Île-de-France (region) on Fotopedia

Île-de-France (French pronunciation: [il də fʁɑ̃s]) (literally Isle-of-France; see etymology hereafter) is the wealthiest and most populated of the twenty-two administrative regions of France, composed mostly of the Paris metropolitan area.

With 11.7 million inhabitants, Île-de-France is not only the most populated region of France but also has more residents than Austria, Belgium, Greece, Portugal or Sweden, and has a population comparable to that of either the U.S. state of Ohio or the Canadian province of Ontario. It is the fourth most populous country subdivision in the European Union, after England, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria.

Economically, Île-de-France is the world's 4th and Europe's wealthiest and largest regional economy: in 2009, its total GDP as calculated by Eurostat was €552 billion (US$768.9 billion) at market exchange rates; it is the wealthiest metropolitan area in the European Union - and if it were a country, it would rank as the 15th wealthiest in the world. Île-de-France also is, second to the Kantō region, the world's second most important location for Fortune Global 500 companies' headquarters.

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Notre Dame de Paris

Notre Dame de Paris (IPA: [nɔtʁ dam də paʁi]; French for Our Lady of Paris), also known as Notre Dame Cathedral, is a Gothic, Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the cathedra (official chair) of the Archbishop of Paris, currently André Vingt-Trois. The cathedral treasury houses a reliquary with the purported Crown of Thorns.

Notre Dame de Paris is widely considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture in France and in Europe, and the naturalism of its sculptures and stained glass are in contrast with earlier Romanesque architecture. The first period of construction from 1163 into 1240s coincided with the musical experiments of the Notre Dame school.