Favorite of the EU 25 largest cities

[Marla_Singer]

Sorry, this is largest CITIES, not metropolitan areas.

I'm actually not sure about this. Lyon's municipality has only 400,000 inhabitants and it's on the list. Its metro area is of 1.5 million people.

 

[Verbose]

I'm actually not sure about this. Lyon's municipality has only 400,000 inhabitants and it's on the list. Its metro area is of 1.5 million people.

Afaict about the original list, the compilers weren't 100% consistent about it. Most cities are listed by central city size, but some got the figure for the entire urban area listed, like Lyon.

 

[tycoonist]

I have lived in London for 18 years, and would not want to live long term anywhere else in Europe.

 

[Shekwan]

I have lived in London for 18 years, and would not want to live long term anywhere else in Europe.

Why?

Have you tried living anywhere else in Europe?

 

[Enkidu Warrior]

I'm embarrassed to say that I've only been to London and Paris. As a northerner I am genetically predisposed to irrationally dislike London, but compared to Paris it is a fairly organised city, and its cultural draws are at least as strong. I wouldn't leave Osaka for either of them, but Paris would drive me insane in very short order, so I'll go for London.

 

[Dachs]

I suppose this poll is being skewed by Americans confused as to where to place their patriotism in a poll where they have no options?

Yeah. München's a terrible city, but goddammit, it's my terrible city.

 

[Shekwan]

Yeah. München's a terrible city, but goddammit, it's my terrible city.

Well I was thinking more along the lines of Americans with more distant European origins who would think English speaking makes a place far more attractive as the US is English speaking and therefore a "good quality".

 

[Verbose]

I'm embarrassed to say that I've only been to London and Paris. As a northerner I am genetically predisposed to irrationally dislike London, but compared to Paris it is a fairly organised city, and its cultural draws are at least as strong. I wouldn't leave Osaka for either of them, but Paris would drive me insane in very short order, so I'll go for London.

Sounds positively weird to me. Regarding organisation, in my experience London is an utter mess compared to Paris. Language barriers?

 

[Huayna Capac357]

I voted Paris, but I've only been to Paris and London on that list, so my list of possible choices isn't very long.

 

[illram]

Interesting to see London getting all the attention of this thread. Economically and demographically speaking, both Paris and London have about the same weight in the EU. However, Paris is totally forgotten here.

This tends to prove how Paris got distanced in the recent years. Paris is passionately hated by French people, and more and more ignored by the rest of the world.

On the other side, London is loved and promoted by everyone in the UK, and it catched the attention of the rest of the world as the economical capital of the EU. This trend is probably fueled by the image of London as a flourishing city. And this perceived prosperity of London could be explained by the fact it's a financial capital in a global economy more and more dominated by the financial sector. We could also add the fact it's an English speaking city, which makes it a lot more accessible to the rest of the world.

Overall, Paris should really reconsider itself. Paris should stop thinking itself at a national level and assumes itself at the global level. No matter if we like it or not, Paris is the undisputable capital of the French speaking world. It's not just a French city anymore. Furthermore, the old limited adminstrative borders of the city gives a very restricted image of what is "Paris" (an old and dirty city center which doesn't evolve), I think Parisians should really call fastly for the creation of a Greater Paris which would clearly help the city to eventually deal with its own problem at the right scale.

To illustrate my post, here's an image of modern Paris. No one knows it exists, and this for a good reason, it's not "inside Paris" but in what is wrongly called "suburbs". Suburbs are just the 20th century extensions of the city of Paris. They are its modern face. And the fact it is labelled "suburbs" makes it all ignored.

Interesting! I have been to Paris many times as a visitor, and even fancied myself as somewhat knowledgeable of the city and never visited the modern skyscraper area. I didn't even notice it!

Why do the French dislike Paris? Is it the disdain for its touristy-ness?

I always felt that Londoners had a bit of envy of Paris, since Paris is considered more "exotic" and has that hard to define Parisian allure that London does not have. And of course you have the thousand year old English vs French simmering cultural hatred undercurrent...

What do Parisians think of London?

There are definitely parts of London that visitors never see. Such as, basically, everything south of the Thames. And there is also the Canary Wharf area that, like Paris, is a modern area no one ever goes to or even knows exists.

 

[Mise]

There's a reason no-one goes there though - it's completely uninteresting!

Greenwich is much more interesting, and south of the river. I wonder if tourists ever go there? London Bridge/Dungeons is south of the river though, as is the Tate Modern, London Eye and, well, the rest of Southbank. That's fairly touristy. It's also part of the historic city, too, which is pretty neat.

 

[illram]

But there is the Eye and that globe theater thingy! And that one footbridge near St. Pauls looks cool!

I never went to Greenwich.

 

[W|M]

London is grey as hell.

 

[Yared]

London is butt ugly. I loved the House of Parliament though.


Anyways, have any of you have been to Stockholm?

 

[madviking]

I have Yared. Though it was many years ago.

 

[W|M]

The closest I've been to Stockholm was when I went to Leipzig in Eastern Germany.

 

[Yared]

What did you think of my lovely hometown? (If you can remember much)

 

[Lillefix]

What did you think of my lovely hometown? (If you can remember much)

For what its worth I like it. With all the islands and bridges and so on. And many nice buildings. Except for the extraordinarily ugly royal palace. Seriously, they could at least paint it in a livelier color than brown. Like the Winter Palace.

 

[W|M]

The design reminds me of the Versailles.

 

[Lillefix]

Oh yes. They're both baroque. I heard that it was originally meant to be adorned with statues, but the king didn't like it. Too bad.