- Paris History: La Seine Paris is small: no corner is farther than six miles from the square in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral. The city has a total area of 41 square miles (105 square kilometres), if the two big parks at either extremity are included, and 34 square miles without them. The city occupies a bowl hollowed out by the Seine in its prehistoric vigour, and the surrounding heights have ...www.ibiblio.org/wm/paris/hist/river.html