Pairs - 928 km
Believe it or not though, Paris wasn’t always called “Paris,” and the Eiffel Tower wasn’t supposed to be a permanent fixture. Paris is the most visited capital in the world and has famous monuments and specialities, the city also has some well-kept stories that might blow your mind.
The Eiffel Tower, the most famous monument in the entire world, built in 1889, was only supposed to be a temporary structure. The tower was aimed to demonstrate the superiority of France in modernity and technology during the 1889 World’s Fair. The original structure was supposed to be taken apart 20 years after its inauguration and the tower used to be extremely unpopular. Various intellectual figures of the time protested against what the French press used to call auseless monstrosity.
If you have ever been to Paris, you may have noticed that taxis are nearly impossible to find. On Saturday nights, it’s very common to spot dozens of people on the sidewalk waiting (or fighting) for a taxi. The most complained about Parisian fact actually has a very simple explanation: in Paris, taxi drivers have to pay nearly €200,000 to get their licenses.
Paris has it's own Statue of Liberty. Located on the Pont de Grenelle, this reduced version of the statue, inaugurated in 1889, faces the American one and symbolises the friendship between the two countries. In fact, New York’s Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the United States.
It’s not obvious and most Parisians ignore it, but the Concorde square is a giant sundial. The Obelisk (the main monument of the square, a 23 metre-high Egyptian column) allows us to read the approximate hour according to its shadow, according to the position of the sun. If you pay attention while walking around the Place de la Concorde, you’ll even notice some hour markers in Roman numerals on the pavement.
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