Living with Tourism: The Resident Experience

In the medieval village of Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Marie-Claude waters her geraniums as another tour group shuffles past her front door. Cameras click, capturing her authentic Provençal home, while guides explain the village's artistic heritage. She smiles politely but thinks of her grandmother, who could walk to the bakery without navigating crowds, who knew every neighbor, who never locked her door. "We've become extras in our own life movie," Marie-Claude sighs. Her story echoes across France, from Montmartre to Mont-Saint-Michel, wherever tourism transforms communities from living spaces into consumable experiences.