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I must realize? My post was the realization, so I think I am there, but my CTJ moment was the recognition that a large proportion of Parisians have given up on any attempt to love their city, compared to other large tourist cities. I regularly travel to LA, SF, SD, Seattle, London, Cambridge, Bath, Shanghai, Stockholm, Tel Aviv, Helsinki, Barcelona, Austin, Washington DC, Charlotte SC and many, many others and have never seen the same level of lack of pride in any of the cities mentioned. Thus my post was related to the relative level. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.
I have no romantic notions, but rather real-world comparisons and also continuous sampling of the same city (Paris) over many years. Also recall I came from Portland, SFO, DC and London in the 3 weeks before Paris, so there was a real-time comparison. I think you misquoted me, I had no spliced movies of TV impressions to begin with, just 20 years worth of visiting France, not just Paris.
PS In 2015, by the end of the year, I will have visited Paris 4 times in one year.
Compared to SF, Paris is downright hygienic. I love SF, but it is dirty, disorganized, and often embarrassingly managed.
When I went, there was no bigger "welcome to Paris" moment than taking one of those cruises on the Seine, and getting the one finger salute from the locals having dinner or drinking by the river. Not directed at me, but the entire boat. I don't think they hate tourists, I just think there's a bit of a resentment and they feel annoyed. No different than here in DC...every day there are tourists who stand on the left side of the escalators (which is used to walk up the escalators) thus causing a jam. We're in a rush, we want to get to work, get on the right side! But I also understand tourism drives the local economy, just as I suspect it does for Paris.
When I went, there was no bigger "welcome to Paris" moment than taking one of those cruises on the Seine, and getting the one finger salute from the locals having dinner or drinking by the river. Not directed at me, but the entire boat. I don't think they hate tourists, I just think there's a bit of a resentment and they feel annoyed. No different than here in DC...every day there are tourists who stand on the left side of the escalators (which is used to walk up the escalators) thus causing a jam. We're in a rush, we want to get to work, get on the right side! But I also understand tourism drives the local economy, just as I suspect it does for Paris.
Obviously tourism is important to the Parisian economy but the city is much more than that. It is a huge commercial and administrative center.
A few years ago I was doing some work at a French corporation headquartered at La Defense. I had to get the metro from my hotel near Nation. The first day I found myself getting bumped and jostled as I headed for the metro. Then I realized. I wasn't walking at Parisian commuter speed. I went faster and the bumping and jostling went away.
You get the same thing in New York City. You are in a hurry trying to make the 6.27pm train from Grand Central and there are a bunch of tourists blocking the sidewalk while they ogle the Chrysler Building.
I remember being shocked at all the doggie merdes covering the sidewalks in Montmartre, left by the locals knowing how many tourists are walking around there everyday. Unreal.
The piles of dog doo everywhere on the sidewalk was the most shocking to me about Paris. I've not seen that in any other big city in the world. It was nasty!
The Parisians, on the other hand, were super friendly and some of the nicest people I've met anywhere.
Compared to SF, Paris is downright hygienic. I love SF, but it is dirty, disorganized, and often embarrassingly managed.
SF is the most overrated city in the US in terms of tourism. I don't understand why people rave about it, I mean, have they ever travelled at all? Put aside the ocean, the city itself is not attractive at all. How can one even put SF and Paris in the same sentence? There are probably 20 European cities that are way prettier and more interesting than SF. Plus, only 15% of SF really looks like a city. The rest is so suburban like just like the rest of suburban America.
But I also understand tourism drives the local economy, just as I suspect it does for Paris.
There are very few big cities in the western world where tourism drives the local economy and Paris is not one of those.
This is what many people don't seem to understand about Paris, Paris does not live on tourism.
Maybe it is just me, or maybe it is the fact that I went in May but I did not find the city dirty or gross at all. It was much cleaner than many American cities. I love NYC but Paris was much cleaner.
I must realize? My post was the realization, so I think I am there, but my CTJ moment was the recognition that a large proportion of Parisians have given up on any attempt to love their city, compared to other large tourist cities. I regularly travel to LA, SF, SD, Seattle, London, Cambridge, Bath, Shanghai, Stockholm, Tel Aviv, Helsinki, Barcelona, Austin, Washington DC, Charlotte SC and many, many others and have never seen the same level of lack of pride in any of the cities mentioned. Thus my post was related to the relative level. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.
I have no romantic notions, but rather real-world comparisons and also continuous sampling of the same city (Paris) over many years. Also recall I came from Portland, SFO, DC and London in the 3 weeks before Paris, so there was a real-time comparison. I think you misquoted me, I had no spliced movies of TV impressions to begin with, just 20 years worth of visiting France, not just Paris.
PS In 2015, by the end of the year, I will have visited Paris 4 times in one year.
As a proud Charlotte resident I'd like to point out we are in North Carolina, not South Carolina.
I'm a recent transplant, having spent my youth in LA and my adult years in SF. And I have traveled extensively through my life, the last year having spent a month in Paris, and month in Bangkok, and three weeks on the Iberian Peninsula.
I can absolutely see how people can come away from Paris underwhelmed. When I met my husband we had both been to Paris in the past a handful of times. He had to be drug to Paris to meet up with some friends on our first trip there together. He had seen all the highlights, but perhaps not the best way. We stayed on the left bank, in a neighborhood with the postcard perfect cafes and antique shops. The exuberance of the students hurrying to class in the morning and relaxing in the bars in the evenings brought a lot of life to the city he thought was only tourists.
We returned for a month a few years later, and it was magical. The pride Parisians have in their city showed through from the open house tours of the Sorbonne, to the free museum Sunday, to the free fireworks and multimedia show projected on to the 110m face of the Grande Arche de la Defense.
Yes, like the teens in LA giving tourists the wrong directions to Disneyland, there are young people tired of the tourboats on their river. Yes, I am told there are pickpockets, but the murder rate is 1/4 that of San Francisco. Yes there are dirty subway stations much like the green line in Boston. And the urban setting is not everyone's cup of tea.
As I said, I can see how people can not fall in love with Paris, because the first few times I was there I had the whirlwind tour with crowds so deep at the Louvre that you couldn't see over them to see the Mona Lisa. But now I've also been there in the evening with the small crowds where in some galleries I was the only one in the room. And the sparkle of the Eiffel tower, on the hour, is still amazing to me.
France has become my favorite country in Europe, and at worst, Paris just another big European city. I haven't been there in a long time, but I love the French people I recently met while traveling abroad, and I admire the example France is setting for the future of a modern Europe. France is the most egalitarian of nations on a continent beset with multicultural issues, and by all accounts has worked out the most successful plan for public health and other social considerations.
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