No matter where you are in France, it’s difficult to escape the shadow of Paris.

My most recent trip to France’s capital this weekend made me think about just how much the city dominates life in France. Paris, after all, houses the majority of France’s tourist landmarks, the seat of government and the epicenter of its artistic life.

In many ways, Paris is to the French what New York City is to Americans, or at least East Coasters. Everyone either lives there, pretends to live there or has plans to move there.

“Paris, Paris, Paris,” said my 10-year-old host sister over dinner one night, making a face. “When are people going to start talking about Strasbourg?”

Despite my host sister’s frustration with the Eiffel Tower being the de facto national symbol of France, Paris does indisputably sit at the center of French culture, government and society.

France is hierarchized in every aspect, and Paris always sits on top of the pyramid. Whereas American journalists refer to “the White House” when referencing the president’s administration, in France, they simply refer to “Paris.” All over France, banks, businesses and corporations that have nothing to do with the capital city tack “de Paris” onto the end of their names.

Parisians are by no means unaware of this fact. Tell a Parisian you’re living in Strasbourg, and you tend to see a facial expression akin to that of someone who’s just swallowed sour milk.

It’s easy enough to understand the fascination with Paris. It is, after all, a city of superlatives, with record numbers of tourists, iconic museums and world-renowned food.

The capital city and everything in it tend to be built on a grand scale. My class spent a total of almost six hours in the Musée d’Orsay and still didn’t see everything. But even the Musée d’Orsay is dwarfed by The Louvre, which displays 35,000 works of art over 652,000 square feet.

Paris even has the biggest and best of non-French hallmarks. For example, as of this month, you can find the world’s biggest Chipotle restaurant in the City of Light.

But Paris can also be also full of surprises. For example, when I saw a group of street musicians with accordions step onto the subway, I wasn’t expecting to hear them bust out old school hip-hop. For the record, the combination of hip-hop and accordion works surprisingly well.

The city presents certain challenges, too. The ancient city’s streets aren’t laid on a neat grid like New York City’s, but rather winding and irregular. This means that finding your way around on foot can be difficult, and using the subway for even relatively short trips can require multiple line changes.

For me, the Paris versus the rest question has personal implications. As I slogged through French grammar exercises in high school, I always had my heart set on studying abroad in the city. When I found out that Syracuse University didn’t have a Paris program for my major, I briefly toyed with the idea of studying abroad with another program in order to get my wish.

But, despite Paris’ obvious appeal and undeniable status in France, there are advantages to living in a lesser known city. Paris is physically enormous, for one thing, and it’s much easier to feel at home among Strasbourg’s 272,116 residents than Paris’s 2.2 million.

Smaller cities also provide a different view on a country’s culture than the central metropolises. Paris is, in many ways, a globalized city, full of restaurants from every culture and tourists of every language. Strasbourg, on the other hand, in the heart of the very traditional Alsace region, provides a truly French perspective, complete with inconveniences like stores shutting down on Sundays and an utter lack of Chipotles.

Despite how amazing it can feel to round a corner and catch a sudden glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, I’m glad not going to be spending my entire semester in a city of such intimidating proportions and massive tourist appeal. For students studying abroad, sometimes getting to the heart of a country means avoiding the flashiest landmarks and brightest lights.

Published on April 15, 2014 at 1:00 am

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