obelisk_Central_Park.jpg

Britain put it's obelisk at the side of the Thames River in London.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra%27s_Needle,_London#/media/File:Western_Side_of_Cleopatra%27s_Needle_in_London.jpg

But Paris, being the most historically Catholic of the three countries, put it's obelisk in the middle of the most prominent square in the city, Place Concorde, resembling the one in St. Peter's Square.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_de_la_Concorde#/media/File:Place_de_la_Concorde_from_the_Eiffel_Tower,_Paris_April_2011.jpg