Paris Of The South.

[Noruega]

I once read somewhere Inverness was supposed to be Paris of the North. :lol:

Tromsø, the northernmost large city in Norway, with 71,000 inhabitants, was in the 1800s at times referred to as the Paris of the North, and still is by people in the north of Norway. The reason was this (quoting Wikipedia!): "During the 1800s, Tromsø became known as the "Paris of the North". How this nickname came into being is uncertain, but the reason is generally assumed to be that people in Tromsø appeared far more sophisticated than visitors from the south typically expected."

I have been there a few times and it is tiny, usually freezing, and when I went one year in July we could hardly find an open restaurant on a Monday night in the middle of tourist season. I find it rather hilarious that it was being compared with Paris. I would assume the closest comparison would be with a small city in Alaska or something like that.

 

[Napoleon]

Why don't we just refer to Cordoba as the Lyon of South America, or Mar del Plata as the Marseilles of Argentina? The same "logic" applies.

By the way, here is the "Paris of the poor:"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris,_Texas

I'm sure all of you indigent expats can afford to live there.

La Boca is "the Marseilles of Argentina".

 

[Killarney]

I think Buenos Aires is more like the Naples of South America. You can see the long LONG faded glory of the city, that used to be great. Now they are just covered in graffiti with trash strewn everywhere.
When I first arrived the trash revolted me but now I just seem to ignore it. When I go to a normal place I think "wow this place is clean!"

Buenos Aires has something though. I am still trying to put my finger on it. It has a high energy that is addictive.

 

[Girino]

When I first arrived the trash revolted me but now I just seem to ignore it. When I go to a normal place I think "wow this place is clean!"

Ditto! I haven't still left BsAs since we arrived 6 months ago, but when on FB I see pictures of my hometown taken at the public park to complain about "vandalism" and littering because one handrail was broken and someone threw a tissue on the grass, the only thing I noticed was how clean the park was.

 

[khairyexpat]

I could see and compare with:

Paris ................. The glamor, Champagne and Caviar.
or
The South ...... Baking in the sun, Tijuana, Haiti, Cuba, St. Domingo, Retiree, Living on PESOS.

(Depends on the quality of my weed and how far it gets me into hallucination).

When I sober up, I resort to CONTEXT.
If I can enjoy Mar Del Plata Perfect Paradise on my lousy 7 cent peso, .. more than good enough for me.
Paris of The South indeed IT IS ... exceeded any and all of my wildest expectations.

Misinformation to say: it´s NOT.

 

[Zorawar]

Yes quite possibly, most of these outdated and absurd cliches, declaring "place X is the Y [admired venue] of Z" are hackneyed remnants of 19th Century marketing schemes or lazy journalism, in any event, the list is endless, e.g., "Saltillo, the Athens of México", "Oakland, CA, the Brooklyn of the Bay Area", "Cornwall, UK, The English Riviera ..."

Though I find the extreme noise levels, graffiti, broken sidewalks, and ubiquitous pet excrement tiresome, on the whole, I am fascinated with Buenos Aires, observing people in public places, the boisterous if sometimes intrusive, communal feeling of Latin culture, and if I had to stamp it with a corny one-liner, this riverine metropolis of decaying glamor, reminds me of a sprawling, mega-New Orleans, charming, run-down, with a bittersweet pathos, including, sadly, it seems -- similarly being among first group of great world cities predicted to go underwater as sea levels rise.

Moreover, even if I had the money to live in Paris, NYC or my ex-home town, San Francisco, I find their glory days of being havens for quirky creative, fun, subcultures, are long past, as they have come to resemble each other more and more: plastic, corporate playgrounds for the super-rich, the same collections of high end shops ... many of the fascinating one-of-a-kind boutiques I used to discover in Europe now have franchises in downtown San Francisco.

A couple of years ago, a columnist for writing in The Economist coined a great description for the emergent San Francisco, which is progressively being absorbed by Silicon Valley: "... A city in a bottle [like Monte Carlo, Monaco] ..."a safe, glamorous, theme park, streamlined, precious and frozen into its adorable, airtight container ...

At Bs. As. seems to offer a home which avoids the extremes of Caracas or Cairo or Cannes ... just one opinion ...

 

[ajoknoblauch]

Where can I buy kale, nut butters, pine nuts, and organic goat milk yogurt? I'm here to teach English, where do I get a job with no visa or experience? Where can I cash pesos to dollars at the official rate?

Was that interesting? I deliberately left out 100s of dead horse topics. Speaking of, where is Ajo?

¿Me llamaste?

 

[khairyexpat]

@zorawar:

I would have never succeeded, even if I tried, to put it anywhere near as eloquent as you did.

 

[Matiasba]

You are correct!

I've been living on my cell phone the past few days and when I get distracted during typing, I sometimes forget what I'm answering because I can't see the pat I'm responding to.

But since Café Tortoni moved to its current location in 1870, the "La Prensa" building was completed in 1898, and the Congreso was completed in 1906, I would say that Av de Mayo was built before 1910.

Actually it was before 1910, in the 1890s, so I was correct the first time. But I read or watched on tv something about a work done for the centenary in 1910.

 

[Hybrid Ambassador]

@zorawar:

I would have never succeeded, even if I tried, to put it anywhere near as eloquent as you did.

I thinking you not too shabby for your imagination.