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

I live in London and over the years I've spent a fair bit of time in Japan. Every time I come back to London, I experience the "culture shock" of returning somewhere that is so dirty and grey, full of rude people etc (in comparison to the very orderly and polite Japanese). It's actually quite jarring and takes me a day or two to reacclimatise (depending on how long I've been gone).

It is not a culture shock at all for me to go from London to Paris. So you just cannot really comment on this as you're not Japanese. That's where it comes from and it's understandable in that context.

I'm with you, OP, I have always had brilliant times in Paris and it is no dirtier than London imo and often cleaner. I have never, in 40 years of visits, seen a dog turd whereas I see several per day just walking the length of my street. I find people forgiving of my schoolgirl French and I like the custom of exchanging a quick Bonjour on entering a shop. Once I messed up my apartment booking and the agent didn't know he was supposed to meet me at a particular time - the people working in a nearby health club could not have been kinder, letting us wait in their little cafe and giving us free green tea ro drink until we could get in. Honestly nothing but great experiences, although I must admit I hate the metro and the gare du nord.

Completely agree. Biased though, husband and my second date was in Paris.
Been back many times, with and without the now adult kids. Always feels very safe wandering about too.

I disagree, I find Parisians hate mangled French.

I love Paris as a city to visit, so many sights to see and things to do, I agree with a PP that it is iconic. I wouldn't want to live there though, the people are notably ruder and more unfriendly than the rest of France IMO but I think the same can be said of most cities like London/Rome etc. Crime is another big city issue that you will find in pretty much every country as is being dirtier than smaller towns in the countryside.

It's an iconic city and should be seen at least once. I enjoyed it when there, but that was some time ago. There are so many other places to see on my list and many other places in France too. It helps if you can speak a bit of the lingo I found. And they WILL be offhand if you do not say "Bonjour". That's rule no.1 and everything good will follow from that even if you only have three or four words of French!

I don’t know how you can compare Rome and Paris. They are so different. I absolutely loved every moment of my trip to Rome vs disappointment in Paris. I found it more interesting culturally, but then it is essentially steeped in Roman history and that was interesting to me.

Berlin I am a huge fan though!
Valencia is also lovely

I do like Paris and have been several times over the years and always enjoyed it. However, the only time we have experienced street crime has been on the Paris Metro - twice!

The first time DH had his wallet taken in what we later realised was a very expertly choreographed collision on an escalator.

The second time we were on a very crowded platform with DD, who was then only 5 so obviously my main focus of attention was making sure I kept hold of her hand in the crowd. After the journey we discovered we had been targeted as we had both lost our wallets.

I have visited since when we either didn't use the metro or were using the RER only briefly to get from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon and we have been fine.

So what is the significant difference between them for you?

That's nonsense. Rome has its own cultural behaviour; manages to be a living city / capital and a tourist destination; and I don't speak Italian. I adore Rome.

It is as dirty, unfriendly and unsafe as any other major capital city. I like Paris, I've been many times, not my favourite place in the world, but I always have a good time there. But I've also lived in London for many years and don't recognise a lot of the complaints people have about it.

I find that the people who aren't used to big cities, and big European cities specifically, all find Paris hard. There are cultural behaviour norms which are different, the fact its a living city and not a tourist destination, and the language makes it challenging.

Dh is French so we visit France a lot, I understand people experiencing Paris syndrome tbh, while there are elements of Paris I like, it’s a dump compared to movie depictions and probably very different to what Japanese tourists especially are expecting

I think like most city’s it depends on the area. I love France, spent a lot of my childhood there and there are lots of beautiful bits of Paris but there are also parts that feel unsafe, and that smell a lot of urine, we stayed near gare du nord last time we were there and saw multiple different men weeing in the street during the day, including one who was in a little park next to the children playing on the swings! Have generally found the people there pleasant but I try to speak (very badly!) in French which I think helps. I adore other parts of France and think I maybe haven’t found the best bits of Paris yet

it isn’t enormously expensive, especially compared to London.
Ha ha. Isn't that called 'damning with faint praise'? "It's expensive, but not as expensive as a really expensive place". I hope you don't work in advertising.

We went to France on holiday a lot when the DC were young, mostly because it was within driving distance. After realising that (a) few of the French were welcoming [it's not just Parisians who are rude] and (b) everything was shut during the tourist season [what are they thinking!] we went elsewhere. We haven't been back in years - there are plenty more nicer places out there.

Recent visits to Paris have made me appreciate it more. I speak French and have travelled in France all my life - from a young child. The one thing I have found is true, Parisians are not quite the same as the French. Parisians are distinct in behaviour and this can come across as ruder and less welcoming. Not all, but enough for me to notice a difference country wide.

I bloody love Paris

I have been to Paris lots of times and I really like it.
I also loved Venice and didn’t find it at all smelly (and I went in summer)

Japan is very clean and orderly, I can see why Paris would be a shock to any Japanese people who have a romanticised view of Paris that is nothing like reality.

I dont think it's any dirtier than any other busy city

Any other busy European city. The comparison, for Paris Syndrome, is Japanese cities (and the Paris of the 1980s was a lot dirtier than it is now).

just to add. One thing I would go back for is to see the restoration of Notre Dame which looks magnificent!

I thought it was OK, people were generally fine, some nice places to see, food was dire (which I did not expect but in fairness I was veggie and it was the late 90s). Beer was ridiculously expensive. Moulin Rouge was brilliant.

I wouldn’t bother going back, generally it was a bit meh.

Rome was fabulous though.

Some people just enjoy a good moan, OP, or are never really happy anywhere, because wherever they go, they have to take themselves along with them.

I’ve been to Paris many times. I wouldn’t bother going back.

The main reason for me is the architecture. The thing I love about London, or Rome, or even Sofia or Athens say, is the quirky, the surprising, the juxtaposition of old and new In London you can see a medieval church between a modern skyscraper and a Georgian mansion. I’m afraid I think monsieur Haussmann made Paris into one big monolith. And that’s not really my thing.

I also agree with the PP who said that the average cafe bistrot fare is also very average. They all have identical menus - is it government sanctioned?

I can’t say I have found it especially dirty (though the dog shit thing is not a myth in my experience) or unfriendly. Just not my favourite place. And yes I speak reasonable French.

It's an international city. Some people don't like the reality of a city.

Personally I love it. I've not been lucky enough to live there but I've visited 12 times and would return at the drop of a hat.