I need to issue a quick but important correction. Earlier today, I said that I was surprised by the similarity between Paris and London. Admittedly, the museum districts of the two places resemble each other to a greater degree than one might expect, during the daytime. At night, downtown Paris is a far different (and enormously more pleasant) place. Based on limited exposure, it reminds me of the things I like most about Montreal. People are everywhere, there are public performances going on late into the night, there are families to be seen, and the rest of the things that make a city feel public and alive. The contrast with a few drunken gangs of hooligans wandering from pubs to kebab vans – as is the norm in London – is striking and highly favourable towards the Parisians.
That said, I am heading back out into it. I want to see the illuminated Eiffel Tower. The bridges across the Seine are certainly very appealing when lit by contrasting incandescent and fluorescent lights and packed with groups of friends sharing cheese, bread, and wine.
PS. The verdict on the falafel: better than I had previously and capable of being a tasty snack. Still not something I am ever likely to wish for when unavailable, as I do for delicious vegetarian poutine with miso gravy.
On the matter of hooligans, at least most of the bachelor parties have shifted to Prague.
Milan, the brush with which you paint both cities is uncharacteristically broad. Why? Not all areas of London are filled with drinked louts and some areas of Paris are. Just leave the museum, that is, the centre of the latter city.
I am guessing the broad brush is caused by the short length of time being spent in both cities.
That and a compulsive need to generate commentary – even when there isn’t an adequate level of thinking behind it.
Sean,
The strokes are broad indeed, I realize. It is fairer to say that this is a comparison between my general recollections of London at night and my initial impressions of parts of Paris at the same time. You can’t deny that one is unlikely to find large groups of people having dozens of picnics on a bridge or in a park in London at two o’clock in the morning.