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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an administrative-limits area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621. By the 17th century Paris had become one of Europe's major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, a position that it retains still today.

The City of Paris' administrative limits form a horizontal oval centred on its historical-heart Île de la Cité island; this island is near the peak of an arc of Seine river that divides the city into southern Rive Gauche (Left Bank) and northern Rive Droite regions.

Paris is but the core of a built-up area that extends well beyond its limits: commonly referred to as the agglomération Parisienne, and statistically as a unité urbaine (a measure of urban area), the Paris agglomeration's 10,601,122 2013 population makes it the largest urban area in the European Union.

Paris is especially known for its museums and architectural landmarks: its Louvre was the most visited art museum in the world in 2016, with 7.4 million visitors. The Musée d'Orsay and Musée de l'Orangerie are noted for their collections of French Impressionist art, and the Pompidou-center Musée National d'Art Moderne has the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe. In 2017, the European Commission ranked it as the most "Culturally Vibrant City" in the EU.

Other notable monuments are: the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Île de la Cité Sainte-Chapelle church; the 1889 world exposition Grand Palais, Petit Palais, and Eiffel Tower; the Montmartre Basilica of Sacré-Cœur; the central Louvre palace and Tuileries Garden, and the Arc de Triomphe further along the Axe historique (Paris' historical axis) just to the west of there.

Paris received 22.2 million visitors in 2015, making it one of the world's top tourist destinations, but the number of greater Paris visitors dropped by 11.5 percent following the terrorist attacks the following year.