An American in Paris

Europe! This is where it all comes from. Millions of Americans can trace their ancestry to one or another European country. No wonder a trip on the other side of the pond is a dream that lingers for years in the minds of many an American whichever state he or she comes from. And because of the origin of the majority of immigrants it’s easy to figure out that for Americans London is Europe of course but without being that foreign. 

I mean, Americans can understand the locals and dialogue with them. London could be some sort of a quaint old American city where people speak with an, oh so strange, antiquated, lovely and classy accent… The government is friendly, so are the inhabitants supposed to be, you must admit it’s reassuring. All together, Americans can enjoy the sheer pleasure of the unusual laced with the security feeling stemming from the “déjà vu”.

And yet Britain isn’t all of Europe of course, there’s the rest of it, the Continentals, among which is France. And there may lay the snag. There’s something special with France and its capital, everyone knows that but… Isn’t it also a well known fact that the French are anti-American, “rude”, “arrogant”? To the point that many, many Americans expect to be ill-treated when in France, especially in Paris, only to often be positively surprised when they eventually make it in the French capital. 

And yet, despite its sometimes bad reputation, Paris is the world number one city for the number of tourists it welcomes every year with over 25 millions in 2004, 1.4 millions of them from America! Paris is also the world number one city when it comes to international congresses, ahead of London despite the language asset that the British capital should benefit from. 

To many American journalists, diplomats or executive directors, a post in Paris often means the top notch of foreign assignments. Sure, if London provides Americans a sense of easiness that is definitively missing in Paris, the French capital also is often seen as the incarnation of charm and beauty, romanticism and intellectualism all together. There must be some truth behind that cliché. Indeed, for centuries all monarchs, emperors and Presidents of France have tried to outdo each other in order to add more monuments and grandeur to the City of Light. And in the meantime, Paris has succeeded in retaining its humanity and a sense of earthly pleasure with it.

That is maybe where the difference lays with London where no central power seems to have a long-term ambition for the British capital but to turn it into an ever more modern city mainly dedicated to trade and business. Whereas, on the other side of the British Channel, in June 2006 another landmark in the Parisian sky has opened its doors, le Musée des Arts Premiers, located along the river Seine, near the Eiffel Tower. It ranks among the grandest Parisian museums along with the Louvre, Orsay, Beaubourg to name a few. Isn’t it what many Americans are looking for when travelling to Europe? Something that is “essentially” European and not a reminder of what they have in plentiful back home?

The love story between Americans and Paris is a long documented story anyway and well prior to George Gershwin and Gene Kelly! Remember The Moveable Feast? And Mary Cassatt, Janet Flanner, Edith Wharton, Art Buchwald etc…

So, how comes it sometimes seems so difficult to fine tune Americans and French? The best explanation to date of the difficulties they encounter with each other may have been provided by a French author, Pascal Baudry, who states that whereas Americans need and want to be loved, the French aren’t so much interested in being loved but in being admired… In that regard, maybe is Paris the ultimate argument the French present the Americans…

Note 1: Prince Charles once said, the British architects have wrecked more havoc on the British capital than the pilots of the Luftwaffe!

Note 2: more than 65% of visitors say they’ve been induced into travelling to Paris after seeing many, many films where the city was so beautifully pictured. Thank you Amélie and welcome to the Da Vinci Code!