ABSTRACT
Paris-Plages is unique in that it offers a range of ambiances and experiences which are cut off from the city centre yet entirely anchored in it. This escape from the routine city environment may be understood as a temporary and original process in which one takes on a tourist role through a reversal of places (from the city to the beach) and practices (from city-dweller to seaside holiday-maker). Our empirical analysis reveals a set of tourism-related codes drawn from the world of seaside holidays that are mobilized in this temporary environment then re-appropriated by the ‘seaside tourists’, including practices related to relaxation and mixing with others. Paris-Plages bears witness to the role of tourism as a referential in urban and spatial organization strategies, by suggesting that the city-dweller ‘play the tourist’ in an urban environment that has been temporarily but profoundly transformed.
KEYWORDS:
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.