Major Cities: The country's capital Paris, the only French citywith more than 1 million inhabitants, has a population of 2,142,800in the city proper (as of 2004) and 11,330,700 in the metropolitan area (2003 estimate). Greatermetropolitan Paris encompasses more than 15 percent of the country's total population. Thesecond largest city is Marseille, a major Mediterranean seaport, with about 795,600 inhabitants.Other major cities include Lyon, an industrial center in east-central France, with 468,300inhabitants, and the second largest metropolitan area in France, with 1,665,700 people. Furtherimportant cities include: Toulouse, 426,700, a manufacturing and European aviation center insouthwestern France; Nice, 339,000, a resort city on the French Riviera; Nantes, 276,200, aseaport and shipbuilding center on the Atlantic coast; Strasbourg, 273,100, the principal Frenchport on the Rhine River and a seat of the European parliament (in addition to Brussels);Montpellier...