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I've lived in a few big cities but Paris definitely is very different to the others. There are moments when it's like the depictions in the films: quiet bouleva
by _Wintermute 7y ago
I've lived in a few big cities but Paris definitely is very different to the others. There are moments when it's like the depictions in the films: quiet boulevards lined with Haussmann apartments sitting ontop of quaint boulangeries. I think this is why it's such a shock when you're faced with the rest of it which is dirty, smelly, noisy, home to 10 million people filled with scam artists and impatient Parisians.
- hodgesrm 7y agoParis reminds me a lot of San Francisco. Both have world class neighborhoods but also areas that are pretty awful (homelessness, crime, trash, etc.) Personally I find Paris very similar to navigate. The not-do-good parts do not seem much different from the Tenderloin in SF and require the same attention to surroundings.
- bsaul 7y agoI’ve also lived in SF and believe me, the problem is entirely different. It’s just a different scale. We’re not talking about having « diverse neighborhoods » or « sketchy neighborhoods » ( it’s part of the fun of living in a big city). Actually i’ve lived a huge part of my life in those neighborhoods, and criminality isn’t such a big problem (although things are very very different if you’re a girl). The most pressing matter for the country is the cultural gap between very large parts of the whole french population (not just a district or a city). The country is currently facing an identity crisis and the fact that overtly racists political parties are close to winning every election should be a sign that something’s going really bad there. Unfortunately the debate is completely crippled by people who refuse to address the issue like grown ups ( either by calling everyone a racist, or by actually being racist)