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Two French Guys Who Visited Philadelphia for the World Cup Perfectly Summed Up the City
By Matt Schultz
Published:
As World Cup host city time comes to a close, and international tourist reviews start rolling in, I figured Philly would get good marks across the board. According to everything I’ve seen and read, the city did as good a job as it could’ve done. I, for one, thought it was excellent. The games were great. The crowds were great. The vibes were great. So I figured the reviews would be pretty great.
What I didn’t expect, though, was that one of these reviews would sum up Philly and nail exactly what it’s all about — but that’s what these two French guys just did:
Starting with slide 2:
We fell in love because Philly doesn’t try to be perfect. It’s not polished, it’s not putting on a show for tourists, it’s just real. And somehow that’s exactly what made us love it even more. Every bar we walked into during the games, every person who smiled at us wearing our jersey, every random “allez les bleus” from someone we’d never met, it added up to something we didn’t expect to feel this strongly.
Thank you Philadelphia, for your warmth, your people and for making two French guys feel like they belong here. A part of us stays here now, for real.
On behalf of French people, merci.
Not polished. Not trying to appease anyone. Just doing its thing… Hell yeah. I think this is pretty damn accurate, and it makes sense that the French would appreciate this sort of thing. I’ve never been to Paris, but it does seem like Philly and Paris have similar attitudes in this regard. Both cities seem happy to have tourists roll through, but they don’t appear overly interested in catering to them. Both cities seem pretty content with their own local cultures and don’t feel the need to bite stuff from other places. They both have cool buildings. Cool rivers. Cool art. Tons of history, great sports, and a working-class outlook. Both cities are take-it-or-leave-it; if you like it here, that’s great. If you don’t, there’s the door.
Not that this is a super original take; a quick Google search of “Philadelphia and Paris similarities” showed me that people online have been drawing parallels between these places for a while now:
But still, it feels damn good to be understood. Thank you, our dear French friends. Or merci… Yes… Come on back anytime.
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com