But, I mean... Paris was _never_ that fantasy version of Paris, or anything like it? Though arguably it's a lot more like it today than it was, say, a century ago, or two centuries.

I'm going to guess Paris had more actual Frenchmen in it one or two centuries ago.

That would be a definitional matter. About 15% of Paris’s population are non-nationals. This isn’t unusual for a European capital; Dublin is 17% and Berlin is 22%, say. This would have been lower two centuries ago, though what it meant to be a national was arguably a bit different. However, what’s a ‘Frenchman’? Two centuries ago, most of France did not speak French fluently (and perhaps did not speak it at all). Even in World War I, 20% of the Metropolitan French army didn’t speak French functionally. Fluent French would certainly have been more common in Paris than elsewhere, but really you’re looking at a very weak national identity versus today.

> About 15% of Paris’s population are non-nationals.

How would you possibly know this as France doesn't record ethnic data for births?

Non-nationals are, approximately, non-citizens. Outside of edge-cases, anyone born in a country may be presumed to be a national of that country.

Paris syndrome is fairly over-hyped. From wiki:

"Although the BBC reported in 2006 that the Japanese embassy in Paris had a "24-hour hotline for those suffering from severe culture shock",[4] the Japanese embassy states[clarification needed] no such hotline exists[clarification needed].[9][10] Also in 2006, Miyuki Kusama, of the Japanese embassy in Paris, told The Guardian "There are around 20 cases a year of the syndrome and it has been happening for several years", and that the embassy had repatriated at least four Japanese citizens that year.[11]"

Out of a million people who are Japanese that visit Paris every year, a dozen of them having shock at the reality of the city isn't that noteworthy honestly, and I imagine there are more Americans that do this than Japanese people.

A dozen of them having shock at the reality of the city and call the Japanese embassy. Don't know about you but it would take me way more than culture shock to call my embassy when I'm traveling.

> Out of a million people who are Japanese that visit Paris every year

That's a staggering number of people! Almost 1% of all Japanese people visit Paris every year?

Looks about right, if you look at pre-covid numbers. Post covid Germany still had 60k visitors per month from Japan, and covid slashed tourism by around 80%.

https://www.tourism.jp/en/tourism-database/stats/outbound/

I went to Paris on vacation last year, and there was garbage piled head high on the sidewalks and multiple riots in the city protesting the pension changes while we were there.

We had a wonderful time.

The riots are scheduled ahead of time, so we knew where and when to avoid. The garbage was not pleasant. But did not stop us from enjoying awesome cultural and culinary and sight seeing experiences.

From what I can tell, this Paris has always been Paris. It's always been rich versus poor, often far more violently than what I describe.

I've been there every now and then over twenty years. None of this Paris isn't Paris any more. Pretty much normal changing of a city.