In fact, the only reason why Paris looks so authentic and well-conservated (not only its cougars!)nowadays, it’s because Paris WAS’NT destroyed by Germans during WWII. Only very few bombs felt on Paris during the war, because the city was occupiated by the General Commandement of Nazis, and mostly because Hitler loved a lot the city and won’t allow anyone to destroy it.
Paris was destroyed only once a time, in 1871, by its own inhabitants, during the Commune revolt, which drowned to a six month civil war between the “Versaillais” (loyalists and pro-empire) and the “Communards” ,who proclaimed Paris as an independent city. When loyalists entered Paris to stop the revolt, the communards decided to burn strategic buildings: Ministry of Economy, City Hall, Prime minister private house, Palais des Tuileries, Louvre (which was the Emperor residence in these times) and thousands other construction, including churches. Repression killed at least 100,000 persons, including kids and eldery people massacred, and another 15,000 prisonners sent to New-Caledonia for 25 years. Then, in 1876, Baron Haussman, urbanist in chief of Paris, decided the reconstruction of the city, with a new style, large avenues, social-mixed habitations, healthyness and cleaneness. That’s the most Paris visible today.
Sorry if I was a bit long, but I’m an authentic Parisian, born there, and this part of history is generaly a bit occulted by t
he 1789 revolution