While Paris is encircled by the boulevard périphérique (Paris ring road), the city gates of Paris ("portes de Paris") are the access points to the city for pedestrians and other road users. As Paris has had successive ring roads through the centuries, city gates are found inside the modern-day Paris.
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(List of city gates created during the extension of Paris in 1860 and which have left their mark on the city map. The gates are listed in clockwise sequence starting in the north at la Route Nationale 1.)
After the construction of the Wall of the Farmers-General in 1785, the gates of Paris bore the names barriers (barrières) until 1860 (e.g. barrière de la Villette, barrière du Trône, barrière d'Italie, etc.) They were, in fact, toll gates used for collection of the octroi, an internal tax (an excise tax) assessed on goods entering the city. Some of the toll booths built by Ledoux remain at: