I can't undestand all the hatred for Paris on MN

Love Paris, but dislike the French people. They’re so rude…

I have a rented apartment in Paris but live elsewhere in France. It’s an expensive luxury but I absolutely love it. And to be honest it’s an absolute bargain for where it is. I’ll hang on to it for as long as I can.

Paris is fab for walking.

There’s a current thread where quite a few don’t like Paris.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5519035-things-that-are-supposed-to-be-enjoyable-but-arent-in-reality?reply=151800001?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

I’ve just got back today from a visit which was thoroughly enjoyable. We had 8 nights so didn’t have to rush (we’re retired) and only did what we wanted to - we’ve ‘done’ places like the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame in the past and had no desire to see them again except at a distance. Stayed on the Left Bank near the Pont Neuf so everything we wanted to do was within walking distance except the Musée Marmottan-Monet (and then on to the Bois de Boulogne) so we only had to do one return metro trip.

You’ve clearly never been to Brighton - weirdo central there.

You're comparing Parisians with Athenians, right?

I mean, you wouldn't be comparing the residents of a capital city with the residents of a small island or resort whose economy depends largely on tourism at all there, would you? 🤔

(I mean, I have no particular beef with Athenians, but I wouldn't say they're effusively friendly to strangers either...)

I’ve travelled all over the world and encountered more weirdos per square mile in Paris than anywhere else.

Love Paris and London - city brew aka are the best and places with so much history are always worth the journey.

It’s a great city.

I think the ‘Paris is filthy and smelly’ people are the same ones who think New York is a shithole and London is crime capital of the universe.

Paris nous appartient.

I can't understand all the hatred for Paris on MN
Ah, is this the Paris where they are lovely to you but only if you make the first move. Whereas (generalisation alert) Greeks somehow manage to be friendly to everyone all the time. I know where I would rather go on holiday.

it ties with New York as my favourite city so YANBU

It's a mismatch between expectation and reality. Some people lead quite sheltered lives and expect a capital city of 7 million (I think!) to be like Emily in Paris.

And, you see it here on MN all the time- there is a huge cohort of people out there whose major requirements for a tourist destination are that it's easy, safe and clean. And God forbid that its inhabitants are more preoccupied with their own lives than with centring tourists.

Paris is alright. I'll tell you what though - if ever you hear of a truly bizarre crime happening on the French news - the amount of times it seems to have occured in les Yvelines, the region just to the west of Paris is uncanny.

Things like, "Mushroom picker finds shoe by river. On inspection from the gendarmerie nationale the shoe contained a severed foot.

Mde Dupont : 'I didn't disturb it unless they came back for it later.'

The case continues."

That's a real thing I remember reading.

Another weird bunch of people from les Yvelines came on holiday on Corsica near me. Grandma, aged in her late eighties, got lost in a thunderstorm, (allegedly) so they left it for a few days in case she turned up, flew back to Paris, settled back in the 'burbs and then reported the poor woman missing!

Paris is fine. Just don't get lost in the Yvelines weeds.

I think all capital cities have their odd bits on the outskirts. Seemingly quite genteel but with a dark side.

It’s quite lacking in originally. They’re the same about London. Although sometimes I suspect they’re connected to the people who from time to time come down and make it smell of urine!

It was the word fiesta that made me laughed!

I love Paris, but suspect that a lot of people go there wanting to see the tourist sites - Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Louvre - and are then surprised - and disappointed- when they’re faced with, well….tourists, rather than the romantic ‘city of light’ they thought they’d get.

Like any big city it has it’s seedy side, but if they stepped away from the main tourist places they’d see so much more: beautiful architecture, hidden streets and squares, fantastic street markets, museums, elegant gardens; it’s a city that lends itself to wandering and exploring, or just sitting with a glass of something outside a cafe and watching the world go by. For many tourists, the desire to rush around and tick the big items off their list means that they miss all the above which, for me anyway, is what makes Paris such a lovely place to visit.

Is go during fashion week and people watch. Or even better, figure out how to snag an invite to PFW.

Can you link to any of these anti Paris comments?

@2026IsMyYear I love Paris and am going on my own for three nights in July, after my last solo trip was gate crashed by DD.
I’ve done all the usual touristy things, including the Catacombs etc. but please tell me some different things to enjoy this time. I love art, history, fashion and people-watching!

I’ve seen more posters being absolutely obsessed with Paris than I’ve seen posters critical of it. I just put it down to MN skewing Francophile.

I’m indifferent to it, really. Not somewhere I’d actively choose to go again, but not somewhere I’d choose to avoid.

Apart from that, it’s great!

It’s one of those cities - like Dublin - that has this lore and people go expecting mystical, romanticism and find it’s really expensive, a tourist trap full of Americans, dirty, and heaving with petty crime like pick pockets and phone knicking.

Well, those are the things that seem to be insisted on — feeling unsafe, and the streets and/or the metro smelling of urine!

I love it there and just booked a long weekend with DH and DS in the autumn as DS has never been. Very excited but what I’m finding surprising is how much more complicated it seems to be now to book entry to attractions, lots of forward planning and needing to be online at exactly a week before etc. In my head it’s still 20
years ago and you can rock up and do things spontaneously but realising this is no longer the case… it’s the same with everything now I guess!

There is an odd subset of people on Mumsnet who love to dislike something that most other people like...I think it makes them feel special. Paris is one that comes up a lot! See also, any film or TV show that has received broadly positive reviews and people like and any celebrity that is popular in anyway. London also gets a lot of hate on here.