Like London, Paris is really quite big. While the city is constantly changing, all the old neighborhoods haven’t suddenly lost their identity. This fear of losing “Paris proper” is completely overblown.

Culture is always in a state of flux. It’s not sad, it just is. I’m not sad I won’t get to see Victorian London. In the narrative arc of humanity things keep getting better, not worse.

I'm not sure how common this preference is. I'm personally always sad when unique cultures diminish or disappear and this seems to be a not unusual sentiment judging by popular media. Whether this is the Cherokee or Victorian England there are valuable and interesting things and losing them is sad.

Victorian England will forever live on in Sherlock Holmes novels, Ripperana, Dickens Fairs, steampunk. There is an article about Victorian customs on the front page. It is literally one of the most overexposed, overplayed, and overused historical eras.

i haven’t ever visited abidjan proper. the people don’t even speak their native language. some are ashantis but can’t speak a word of twi. if you weep for a fabled paris, i weep for abidjan. and i weep for algiers too.