A sunset over quai aux Fleurs and cathédrale Notre-Dame on île de la Cité with jet aircraft contrails criss-crossed across the sky, seen from quai de l’Hôtel de Ville. For the last 1800 years it was thought that île de la Cité was the birthplace of Paris where the Gallic tribal village, inhabited by the Parisii, was located before the Roman conquest in 52 bc.