French Revolution: Provinces Upending Myth Of Parisian Supremacy

Paris has always maintained a nervy relationship with the nation’s regions—a remnant, to some degree, of Jacobin centralization of the country from the capital, and imposition of policies, administrative structures, culture and language of Paris upon France’s diverse provincial populations. Indeed, in his brilliant 2007 book, The Discovery of France, British author Graham Robb shreds the dominating myth of post-Jacobin France being a seamlessly united, monolithic country and people, and colorfully documents its more accurate composition and history as “a vast encyclopedia of micro-civilizations” that for thrived unconcerned by—and later in conflict with—the leveling, steamrolling, uniformity-seeking forces of Paris (whose residents Robb just as brilliantly wrote about in a new book last year).

In more recent decades, that spoke-and-wheel tension has been reflected in the mutual disdain that sophisticated, fast-moving Parisians have shown their down-to-earth, easier-going provincial cousins—and vice-versa. Outside the capital, nothing was worse than the boorish, money-grubbing, presumptuous (yet oddly vulnerable to scamming) Parisian, while accented provincials in Paris uttered as little as possible to avoid being sneered upon as backward, under-educated, and semi-bestial hicks. It was all quite passionate, but it also hid something of a joke: that even as greater economic opportunity and urban modernity of Paris pulled millions of regional residents to the capital over time, Parisians disgruntled with the cramped, harassed, and work-dominated life of the capital have been leaving it for the regions in ever greater droves.

The result today is a kind demographic flux and integration that the early Jacobins never banked on: Paris has become not only the capital of the provinces, but one in which provincials nearly equal Parisians. Of the 2.2 million people now living in intra-muros Paris, just 31% were born in the capital, while 29% hail from France’s regions, and 25% come from foreign countries altogether (the remainder issue from Paris suburbs). And far from masking their accents and origins as French transplants to the capital long felt compelled to do, provincials residents of Paris now make themselves thoroughly chez eux in the capital by bringing the best of their home influences with them. This weekend, for example, thousands of regional natives will be gathering in a northern Paris neighborhood to celebrate their respective homelands in a three-day Fête des Régions festival to which even (non) hick Parisians are welcome.People with long ties to Paris may rightly point out that if the love-hate relationship between the capital and the French regions isn’t new, neither is the pride and identity that many provincials have demonstrated once they’d become Parisians by adoption. Transplants from the Massif Central became famous as bougnats—burly merchants and deliverers of domestic fuel supplies who also doubled as the “typical” Parisian café owner (envision Gérard Depardieu behind a sooty bar).  Migration from Brittany has been so dense over the ages that ethnic Bretons in the capital have long claimed their community outnumbers homies they left back in Breizh. Smaller but tight-knit communities of Corsicans and Basques have also maintained a visible presence in Paris over the decades (the former capturing a proportionally over-sized presence among the political and administrative class), while anyone missing the twang of southwest accents only needed to turn up at a weekend pick-up rugby match to hear a chorus of lilt filling the Parisian air. As Robb’s book demonstrated, Paris has always been more provincial than native and newly arrived Parisians were ever willing or comfortable to admit.

Now the stigmas and tensions that kept that artifice in place have mostly fallen, and the regions are now exacting a kind of revenge on Paris. In fact, it may not be too much to speak of a “provincial chic”. Gone are the days where it took a long time—and considerable mutual confidence—before an acquaintance in Paris would confide where he “really” came from in France (and slunk away to as rarely and quietly as possible to visit family still stuck in the provincial mud). As this weekend’s Fête des Régions festivity indicates, recent arrivals to Paris now make their origins a point of pride, and eagerly put their regional cultures, food, and even languages on display. Having deep, living, even fun roots turns out to be pretty cool—and overdue, given the Paris habit of escaping to the regions whenever they have vacation time to spare.

Meanwhile, wider changes mean ambitious and dynamic people have no option to coming to Paris to avoid a lifetime of professional slog. A combination of French decentralization and the beneficial effects of European Union construction have created greater cross-border trade and partnerships between regions, and have given French provinces greater economic punch to answer Paris’ still-dominant might. And lots of those businesses are now looking to eat Paris’ lunch in the capital itself. There are currently around 200 operations in Paris promoting provincial companies, goods, services, and investment proposals to potential Parisian and foreign partners alike. Meanwhile, collective organizations like Made In Province have created trans-regional networks to boost provincials and their activities in Paris—such as this weekend’s Fête des Régions in the Stalingrad neighborhood.

But perhaps an even more illustrative sign of France’s regions answering decades of Paris looking down on them as okay places to visit where no one of any standing would want to live is offered by this week’s Provemploi convention—an annual congress to assist Parisians wanting to leave the capital find work in their preferred provincial destination. According to the event’s organizers, about 200,000 people abandon the infamous Paris rhythm of Metro, boulot, dodo (commute, work, sleep) for less harried existences elsewhere each year. (Nearly 37% of people who visited Provemploi last year reportedly left Paris or the surrounding area to start a new regional life within the following six months.) The top destinations: France’s southern cities like Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Montpellier, followed by western towns Nantes and Rennes.

So do all these changes finally mean peace and harmony across Planet France? Doubtful. The slightest hesitation in Paris by the confused driver of a car with regional plates will still provoke the same anti-provincial invectives that plodding French tourists in the Metro do. And added to the complaints against Parisian traditionally aired in regional cities (crazy drivers, stinks of money, thinks he owns the entire world—or all purpose parisien de con) is the newer lament “now they’re coming here and buying all the best homes”. The Berlin Wall came and went, but the Paris/Province divide appears to be eternal. The Jacobins may have been enlightened types, but they never stood a chance in a magnificently diverse country like France.