Somewhere back during my school days, I acquired the notion that either Hitler and/or the Nazi high command had been planning to preserve the city of Paris, as much as possible, for the purpose of turning it into either the capitol or as a trophy city, of sorts. The thinking went that the City of Light was so revered as a symbol and exemplification of European culture, it would be spared for its later role.
However, over time while perusing this subreddit, I have come upon evidence against this long-unquestioned assumption. First, I learned of Albert Speer and his plans for Berlin as the grand capitol of the Greater Germanic Empire. Second, I came across competing evidence as to whether Hitler in fact ordered the city of Paris burned to the ground.
I apologize that I have no source for my assumption, but is there anything to the notion that Paris was to have been a, or even the, capitol of the New Europe?
No.
During the Battle of France, the reason Paris wasn't damaged was because it was declared an open city. Instead of mounting a futile defense, the French essentially surrendered the city to the Germans to avoid unnecessary damage to the city.
Contrary to what many people seem to think, Hitler did not intend to conquer the world, and he actually didn't want war with France and especially not with Great Britain to begin with. However, Britain and France did not wish to standby passively as the Nazis expanded into Eastern Europe. According to historian Peter Padfield, in a 1941 peace offering to Great Britain, the Nazis offered to withdrawal from Western Europe in exchange for British neutrality during the German invasion of Russia. (source) While that particular peace offering may or may not be true, Hitler's peace offerings in general to Britain and France are well documented (random example). The point I'm trying to make here is that Hitler had little-to-no interest in the conquest of France and was more concerned with Poland and Russia.
Nonetheless, here were Hitler's plans for a Greater Germanic Reich: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Germanic_Reich
EDIT: I would also like to add that the Germans had a certain bitterness towards France leftover from WWI (and to a lesser degree Franco–Prussian War of 1870–1871)(source), and so for there to be a German desire to have a French capitol makes little sense.