DECRYPTION – First-time visitors to the capital rarely venture off the beaten track.
Rather the 7e district than Saint-Denis: this is where tourists flock. The freshness of the royal basilica has not convinced travelers to trade Haussmann for Gothic. Lesser-known monuments remain very marginal in visits. The musts of the City of Light are still popular, despite the Paris City Hall’s desire to bring out new tourist routes in order to publicize other emblems of the capital, such as the Hôtel de Sully or the Maison Victor Hugo.
“We plan to see Montmartre, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe and of course the Eiffel Tower,” enthusiastically asserts an Argentinian group on the forecourt of the Trocadero. In fact, the majority of first-time visitors to the capital give priority to iconic monuments “that must have been done”, according to popular terminology. Observing the reactions of visitors discovering the Iron Lady, one certainty: the ballet of tourists having their picture taken alongside the tower seems…
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