I approached Paris with a Hollywood-created portrait of a city in mind: A city in which beautiful, old buildings are perpetually lit in a warm, golden glow. Upon entering the city of light, I realized Paris was not this city. Paris is much better.

It took me a while to learn this, though. I was admittedly upset when making my way from Charles de Gaulle to the hostel. The beautiful, old buildings I had expected to see were covered in graffiti. I am used to seeing and even enjoying street in Atlanta, but all of my favorite Hollywood films and all of the French history I had studied had made me believe the buildings of Paris were sacred. Thus, the graffiti made me feel as if something wonderful had been tarnished.

*The ‘Saint’ in ‘Rue Saint Séverin had been etched off this building during the French Revolution*

However, the Revolutionary Tour helped me begin to change my perspective on the street art of Paris. As our guide pointed out to us, French Revolution-related propaganda had been etched into some of the buildings we passed. I felt sublime in the presence of these etchings: To see relics of the past remain as a part of such a lively city was exciting. I realized this sublime feeling was rather hypocritical of me, though. I had been harsh towards the spray-paint I saw, yet I was happy to see graffiti as long as it had been made hundreds of years ago. It seemed as if I was unappreciative of the fact that Paris is a living and breathing city—as if I believed history had stopped being made after the French Revolution.

After accepting the flaws in my perspective of Paris, I began to enjoy seeing the relationship between the city’s history and the people who interact with it every day. For one, I had a lot of fun watching Parisians at the Sacre Couer, which I visited twice during the visit. On my first visit, I saw pink vests gather around a carousel and yellow vest propaganda posted all around me. I felt as if that specific spot was the hubbub for political activism. But on my second trip on Thursday, I found that many Parisians use the Sacre Couer as a place to find dates. The location is so beautiful and romantic that I saw many women find it hard to say no to the men who had asked them to partake in a spontaneous picnic on the hill in front of the temple.

*I may have wasted a lot of time while taking this picture, as an art student I hadn’t grunted at me while I tried to find the right angle for my photo.*

The Musée D’Orsay, too, was a great place to see Parisians interact with their history. I had bought a book on Impressionist painters from one of the many museums we visited during the trip and read up on how Monet, Pissarro, and Renoir would go to the Louvre and work on their craft by drawing the epic paintings they saw. While at the D’Orsay on Thursday, I got see many academy students doing the same as they sat in front of statues and drew them in their notebooks. I felt as if I was getting to see Paris’s next Monets, Pissaros, and Renoirs develop into masterful painters in person!

Simply put, Paris taught me how lovely and lively of a city it is. Although I was initially made upset by some of its more modern aspects, I came to realize that things like graffiti were signs that the history that makes me love Paris is still being made! And this fact—that Paris continues to build upon its culture and history—makes the city of light eons better than the romantic, Hollywood-made vision I had come to Paris with.