What is Europe on a local basis?
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If we put Europeans in a box – isn’t the same result than living in a city like Paris where people all over Europe have to deal with each other because they don’t have a lot of space on their own? What about starting an experiment on the ground: Let us start with Paris, where the cafebabel.com’s headquarter is located.
Paris off the journalistic record… or how the French are more European than they think
First of all on the cultural agenda: You can go in Paris to operas and to concerts – they will be on a European/International standard. You can watch European movies in Paris because the European cinema is flourishing in the French capital. Whatever you wish to see, you can find it here in Paris
Let’s investigate on people who live in Paris: many come from abroad. They work for different NGO’s or for international companies. You will find Europeans all over Paris. Personally I know for example that the German community is not that small in Paris.
Food: How is it possible in Paris not to talk about it? – Exactly: It isn’t. You will have to deal here with a great choice of restaurants - even if they are quite pricey!
(credit photo: gnisley/flickr)
But to treat Paris on the ground means to come closer and to go beyond the beautiful hotspots: You will soon be confronted with full metro lines, typical french “banlieus” where you have to deal with the pollution of circulating cars and you might find yourself walking along motorways. You might have to distinguish between the cliché of having a cheesy wine meal in Paris and the reality if finding many tourist-food chains: They stand for bad quality and for being overprized for what they offer.
Paris on the ground means also looking for hidden secrets beyond tourist crowds at places like Tour Eiffel and Notre Dame. On cafebabel.com it means looking for European Impacts on a daily basis - which does exist! Paris for example is the most visited city in Europe, if not in the world: Europeans know the images of Paris cityscape, they share its cultural and historical background.