Paris (city, France), city in north central France, capital and largest city of the country, on the Seine River, about 370 km (about 230 mi) from its Atlantic Ocean outlet at Le Havre. Paris is situated in a low-lying basin; the city is mostly flat, although the elevation gradually increases from the river to the low hills that ring the city’s edge. The highest natural feature within the city proper is the Butte de Montmartre, at 129 m (423 ft) above sea level. With an estimated population approaching 10 million, the Paris metropolitan area contains nearly 20 percent of the nation’s inhabitants and dominates the economic, cultural, and political life of France to an extraordinary degree; the population of Paris proper was 2,148,991 in 1990. The centralizing philosophy of successive governments has historically favored the city as the site for all decision making, thus exercising a powerful attraction on virtually all of the nation’s activities. Only since the 1960s have attempts been made to reduce the inordinate influence of Paris in French affairs and to strengthen the role of various regions and secondary cities.