Paris is NOT France

[Starfox]

Every French living outside Paris should have a tee-shirt with that printed on it: Paris is NOT France (not all of it). I already said in another post that there is much more to France than just Paris so here's a video from which Paris was intentionally excluded, a video leading you briefly through all the regions of France, except Ile de France where Paris is (so if you want to see Paris, wrong video ). It's a fun trip and of course to do justice to France the video would need to be hours long so consider it just a peek.

And yes, as indicated in the video, the oldest city in France is not Paris but Marseille, created by Greek settlers who were fleeing Persian (Persia was modern day Iran) invasions around 600 BCE so 2600 years ago, long before France was even founded (which occurred about a millennium later). Originally the name was Massalia but nobody knows what that means as the Greeks didn't leave any written trace of why they chose that name and the name itself is not directly translatable in ancient Greek so... mystery.

Passing by the Romans who simply renamed it Massilia (just to let everyone knows they were there but they just exchanged an "A" for an "I"  -- very small change considering they called Paris "Lutetia" back then; Paris name is from the Gaulish tribe that founded the city, the Parisi -- the Romans probably didn't know what the Greeks meant with Massalia either). It took nearly another millennium of alterations by Southern France dialects and in 1236, it was renamed in Marsseille (old French) and since then lost an "S" to become Marseille in modern French (and we still don't know what the ancient Greeks meant exactly, maybe we never will ).

However there is an interesting and rare fact. During the "Convention" period of the French Revolution in 1794, for one month (or so, from January to February) Marseille lost its name as a punishment for its participation in an anti-revolutionary campaign. It was designated in official documents of the time as la "ville-sans-nom" (the city without a name). Who took that weird decision? The dudes in Paris... of course. Ah, Paris and the tradition of shaming others... a classic

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the video and that all that food and wine on display isn't making you jealous

Also, if you hear Americans saying that the French were rude when they visited, that's probably because they never left Paris. Paris has that reputation of being "unfriendly" even with the rest of France. I know Americans who visited other parts of France and they told me that "rudeness" was not their experience.

Just don't bring up Trump (sore topic these days) and it will be fine.

[Lord Mantrid]

I have wanted to visit France. There are a few things in Paris I would like to see but even people over there have said "don't go if you can help it." I've been to Germany twice and a day trip to Switzerland once, so I feel like I need to add it at some point. My mother had a minor in French so I know a very small amount of words and can read some signs. Barely enough to get around, but its better than someone with zero knowledge of the country. At the end of the day, if I can only do one thing I want to stand on the beaches of Normandy.