Paris - the city of superdiversity

I spent a weekend in Paris with my flat mates, so I had a chance to experience and observe superdiversity. I can absolutely confirm that there is A LOT of people from so many different ethnics, religions, race, nationalities,… In these three days, I took a moment from time to time and just watch people crossing the street, walking by, talking to each other, hurrying somewhere, so just observing different people passing by, without them even noticing me. It is amazing how many different cultures there are in one big city. It is actually a world in one city, as it is said in an article about Superdiversity, written by Steven Vertovec. Everyone is mixed together and it looks like they are doing great. We of course didn’t have time to dig deeper into social construction and relations between people, but as I saw, everyone is accepted there. At least on the outside. I don’t know how are the close relations between people, and if they hang out more with their own ethnics, race, religion, but as we were walking true the city and saw some ‘very different’ people, only we were turning around and looking at them. Everyone else just passed, like they are used to literally everything. This could also mean, that people are living one past another, so they are being very impersonal to strangers, not looking at them, not saying hello or give a small smile as a greeting. Maybe that’s a thing that happens in such big cities as Paris is. Since I am living in Amsterdam, I didn’t get this feeling at all. The city is smaller, which I like, people are friendlier, speaking better English, not so impersonal and more willing to help. I also noticed that Paris is very unfriendly to disabled people. There is no way for people who are on a wheelchair to go to metro. There is a lot of stairs everywhere you go  on a metro, long hallways to come from one track to another and no elevator or ramp for people who can’t walk. So they have to take a bus or some other transportation, otherwise they just can’t go from one destination to another.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed our weekend trip and I enjoyed Paris. It is a beautiful city, with a lot of people, a lot of tourists, and a lot of nice places to visit. It is a little too big for me personally, because I am used to very small cities and countryside, but I will never be sorry that I visited it. Maybe I even come back so I can experience the love and romantic atmosphere Paris is known about, because I couldn’t actually do that in a package with 4 other girls now. J

Paris - the city of love and romance, they say