- An Indian man shared a viral video showing a dirty area near a Paris train station
- The video contrasts a filthy neighbourhood with a cleaner part of the city
- The man highlighted Paris's multicultural nature and varied neighbourhoods
An Indian man has gone viral on social media after sharing a rather different picture of Paris, widely regarded as one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. The user took to Instagram to share a video titled, "Paris gave me a plot twist in the first 5 minutes", where he could be seen stepping out of a train station in the French capital into dirt and filth and immediately being surprised by it.
"Where is this? Is this Paris? Looks like a fish market," said Vinayak Mishra, before the video cuts to a relatively better-looking area as he adds, "This neighbourhood is normal, but the other place was weird. People coming from all directions and screaming, as well as garbage lying around.'
"I did not have this image of Paris in my mind," said Mr Mishra.
In the video caption, the user stated that the area shown in the video had a different vibe from the rest of the city.
"Paris is a multicultural city, and not every part looks the same. The area in this reel has a very different vibe, but that doesn't mean the whole city looks like this," he said, adding: "Just like in India, every place has different sides, and that's what makes travelling so real and interesting."
Watch the viral video here:
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'Don't step out ...'
As of the last update, the video had garnered over 1.5 million views and hundreds of comments, with the majority of users pointing out that it indeed was the case with several areas in Paris.
"Brother, stay in central Paris, if you are staying even slightly outside, then this is what you will get. Also don't step out in such areas at night. It's extremely unsafe," said one user, while another added: "The other side of Paris they don't wanna show us."
A third commented: "It looks so messy, I'm guessing there was a busy market earlier and that was the aftermath."
A fourth said: "So this is the case with every city there are clean areas and dirty areas. Have lived in multiple cities of the world, so I know. But usually, folks and the media will only show dirty areas of the city for Indian cities and polished, clean areas of Western cities."
Paris syndrome
Despite being home to the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Louvre and other popular places, some tourists experience what has been described as "Paris syndrome" when in the city.
Though not indexed as an exact psychological phenomenon, it is a case of an extreme form of culture shock that affects tourists when the reality of Paris fails to live up to their highly romanticised expectations.
