Masquerouge said:
Paris and London.
Beautiful monuments, a nice subway system, a center-of-the country mentality, a rich cultural life, a mixed population...
Paris and London are EXTREMELY different. Paris is a very dense city when London is an urban sprawl. I agree though that both share the things you've mentionned... but those cities are really very far to be look alikes.
Paris has actually more common points with
New York City.
Both Paris and Manhattan are organized the same way. Manhattan would be the 75 department (Paris center), Brooklyn would be the Hauts-de-Seine (Paris west side), the Queens would be the Val-de-Marne (Paris South East), and the Bronx would be Seine-St Denis (Paris North East).
Both Paris and New York are organized the same way, both are heavily multicultural. The Golden era of Paris was in the end of the 19th century, the Golden era of New York was at the beginning of the 20th century. Both are world cities, both are very diversed. Both have become what they are thanks to immigrants. Well, to put it in a nutshell, New York and Paris share the same thing you've described about London, but they also share even more. The only difference is a matter of size, New York being bigger. But outside that proportion effect, Paris and New York are twins.
The relationship of those cities with the rest of their respective country are also very similar. Americans dislike Newyorkers for the same reasons French people dislike Parisians : They are arrogant towards the rest of the country. The kind of bourgeoisie are the same, the cultural places are the same (Woody Allen making movies which aren't far from French cinema). Saint-Germain des Près is exactly the same as Greenwich Village. Talking about movies, Paris and New York are also famous because of their insane number of movie theatres.
