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The Paris Beyond the Postcards

A photo walk in the city’s underrated 19th arrondissement

William Sidnam
Full Frame
15 min readDec 18, 2024

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All photos in this essay taken in December 2024 by William Sidnam.

The problem with Paris is not that it’s a living cliché, but that it isn’t one. That’s not to say that many ideas about the city don’t have an element of truth. But the city is so big and contains so many multitudes that it can be tiring to challenge them all the time.

When I think about my life in Paris, I would say that many of the ideas about the French capital that get perpetuated online feel so distant from my reality. It’s almost like they belong to another city entirely — one that doesn’t exist anywhere on Earth.

But just writing about the problem with stereotypes isn’t always that helpful. So today I thought I would take you on a photo walk just to give you another side of Paris — one that tourists seldom see.

We’re in the 19th arrondissement in the north-east of the city, which is about as far removed from Postcard Paris as you can get. It’s the kind of neighbourhood that you’d never see in Emily in Paris, for the simple reason that it’s not particularly glamorous. When a show is about projecting a fantasy, a place like this would only counter the narrative.

There’s no denying that the 19th arrondissement is one of the poorer areas of the capital. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t…

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William Sidnam
William Sidnam

Written by William Sidnam

New Zealand creative based in Paris. Advertising copywriter & photographer with 3 Medium Staff Picks. Documenting metro posters at www.instagram.com/metrotears/

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