A closer look
If you think Paris is unbearably crowded during fashion week, imagine 50 million people descending on a city built for a fraction of that. The 1900 Exposition Universelle wasn't just a world's fair; it was a logistical nightmare that permanently altered European travel. To handle the apocalyptic influx of souvenir-hunting tourists, the French had to rush the opening of the Paris Métro and build the Gare d'Orsay just to park the trains. Locals spent seven months complaining about the noise, the traffic, and the sheer volume of foreigners gawking at the new escalator—a tradition of Parisian hospitality that continues to this day.
