All of
Paris and its surrounding areas is called the
Ile-de-France and it really is one of the best combinations of big city life living in peaceful co-existence with the pretty countryside that surrounds it. So you have the night life of this wonderfully sophisticated city and just beyond its boundaries, you have beautiful wooded areas and villages that look like time has stood still. The RER or the urban French railway network makes getting from one extreme of living to the other very quick indeed. The pretty rural landscape is sometimes broken by the turrets of châteaux and palaces peeping out from the trees. Little wonder so many artists were inspired to paint in and around this area.
Ile-de-France consists of 8 departments. They are: Essone, Seine-et-Marne, Val-de-Marne, Hauts-de-Seine, Val-d'Oise, Yvelines, Seine-Saint-Denis and Ville de
Paris. Each department has its unique beauty and its share of tourist attractions. The total population numbers over 10,000,000. Around 20% of the population is concentrated in this region even though if you go by land mass, it occupies just 2% of the country. In fact the density of population is probably the highest in Europe.
Essone has its one-eyed Cyclops which is an attraction as well as its medicinal herbs in Milly la Forêt. Hauts-de-Seine has the National Museum with its famous Sevres porcelain. Fountainebleau is in Seine-et-Marne, the huge palace in the midst of a forest. Close by is Barbizon, a favorite retreat for artists. Seine-Saint-Denis has the Le Bourget Flight Museum and Val-d’Oise has the Musée Pisarro and the wheat fields that inspired Van Gogh. Val-de-Marne has the château and dungeon in
Vincennes and Yvelines has
Versailles.
This also figures as a rich region and almost 29% of the GDP comes from here. Many of the country’s industries have their corporate headquarters here and obviously people working here draw a higher salary than in the rest of the country. Why, even those who don’t speak French work here in one of the many international companies. Being one of the most popular destinations in Europe,
Paris draws people who are looking for second homes to invest here. Prices are not cheap – in fact apartments and houses are very expensive. If you want a place in one of the more fashionable areas, it will cost quite a packet but there are people who feel just having a home on
Paris is well worth it. They could well be right. There is probably no other city in the world that could compare when it comes to style. Besides the fashion that you see everywhere, you also have the art, the culture and the restaurants – both big and small. There is no way that the food or wine of the region can be adequately dealt with in anything short of an encyclopedia, thus let it suffice to say that
Paris is the gastronomical center of the universe.
The tourist attractions may get the tourists in droves to
Paris but even the ones living there are never tired of gazing at them.
Paris at night is like a wonderland of beautiful buildings and romance and magic in the air. From the Eiffel Tower to the Arc de Triomphe to Fountainebleau to the
Versailles Palace to the hundred other beautiful places that beckon,
Ile-de-France is becoming the magnet that draws people there to buy a second home.
