Paris: A Pleasant Journey / 파리: 즐거운 여행
Paris as a City of Art, Romance, and Everyday Life / 예술과 낭만, 그리고 일상의 도시 파리
There are cities that one visits, and there are cities that remain with us long after we have left them. Paris belongs unmistakably to the second category. I had the opportunity to visit Paris twice, both times traveling alone. More than three decades has now passed since those journeys, yet certain scenes remain surprisingly vivid: the lights of Paris seen from the Eiffel Tower at night, young artists sketching strangers on the street, a baguette carried home like a rifle, a crowded perfume shop on the Champs-Élysées, and the quiet flow of the Seine beneath the bridges.
Before I went to Paris, I had built up considerable expectations. The city had already acquired an almost mythical reputation in my imagination. Paris was supposed to be the city of art, romance, literature, fashion, wine, and fine food. Since I have always loved art, I especially wanted to immerse myself in its artistic atmosphere. I wondered whether the real Paris could possibly live up to the Paris I had encountered in books, paintings, photographs, and films.
It did—and it did not.
Like most great cities, Paris was more complicated than its postcards.
First Impressions: Entering an Old Civilization
After an approximately eleven-hour flight from Seoul, I arrived at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport and made my way toward the city. As I looked through the car window, the buildings seemed to approach me one after another, each carrying an unmistakable sense of elegance and age. Paris did not look as though it had been built yesterday, and that was part of its charm.
The city seemed to understand something that modern cities sometimes forget: buildings are not merely shelters for human activities. They are also containers of memory.
The streets, façades, balconies, bridges, monuments, and public squares seemed to tell stories without speaking. Paris had accumulated centuries of human ambition, creativity, revolution, love, war, wealth, poverty, intellectual debate, and artistic experimentation. One did not need to enter a museum to encounter history. Sometimes simply walking down the street was enough.
For sightseeing, I relied mainly on the Paris Métro. The Métro had already been operating for many decades, and although some stations appeared somewhat old and less polished than I had imagined, the system functioned remarkably well. What I found especially interesting were the colorful and boldly designed advertising posters displayed throughout the stations. They transformed otherwise ordinary transportation spaces into small galleries of contemporary visual culture.
It occurred to me that Paris did not insist that art remain inside museums.
Art was everywhere.
Sometimes it was hanging on a museum wall. Sometimes it was printed on a subway poster. Sometimes it was being drawn by a young student on a sidewalk. And sometimes, quite unexpectedly, it was simply the way a Parisian café arranged a few chairs along the street.
The Eiffel Tower and a Divided Homeland
One evening, I visited La Tour Eiffel, perhaps the most recognizable symbol of Paris and one of the world’s most famous monuments. From the top, I looked down upon the city. Thousands upon thousands of lights shimmered below, spreading across the darkness like a field of stars.
For a moment, Paris seemed almost unreal.
On the upper level was a circular room displaying the flags of countries around the world and indicating their distances from Paris. I searched for my own country. There I found two flags—South Korea and North Korea—listed separately.
The moment was unexpectedly emotional.
Standing above one of the world’s most beautiful cities, I was suddenly reminded that my homeland remained divided into two countries. The distance from Paris to Korea could be measured in kilometers, but the distance between North and South Korea could not be measured so easily. History has a way of appearing unexpectedly, even in the middle of a romantic evening above Paris.
The Eiffel Tower therefore became more than an architectural landmark for me. It became a place where beauty and history briefly met.
The Champs-Élysées and the Economics of Romance
I leisurely walked along the famous Avenue des Champs-Élysées, one of the grandest boulevards in Paris. Among the many attractions, perfume shops particularly caught my attention. They were filled with French fragrances of every imaginable variety, and women from around the world seemed determined to explore them all.
Outside the shops, however, another drama was unfolding.
There stood boyfriends and husbands waiting for their shopping companions to emerge.
Some looked patiently at their phones. Others wandered about aimlessly. A few exchanged awkward glances with other men, as if silently communicating:
How long have you been waiting?
I don’t know.
How long do you think it will take?
I have stopped asking.
I felt a certain international brotherhood among these men.
Judging from the size of the stores and the enormous variety of perfumes inside, however, I had serious doubts that the shopping would be completed quickly. Paris, after all, understands romance—but it also understands retail.
At Galeries Lafayette, I encountered another lesson in economics. The store was filled with luxury goods from some of the world’s most famous brands. I examined several price tags that were difficult for me to believe. After a brief internal calculation, I concluded that window-shopping was probably the most appropriate shopping strategy for me.
I looked.
I admired.
I calculated.
Then I walked away.
Sometimes wisdom is knowing what not to buy.
The Paris Behind the Postcard
Before visiting Paris, I had seen countless photographs of a beautifully clean and elegant city. The photographs were not exactly wrong, but they were certainly selective.
Once I began walking through the streets myself, I encountered a more ordinary Paris. Among other things, there were dog droppings scattered here and there.
I found myself wondering, rather mischievously, whether the famous French revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity had been interpreted a little too freely—especially the word liberty.
Perhaps Parisian dogs had their own political philosophy.
The portable public toilets installed around the city also caught my attention. They were practical but somewhat exotic to my eyes. I remember thinking that Paris had even managed to turn an ordinary human necessity into a small economic transaction.
These little imperfections actually made Paris more interesting.
A perfect city would be rather boring.
The real Paris was not merely the Paris of postcards. It was a living city with its own inconveniences, smells, noises, crowds, dogs, traffic, expensive rents, narrow shops, and impatient pedestrians. It was precisely this mixture of grandeur and ordinariness that made it feel alive.
Driving Without Visible Rules
Another curious thing I noticed was the behavior of Parisian drivers. On some roads, the lanes seemed much less clearly defined than I was accustomed to seeing. Yet the drivers somehow managed to move along without constant shouting or the endless honking one might expect.
There seemed to be an invisible agreement among them.
Perhaps civilization is not always about having more rules. Sometimes it is about knowing how to behave when the rules are not immediately visible.
Then there were the baguettes.
Toward evening, Parisians could be seen returning home carrying long baguettes under their arms or resting them over their shoulders. From a distance, some looked almost as if they were carrying rifles.
But these were not weapons.
They were dinner.
That image has remained one of my favorite memories of Paris: a city that had somehow transformed bread into an element of culture.
Young Artists and the Dream of Paris
Around the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame de Paris, Montmartre, and the Champs-Élysées, I encountered art students from many countries. They sat or stood along the streets, sketching portraits of tourists in exchange for a little money.
Their drawings were not merely commercial transactions.
Behind each young artist seemed to be a dream.
They had come to Paris because they wanted to become artists. Perhaps they imagined themselves as the next great painter, sculptor, illustrator, or designer. Paris was not simply a place to study art. It was a place where young people came to test whether their dreams could survive in the real world.
That may be one of the enduring powers of Paris.
A great cultural city does not merely preserve the achievements of the past. It attracts people who want to create the future.
Museums Where Civilization Remembers
I visited the Centre Georges Pompidou, with its striking geometric architecture and exposed structural elements, as well as the magnificent Arc de Triomphe. I also spent time at the Musée d’Orsay, one of the world’s great museums.
The Musée d’Orsay left a particularly strong impression on me. The scale of the collection and the reputation of the artists represented there were almost overwhelming. Paintings that I had previously encountered only in books suddenly stood before me as physical objects.
There is something profoundly different about seeing an original work of art.
A reproduction gives us information.
An original gives us presence.
I watched visitors from Asia, especially Korea and Japan, lining up in front of famous paintings by Vincent van Gogh. One person, one family, or one group would pose for a photograph. Then another would take their place.
I quietly called these photographs “proof pictures.”
They were proof that I was really here.
Visitors from other countries watched the scene with curiosity, while I found myself smiling because I understood exactly why they were doing it.
I also bought several reproductions as souvenirs. A few of them still hang in my home.
In that sense, a little piece of Paris came home with me.
Language as Cultural Power
While walking around Paris, I occasionally became lost and asked people for directions in English. More often than not, they responded in French.
At first this was slightly inconvenient.
But somehow, I usually managed to find my way.
A gesture here, a map there, a few words, a smile, and sometimes a combination of all four were enough. It reminded me that human communication is more resilient than vocabulary alone.
The French attitude toward their own language also impressed me.
Through institutions such as the Alliance française, France has actively promoted the French language and culture throughout the world. Whatever one’s opinion of French cultural policy, there is something admirable about a nation taking its language and cultural heritage seriously.
Language is not simply a tool for communication.
It carries memory.
It carries literature.
It carries humor, philosophy, history, and a particular way of seeing the world.
In an age when English has become increasingly dominant as a global language, France’s determination to preserve and promote French offers an important lesson. Cultural globalization does not necessarily require cultural surrender.
A civilization can participate in the world while still speaking in its own voice.
Wine, Food, and the Art of Living
Of course, no memory of France would be complete without wine and food.
I had several opportunities to taste French wine and cuisine, and they largely lived up to my expectations. France seemed blessed with a mild climate, fertile land, abundant produce, herbs and spices, and access to a remarkable variety of seafood.
But French cuisine is not simply about ingredients.
It is about transforming ingredients into an experience.
A meal can be nourishment, but it can also be conversation, celebration, friendship, romance, and memory. A glass of wine can be a beverage, but it can also become part of a landscape, a history, and a tradition.
Perhaps this is one reason Paris has such a powerful cultural attraction. The city does not seem to regard the good life as something frivolous.
Beauty matters.
Food matters.
Conversation matters.
Music matters.
Time matters.
And perhaps most importantly, the experience of living matters.
Paris as Everyday Civilization
Looking back, I realize that what fascinated me most about Paris was not any single monument.
It was the coexistence of the extraordinary and the ordinary.
The Eiffel Tower stood beside ordinary streets. World-famous museums existed alongside small neighborhood shops. Luxury perfume stores competed for attention with cafés. Young artists struggled to pay their bills while dreaming of artistic greatness. Tourists photographed masterpieces while Parisians carried baguettes home for dinner.
This is what makes a great city a civilization rather than merely a collection of buildings.
Civilization is not found only in monuments.
It is also found in how people eat, walk, speak, work, argue, love, shop, create, and spend an ordinary Tuesday afternoon.
Paris seemed to understand this naturally.
Perhaps that is why it has inspired so many writers, painters, musicians, architects, philosophers, travelers, and dreamers. Paris offers not only things to see but also a particular way of seeing.
A City I Would Like to Walk Again
More than thirty years have passed since those journeys, but Paris has not completely disappeared from my imagination.
Sometimes I picture the cafés along the streets, the Seine flowing beneath the bridges, the lights reflected in the water, the melodies of chanson drifting through the evening air, and tourists speaking dozens of different languages as they move through the city.
And sometimes I imagine walking there again.
But this time, I would not want to travel alone.
I would like to walk along the Champs-Élysées and beside the Seine with my wife, once again like newlyweds. We might stop at a small café, order a glass of French wine, listen to the music, watch people passing by, and simply enjoy the luxury of having nowhere else to go.
Perhaps that is the greatest luxury Paris offers.
Not merely seeing something beautiful, but having enough time to notice it.
Years ago, I traveled to Paris looking for art. I found art in museums, on streets, in architecture, in posters, in cafés, and in the dreams of young artists.
I traveled looking for romance. I found it in the lights of the Eiffel Tower, the quiet Seine, the music of chanson, and perhaps even in the perfume shops where husbands waited patiently outside.
I traveled looking for France. I found it in its language, food, wine, architecture, history, and cultural pride.
But I also discovered something more universal.
A city becomes memorable not because it is perfect, but because it gives us a new way of seeing ordinary life.
Paris did that for me.
And perhaps that is why, after all these years, I still wonder: When will I walk through Paris again—not alone this time, but with my wife, like newlyweds discovering the city for the first time?
Perhaps Paris is waiting.
Or perhaps it is simply waiting for us to find the time. +++
References
Paris
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris
Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle_airport
Métro de Paris
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9tro_de_Paris
La Tour Eiffel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Tour_Eiffel
Avenue des Champs-Élysées
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenue_des_Champs-%C3%89lys%C3%A9es
Galeries Lafayette
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galeries_Lafayette
Baguette
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baguette
Notre Dame de Paris
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre_Dame_Cathedral
Montmartre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montmartre
Centre Georges Pompidou
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompidou_Center
Arc de Triomphe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe
Musée d’Orsay
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orsay_Museum
Alliance française
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_Fran%C3%A7aise
chanson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanson
파리: 즐거운 여행
예술과 낭만, 그리고 일상의 도시 파리
나는 프랑스의 빠리를 혼자서 두 번 여행할 기회가 있었다. 낭만과 예술의 도시라고 하는 빠리를 여행하기 전에 나는 많은 기대를 하였다. 왜냐하면 나는 미술을 매우 사랑하기 때문에 빠리에서 미술의 아름다움에 흠뻑 젖어보고 싶었기 때문이다.
서울에서 출발하여 11시간 정도 만에 빠리의 샤를 드골 공항 (Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport)에서 내려 빠리 시내로 향하였다. 차창 밖으로 보이는 건물들은 어딘지 모르게 세련된 아름다운 모습으로 내게 하나씩 다가 왔으며 매우 고풍스러웠다.
시내 관광은 주로 지하철인 메뜨로 (Métro de Paris)를 이용하였는데, 메뜨로의 건설 역사는 꽤 오래 되었지만 지금도 잘 운행되고 있다고 한다. 생각보다는 약간 허름하고 지저분하였지만 한 가지 인상적인 것은 역마다 아주 색감과 디자인이 강렬한 광고용 포스터를 곳곳에 배치해 놓아 아기자기하여 관광객들에게 볼거리를 제공하고 있었다.
누구나 아는 빠리의 상징인 에펠 타워(La Tour Eiffel)를 저녁에 구경하였는데, 꼭대기에서 아래를 보니 아른거리는 전등의 수 많은 불빛들로 장식된 빠리의 밤경치가 매우 항홀하였다. 꼭대기 층에 있는 원형의 방은 각 방위별로 세계 각국의 국기와 그 나라까지의 거리가 표시되어 있었는데, 우리 나라를 찾아보니 남한과 북한이 각자 다른 나라로 두 개의 국기로 표기되어 있어 분단의 아픔을 느낄 수 있었다.
빠리의 번화가인 유명한 샹젤리제 거리 (Avenue des Champs-Élysées)를 느긋하게 걸어 보았는데 특히 눈에 뜨이는 것은 온갖 종류의 프랑스 향수를 저렴한 가격으로 판매하는 향수가게로 서 전세계에서 몰려온 여성 고객들로 북새통을 이루고 있었다. 가게 밖에서는쇼핑을 간단하게 끝내고 애인이나 부인들이 가게에서 빨리 나오기만을 바라며 무료하게 서성거리는 불쌍한 애인들이나 남편들이 서로들 멋적게 쳐다보고들 있었다. 그러나 가게의 규모나 진열된 향수들의 종류로 보아 내가 보기에는 쇼핑이 그리 간단히 끝날 것 같지 않았다. 유명한 라파예뜨백화점 (Galeries Lafayette)에는 세계적인 고급상품들이 즐비하였는데, 좀체 믿기 힘든 가격표들을 몇 개 보고 나서는 나는 아이 샤핑으로 만족해야 하였다.
빠리 시내를 방문하기 전에 내가 본 사진으로는 빠리 시내가 아주 깨끗하게 보였으나 실제로 여기 저기를 돌아다녀 보니 사방에 널려 있는 견공들의 ‘실례물’로 영 딴판이었다. 프랑스 사람들의 혁명 구호인 자유, 평등, 박애의 정신 중 ‘자유’의 정신을 지금은 너무 자유스럽게 구현하고 있기 때문이 아닌가 하는 엉뚱한 생각을 하였다. 시내 곳곳에 설치된 플래스틱으로 만들어진 이동식 유료화장실도 나에게는 상당히 이국적으로 느껴졌으며 이 곳은 돈 없으면 일도 보지 못하겠구나 하는 생각이 들었다.
시내를 돌아 다니면서 신기하게 생각한 것은 도로에 자동차의 차선이 없음에도 불구하고 운전자들이 알아서 문제 없이 모두들 큰소리 치지 않고 잘 달리고 있다는 거였다. 해질 무렵이면 우리에게도 잘 알려진 빠리 바게뜨 (Baguette)를 장총처럼 어깨에 메고 빠리장들이 귀가하는 모습도 이채로웠다. 물가는 상당히 비싼 편이었고 동네마다 조그만 구멍가게들이 성업이었는데 대부분의 가게는 비싼 임대료 때문인지 매우 비좁았다.
에펠 타워, 아름다운 노트르담 성당 (Notre Dame de Paris), 몽마르뜨 (Montmartre) 언덕, 상젤리제 거리 등에는 빠리에서 미술공부를 하는 각국의 미술학도들이 관광객의 초상을 그려주면서 용돈과 학비를 조달하고 있었다. 모두들 세계적인 예술가가 되고자 하는 청운의 꿈을 안고서 빠리로 몰려온 사람들이었다.
시간을 내어서 기하학적인 유리 조각들을 이용하여 만들어진 조형미가 뛰어난 건축물인 뽕피두 센타 (Centre Georges Pompidou)와 시내 중심에 있는 웅장한 개선문 (Arc de Triomphe)도 둘러보고, 유명한 미술박물관인 오르세이 뮤지엄 (Musée d’Orsay)을 둘러 보았다. 오르세이 뮤지엄에는 세계적인 작가들의 유명한 작품들이 많이 전시되어 있었는데, 그 전시 규모와 소장된 작품들의 지명도가 너무 부러웠다. 아시아, 특히 한국과 일본에서 온 관람객들은 반 고호의 유명한 작품 앞에서 일렬로 줄을 서서 한 명 또는 가족이나 그룹 단위로 ‘증명사진’을 찍느라 북새통이었는데, 이를 다른 나라에서 온 많은 관람객들이 호기심 어린 눈빛으로 바라보고 있었다. 나는 기념으로 몇개의 모조 작품을 샀는데, 그 중 몇 개는 우리 집 실내를 장식하고 있다.
새내를 걷다가 길을 몰라 영어로 방향을 물으면 대개 프랑스 사람들은 프랑스어로 대답하였는데, 신기하게도 대부분 길을 찾아가는 데는 아무 문제가 없었다. 프랑스 정부는 전 세계에 프랑스어 교육 및 문화 전파를 위한 알리앙스 프랑세즈 (Alliance française)라는 기관을 활발하게 운영하는데 자국의 언어와 문화를 적극적으로 홍보하고 보호하며 발전시키고자 하는 프랑스 정부의 노력은 본받을 만 하였다.
말로만 듣던 프랑스의 와인과 요리도 현지에서 맛 볼 몇 번의 기회가 있었는데, 나의 기대를 그렇게 저버리지는 않은 것 같다. 프랑스의 온화한 기후와 비옥한 토양에서 자라나는 과일과 채소, 향신료, 그리고 바다에서 나는 갖가지 해산물을 이용한 예술적인 경지의 아름답고 맛있는 음식을 맛보게 되면 감탄하지 않을 자가 누구랴! 프랑스는 적어도 세계의 미식가들이 부러워하는 축복 받은 나라임에는 틀림이 없다.
예술 과 낭만 그리고 와인의 향과 미식가들의 입 맛을 당기는 맛있는 요리들을 내어 놓는 길가의 까페, 세계 각국에서 온 관광객들과 부드럽고 감미로운 샹송 (chanson)의 멜로디로 가득한 빠리의 샹젤리제 거리와 세느 (Seine) 강변을 따라 내 아내와 다시한 번 신혼부부 처럼 멋지게 걷고 싶은 마음이 간절하다. 그 기회는 언제쯤 오게 될지?
참고:
Paris
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris
Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle_airport
Métro de Paris
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9tro_de_Paris
La Tour Eiffel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Tour_Eiffel
Avenue des Champs-Élysées
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenue_des_Champs-%C3%89lys%C3%A9es
Galeries Lafayette
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galeries_Lafayette
Baguette
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baguette
Notre Dame de Paris
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notre_Dame_Cathedral
Montmartre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montmartre
Centre Georges Pompidou
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompidou_Center
Arc de Triomphe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe
Musée d’Orsay
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orsay_Museum
Alliance française
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_Fran%C3%A7aise
chanson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanson
2026년 9월 14일
{솔티}
Prof. Dr. Young Choi (Editor in Chief) — Regent University
Young B. Choi is a Professor in the Department of Engineering & Computer Science at Regent University. He published 38 books with ‘Selected Readings in Cybersecurity’ (2018) (over 800 copies archived globally at university/college libraries around the world) and ‘Cybersecurity Applications and Artificial Intelligence’ (2023) available in seven major world languages. He proposed the world’s first global and universal telecommunications “Service Order Handling (SOH)” Model (T-SOH Model) (1995) with Dr. Adrian Tang. With this innovative research work, he received the IEEE NOMS ’96 Best Paper Award and became the first recipient of the Outstanding Contribution Award of the TeleManagement Forum in 1998. His research areas include Natural Language Processing-focused AI, AI-applied cybersecurity, network and telecom service management, and Korean studies on Gani Choi Rip’s Jeonggwan (靜觀: Quiet Contemplation) philosophy and Shilhak ( 實學: Practical Learning).
© K-GSP (K-Global Scholars and Professionals) Forum. All rights reserved. 2026.
Suggested Citation:
Choi, Y. B. (2026, September 13). Paris: A Pleasant Journey: Paris as a City of Art, Romance, and Everyday Life. K-GSP.