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

[BarbaraVineFan]

Currently coming to the end of a marvellous short break in Paris. I’ve been here lots of times and also lived here for a while when I was a child. In all this time (but especially this most recent holiday) I haven’t found any evidence of any of the accusations levelled against Paris. It’s not dirty- in fact, it seems notably cleaner than the last time I was here in approx 2009) and it isn’t enormously expensive, especially compared to London. What’s more, it’s often said that Parisians are rude, but the people I have met and interacted with have been without exception polite and courteous. Am i missing something? I would honestly live here again in a heartbeat. Does anyone else agree?

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 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.

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.

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.

So what is the significant difference between them for you?

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.

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

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 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.

I disagree, I find Parisians hate mangled French.

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'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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

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