I feel the same about Paris, there’s nothing romantic or magical about it. It had easily the worst air pollution I’ve ever seen in Europe (but I understand that’s improved a lot in the last decade), it’s overcrowded and smells like sewage everywhere. Not a place I’d ever care to visit again. That said I use a number of French services and I really like a lot of their cultural exports, and I’d love to explore other areas of France.
When I was there, apart from trips into Paris, I was staying in a little village about half an hour from Paris called Nozay. Now that was something that you don’t just get back home like a big city. Cobbled streets in certain parts, half the buildings are probably as old or older than my country, there’s the little town square where everything is from the mayor’s office to the bakery to the pub and tobacconist lol. I’d love to visit the French countryside and little villages and stuff again a lot more than I’d like to see a big city again.
I feel the same about Paris, there’s nothing romantic or magical about it. It had easily the worst air pollution I’ve ever seen in Europe (but I understand that’s improved a lot in the last decade), it’s overcrowded and smells like sewage everywhere. Not a place I’d ever care to visit again. That said I use a number of French services and I really like a lot of their cultural exports, and I’d love to explore other areas of France.
When I was there, apart from trips into Paris, I was staying in a little village about half an hour from Paris called Nozay. Now that was something that you don’t just get back home like a big city. Cobbled streets in certain parts, half the buildings are probably as old or older than my country, there’s the little town square where everything is from the mayor’s office to the bakery to the pub and tobacconist lol. I’d love to visit the French countryside and little villages and stuff again a lot more than I’d like to see a big city again.