Our Campus: Paris

Capital of Culture & Science

"Paris is a totality.  Paris is the edge of the human species.  The whole of this prodigious city is a short cut to dead and living norms.  All that is elsewhere exists in Paris … All civilizations are condensed in this city." Victor Hugo in Les Misérables 1862.

Paris, known as "the city of light", is one of the most exciting and dynamic urban centers in the world.  From a small military garrison built by the Roman Empire 2000 year ago, it has grown into a modern and cosmopolitan metropolis with a population of over 10 million in the city and close suburbs.  

Since becoming the capital of France more than 1000 years ago, Paris has accumulated an impressive number of architectural monuments, art collections, and cultural and scientific venues.  Internationally known institutions such as the Louvre Museum, the Sorbonne University and the Paris Opera, and landmarks such as Montmartre, the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysées Avenue constitute, in reality, only a small portion of the architectural and cultural treasures of Paris.

Split into two parts by the Seine River, Paris is rich in its diversity of neighborhoods, each with its own architectural heritage and unique life style.  Paris is a city composed of villages. Montmartre and the Marais on the Right Bank and the Latin Quarter and the Montparnasse on the Left Bank each have distinctive characteristics.

Paris boasts a dynamic artistic and cultural life with 3 opera houses, more than 150 theaters, more than 300 museums, more than 340 cinemas and many concert halls.  Cultural life also vibrates outside formal institutions; in hundreds of cafés spread all over the city, and in the streets.

Paris is also rich in hosting a multitude of educational and scientific institutions.  The Sorbonne University founded in 1200, is still considered a major international center of learning and research.  Twelve other state universities with almost 200,000 students, several Grandes Ecoles (exclusive establishments of higher education) and many private business schools, art and film schools, cooking schools have made Paris an international and European center of education and research.