We can start to imagine what this new Paris would look like using different parts that complete each other, mix and merge without contradicting each other. That was our way of showing the many faces and identities of this metropolis, and to tell the story of how they create, together, a large territory of great richness, both dynamic and incredibly diverse.īetter than a puzzle juxtaposing pieces with no link between them, or even better than a cake made of multiple ingredients that would get mixed into an homogeneous concoction, the Greater Paris could be experienced as a melting pot of places, stories, identities, lives, to create an even larger project that doesn't take anything away from the differences and specificities of its smaller parts.ĭiscover all the identities of this territory
#Paris postcard free#
Moving from picture-postcard Paris - the Eiffel Tower, the Café de Flore, the Latin Corner book stands, the Sacré-Coeur and the Louvre Museum - to a "new Paris", that will carefully encapsulate all the treasures of the first one while also reaching new dimensions, new neighborhoods, inhabitants, landscapes, parks, culture and creation landmarks, innovation and experimentation centers.įor the Greater Paris Guide, that we (the Magasins Généraux) have created with the journalists of our media partner Enlarge Your Paris, we chose to represent the Greater Paris through ten large areas that free themselves from the "périphérique" and also all the administrative or geographical limitations.
To push further away the horizon lines of our mental image of the territory, not limited to the geographical lines but also the mental ones that we impose on the city. It's an invitation to change scale and perceptions.
What's at stake here ?īeyond the political, geopolitical, economics and major influence issues, it boils down to what the essence of Paris really is. But aren't these terms simply epheremela formulas, that we only need during the transition period ?īecause, the same way that no one would say that they are going to the Greater New York or that they have visited the Greater London when talking about the extended New York and London areas, maybe tomorrow, we will refer to the Paris extended area just by calling it Paris. In his 2018 report to the French President, architect and town planner Roland Castro suggested that we instead use "Paris in large." A new formula to express the future borders of the French capital. Maybe the indication that something is brewing up and that Paris is no longer as it used to be. Not really a neologism or a trendy concept, the Greater Paris might just turn out to be a codename or a transition name.