To love Paris and to think ‘Paris syndrome’ is a myth?

I love Paris, it's got a lot of what I like about NYC and most major world cities. I didn't find Parisians rude, they're busy and have things to do and places to be. I do speak decent French so that might be a factor. I enjoy my time there.

I have no clue what Paris Syndrome is.

I love Paris and have been many times.

Its a lot cleaner post Olympics so that is something that’s different now.

Like all really big cities though you could really really get it wrong.

Like if you went to London and just walked around Trafalgar Square area, down the Mall and then down Oxford St.

I think people hit the very centre of Paris and get walked out as it’s so large and then the areas around the river/very centre are quite barren and lacking in bars and restaurants in a way that Prague, Budapest etc aren’t. Obviously they are full of history and buildings and art galleries but it isn’t everyone’s bag.

Paris and Lisbon are cities we loved but totally feel you have to do a lot of research and hop around on public transport to really get the most out of them. In both we’ve been a bit like ‘so and so wouldn’t love this’

I've been three times and my abiding memories are the near-universal smell of urine on the streets and its distinction as the only place where I've received antisemitic abuse. Not for me thanks!

We must be living in different parts of London 🙃

Have recently been to Athens which has some very seedy, very sketchy parts, is overwhelmed with graffiti and has very obvious social issues. Not much litter but the derelict buildings and graffiti more than make up for it.

Paris is much nicer, even with the occasional fag butt.

Well, yes, but E in P is a very recent (and utterly moronic) TV programme, while ‘Paris Syndrome’ long predates it. I mean, I first went to Paris in my late teens, fuelled on a diet of French films in which Daniel Auteuil has suave affairs with gorgeous leading ladies in gorgeous settings, or Cyrano de Bergerac quips in verse while duelling in exquisite interiors, but I loved Paris from the moment I set foot there, despite living in an unpicturesque backstreet in Montparnasse.

I love Paris. I love its buzz and variety.

I used to live there and even after I left I often worked there for weeks at a time. But I think it is a tough city, not a romantic one. Parisians are rude - they really are. Not so much to me - I speak fluent French, but to tourists and clients who don't speak French, I notice they are brusque or ignore them. And I was flashed at so often and openly when I lived there in my early twenties.

It feels like a hard city. London is full of green spaces to take a breath - so many parks and squares. Paris is very paved in comparison. There are fewer shady places to breathe and unwind. Pavement cafes are all very well but the cost is eye-watering in comparison with London, in my experience. Last time I was there with DC was about 13 years ago and the drinks stand outside Musee d'Orsay was charging 5 Euros for a takeaway can of diet coke. I remember just coffee and a croissant each for the four of us in a cafe added up to £25 which felt like a lot 13 years ago, when coffee and croissant from Pret in UK still cost £2 a head.

I haven't been back since then but am going back soon and am looking forward to its elegance and beauty.

I didn’t know either so I Googled it 🙂

I mean, if you were expecting Emily in Paris and arrived to find a bustling, multiethnic contemporary city I can get how you'd be disappointed.

(I'd also think you were deeply stupid, mind you).

I love Paris, and I think it's getting better year on year.

I have been to Tokyo and found it surprisingly peaceful despite its size and population. The thing that most stands out to me from your post is the huge difference in how people board a train - the queuing system in Japan makes perfect sense, but I have never seen it anywhere else.

I’ve always bought into this myth but to be fair I haven’t been to Paris for about two decades so maybe it’s not accurate. I really want to go back now and see.

I don’t get Paris and I’ve loved every other French city I’ve visited.

I’ve been about 3 times and I’ve just not clicked with it.

I can’t recall having a stand out meal, or a really fun time the way I have in other cities.

Add that to the stink of urine everywhere, the vile state of seemingly every toilet and the rats overrunning the parks it’s just not for me!

I would agree though I didn’t find the people there rude at all - most were very helpful!

OTOH I loved Bordeaux and Strasbourg, and would absolutely return.

the fact its a living city and not a tourist destination,

Which European cities are not living cities?

Can see why Japanese people might be disappointed in the reality vs emily in paris fantasy though.

100%

I agree with you! New York is by far the dirtiest big city I’ve been to - Paris was pristine by comparison. It was also friendly enough, probably friendlier than London.

People actually live and work there and it's exhausting having to navigate around people who can't understand that not everyone around them is on their holidays.

It's really not that big a deal & plenty of people clogging up London are not ok their holidays 😆

I love Paris too, don’t get all the negativity but I am a typical tourist over there stay in nice areas and do touristy things so I’m obv blinkered.

Your last sentence, say it louder for those at the back.

I live in a capital city (the best one in the world) and I like to think I'm quite tolerant of tourists most of the time but if you stop right at the bottom of the tube escalator at 17.05 on a Thursday in the City I understand you might think Londoners are rude.

It's the same in Paris, and all other major cities. People actually live and work there and it's exhausting having to navigate around people who can't understand that not everyone around them is on their holidays.

From a Japanese tourist's perspective, French people are constantly talking loudly at each other, cars beep their horns all the time, people on bikes loudly ring bells and shout at you to get out of the way. People jostle you in the street and shove you getting on and off trains. It's as if the whole city is in a continuous fight. There is litter, and graffiti, and men peeing in the street (particularly back in the 80s when the syndome was first noticed). If you try to cross the road the cars don't stop and it feels as if they're competing to run you over. The gap between Japanese customer service and the French version is about the same size as the gap between the modern British one and Soviet Russia. There's street crime, and a whole raft of unfamiliar social and cultural rules. You can't get a decent cup of tea anywhere and the museum attendants look at you blankly when you ask for a stamp in your goshuincho. There are no bathroom slippers. You leave your umbrella at the entrance to a gallery and when you come back to get it, it's gone. It's a different world, and a constant assault on the senses.

The surprise isn't that some of them have panic attacks. It's that some of them don't.

I'm quite fond of Paris, apart from the food. And I agree that the dirt/noise/civility/expense level is nothing out of the ordinary for a European capital city. But the European perspective is not the only one, and it's not tourists from London who get Paris Syndrome.

The people, mostly. But also Rome is more historic / organic / authentic.

Paris is one of the most densely populated cities in Europe. Rome is far far down the list, so of course it will feel different. Also Rome isn't a commercial hub really, not compared to Paris.

I love Paris, and always stay in the Quartier Latin.

It has changed a lot in some areas over the decades though and I wouldn't dream of staying by the Gare du Nord where there are a lot of young men from North Africa hanging round in groups who can be extremely intimidating. Watch your belongings when in the station. I too was pickpocketed.

Away from that though, it's an enchanting and beautiful city.

Can see why Japanese people might be disappointed in the reality vs emily in paris fantasy though.

This year I have been to Paris, Valletta, London and Venice.

Paris is by far the best and cleanest city, followed by Valletta… Venice was a stinky rude rip off shithole .

As for London I’m from the UK anyway so I think I’m blind to the mess and rude people, but it has declined.

Same as London being different to the rest of the uk. It’s like two different countries sometimes.