Paris

"One day, when all this is over, I will invite you to Paris to stay with me and my family. She is the most beautiful city in all the world, Connor, full of art and culture, women and wine. But she is sick on the inside, black and rotting..."

- Marquis de Lafayette, 1778.

Paris is the capital and largest city of France. During the French Revolution, the city was divided in seven districts: Le Louvre, Île de la Cité, Le Marais, La Bièvre, Les Invalides, Quartier Latin, and Ventre de Paris.

Formation
Paris was founded during the 3rd century BCE, when a Celtic tribe named the Parisii built a fortified settlement on the Île de la Cité.

Roman era
In 52 BCE, the Romans, led by Julius Caesar, conquered the Parisii Celts who inhabited the area and built a town on the Seine river, named Lutetia Parisiorum ("Swamp of the Parisii"). In the late 3rd century, Paris and its surrounding region were converted to Christianity. According to the legend, the bishop of Paris, Denis, was beheaded and martyred at Montmartre by the Romans around 250 CE. Afterwards the saint's corpse walked to the village of Catolacus which became Saint-Denis, carrying his own head.

In the 5th century, the Roman Empire was in decline; the Franks subsequently captured Paris in 486.

Middle Ages
In 558, the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés was constructed near Paris and will become one of the richiest abbey in France.

During the 10th century, the Kings of France established their resident in the Conciergerie on the Île de la Cité.

In 1130, the King Louis VI of France reinforced a wooden tower of which became the stone fortress of Grand Châtelet near the Place de Grève. Louis also ordered the construction of Les Halles and of the church and cemetery of Holy Innocents which became the cemetery for all churches.

In 1160 began the construction of the Notre-Dame Cathedral which ended only in 1345. Notre-Dame was one of the first buildings to use flying buttresses in Europe.

During the Middle Ages, Paris grew rapidly and became one of the largest cities in Europe. In response to its expansion, King Philip Augustus constructed the Louvre fortress and a wall surrounding the town during the end of the 12th century. During his reign various markets and fairs were established in a place called Les Champeaux which will become known as Les Halles.

In 1240, returning from the Crusades, the Templars Order built their headquarters in Paris. The fortress was known as the Temple of Paris.

In 1242, King Louis IX of France ordered the construction of the Sainte-Chapelle to house the crown of thorns of Jesus Christ. The monument was finished in 1248 and served as the royal chapel. The Sainte-Chapelle was also the entry of the headquarters of the sworn ennemies of the Templars, the Assassins Brotherhood. The Brotherhood, established under the Île Saint-Louis, used the underground tunnels to navigate easily through the city.

On 18 March 1314, Pope Clement V, influenced by the Assassins, ordered that Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master of the Templar Order, be burned at the stake. De Molay's death marked the dissolution of the Knights Templar as a public organization and influenced their conversion into a secret faction.

Rennaissance
During the Renaissance, France was ruled by King Louis XII, though he left the kingdom under the charge of his courtiers, who were secretly allied with the Templars. A group of Italian Assassins, sent by their Mentor, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, traveled to Paris to battle that Templar influence.

In 1527, Giovanni Borgia and Maria Amiel traveled to the Louvre in order to find the second half of "the Book", which had been used by Nicolas Flamel to turn lead into gold. Afterwards, they visited the Flamel tomb in Paris' Holy Innocents' Cemetery, but only found it devoid of bodies, or any sign of the Book.

Before the Revolution
In 1776, the Assassin Charles Dorian, attended an Assassin meeting at the Palace of Versailles. However, as Charles searched for his son upon its conclusion, he was assassinated by the Templar Shay Cormac.

As he died, Charles told Shay that the American Revolution had undone the Templars' work in the newly-formed United States of America. Shay suggested that the Templars could stage another revolution, in order to restore the balance of power between the two factions.

French Revolution
From 1789 to 1799, a period of social and political upheaval occurred in France due to the extravagance of the aristocracy. This, coupled by famine and economic turmoil, gradually enraged the French working class and inevitably sparked a revolution against the monarchy and upper classes. The Assassin Arno Dorian lived in Paris during the Revolution.

19th century
In the 19th century, Napoleon I embellished the city with monuments to military glory. It became the European capital of fashion, and the scene of two more revolutions in 1830 and 1848. Under, nephew of Napoleon I, and his Prefect of the Seine, , between 1852 and 1870 the center of Paris was rebuilt with wide new avenues, squares, and parks, and the city was expanded to its present limits in 1860. In the latter part of the century, in the Belle Epoch era, millions of tourists came to see the Paris International Expositions and the new Eiffel Tower.

Sometime towards the end of the 19th century, Samuel Liddell Mathers, accompanied by the disembodied being of William Robert Woodman, met one of the Secret Chiefs in Paris. The Chief, who wore a ring marked with the Templar insignia, informed Mathers that his Order's partnership with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn had ended.

20th century
In the 20th century, Paris suffered bombardment in World War I and German occupation from 1940 until 1944 in World War II. Between the two wars, Paris was the capital of modern art and a magnet for intellectuals, writers and artists from around the world.

Modern era
Abstergo Industries maintained a secret laboratory in Paris for the purpose of researching Precursor artifacts and genetic material until it was destroyed in October 2014 by a team of Assassins led by Gavin Banks.

In November, Eric Cooper set up an Assassin headquarters in Paris to help infiltrate a data hub for the Helix, Abstergo Entertainment's upcoming cloud-based game service.