The coat of arms of the city of Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, in its current form, dates back to 1111, when King Charles I officially installed it. On the coat of arms, the represented vessel is the symbol of the powerful corporate body of the Marchands de l'eau, dating back to the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

. The city motto, "Fluctuat nec mergitur

Fluctuat nec mergitur

Fluctuat nec mergitur is a Latin phrase meaning "He who rises with the wave is not swallowed by it":...

" ("She is tossed by the waves, but does not sink") is equally a reference to this boat.

Design

In its full representation, it also includes decorations that the city was authorized to include:

• The Legion of Honor (Decree of 9 October 1900);
• The Croix de Guerre
  Croix de guerre 1914-1918 (France)
  The Croix de guerre 1914–1918 is a French military decoration.-Creation:Soon after the outbreak of World War I, French military officials felt that a new military award had to be created...
  
   1914-1918 (Decree of 28 July 1919); and
• The Ordre de la Libération
  Ordre de la Libération
  The Ordre de la Libération is a French Order awarded to heroes of the Liberation of France during World War II. It is an exceptional honor, the second highest after the Légion d’Honneur and only a small number of people and military units have received it, exclusively for deeds accomplished...
  
   (Decree of 24 March 1945).

History

The first mention of coat of arms of Paris appears as early as 1190 when Philippe Augustus

Philip II of France

Philip II Augustus was the King of France from 1180 until his death. A member of the House of Capet, Philip Augustus was born at Gonesse in the Val-d'Oise, the son of Louis VII and his third wife, Adela of Champagne...

 gave the design to the city, shortly before embarking to the Holy Land

Holy Land

The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...

. When the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

 abolished the nobility by the decree of 20 June 1790, it simultaneously disallowed all emblems or coats of arms. The municipality of Paris quickly complied, and abolished its own arms in November of that same year. It was not until the First French Empire

First French Empire

The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...

 that new cities were officially allowed to have arms. For Paris, this resulted in the Letters Patent granted to the city of Paris by Napoleon on 29 January 1811. In the Letters Patent of Louis XVIII in 1817, the coat of arms of Paris was restored in its traditional form. The motto "Fluctuat nec mergitur

Fluctuat nec mergitur

Fluctuat nec mergitur is a Latin phrase meaning "He who rises with the wave is not swallowed by it":...

" first appeared from the end of the sixteenth century, but it was made official by a decree of Baron Haussmann

Baron Haussmann

Georges-Eugène Haussmann, commonly known as Baron Haussmann , was a French civic planner whose name is associated with the rebuilding of Paris...

, then prefect of the Seine, dated 24 November 1853.

Modern usage

The coat of arms is to be found on many Parisian public buildings, including the Hôtel de Ville

Hôtel de Ville, Paris

The Hôtel de Ville |City Hall]]) in :Paris, France, is the building housing the City of Paris's administration. Standing on the place de l'Hôtel de Ville in the city's IVe arrondissement, it has been the location of the municipality of Paris since 1357...

, the mairies of the 20 arrondissements

Arrondissements of Paris

The city of Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements municipaux administrative districts, more simply referred to as arrondissements . These are not to be confused with departmental arrondissements, which subdivide the 101 French départements...

, the train stations, the bridges, and primary and secondary schools

Secondary education in France

In France, secondary education is in two stages:* collèges cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14...

. Today, the police headquarters of Paris

Direction Régionale de Police Judiciaire de Paris

The Direction Régionale de Police Judiciaire de Paris , often called the 36, quai des Orfèvres or simply the 36 by the address of its headquarters, is the division of the Police judiciaire in Paris...

 uses a logo inspired by the coat of arms of the city of Paris. It was also represented on a postage stamp issued in 1965, the 0.30 franc "Blason de Paris".
It's also used as the Garde républicaine's insignia.

City colors

The traditional colors of the city of Paris are red and blue. Their official usage dates back to the year 1358, when Etienne Marcel

Étienne Marcel

Etienne Marcel was provost of the merchants of Paris under King John II, called John the Good .Etienne Marcel was born into the wealthy Parisian bourgeoisie, being the son of the clothier Simon Marcel and his wife Isabelle Barbou...

 first made use of them. The French tricolor flag

Flag of France

The national flag of France is a tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured royal blue , white, and red...

 is derived from the combined cockade of the king

Louis XVI of France

Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....

 (white) and the Paris Commune

Paris Commune (French Revolution)

The Paris Commune during the French Revolution was the government of Paris from 1789 until 1795. Established in the Hôtel de Ville just after the storming of the Bastille, the Commune became insurrectionary in the summer of 1792, essentially refusing to take orders from the central French...

(red and blue).