There are 3 main ways to define the size of a city; city proper, urban area and metropolitan
area. To put it simply, city proper is an administrative area of a city, urban area
is the built up region and metropolitan area includes the urban area and surrounding towns
and cities where workers commute from.
In many countries, these tend to line up such as Cork being the second largest city, urban
area and metropolitan area in Ireland. City propers can often be deceiving such as with
Lille where the city proper is much smaller than the urban area. Urban Lille is home to
over 1 million while the city of Lille is home to only 230 thousand.
Sometimes the different definitions lead to multiple second largest cities in a country.
One example is France. We’ll be looking at a few contenders, one for each definition
of a city.
The largest city proper, urban area and metropolitan area in France is the capital city of Paris.
Paris’s city proper is home to 2 million, its urban area to 11 million and its metro
area to around 12 million people or 18% of the population of France.
Paris needs no real introduction, being a global centre of finance, diplomacy, commerce,
fashion, science and arts. It is also one of the world’s most visited cities with
Europe’s second busiest airport and many iconic sites such as the Eiffel Tower, Arc
de Triomphe, Notre Dame, the Louvre and the Champs Elysees.
Now we have problems defining what is the second largest city in France.
We will be using 3 statistics, city proper, urban area and metropolitan area so let's
start with city proper.
The 5 largest city propers in France are Nice, Toulouse, Lyon, Marseille and Paris. This
leaves Marseille as the second largest city in France.
Home to 870,000 in its city proper, Marseille is the capital of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
and is located on the southern coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea. It is home to France’s
largest port for commerce, freight and cruise ships. Originally settled by the Greeks as
Massalia, today is a melting pot with a large number of immigrants, sometimes leading to
tension between the communities.
Marseille is also the 4rd most dangerous European city, ranking just behind Catania, Birmingham
and Drogheda in Ireland.
It’s not all bad for Marseille, they were the European capital of culture in 2013 and
the European capital of sport in 2017.
For urban areas, the five largest cities are Nice, Lille, Marseille, Lyon and Paris. This
makes Lyon France’s second largest city, home to 1.4 million people in its urban area.
Located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, Lyon is the capital of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
region and is well known for its cuisine and gastronomy. Economically, Lyon is a major
centre for banking, as well as for the chemical, pharmaceutical, and biotech industries. It
is also the international headquarters of Interpol as well as Euronews.
It is home to the 4th busiest airport in France after Charles de Gaulle, Paris Orly and Nice
Côte d'Azur. Marseille’s Airport is 6th on the list, with Toulouse–Blagnac in 5th
place.
Finally, we have metropolitan areas. The five largest in France are Bordeaux, Toulouse,
Marseille, Lyon and Paris. Lyon’s metropolitan area is home to 2.3 million while 1.7 million
people live in the metro area of Marseille (Aix-en-Provence).
Lyon wins in two of the three categories so maybe it deserves the title of second largest
city more. I ran a Twitter poll a week before the release of this video and the majority
voted for Marseille.
Since polls aren't available any more, answer in the comments section below whether you
think that Marseille or Lyon should be called the second largest city in France. You can
also vote in my poll on Twitter within a week of this video going live.
Thank you so much for watching this video. If you’ve any ideas for future videos, put
them in the comments section below. Follow me on Twitter and subscribe for more on Ireland,
Europe and the World. Happy Bastille Day and Bonne Fete Nationale!