Tourist Town

I suppose the last thing that you want to hear is me bitch about commercialism again, but I feel that this idea bears further examination.

This weekend, my study abroad group, a couple friends we met at the residence, and I went to Paris for the weekend to be tourists.  This visit was great, but the atmosphere of the whole city made me feel a little uneasy.

Let me start at the beginning...

According to the French Government, which has it own section dedicated to tourism, France is the most visited country in the world, bringing about 82 million tourists a year (reported in June of 2008).  Without argument, the place that receives the most tourism within France is Paris, the grand capital city.

I knew this going into Paris, but I didn't realize just how much the tourism affected the city's pulse.  Travelers are everywhere, from all over the world.  Walking down the street it wasn't uncommon to hear  four or five different conversations all occurring in four or five different languages.  And the city transit maps have big diagrams showing where the famous tourist sites are.

This section of a bus map, for example, shows the location of both the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Chatelet des Halles.

I suppose this is to be expected, but everywhere we went, the city seemed to be a giant machine catering to tourists.  There's the stereotype that Parisians are rude, but I didn't experience this when I was there.  In fact, the townies were more than happy to let tourists in on everything.  At Notre-Dame, tourists were allowed into the chapel in the middle of mass.  There were signs hung about which told everyone to be silent during the ceremonies.  No one was, of course, and during the processions and readings there was a steady din of conversation undulating around the congregation.

This would be very difficult for me to tolerate if I lived here.  The city seemed less like a place to live and more of zoo where spectators who are willing to pay a nominal fee can gawk in fleeting awe at strange beasts that live in contrived, artificial habitats.

With all the diverse people, it would be easy to label Paris a cosmopolitan center, but I don't it truly is.  There are many different peoples from many different parts of the world in the city, but most of the diversity comes tourism; travel for the sake of travel.  I think a true cosmopolitan center is one where the diversity springs from the nature of the city, a place where the people who live and travel there do so out of necessity or opportunity, as opposed for raw amusement.  When people visit for the sake of visiting, there's no integration and no exchange.  Instead of a new, integrated community that thrives in and of itself, everything is fragmented and impermanent.

That's not to say that I didn't travel for fun and gawk with the other spectators.  Gawk I did at the majesty of Notre Dame, the grandeur of the Eiffel Tower, and tranquility of the Jardin des Plantes.  Still, I wonder what I would be like to see the Arc of Triomphe or the Eiffel Tower without the fragmented nature of the modern tourist industry, to see these landmarks and wonders blend seamlessly into a more cohesive, and methinks a more beautiful, capital city.