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There's a sense in which this is endemic to Paris: as a city which evolved from a medieval one, with narrow ad-hoc streets snaking all around, it lends itself u
by gxonatano 2y ago
There's a sense in which this is endemic to Paris: as a city which evolved from a medieval one, with narrow ad-hoc streets snaking all around, it lends itself uniquely to wandering, in a way that New York City, for instance, with its grid system of numbered streets, could not. Walk a straight line in Paris, and you're likely to end up where you started, because of the way the streets curve and intersect. Walk a straight line in New York, and you'll just end up in New Jersey, in some parking lot, questioning all the life choices you made that led to that moment.
- igouy 2y agootoh New York's grid system of numbered streets is an encouragement to wander who knows where with some confidence that you can shortcut and backtrack.
- TacticalCoder 2y agoHmmm... Many parts of the old Paris have been entirely destroyed to make way for gigantic streets / boulevards of Hausmann. I went to Paris quite some times and although there are places with narrow streets, Paris doesn't strike me as a city made of tiny streets where you can easily get lost. It's not as cookie cutter as N.Y. or L.A. but Paris is an artificial city too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann%27s_renovation_of_Paris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann%27s_renovation_of_Pa...
- simonebrunozzi 2y ago> and you'll just end up in New Jersey, in some parking lot, questioning all the life choices It might have not been intended, but I find this passage quite poetic, and of course full of some sense of... Melancoly, perhaps. Thanks for writing it.