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As the Olympics draws ever closer, many of us are thinking more of Paris - here's everything you need to know before taking a trip. With the 2024 Olympics just weeks away, many of us are thinking a little more than usual about the host city, Paris. Ahead of the ever-popular sporting event though, there have been many criticisms of authorities and business owners putting prices up for the period, and of the French capital itself.

Most first-timers in Paris arrive with an idealised view, expecting beauty at every turn, world class food and attractive people wearing perfect outfits. As a major city, this is not often the case and some tourists get a nasty shock when expectations don’t live up to the reality. There’s actually a name for that feeling - Paris Syndrome - and it can be very serious with some tourists suffering from an apparent state of severe culture shock.



It’s a phrase coined by Hiroaki Ota, a Japanese psychiatrist working in France in the 1980s. It mostly applies to Japanese tourists - some 1.1 million visit Paris annually - but it can apply to people from any nation.

Tourism agents, anime and glossy magazines tend to sell as the ‘perfect’ place - a beautiful metropolis, perfect for a romantic break or a culture-packed trip with friends. On arriving, many people are disheartened by an often-hidden seedy underbelly, with crime, noise, prostitution and dirty streets. While some may simply be underwhelmed, others can have a far more severe reaction.

In some.

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