Or While Paris is the most densely populated city in Europe, with 21,000 inhabitants per square meter, it is tiny when compared to London. London covers an area of 600 square miles, while Paris is squeezed into 40 square miles. However, what the French consider Paris, foreigners theink of as central Paris. Paris intra-muros is effectively the ‘old town’ of a typical European city writ large. When comparing Paris and its attached suburbs with Greater London, the populations are almost the same, 8 million for London vs 7.5 for Paris.