Paris : A world city

[Lonkut]

Its a shame on how much diverse europe is becoming.

 

[Goonie]

Even more than San Francisco?

Apparantly .

 

[Marla_Singer]

Bah ! I think there's no need to post the thread about Berlin I wanted to post too.

Hehe, it could wait for tomorrow.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Marla, I love your pictures, but captions sure would be nice.

 

[PantheraTigris2]

Main difference between say, Berlin (and most other cities in Germany), and Paris, is, that while yeah - Germany has all kinds of great cultural stuff - in reality, it's all brand new! They had to rebuild it, after it was bombed! Walking around Germany, you might see an 'old' cathedral... but really, it was just rebuilt a generation ago! You get my point. I mean, look at that Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, when the Soviets moved in. Shot full of holes. All their cities were burned and bombed out. What was left of the cultural stuff, was left... but lots of (recent/modern/not old) work was done, to make them look like they did before.

I don't think Paris was annihilated nearly so badly. In 1940, and 1944 - Paris pretty much skated through with minimal damage. Playin' it smart. They saw what happened to Warsaw.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Paris and Rome were "open" cities in WW2 and therefore not bombed.

 

[Marla_Singer]

Actually wrong. According to UN numbers, Toronto is the most diverse city in the world, with people hailing from more countries than any other city.

No, Toronto is simply the city with the most foreign born citizens. That's very different. We can summarize multiculturalism or diversity to such a mere figure.

I don't think multi-culturalism is seriously something we can rank, seriously. Especially when it goes about a city like Paris and this for many reasons.

Firstly, most of the people in those pictures aren't foreign born, but they are actually French (and born in France). That's true for many cities which have a long tradition of welcoming immigrants such as New York or London.

Secondly, Paris can't be summarized to Paris . The municipality of Paris represents only 2 million people, the metropolitan area represents 10 million people. Considering Paris could be summarized to those 2 million people is about the same as summarizing NYC to Manhattan. That's due to the high complexity in Paris' administrative division (There are 450 different municipalities sharing the same streets only in the metropolitan area !).

Finally, what makes of Paris a city different than Berlin or Toronto (which are growing multicultural very fast in these days) is that France had a colonial past. France had been once the capital city of a large colonial empire which was present in Africa, the Carribbeans, the Middle East, South East Asia and the Pacific. Cities like Brussels, Paris and of course London share this past in common. Since the 18th century actually, there had been endlessly waves of immigration in those cities.

My point is not to rank things, I'm simply saying we compare different thing. I talk about cultures, you talk about statistics. By the way, that makes me think that the husband of my sister is from Montreal. During his stay in Paris, he had been shocked by the diversity of the Parisian population in the subway.

EDIT : And if your going to talk Paris, show of some Parisian archietecture, none of this wannabe oriental stuff.

Well, you already know how look the Eiffel Tower and Notre-Dame.

 

[Fetus4188]

San Francisco is still my favorite multicultural city, Paris just can't match San Francisco's hills

 

[Marla_Singer]

Paris and Rome were "open" cities in WW2 and therefore not bombed.

If I recall correctly, Adolf Hitler had given the order to Von Choltitz, commander of Gross Paris, to bomb the city in order to defend it. And Von Choltitz have refused this order, considering the city could not be defended anyway and that would be simply a waste.

 

[Marla_Singer]

Main difference between say, Berlin (and most other cities in Germany), and Paris, is, that while yeah - Germany has all kinds of great cultural stuff - in reality, it's all brand new! They had to rebuild it, after it was bombed!

Actually, that's what I wanted to show you.

Here's still a quick preview :



The Bundestag.


Potdammerplatz.


A remembrance of the Wall.


Potdammerplatz (from the inside).


Bombed ruins of Kaiser Wilhelm Church, maybe the cathedral you wanted to talk about (it's just a church though).


Alexanderplatz.

 

[Birdjaguar]

By the way, that makes me think that the husband of my wife is from Montreal.

I didn't Know you were married

 

[Birdjaguar]

Captions

 

[Marla_Singer]

I didn't Know you were married

Sorry ! Mistake corrected !
I was talking about the husband of my sister.

 

[PantheraTigris2]

aka 'Brother-in-law'

 

[Marla_Singer]

aka 'Brother-in-law'

Oh well... I always mix up brother-in-law and step-brother in English. To be sure to not make any mistake, I say the thing fully this way I'm sure.

 

[Hundegesicht]

Half-brother = someone who has 1 parent the same as yours, but the other is not.

Step brother = a person born to a different set of parents then you that now has one of your parents as a step parent. (because of divorce or death/remarriage)

Brother-in-law = the husband of your sister (hopefully ) or the brother of your husband/wife.

 

[Rhymes]

Not at such a high level. I think that only New York and London are more multicultural than Paris. However, it's more known about those two cities than about Paris, that's why I wanted also to show this aspect of my city.

Actually, all great Canadian cities (Monrtreal, Toronto and Vancouver) have among the most incredible cultural diversity in the world. In montreal, almost 33% of the main island is inhabited by immigrants.

By the way very nice pictures, Paris is reallyt unique!

 

[Rhymes]

I thought the most present cultur group in Paris was from Algeria, but I didn't see it that often in your pictures, was I wrong or does it just happens not to be a shown cultur in the city core?

 

[Marla_Singer]

I thought the most present cultur group in Paris was from Algeria, but I didn't see it that often in your pictures, was I wrong or does it just happens not to be a shown cultur in the city core?

Statistically, the most present foreign communauty is actually the Portuguese one. I still think that if we sum up Algeria, Morroco and Tunisia, the figure is above Portugal... well anyway, here are the pictures of the Arab communauty I've posted :


Paris Mosquee (entrance)


Paris Mosquee (minaret)


Some guys doing a show (dunno what)

Well, anyway, I should post more pictures. Unfortunately, I don't have my digital camera for now. Maybe later.

To sum it up, the largest foreign communauties in France are Algerian, Armenian, Beninese, Bengali, Burkinabe, Cambodian, Cameroonese, Centrafrican, Chadian, Chinese, Congolese, Egyptian, Gabonese, Guinean, Haitian, Indian, Iranian, Italian, Ivorian, Lao, Malagasi, Malian, Moroccan, Nigerian, Pakistanese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Rwandese, Senegalese, Spaniard, Togolese, Tunisian and Vietnamese.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Sorry ! Mistake corrected !
I was talking about the husband of my sister.

I thought so, but I didn't want you to disappoint every CFC under the age of 30 with an accidental announcement that you were no longer available.