Urban aerosol microphysical and optical properties were investigated over the Paris area coupling, for the first time, with dedicated airborne in situ instruments (nephelometer and particle sizers) and active remote sensor (lidar) as well as ground-based in situ instrumentation. The experiment, covering two representative pollution events, was conducted in the framework of the Etude et Simulation de la Qualit¿ de l'air en Ile de France (ESQUIF) program. Pollution plumes were observed under local northerly and southerly synoptic wind conditions on 19 and 31 July 2000, respectively. The 19 July (31 July) event was characterized by north-northwesterly (westerly) advection of polluted (clean) air masses originating from Great Britain (the Atlantic Ocean). The aerosol number size distribution appeared to be composed mainly of two modes in the planetary boundary layer (accumulation and nucleation) and three modes in the surface layer (accumulation, nucleation, and coarse). The characteristics of the size distribution (modal radii and geometric dispersion) were remarkably similar on both days and very coherent with the aerosol optical parameters retrieved from lidar and nephelometer measurements. The city of Paris mainly produces aerosols in the nucleation mode (modal radius of ~0.03 ¿m) that have little influence on the aerosol optical properties in the visible spectral range. The latter are largely dominated by the scattering properties of aerosols in the accumulation mode (modal radius of ~0.12 ¿m). When the incoming air mass is already polluted (clear), the aerosol in the accumulation mode is shown to be essentially hydrophobic (hydrophilic) in the outgoing air mass.