A trip to the the city of love can be a dream for many people, filled with bucket-list sights like the Eiffel tower, the Louvre or Notre-Dame but it was the one sight nobody warned me about
A staggering 50 million people make the trip to Paris every year, and as I boarded the Eurostar from St Pancras destined for Gare Du Nord I too added to this year’s figures after taking a weekend away there just a few weeks ago.
Having not stepped foot on Parisian soil before, I perhaps had an idolised version of the French capital, partly from a childhood fuelled with Pixar propaganda stemming from a love of Ratatouille.
The city is unique in its place in the world, being one of just a few cities that has a global reputation for history, culture and gastronomy, partly a reason for the millions of tourists and definitely a contributing factor for my decisions to make the journey.
Having slotted well into the box of a first-time tourist and visited many of the city’s landmark sights – Versailles, the Eiffel Tower and the Arc De Triomphe were all ticked off the bucket list.
But despite their architectural marvel it is one much more unexpected site that has lingered with me weeks after returning home, a vision that nobody really quite warns you about.
Although the wide selection of patisseries and boulangeries still remain fondly in my memory, it is the creatures lurking in the streets below them that shocked me the most – the rats.
Living in London, I have seen rats scurrying around at night, hopping from bin to bin but the vermin that wander the boulevards of Paris are on a whole other level.
During my visit, I didn’t expect those scenes engrained into my head from Ratatouille to have been so literal. It is something that local Parisians have seemed to become accustomed to becoming an aspect of “le quotidien”(daily life). Local media in the capital even joke that the animals are simply “unsavoury Parisian decor”.
But it was on my visit and munching on my third Pain au chocolat that I saw the biggest I have ever seen come trotting around a corner, seemingly unphased by any passers by or the organised chaos of Parisian life going on around them.
The city has been locked in a centuries-old battle with the creatures, having on multiple occasions throughout its history made drastic attempts to tackle the vermin.
But something has seemed to give-way in their uphill battle, with Mayor Anne Hidalgo changing tactics now asking for what the city can do for peaceful cohabitation with the rodents.
In 2023, Politico reported that Anne Souyris, the city’s deputy mayor for public health said: “With guidance from the mayor, we have decided to form a committee on the question of cohabitation.”
The city now aiming instead for its rat situation to be “effective” and “not unbearable”. Although ahead of last year’s Olympics a new crackdown came for the event it wasn’t enough to deter my experience. So anyone planning a trip to Paris who suffers from musophobia may need to be wary.