How Empty are the Streets of Paris?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ม.ค. 2025
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After covering a lot of the UK in my series the Death of the High Street, I knew I had to get to another country to see if the major cities there are in the same shape.
I was expecting for there to be far more empty shops than I found. There were still a lot empty, but it took me longer than normal to find them, and the streets in Paris just seem to have more life in them with every row filled with apartments above.
People before hand kept telling me that Paris is dirty, and that I was going to be dissapointed. But I found it to be the complete opposite. I found that it was actually an incredibly beautiful city full of interesting things and nice people.
I was also impressed by how many book shops there were everywhere, not just book shops but people selling interesting looking books on the street.
The Eiffel Tower sucked though, unless you like 3 hour queues, dont bother...
If you want to show me round your town or city, and you are up for being my tour guide on camera, email me at wanderingturnip2022@gmail.com
Until Next Time,
W.T
#highstreet #paris #empty #full #streets #urban #abandoned
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I’ve got some good ideas for videos but you already have a guy in Blackpool. But does he know the history? The history Blackpool has is not much but it’s interesting.
it's so boss how well they match your outfit
Congrats on your 100k subs.....
Checkout my middle finger ... overpriced crap nobody EVER needs
hey david enjoyed watching your video on paris but was very dissapointed in how untidy and how much graffiti was everywhere. what has happened to this once beautiful city? also on a personal note if you can tone down the swearing it would be nice. but i hope that you can get your hair cut soon matey. i look forward to your next video. take it eazi.
Interesting you call it a ‘retail crisis’ I think it’s more of a long term and permanent shift, a crisis is something that eventually ends. This is forever.
We need a seismic shift. It is clearly not sensible when business rents are too high for people to enter or remain in retail and there is something fundamentally wrong when the landlords seem happier to have their property empty than to take the devaluation. I don't know if that is because they can take it as a tax write off or what but there always appear to be people who want to sell in street markets they just can't afford to move up to bricks and mortar premises and that is leaving our cities with hollow empty hearts. This isn't something that can be fixed on a local level by our cash strapped local government that is being squeezed into insolvency by Westminster. It has become a national crisis as the centre has pulled more and more power to itself while taking no responsibility for our streets and urban environments. Any city needs some empty properties to let for new businesses to take up, the key factor is the speed of take up for those opportunities and in the UK there are large swathes of commercial property that are crumbling before anyone arrives to run a business. That doesn't seem to be happening in such a widespread and consistent manner in the US, it certainly isn't happening to anything like the same extent in Paris. I don't believe it is because British people have decided they don't want to see or touch things before they buy them or are too lazy to drive to the shops. It is a matter of the legal environment, how commercial property is owned and taxed.
@@nicka3697 sorry spelling mistakes i feel silly now, i type to fast but there we go.
@@nicka3697 click and collect may help, being bored with online shopping and sending things back maybe another factor to keep it going on, investment has been put into some towns and citys, but no way near enough to see many places fail.
@@nicka3697 i feel shops will never fade out, but high streets are about to change for good, we need more retail back on the high streets, lower the rent make people feel more safe again, get rid of drunks as well they ara a pain in the arse and lowlifes that ruin our high streets, to many chavs, delivery idiots on bikes as well, we need the decent back on our high streets, i doubt it will ever go and feel investment will safe it, as that is why out of town places are doing very well.
@@nicka3697 just tax land
Seen as the election has been announced it becomes official that this is the first time in British history where living standards have dropped during a single Parliament and it is the largest drop in living standards since the Napoleonic war. And at the same time the richest in society have got a lot richer deepening the divide.
When CBDCs get rolled out it'll be much worse
France built of the back of africa
It's called the cost of having a tory goverment
We are heading back into a new form of medievalism. The super rich ( the lords ) will own almost everything while the peasant ( that’s us ) will toil for them.
@@danielcunningham6727 exactly
I'm a Yorkshireman that lives in Paris. I wanted to add one thing that doesn't get mentioned AT ALL, but one huge reason the high street is still thriving here in Paris is that Amazon next day delivery simply does not work here like it does in the UK/London.
This morning for example, I need to buy a book - I check Amazon and the quickest delivery (with Prime) is in 4 days time. That's common - I haven't ever seen anything be able to get delivered within 24hrs, it's usually 3-4 days. So it means to buy that book today, I need to head out, explore book shops, speak to people and interact. Grab a baguette, grab a coffee etc. Basically, it's like it used to be in the UK before online shopping took over.
Whereas when I lived in London, I'd be able to order that book from my phone and it would be delivered to my flat that same afternoon. I didn't need to leave my home, didn't speak to anyone, and stayed inside.
Paris has its problems, but it'll never allow itself to have its high street decimated like in the UK - the people here value human interaction and small businesses far too much. On my street for example, the average age of each business seems to be around 40+ years.
How is a worse delivery service somehow a good thing?
If online retailers are genuinely more efficient for an end customer (and in most cases they are in the UK), then great, let them do what the customers like. I am not a fan of artificially limiting customer’s choice in order to “preserve the high street”.
You cannot have a book shop at every street corner with the same variety of books as Amazon has - and you don’t need to.
The average age of businesses on a high street being 40 isn’t necessarily such a great things - it likely means that there’s no space for new businesses to appear.
So if online retail allows new small businesses to compete with established shops and sell their stuff with delivery across the country, forcing the established shops to adapt to provide a better service or close and free up spaces for new businesses and/or housing (as we do need more housing), then it’s a part of life. Resisting against it is like resisting against automobile in order to preserve stage coaches.
"How is a worse delivery service somehow a good thing?"
It's very simple: because it has not decimated the high street here in Paris like it has done in almost every town centre in the UK. High streets here are vibrant, busy and full of life. Often with no tax-dodging global businesses either.
If people can get books delivered to their house on the same day from Amazon then they will. But doing so will deprive local businesses. Eventually, those local businesses will close down and you'll get the 'dead' high street found all over the UK.
I'm all for the free market, but only when it's fair. Amazon can afford to sell at a loss to keep the customer from visiting a high street competitor. Amazon can also negotiate extremely good deals with manufacturers simply because they can afford to when selling in such high volume (they also barely pay any tax, so they can get away with really aggressive margins compared to a local high street business)
2-hour delivery from Amazon was great when I lived in London - it's convenient and often cheaper than any alternative. But where will the UK high street be in 5 years, or 10 years time? I really dread to think. Most likely entirely non-existent.
@@Peeps-gx7mg and why should I care about preserving the high street for the sake of preserving the high street? I care about getting the products I need as cheaply and efficiently as possible and if Amazon or any other online retailer does it I am happy to use them.
Online retail does not only benefit big players - it also enables smaller businesses to get on the market without spending tons of money in commercial rent that serves no other purpose apart from making landlords richer. And they don’t even need to use Amazon - they can sell all their stuff country-wide using any delivery service from a single location.
Offline stores that fail to adapt to the competition with online retailers (which they could by providing, e. g. more personalised service, so you don’t just buy a book but get a personalised advice from the seller on what to read based on your preferences) do indeed close down, which means lower rents and more available space for businesses for whom it is actually important to be present on the high street, e. g. cafes and event spaces. If some space goes unused for a while that’s fine by me - it can be converted into another use, e. g. housing.
So no, I have no desire to artificially keep non-competitive businesses on life support for the sake of “preserving the high street”.
I get next day delivery on Amazon in France 🤔
@@Peeps-gx7mglol. People yap on about supporting local business but then don’t go and buy from them. If your high street is deserted it’s because you let it be so.
That street with the trees made you comment on feeling like wanting to be in a city. Though the trees obviously play a significant part, the absence of cars driving up and down there is worth mentioning.
Noticed so ,anyone the streets have concrete or metal bollards lining the streets & avenues.
Left me wondering....... where are all the cars? When I was younger, Paris was always known for its horrendously bad traffic!
@@DMWBN3 Two words. Mayor Hidalgo. She is transforming Paris by trying to save it from the car which was choking the city to death. Paris has extremely ambitious plans to move away from the personal motor vehicle by massively improving cycling and public transport infrastructure.
Congratulations on 100k well deserved 🎉
Looks like Paris has a lot less bookies than your average UK city
i get the feeling Parisians don't like to bet as much and that they are more tight with money so stands to reason why they don't want to part with their own shit. However I suppose their higher tax rate might have something to do with that.
There’s a lot less gambling degenerates in Paris.😮
France has a very different betting and horse racing system. The UK is unique in that regard
@@richardpiva3892 i think its because we are on the decline so much in britain that it makes more gamblers and paris isn't on the decline as much so they have less
They don't have bookies in France, the gambling is all state controlled. A National Lottery, and if you bet on the horses it is called PMU (Pari Mutuel Urbain- Pari means bet) and happens in cafes on a special lottery style terminal.
There are plenty that bet on the horses, it is all state controlled though. No slot machines except illegal ones and in Casinos, and with one exception all the Casinos have to be at least 40km from Paris and in a town with a Spa. Enghien-les-Bains is the closest to Paris.
Napoleon didn't like gambling.
I think the difference with Paris and London is a lot of the shops are rented by older people who have had them for decades. Paris has strict rent control, so a lot of those little shops probably are paying very little rent. Once the older French people retire (very few young people want to be shopkeepers) and the rents can be raised to whatever the owner wants, it will be interesting to see what happens. More franchise stores, just like London. In my experience, France and Italy are about 20 years behind globalization trends happening in the USA and UK.
The 20 year gap - or in my opinion more like a 40 year gap - when I'm in Italy or France it feels like when I was a kid in the 80s uk, may still be in place due to protectionist policies and also a difference in lifestyle. In Italy many get the groceries for that night's dinner on the way home from an indie greengrocer or butcher rather than the weekly shop at the supermarket
@@ls.c.5682 I live in Milano, most people shop each day on the way home, but it's at the chain store supermarket like Carrefour or Esselunga. Maybe cause I am in Milano and Paris it is more like 20 years.
Happened in Netherlands.
"20 years behind" haha what
@@BXL-1080 Globalization is coming for you, just at a slower pace.
Love your channel, Turnip! I live in Washington State, in an affluent area outside of Seattle and despite it being one of the most expensive places in the country, there are an abundance of boarded up shops here too, I recently walked around a shopping center which caters to the wealthy residents of that city and noticed multiple shops boarded up. Even worse is downtown Seattle, it’s hard to put into words how bad it is there, majority of shops closed and boarded up, the ones that are open are subjected to rampant crime. Also, I was in Hawaii last week and could not believe the amount of closed shops in some of the tourist areas, one shopping center had about a 20% occupancy rate - to be honest it felt depressing walking through and seeing almost the entire building vacant. So nowhere seems immune from the decline of the high street. Keep up the great content, cheers.
Amsterdam where i live is not so bad but provincial cities a disaster. Is it fair to say that internet shopping and also the financial decline of the middle class has destroyed city life ?
@@louisdewit4429is the city life consists only of shops?
@@dmytrorubanov3340 - Shops invite people to hit the streets. It then attracts restaurants, coffeeshops …. liveliness.
Without shops the town is death.
the reason paris is more "aesthetically pleasing" and welcoming to walk around in is because of the lower amount of cars. its somewhat obvious once you realize that one factor means everything. a city like paris or london simply doesnt need many cars and should therefore prioritize other modes of transport to reap the overwhelming benefits.
Very interesting video ! I am Parisian born and bred, and Paris is a lovely place at time but noisy and dirty. What you have seen is pre-Olympic Games Paris, cleaned and improved, just a facade on a sunny day (lucky you !). Also as far as what you think were flats, just be aware that many are actually offices : GPs, attorneys, marketing companies, etc ;)
Have you any tips,where a first time visitor should stay,or should avoid,..Thank you.
@@johnlavery6116 Hi John. I usually recommend the Montparnasse area (the black tower you see in the video). It's not the most touristy but has excellent transport links through Paris and plenty of affordable restaurants. Best to avoid the area around and north of Gare du Nord. The Vincennes area (east of Paris) is also very safe and great with RER A direct connection to Disneyland if you plan to go there (avoid the Disneyland hotels which are VERY expensive).
Hello Carole...Thank you for your reply,that seems like pretty good advice. and I shall take it on board...Take care!
The consistent element is rising inequality, the poor are getting poorer, the middle class are being asset stripped by the wealthy and those wealthy people just keep on getting richer. You go to wealthy towns in the UK and their high streets are full of shoppers. People say it's the Internet, which has had an impact, however the richer an area the most they spend online yet their town centres are buzzing, even with pints starting at £5. You can map poverty straight onto vacancy on the High street.
Paris may have rich residents, but the tourists are drying up as they are being squeezed back home and inequality in France is getting worse.
@darrenguest2170 American here, and I often wonder the same thing. People go through fast food drive thrus spending $30+ for 2 people, it's insane. My home is paid off, and even so I massively feel the squeeze of skyrocketing prices everywhere. I can only assume that a lot of folks are probably in deep debt unless they're already very wealthy to begin with 🤷♀️
@@Peterpanic-c3h £9 a pint where i am and im not London based
So I live in a reasonably wealthy London Suburb (Bromley). And it is doing better, much better than Slough or Croydon but it is very much on the same trajectory. When large shops like Alders and C&A closed in the past other companies came in such as Primark or Next. That's not happening anymore. Debenhams is empty hidden behind permanent display boards in the main shopping centre. There are many more examples and smaller units too take much longer to fill or stay empty. The centre is shrinking, there are more pubs closing and restaurants failing at a rate that is ever increasing. The problem is endemic and while wealthier locations have some insulation it is only slowing the decline. If rows of shops are empty in Covent Garden it cannot be true to say the wealthy areas are safe. You have to look at the whole tax and ownership system for commercial property and stop propping up landlords in ways that allow and indeed encourage them to keep empty property empty while maintaining their personal affluent lifestyles.
@@spinstercatladya lot live in debt and think its normal and they probably have no ifea what their income and outgoings really are, many people i know seem to live with their head in the clouds, as long as the credit line is still ongoing they think they're fine
Which cities? He did an ep somewhere in London and the only difference between there and the North was that London had prettier boards. Not saying you aren't correct, but would love to know which cities you're referring to. I agree with the rest though. (i.e. eat the rich.)
Thank you for this video. I love your British tours and as a Frenchman I love this french shops tour even more
I just spotted the 100k subscribers, here. Congratulations!!!
You know you’re getting old when you start getting excited over doorhandles shop 😂 (I’m currently excited about getting to buy a new front door so that wasn’t a read) 😜
Oh I know...I actually just got new doors AND windows in the end so I know the feeeling
Just look at what Brits have done to their own homes - ugly white plastic UPVC doors, windows, and door handles
@@wanderingturnip capital gains tax Paris protest
GAGGED TI SEE YOU WATCH THE TURNIP TOO!!
It’s Organic cotton sheets for me 😊
Ooh la-la. I've been to Paris many times and always found it pretty grubby and run down honestly. Still nicer than most cities in the UK now though.
I completely agree! Don’t know why people find it a romantic city. It’s pretty gross tbh
@@joanainacio88 Compared to the UK........................????????????????????????????
From a woman’s perspective…
has anyone notice or bold enough to call the fashion industry out?
only (and even they have cheap & nasty) the thrash Chinese or 3rd world made with grossly poor fabrics apparently is all we get to choose from.
Where are all the beautiful Italian fabrics etc? Just absolute garbage in the shops everywhere in Europe
@@Jacqui-ie9kw The first 10 minutes of the video is the Sentier district which was the fabric and garment district until around 15 years ago. There were mostly North African and French Jewish independent boutiques. Now most independent businesses and workshops have closed. They can't compete with mainstream mega-industrial brands like Inditex, Mango, Maje and so on. The work has gone to Turkey and Morocco for cost reasons. You're right though, the Chinese have established a fabric and garment area in the Northern outskirts of Paris.
You’ve visited after Paris has had its homeless removed and cleaned up for the olympics . Another visit needed when olympics has gone . Paris normally stinks
Very good point
The only issue I found in Paris was the abundance of dog poop everywhere...def not cool but a minor annoyance
You cannot generalize by talking about 'Paris'. The city has many different districts with different demographics. The center is much smaller than the central London Area, and it is much more densely populated than London or any other European City.
Another point, the homeless haven't been terminated, they've been displaced to other areas on Paris, and where the protagonist of this video is visiting is already one of the areas with the least homeless or 'stink', as you said above.
I mean, the video would've been totally different if he visited 18th or 19th district.
Exactly! IMO It is the most overrated city on earth.
That’s happening in coralecco, fuertaventura, the Canary Islands.
You could come to Poland on a short trip, you don't have to spend much and Wizzair does cheap tickets. There you will see a different Europe to what you see in the West. Families out walking out everyday, kids, young ladies free to walk around without the fear of some weirdos bothering them. A country without mass immigration, just one culture and not a melting pot.
Based
lol come to Warsaw or Krakow and tell me that there isn't mass immigration, please. You have people there literally from all over the world, i hear more Russian and Ukrainian spoken on the streets than Polish sometimes. I literally just came back from Warsaw three days ago, i still go to see my family there all the time, so i'm telling you from experience.
Lol. Such fear mongering. I'm not even from France, let alone Paris. Visited Paris last year, it's just fine, far from the apocalyptic description that people (usually that has never visited the place) always say.
And pretty rich for Poland to talk about "mass immigration" when they themselves are a large immigrant population in western Europe.
Fight tooth and nail to keep it that way.
Agreed. The number of foreign language signs and foreign people in Paris has increased every year, and much of the quality and character of the lovely city has been lost. Tension and crime has gone through the roof. Everything has been going backwards. Mass immigration has degraded the city. Import the third world - become the third world. The French have shared their territory with needy foreigners through fear of being called racist. Forcing a nation to share its land is like forcing a family to share its land - either way it's just Marxism in disguise. The French don't want to share, and neither should they. The idea that everything and everywhere should be levelled out in the name of fairness and compassion is left wing nonsense. It just means that excellence like Paris, is degraded. No wonder Europe is moving to the right.
As a Brit living in Paris it was fascinating to watch your reaction to it. The street with a lot of closed shops (Rue de Clery) is in the garment district & most of the shops are clothes wholesalers. I don't know why so many have closed but it's not a typical shopping area.
The big church tower in a mini park is next to Paris's equivalent to Oxford Street and there have been a few big dept store closures, such as C&A (which used to be in the UK until the 1990s). They've dropped from 4 to 2 branches in the city.
There are a lot of bookshops because the Fr govt still regulates prices, creating a more level playing field. In Britain that was done away with, again in the 90s, so now we only have Waterstones. The bookstalls along the Seine have been there for 100s of years & are a tourist attraction as well as bookstalls.
You were quite right about the upper floor apartments, but those buildings were built in the 19th century deliberately to house people above shops & businesses. There is so much wasted potential in British city centres. Paris's city council has done a huge amount of work in the last few years to create cycle lanes and green the city with more trees and neighbourhood gardens and planters. The CGT is one of the big trade unions.
From what I've seen in other parts of France, local high streets are generally in better shape than the UK. This is largely because they have a much more equal mix of chain stores & independent shops. Not just food, but clothes, homewares etc. So even if a chain fails (& several have esp. since Covid) it doesn't have the same impact. The worst thing to happen in Britain was the collapse of Arcadia, which took with it half a dozen separate chainstores.
Secret to visiting the Eiffel Tower or any famous monument anywhere: book online in advance & skip the line 😊
There will always be some empty shops, as owners retire or relocate. In the UK, though, independent retailers like my family, three of whom owned shops locally in the 50's and 60's, can no longer afford the exorbitant rents and rates
Business rates certainly killed Rochdale! My report th-cam.com/video/DANHaC7VuXM/w-d-xo.html
Surprisingly, councils, who set the rates, do accommodate rents that are affordable paradoxically to charity shops, which contradicts your assertion that rents are going up generally across the country.
At 16:57 above his head you can see a sign "passage du grand cerf". It's the entrance of a roofed walking street lined with small shops. There are quite a few in the center of Paris and are hard to spot if you don't know what you are looking for.
Congrats to 100 K subs! Keep up the good work!
The same happens everywhere. I live in Berlin and everything has changed. Lots of homeless people, rubbish everywhere, public transport unrelieable etc. Don't want to sound racist when I say that there are tons of people loitering on the streets that don't speak our language, obviouisly aren't working and hanging out in groups (young male adults) which are aggressive. You don't get any appointments at the doctor, rents have extremely gone up and even with money it is nearly impossible to find a flat. Unfortunately Europe is the big looser. Our industries are going down, well educated people leave the country (I would as well but unfortunately I am not allowed to practice outside of Europe without going to University again and passing a language test) and prices for food and energy go up. Inflation is much higher than the official figures as they also count stuff like electronics which is ridicolously cheap. The money looses its value and there is nothing except stock or crypto which someone without 1 mio Euro or more can invest in. Very sad.
Was there last few days for the first time. Walked 25 miles. Very vibrant and bustling. Annoyingly it is more beautiful than London. They got to keep all their old buildings. Still feels very much like France too. I even saw a woman walk past in a stripy top eating a baguette. Slightly jealous overall
property rent is way way lower in France than in UK. keeps it vibrant
Private equity hasnt taken over real estate yet.
Et surtout en France nos propriétés n'appartiennent pas à la couronne, on est vraiment propriétaire de nos biens à vie
Greetings from Chicago. I was in Paris in November of 2018. I had a great time just wandering the streets. I went to the Tour d'Eiffel and I saw the waiting line and decided it wasn't that big of a deal. From there I wandered over to the Hotel des Invalides.
In Luxembourg (the country), loads of empty stores are in the city center of Luxembourg City, the capital. And it IS the financial hub of Europe, like London is to the UK.
@14:30 the artist in the background playing (of the protest) is Damien Saez.
Fyi, Paris (France in general) protests everything and anything (always in disagreement with their government) so much; they become very unproductive and literally get nothing done.
Not your first foreign video - you've done plenty that were not in Yorkshire.
😂
😂
I'm from the US...and I even got it!
My two favourite cities are Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Amsterdam is good for culture and the vibe and the canals and is a fun place but Copenhagen is good largely because it is compact and on a more human scale than any other capital city and it is lively and interesting. I lived in London and worked in the city and its surroundings for years. I feel no incentive to visit nowadays except to see friends. Bournemouth where I live is in retail decline like a lot of South Coast towns.
Venice is way better than Amsterdam.
Copenhagen is no more human scale than Oslo, Helsinki, Dublin, Prague, Tallinn, Bratislava...plenty of other capitals actually
The UK is a depressing sh*t hole
Is it? 😂😂@@foureveralone
It might have been said already but loads of book shops, helped by Amazon being banned from selling books in France.
Nobody has said that yet. Very interesting thank you 👍👍
I agree Amazon should be banned..and people need to stop using it..and that Bezos guy..oh I ha.te. him
@@TigerBoyX15 He's long gone - now retired but I'm sure getting $$$$ by the day from his stock in a business that has pretty much destroyed towns
@@TigerBoyX15 I will use what I like and what is convenient for me, thanks all the same.
@@TigerBoyX15 I'm not a big fan of Amazon, I rarely order stuff from there because I prefer to shop in person, but I don't think banning it is the right thing to do. Let people choose what they want to use.
Thanks @wanderingturnip for this video ! About the retail crisis in France I think you should go to other cities such as Lyon, Lille, Nantes or Toulouse, even town like Chartres or Orleans. Because these smaller cities have more closed/To let ("à louer") retail facilities than Paris, despite the housing being more affordable.
"lovely bit of bush!" 👏
"what's this big long thing here!" Non🤚
@@AallthewaytoZ2I know!, grab Eleanor and get a room! 😂
This was a fun vlog! Had me laughing a few times.. especially when it turns out you prefer a tiny chimney to the Eiffel Tower.. 🤣 Hope you and Eleanor enjoyed the fondue at least..
11:08 😆 Whaaaaat? You wouldn't even return to Slough for the chimney, David? I even wrote you an ode on that vlog.. 🤭
🤦🏻♀️
_"Depressing, disheartening..."_ - then, *"WOW!"* 😍
Said Turnip whilst wand'ring through Slough..
A brick chimney he'd spied
Punching tall, full of pride!
He thinks the town's *wonderful* now!
😆
Good sponsor for your vlog abroad..
Babbel could be next.. Great job, excellent presentation as always.. really enjoyed it, thanks and huge congrats on 100K! 👍🍻
Oh yeah to be fair I loved the poem as well, that was another great thing to come from Slough.
And thanks 😀 it’s a nice little achievement and obviously massive appreciation to you and all the support for the early days 👍
@@wanderingturnip I have so enjoyed watching this channel grow, David.. I'm so grateful for all the diversity and interesting vlogs which are always _BRILLIANT!_ 😁 *THANK YOU!* You deserve every success! 👏👍
I loved that comment about the tower...."wow well that was a load of shite".😂 it's why your videos are so real and honest. I remember going up to the middle level in the 90's and thinking this looks rusty and it creaked a lot😢
Keep making the content. 100k can't be wrong.
Long time watcher here- nice to see your first episode outside the UK! I actually first started watching your videos because I grew up in West Yorkshire. I haven't lived in the UK for over a decade but it's nice to hear the accent and I do enjoy your Made in Britain series and Death of the High Street- I think they compliment each other well. I enjoy learning about the old industries- and share your love of old mill chimneys.
I'd just like to add that I love Eleanor's fashion sense- actually before you introduced her I was wondering who the pretty and stylish French girl was in the background...
High rent/property prices is killing the economy in western countries.
Yes, stagnant wages, too
Wait until property prices crash - then we will experience a real economic bloodbath.
And why are the property prices too high and wages too low? Hmmmmm.
@@LawrenceTimme definitely not the scumbag piece of 💩 politicians or corrupt elite
Less rent, more money to spend on shops and services. basic math eh?
I was in Paris in January and noticed quite a few vacant shops. Driving back to Calais, we took a diversion and came across the biggest Amazon Warehouse I’ve ever seen. Great video.
I just been going through your videos. I was born in the UK, lived in North Cray/Sidcup then we immigrated to New Zealand. At age 13yr we went back for 6mths Bromley area. I remember feeling so overwhelmed by the busy streets...so many people. Seeing the UK so damaged is sad. I am totally blown away by the amount of shops closed down, and the boards that are put up to "hide", let alone the houses that have painted doors on them to look better! But, I just wanted to say, that NZ is having similar, not as fast as over your side of the world. We have major housing crisis, many homeless, smaller towns have suffered, but we also have large retailers struggling to stay a float, another large store announced closing this week. This is a world wide problem for sure! Our health system is broken, its nothing to wait 10hrs in A n E, people have died from our poor system. This is a world wide crisis! The countries are struggling with their IMF payments etc. There is a huge shift - "you will own nothing, you will have goods delivered by drones, you will be happy" isnt that the UN slogan?? Thank you for videos, very eye opening, sad, but important.
Congrats on 100k mate. Been a subscriber to your channel since you had less than 5k. It's well deserved 👍
Oh buzzing well I’m glad you’ve stuck around 😃😃
As you probably noticed but didn't mention out loud, Paris (and France generally) depends much more than the UK does on small owner-operated shops (such as your door handle shop) rather than endless branded chains, so shopping streets tend to be less dependent on large conglomerates deciding to take their business online - or indeed to be as susceptible to dips in the market the way Wilko, Debenhams or House of Fraser were. And even chains tend to be smaller boutiques rather than huge behemoths we have here. Of course large ones exist (you just missed a huge C&A and IKEA on the other side of the Tour St Jacques (the tower in the little park you showed) but even so there's a much bigger selection of fashion brands and indeed small service places. Even the Parisian department stores like Printemps, Galeries Lafayette or BHV (next to where you were) are attractive venues in their own right. And of course as you noticed, the French read a heck of a lot, and new & used book shops are absolutely everywhere. If you'd crossed the river and gone into the Latin Quarter you'd be surrounded by them. In particular, finding a second hand book shop in a British high street is really hard - other than charity shops. But French shops specialising in buying books off folk and selling them on are a very long tradition, of which the kiosks on the river walls are just a tiny part.
After WW2 the French refused to adopt the USA economic suggestions that would bring big profits at the detriment to people's lives. The French put people first,and Their people at the top of the queue.
They're starting to be a thing again, although yes, competing with the charity shops makes for a tough business environment.
bonjour! :D it's really nice to listen when you are just sharing your current thoughts out loud, without script or any plan.... that's always so interesting for listener!
My daughter lives in Paris and I've just returned home after a week there. Paris is bursting with energy and it's full of independent shops which is refreshing. Prices in restaurants are very reasonable too for the average tourist. I agree re the zebra crossings though, those cyclists take no prisoners!! Thoroughly enjoyed your take and insights on the city.
I stayed in Paris for three months last spring 2023. I must say it looks so clean in your video from my experience. I enjoy most large cities for a little time but I always long back to my house by a lake here in Sweden. I always preferred nature and animals and waking up to birds chirping early in the morning more than sirens. Thanks for the video.
Look how clean the streets are.
The Olympics are coming!
Because the city authorities have the lorries come out EVERY MORNING and literally sluice the pavements down with high pressure jet hoses.
level of shop defense systems is incredible
I haven't been to Paris for many years but the center is nicer than London is now. However some of the arrondissements, suburbs of Paris is piss poor and left behind. London central is grubbier than Paris central.
It's because poor people are not allowed to live in central Paris. They have to live out beyond the Periphique in the bannlieus. They come in to work,or beg,or hang out in groups,it's not that poor people are legally barred from being in Paris (except during the Olympics) they are priced out in economic ways.
@@janebaker966 ...arriving in gangs at Les Halles for pickpocketing and dealing missions, creating a scene. Remember them well.
@@janebaker966paris is one of the most segregated cities out there, both by economic background and by race
"I will complain in my local paper about that" cracked me up. Class video again, congrats on 100K, well deserved. Looking forward to more from the continent from you
Thanks for tour come to New York City the rents are eye watering makes London seem cheap!That protest was wild!
Good content,you should do more of the major cities in western Europe to compare the retail situation.
The first indication of problems appears with the absence of people on the streets. Then it is the slow/empty retail shops, then it is the closed shops/businesses, that indicates the reality.
I am in the states and it is really bad here with major cities and states being systematically destroyed by its local governments. The claims of people working from home is a LIE that is and has been used/said around the world... If people were working, they would still have to shop, do banking, vacation, buy clothing/shoes, do home/apartment repairs, go to restaurants, to movies/beaches/amusement parks etc... NONE OF THESE THINGS ARE HAPPENING!!! Supermarkets closing down, banks closed down, commercial spaces empty, city and state parks empty, once popular streets and window shopping empty indicates a DEEP DEPRESSION... and people are walking around clueless.
Interesting to see your take on Paris (and sorry to hear your Eiffel Tower experience was underwhelming). I could be wrong, but I got a sort of Monday feeling about some of the streets you visited (Monday being the day many shopkeepers shutter their stores and take the day off). I see the CGT also caught your attention, along with the bouquinistes along the Seine (historic book stalls, those, so much so that they get subsidies from the city but in return they have to keep selling books instead of giving themselves entirely over to tourist tat... .so they remain very picturesque!). Next time you're over I'll show some other shopping areas -- ones doing well, doing badly and in between....
Glad to see that you've been into O'CD rue Pierre Lescot, I enjoy this Cd/Dvd/Vinyl shop when I am in Paris. Your videos in Nottingham were also interesting, I used to live in Beeston during my Erasmus year in 2019 and I think it is sad that George Center is now closed
Unlike London, Paris didn't get bombed into ruins in WW2 so most of the lovely old people - friendly architecture remains.
Like your video by the way, and don't lose the Yorkshire outlook on things.
Before the allies got to Paris in WW2, the german general who'd been in charge was given the orders to blow up all the bridges and trash the city before it was liberated. He refused and so the city's beauty was saved.
London also wasn't bombed into ruins! 80% of the city remained intact! Learn history not propoganda!
German cities were bombed and don't look like urban shitholes
@@tommykarate9397 If you actually visit London though it feels like a city made of glass and metal, not the lovely brick facades you seen in Turnip's video here
@@cooolsimon282 That's called progress. Those apartments in Paris aren't great inside. The heating system is archaic, lifts (if any) with the metal cage bars... London has great architecture... Just as Paris. 😅
love the direction this channel is going in
You need to take the metro up to the gare du nord, barbes, stalingrad, or gare de l'est and have a nice stroll around there, and I think the comments section would be very different.
Ha ha ha!!!
Pourquoi faire ça ?
it's much more lively and inhabited there, so I don't really get your point, lol
@@highspirit7590Parceque "gauloise6640" déteste les arabes.
I really enjoy your videos 😊
I live in the USA in Florida always wanted to visit 🇬🇧
Thank you for all the videos
Paris is a cafe city where people can sit comfortably with a coffee and read a book or write a card or letter without that nuisance background muzak or rock music which is on in every single cafe or coffee bar in the UK . Now in the UK there is this nuisance music as background even if you are in the waiting room at the GP or the dentist and even at the hospital in a ward where I was having a treatment. It drives me NUTS! But in Paris you can get a break from it and its just the background of the conversation of the French people chatting ,and the hum of the street and maybe the hiss of the coffee machine etc.(Of course there are bars and cafes for music if people want that , just its not all carbon copy everywhere!) Book shops are great and there is a famous university. The Sorbonne. Those riverside bookstalls sell antique books and magazines and have done so since the 19th Century.Ithink it wasn't the right time of year to go up the Eiffel tower. It looked too crowded. I went many years ago when there were no long queues and no masses of tourists up on the levels up top. It was actually quite romantic. Anywhere is spoiled if too busy.
Yes, timing it to ascend for sunset is the best time to go, depending on the time of year the queue is way shorter too (also found the 2nd level much lesser crowded, makes sense as top is most popular but smaller). Piped muzak, like they're afraid of a quiet environment, I hate it.
So enjoyable to walk along with you, you really wracked up some miles I was impressed. Please come back again!
More than happy to show you around Douglas, if you ever visit the Isle of Man.
I loved your enthusiasm about the double decker trains. 😅 We got them in Hungary now as well, and they are awesome.
Enjoyed this. Good video. Thanks.
Congratulations for 100k. 🎉🎊
You're doing a great job. Thank you so much for your videos.
Seeing other cities from Europe would be very interesting.
*Whoo hoooo* Our Turnip's reached 100K subs! 🥂🍾🍻🎶🥳✊👏🤗
Look forward to this episode abroad.. been to Paris many times hunting the antique markets..
Big congrats on the silver plaque, David! 🎉
Yes that Nottingham video was fun. You need a third visit that is focussed on the excellent pubs in the area. The monolithic black tower you saw from the Eiffel Tower is the Tour Montparnasse. I used to work around there and the area is actually quite nice. It's often said that the best views in Paris are from the Tour Montparnasse - because they do not feature the Tour Montparnasse. The thing that bugs me most is that it doesn't line up with the grid of the street plan and is slightly off-centre. It really affects my OCD.
Dude. I reckon you’ll be 250 by the end of the year. And 500k subs next year! Keep up the good work
Great vid - I like you coming over the channel to check out things in other European countries. As others said, this def has a Monday vibe when a lot of shops are closed for the day. Living in Brussels here, but I think Paris is doing really well retail wise... you should go see the French towns though. You have these huge American style retail centres or 'zones commerciales', with the huge French supermarkets: Carrefour, Intermarche etc.
Literally on the edge of the town with the town centre totally dead, with only the butcher and boulangerie seemingly doing ok. The contrast is mad, and even worse than the UK (in my opinion).
Some districts just outside the central areas of Paris like Saint Denis, Aubervillers and Bobigny are very deprived and contain a lot of boarded and closed businesses but it seems its even happening in the arrondissements of Central Paris as well as some of the banlieus.
I've been in England for the last 25 years... I still don't understand why English people love to portrait England as the cespit of Europe. I'm not impressed with how our host somewhat makes it looks like Paris is better than London... You won't see a french trashing their own culture... Even if it's not very brilliant 😂
Tu cite les pire coins de banlieue immigré en même temps, c'est comme ça depuis trente ans
Please go to Portsmouth, it's my old hometown but I live in South Africa now and I have not been back since 2005. The Cascades mall in town was never fully occupied from the time it was open so I would like to see how things are now and what the high street is looking like plus it's a very historic town what with it's Royal navy history.🙂
Paris is a beautiful place to visit. Great culture, food and architecture.
That’s interesting. In the English town where I live, they have been regenerating our previously pitiful high street by converting former office space into apartments. It’s still fairly quiet at night though, due to the new residents not appreciating noisy venues at night, but the high street seems more lived in now.
Perhaps, a similar scheme might save other high streets/cities?
That TH-cam money is starting to kick in now mate. Well done, u definitely deserve it. Keep up the good work. Huddersfield
I DON'T do Amazon, ever. Great job !
Hey ccongrats on your 100k subs , brilliant channel so interesting you deserve it!
Thank you so much 😀
Well done on reaching 100k! So well deserved 🎉👏🍾🥂👌
Thanks so much
Congratulations on reaching your first 100k Subscribers 🥂🍾🏅
One thing I noticed was not only the cleanliness but did you see any homeless ?.
They've been unceromonially booted out for the Olympics
Oh of course..makes sense now
There are a lot of homeless and hidden debauchery but they keep them away from the major touristic spots.
@@falafel4618Like what happened in the UK during lockdown?
Homeless miraculously all found accomodation, even in London
Watching that reminded me so much of a local town I lived in and where my grandparents lived also..I have memories of it being clean there were a few trees in the highstreet no empty shops lovely bars hotels and restaurants now it's a complete shithole.
Such a great video, as always!! If you'd ever come down to Italy, I'd be more than happy to be your tour guide in Torino. It's a great case study to look at how cities have changed in Europe, especially due to the passage from industry-based to service-based economy, and having lived in others European cities for years (Glasgow and Barcelona) my perspective on it has definitely changed. Cheers and congrats for the 100k, well deserved:)
Cherrypicked city tour. Visit the Banlieues preferably at night.
Its great fun.
You went up the Eiffel at the wrong time. Not the top and around November onwards is best, at sunset. The coloured lights of the boats and light-studded serpentine pathways of the gardens below, especially with a light mist. Very nice then.
Would love if you came to Ireland to do a video on Belfast or Derry. There's also towns like Coleraine which has a nearly derelict shopping centre
It's been nearly twenty years since I was in Paris. There is noticably fewer people on the streets which now seem to be mostly pedestrianised. Cars used to be chocka and there was life and buzz on the streets. Little Citroens everywhere! The big question though, was the cheese really aged?
I think the fact that alot of europe are happy to live in the center of towns and cities in a real community helps them alot. Flat/ apartment culture is just a lot more prominent and is actually a lot more functional. Where as the UK has taken an American aproach to property ownership believing suburbs (houses) are better (they're not) and living/ owning a flat is a step down. It also leads to overuse of personal vehicles that shouldn't be needed if you could actually just live a short walk away from everything you would need.
Some people hate to live in town's and cities, I'm one of them
Some love their garden's, and don't want to live on top of each other. Others love the freedom their own transport gives them. The British have always preferred house's and privacy to flat's. They prefer less crime too .
Nothing like owning your own house or condo. Way better than renting.
Everywhere used to be a 15 minuite city, there used to be nothing but 15 minuites cities. Before cars and supermarkets centeralised everything every tiny little village had a shoemaker, a hatmaker, a butcher, a fishmongers. The idea behind 15 minuites cities is not some anti-car left wing idea - It's about conserving traditional ways of living @joanmatchett8100
@@mark8337 Love renting. Dont have to pay for repairs, can up and move to a new country or place without very much hassle.
@@joanmatchett8100the British are unique in the fact they have a garden culture , not just food, but flowers too.
It is because they were imitating the country house gardens .
This isn’t found anywhere else.
Also “an Englishman’s home is his castle” is a popular term used , but not elsewhere .
Renting an apartment is a European thing .
The British like freedom to drive also, maybe as the country is so small compared with European ones.
I love the Idea of all those apartments, people living above the stores. Very Cool.
You might find a lot of british people round Bordeaux and other areas in the south of France. There are a lot of british residents in France except for Paris. Yea, Paris has a different charme compared to London but it is not an easy town at all... The charme might vanish in a short time and you might have to struggle for a "baguette" deal...
Anyway it's pretty much true that Paris is not France and Everyone in Paris is from somewhere else
"I will complain in my local paper" had my dying !🤣🤣🤣🤣
Glad you are getting sponsors, you deserve it and the suitcases look nice - but why oh why didn't you show us the *inside?* I was waiting but you never opened one 🙈
Haha fair point 😂
I imagine the inside of one suitcase looks much the same as another!
@@reddwarfer999 So you'd buy one without looking inside? 😆
@@the-wild-rose Well yes. What would you expect to find in there?
@@reddwarfer999 If you say so.. 🙄
If you've gone international, you should come to New York, you'll find a number of newly vacant retail spaces here since covid.
Hi David ,would it be possible to compare the property prices of apartments or flats compared to uk citys.
Also, keep in mind that there are marches and demos in London about things all the time! Almost every weekend you'll see something around Trafalgar Square
because of course the Parisians famously aren't into protests(!)
By the way, what day of the week were you visiting? If on a Monday, pretty much every second shop will be closed in France (what would look like shut down could be because it's Monday... or lunchtime any day of the week.....)
Every shop in my town used to be closed on a Thursday afternoon, traditionally the Cattle Market day.
My grandad also closed his butchers shop on Monday afternoon, as people bought their meat on Saturday, cooked it on Sunday and had the left over meat on Monday and Tuesday. That was up to the 70's
It's a trip to see people eating on the grass and socializing. It used to be like this in Northern California where I live. Now the streets are empty and deserted, and the parks are usually empty.
Try visiting Paris's satellite towns, you'll get the shock of your life.
Will you visit Milan- Rome. The problem with both those is locals not finding homes and having to move to suburbs, rents very high taken up by foreigners that work six months tax free, so rents have risen highly- coupled with many properties being sold off at auction for not payment of mortgage ( combination of covid and stagnant salariesto companies that rent to the higher market, and air bnb.
Watching you from Paris 😃
"What is this standing proud and tall above the bush?" .... 🤣👍
Poverty with exquisite aesthetics
It got pretty bad around 2022 with the combination of post-pandemic economy and rising energy prices from the Russian invasion. I saw a lot of storefronts close up around my neighborhood. But once the shock leveled out the doors started opening again.
You'll see more closed shops a bit up north in areas that are being gentrified, as places close due to rising rents and changing neighborhoods. It's only temporary though as new places will open up to the new people, and the rent control policies make it so the change isn't so drastic. As you said there's a lot of foot traffic so it's hard to have a place become truly desolate. The mixed-use development is everywhere. There's only a few places that feel like they are solely for commercial zoning. La Défense has emptied out since it's an American style financial district and remote work has killed it, but that's outside Paris city limits.
Some people here are mentioning the rougher and dirtier neighborhoods. They _are_ rougher and dirtier but if your interest is declining retail you'll find those areas are also doing ok. Some worse than others. Like the most stressful part of biking around Barbès/La Chapelle for me is not cause it's dangerous but because there's so many people around the little markets, thrift stores, and hole in the wall food places. Same is kind of true for parts of the suburbs. Not destinations I'd recommend but when I am there the central areas at least are bustling.
Yes Paris is nothing like London...Paris is beautiful !!
Was. It’s a shadow of what it was over 20 years since I moved her. Hildago has ruined it.
Where he started walking was a posher area, and not a commercial area but museum, galleries and administrative buildings so quite normal he doesn’t find much closed. Another thing is Paris is very segregated people who live in the ´city’ are the rich the set up of the city is there are two ring roads, creating the inner city and then the suburbs everything outside the périphérique is not Paris it’s generally cheaper and shitty gettos, they do a good job of keeping the povvos out of view. Plus lost of businesses work out of ´appartement’, so when he says it’s appartements above the shops, it could be a mix of both. All the jobs I’ve done the stairwell/courtyard was shared a mix of residential and business. Lots of big French brands have gone into receivership just in the past year. The way of life is a very different set up here in France to the UK.
Don’t go up the Eiffel Tower. Go up the Montparnasse tower then you can see the Eiffel Tower from high up. I think 95% at least, but it’s probably more, of Parisians have never been up the Eiffel Tower.
Anyway… all that to say Paris is not what it used to be😢 sadly, mostly due to government policy’s.
Edit: sorry that was a bit of a long rant. It’s just a subject close to my heart. And the more the video progressed the more I (felt i😢) ´needed’ to say. It’s funny how a person’s vision of things can be very different based on their experience and view point.
TBF I prefer the tube (when I have to take it instead of bus) to the Metro - the MEtro is a bit too old school....
London has beauty and quirky charm and history too.
I just did a quick Google and business rates in France are not based on the value of the property (like the UK) but based on business turnover and by how valuable the business is (how much is it worth).
I'm not sure if you're getting a fair view of Paris, all the "slums" are in the suburbs of Paris, it very much differs from London. They have many different racial problems, similar to London, but it's hard to compare both cities. Maybe talk to more people from Paris to get a better perspective? Love your videos, but I think this one needs a bit more research.
This video was a comparison of my London high street video. Which was in the centre, not the ‘slums’