Psychiatrists call it "The Paris Effect." It simply means the disappointment that many first-time visitors to Paris experience after hyped up expectations from the media. A recent (2015) article in The Wall Street Journal explained: "It was Dr. Hiroaki Ota, a Japanese psychiatrist working in France, who first identified the syndrome in the 1980s, which often affects women … who arrive expecting an affluent and friendly European capital where slim, beautiful Parisians walk around smelling of Chanel."

The article went on to note that many Japanese, and now Chinese, visitors "expect a place full of romance, beauty, and wealth. Instead, they find pavements peppered with cigarette butts and aggravated commuters in packed metro trains … For some, the shock is too much to bear, prompting them to seek medical help for symptoms that may include irritability, fear, obsession, depressed mood, insomnia, and a feeling of persecution by the French. In extreme cases, the only remedy is a one-way ticket out of France."

In other words, disappointment sets in when visitors realize that daily life in the City of Light is nothing like the romanticized vision in movies like Midnight in Paris and Amélie, or Sofia Coppola's evocative Dior commercials. The suggestive images of Paris in the media inevitably build up high expectations and create a lot of room for disappointment.