to not really get Paris

[JapanNextYear]

I have had some lovely holidays in France, the food, the wine etc. And I have a huge fondness for being in a capital city.

But I just don't really get Paris. I've been to the touristy bits and the not touristy bits, but I find it all a bit cold and distant and its hard to get a decent meal or have a nice drink.

What am I doing wrong?

You give a good defence of your favourite city Lockheart!

Paris is my favourite city in the world, but YANBU to not get it.
I don't get Venice and New York or London.

Hah thank you Mitzy

Like I say I know it's far from perfect. But IMO the good outweighs the bad. The hotel rooms are small, but I don't go to spend my time in the hotel. The metro is a bit off but it's cheapish and a means to an end. The tourists might swarm around the main attractions, but take yourself for a bit of a walk and you'll find very few.

Oh one thing that IS a downside is that they don't have cake. They have torte, meringues, macaroons, and pastries. Not a victoria sponge to be found, in my experience. But I can live with that

I love getting up early in a city and walking round watching it wake up, finding the small little museum, the great cafe - loved Berlin, had an amazingly good time in Zagreb (such good food and wine), liked Barcelona (mostly because of the people I was with though) and absolutely fell in love with New York (several times).

Paris just didn't...you know...grab me.

quoiiiii!
a thread slagging off Paris

I absolutely adore the place, go as much as I can & want to live there later.
Going in two weeks, cannot wait.
I sometimes tear up walking down the street because it's so beautiful

ok, the supermarkets in the UK are infinitely better, I have to give you that!

'I sometimes tear up walking down the street because it's so beautiful'

So sweet.

Don't forget to pack l'hanky!

I'd like to get Paris and can't quite work out why I don't as I really ought to! Food, wine, old stuff and new stuff, what's not to like?

My grandma used to say she wouldn't go abroad. She had been there once and didn't like it. :)

I never did find out where it was.

I lived there and was sexually assaulted in all sorts of different situations. At the time I sort of accepted it as my lot (I was young and thought it was something to do with me). It is a beautiful city and living there I was lucky enough to experience what it had to offer (yes it was beautiful walking to work past Notre Dame early every morning), but such a shame it came with a huge dollop of racism and misogyny

Well.

This is all very encouraging. I leave in two weeks for a mini break!

Does Paris have any positives or shall I just hide in the room?

Oh - IME all the dog poo is there in the residential areas early in the morning when the owners walk their dogs - it usually gets hosed down pretty early in the summer

I'm going to Paris in a couple of weeks too, despite what I have written :)

It is so so racist in a way London never could be.
We had tons of people literally sneering at us and we knew it was because we were brown!
No one would help, we were stared at like animals in a zoo at a tiny cafe. V v weird

I like Paris but I agree that it can feel unfriendly although I'm not sure that that is exclusive to Paris amongst French cities! I'm trying to think of a European city that I could honestly say I dislike and only one comes up every time and that's Naples. Shit-hole extraordinaire! I'm off to Nantes this weekend which I think is going to be lovely.

Melbourne, London, New York and Barcelona are all amazing cities. They have their negatives but the positives more than outweigh them.

Paris is so overrated it's untrue. The locals act superior to everyone else. Quite unfriendly and dirty too. I've been 3 times and have still not found a cool bar.

crystal that's awful.

I hate Paris. I've been several times, and I just don't get why so many people love it there. Mind you, I don't get the love for Amsterdam either....

I went to LaRochelle once, all the men there were so beautiful, I was in a kind of a trance, thinking, this must be what it's like to be a man, surrounded by attractive women! With hindsight tho, a lot of them were probably gay...

I love Paris and the French but I the level of sexual harassment in Paris is ridiculous.
I like that it hasn't been 'trashed' by chains and seems so unchanged over time.
It isn't romantic for me though.

Naples, had a fantastic time there, best pizza ever! But also a real working (or more usually striking) proper city.

Off to Amsterdam soon so I hope I'm not posting something similar after that.

The best time I ever had was in Copenhagen. It is the opposite of Paris.

You are definitely not alone in not 'getting' Paris!

There is actually a syndrome that affects tourists who find the reality far from the city they imagined:-

Paris syndrome is a transient psychological disorder exhibited by some individuals visiting or vacationing in Paris or elsewhere in Western Europe. It is characterized by a number of psychiatric symptoms such as acute delusional states, hallucinations, feelings of persecution (perceptions of being a victim of prejudice, aggression, or hostility from others), derealization, depersonalization, anxiety, and also psychosomatic manifestations such as dizziness, tachycardia, sweating, and others. (From Wiki)

I find Parisians cold and rude and I'm from London

'We had tons of people literally sneering at us and we knew it was because we were brown!'

Ugh. Sounds horrific.

I went to a fancy restaurant in Marseille and a table of locals started loudly sniggering at DH and I. It made us feel very uncomfortable. We later found out from the waiter that's it was because we were not eating our dish the correct way. How rude and weird is that?

The Bordeaux region is lovely though. Always had good times around there and the people don't appear to be so up themselves.