Île-de-France (French pronunciation: [ildəfʁɑ̃s] ( listen)) (literally Island of France; see the Etymology section) is the wealthiest and most populated of the twenty-seven administrative regions of France. It consists 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, Finland, Greece, Portugal, Norway or Sweden, with a population comparable to that of the U.S. state of Ohio or to that of 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 fourth-largest 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 is also the world's second most important location for Fortune Global 500 companies' headquarters (after the Kantō region).
Notre Dame de Paris (IPA: [nɔtʁə dam də paʁi]; French for "Our Lady of Paris"), also known as Notre Dame Cathedral or simply Notre Dame, is a historic Roman Catholic Marian cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. Widely considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture and among the largest and most well-known churches in the world, Notre Dame 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 is notable for its reliquary, which houses the purported crown of thorns, a fragment of the True Cross and one of the Holy Nails – all instruments of the Passion and a few of the most important first-class relics.