The changing face of Paris and its suburbs

Meet Simon Kuper, a British (and naturalized French) journalist in Paris. 

He’s this week’s guest on The Earful Tower podcast, talking about the changing face of Paris and its suburbs – and his new book Impossible City: Paris in the Twenty-First Century.

The Earful Tower podcast episode

Listen below or wherever you get your podcasts. Scroll down for a look at some of the show’s talking points.

Impossible City: What is Simon’s new book about?

The book – Impossible City: Paris in the Twenty-First Century – is a mix of memoir and anthropological study about how Parisians live and think. It recounts Simon’s 20 years living in the city, where he said he has “always viewed the city through spectacles at a little distance.”

He was particularly interested about writing about life in the Parisian suburbs after years taking his twin sons out to soccer practice, saying that “over the last 10 plus years that I’ve been doing this, I have kind of become a little bit of an anthropologist of bits of life in the Paris suburbs, especially around football clubs.”

Find out more about the book here.

Why did Simon move to Paris?

Simon explained on the podcast that he “wanted to write and live in the centre of a great city” and he was able to do that in Paris. He found that there is more of an access to a good life in Paris: cost of living is cheaper here than in other world capitals, there are always wonderful things to see and do as well as a variety of interesting people to rub shoulders with.

Expanding the glittering capital into “Grand Paris”

Simon’s book takes place in Paris but also in the suburbs around city. These areas are are quickly becoming more and more linked to central Paris. “They’re building 68 new metro stations, which are going to all be open this summer ahead of the Olympics. This is huge.”

Essentially this means that it is going to become much easier to go back and forth between different parts of Paris and the suburbs, and so expanding the Parisian region. Residents may no longer distinguish where they live by the suburb they live in, rather saying that they live in the Paris region.

Simon’s thoughts on the Paris Olympics

With the Olympic Games on the near horizon, Simon notes that it hasn’t all been smooth sailing so far.

“The city is a bit of a mess now, and people are whining about that, which is completely understandable. But I think that from September, Paris is going to look better and be more functional than it ever has been. All these new Metro stations, all these roads will be ready, all these new bike paths will be done. And so we’re going to be kind of delivered the brand new city post-Olympics.”

Find out more about Simon and his work on his Twitter profile here.

This week’s Earful Tower podcast episode

Below, again, is the podcast episode with Simon Kuper. Enjoy! And if you like what you hear, please consider becoming a Patreon member on the link below.