| ▲ | consumer451 2 days ago |
| Complete tangent, but I met my equally nerdy brother in Paris last month. It was my first time, and his fourth. We stayed South of the Republique metro station. After the literal 30th indie Manga [0] shop that we walked by, I asked him: "how are all these shops financially viable?" He said: "look inside." Holy crap, they all had customers inside! I had no idea that Japanese culture has such a strong presence in the heart of Paris, in the middle of Europe. [0] I should be clear, this was not just Manga. There were so many cool indie retro video game shops that it blew my little mind. I should probably get out of my Silesian village more often. |
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| ▲ | goldenarm 2 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| Pedestrianization of neighborhoods like Rivoli did decrease shopping at first, but ended up exploding again once people got used to it. |
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| ▲ | consumer451 2 days ago | parent [-] | | I have to say, I look forward to visiting Paris again as soon as I can find an excuse. I know there are things people could say negatively, as one could say about any large city, but the energy and diversity really drew me in. I also really like French food, especially when mixed with the crazy chefs in that area that we stayed. Edit: just so everyone knows, this is what an airport terminal could be, according to Air France: https://postimg.cc/ZCww5xFs - So cool that I had to take photo. This was the least customer-hostile area that I have ever seen at an airport. Oh, you have to wait for a flight? Just lay back and chill. | | |
| ▲ | rsynnott 2 days ago | parent [-] | | … Huh, never heard of anyone actually _liking_ CDG before. | | |
| ▲ | consumer451 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Haha, I get that. You may be aware, but this is Terminal 2G. It is almost like its own tiny airport for short hops by Air France in the EU. It feels like a completely different world from the main mixed-carrier international disaster situation. It really feels like a designer experimental terminal. | | |
| ▲ | rsynnott 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Does it still have the weird security procedures? (Security at CDG is IME very slow and just, well, strange; at least once they were asking people to _carry their passports through the scanners_, rather than leaving them in their bags like in all other airports in Europe). CDG wouldn’t be my _least favourite airport (I think that’s probably San Francisco, specifically the international terminal), but it definitely would be up there. | | |
| ▲ | consumer451 2 days ago | parent [-] | | So, my brother was departing intercontinental 3 hours prior to my flight to Prague. I hung out with him at one the main terminals in the crazy long security line, until I could not. He showed up 2.5hrs early, and almost missed his flight. Computers were down or something. Once he got to his gate, he had to take a bus to his A350. Crazy shit show. Quote: "this is so ghetto." Meanwhile, I went to Terminal 2G, and there was absolutely zero security wait. It was like a 1 screener per 3 people type situation. It was like being at some rich people resort airport. Once I got through security, which took 5 minutes, I was presented with a high-end shopping center, a roving smiling robot garbage/recycling can straight out of Shenzhen asking people for deposits... excellent food, anyone could lay down on comfy couches. It blew my mind. It was France, and Air France, flexing. | | |
| ▲ | rsynnott 2 days ago | parent [-] | | … Ah. So I just looked it up; no-one flies to Dublin from there (Aer Lingus is 2A, Air France is 2F). Possibly it’s a Schengen-only terminal. (Living inside Europe but outside Schengen tends to get you the worst terminals/sections of terminals. Berlin Tegel used to have a tiny little terminal that, as far as I could see, only flew to Ireland and Turkey (not sure where the UK flights went from). Absolutely horrendous; there’d sometimes only be one passport control line, so if the person in front of you had an issue you might be waiting for an hour.) |
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| ▲ | Kankuro a day ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| France is the 2nd largest market for manga after Japan (or it was a few years ago). That's surprising because there are almost 7 times more inhabitants in the US.
Those who were a kid in the 80s and 90s in France saw a lot of Japanese anime on TV during this period, so that's part of the explanation. |
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| ▲ | Palomides 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| france has a really strong tradition of comics, it's not just manga |
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| ▲ | b0rtb0rt 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japonisme |
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