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| Paris is small: no corner is farther than six miles from the square in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral. The city has a total area of 41 square miles (105 square kilometres), if the two big parks at either extremity are included, and 34 square miles without them. The city occupies a bowl hollowed out by the Seine in its prehistoric vigour, and the surrounding heights have been respected as the limits of the city. The river arches through the center of town, visiting 10 of the 20 arrondissements. Entering the city at the southeast corner, it arcs northward and bends out of Paris at the southwest corner. As a result, what starts out as the streams east bank becomes its north bank and ends as the west bank, and the Parisians therefore adopted the simple, unchanging designation of Right and Left Bank (when facing downstream). These terms are not much used in conversation, as specific places are usually indicated by arrondissement quarier. | | ||||
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