As Foch said in 1914: ''"I will fight in front of Paris, I will fight in Paris, I will fight behind Paris'' we get the impression that the French high command was determined to make a determined fight for her capital. How realistic was this stand? In the war of 1870-1871 the Germans had great difficulties with the extensive Parisian fortifications. I can only imagine that they must have been improved afterwards. Or am I wrong and were they slowly stripped of their guns as happened in Verdun or in disrepair due to the offensive nature of plan XVII?
Did the Germans have a plan on how to deal with this? Were they again planning on slugging it out in a long siege? This doesn't seem in line with the Schlieffen plan which called for a quick defeat of France in order to deal with the Russian empire.
If memory serves Paris wasn't that heavily fortified. There was talk of abandoning Paris multiple times throughout the conflict. Had Paris been fortified they had not only the "Paris Gun" but they also had other weapons that they would've likely used to break through. That being said I don't think that the Schlieffen plan took Paris being fortified into account. It seems like the plan called for a "proto-blitzkrieg" through Paris.