Paris has always been a hub of artists, intellectuals and wanderers from the surrealists to the Lost Generation. Recently, one can see a return to the city of love in influencers and vloggers such as Moya Mawhinney, Leah’s Fieldnotes and others. Why are social media personalities leaving places like LA and New York and once again gravitating to Paris?
Main reason people are leaving L.A is because the cost of living is high. Not only that but L.A has a high rate of of crime and homelessness. This combined with the an increased ability to work from home and upload your art work digitally (whether you're a writer, musician, or visual artist.) there is no longer a need to be on location for work. – Blackcat1303 months ago
Mild book recommendation for whoever chooses to write this article and/or is interested in the topic: We'll Never Have Paris, edited by Andrew Gallix (Watkins, 2019). It's a great recent collection of short stories and essays by contemporary authors meditating on their relationships to Paris. – ProtoCanon3 months ago
People seem to be getting more and more disillusioned by the concept of the American Dream by the day. In particular, I would imagine that those who can afford to live in LA are particularly prone to romanticizations of Paris, and want to make a pilgrimage to that heart of culture/intellectual life. I also think of the period after crisis-- WWII-- resulting in a huge flourishing of intellectual and artistic activity in Paris, I wonder if there is a similar phenomenon happening now with COVID (though it isn't "over" we are living in the aftermath of the initial shock of this disaster). – lilikleinberg3 months ago
