The development of the Parisian tourist industry as described in the travel narratives of American travelers in the French capital between 1780 and 1850

This thesis is based on a unique and exhaustive body of sources. It is composed of the travel narratives of 170 American visitors in Paris from 1780 to 1850, each fashioned as a case study for French-American cultural perceptions. One can trace in them the beginning and gradual formation of an American perception of Paris as a changing urban landscape, emerging metropolis and tourist center. Using Americans' tourist experiences, this thesis shows American tourism in Paris as a form of cultural negotiation between France and America. As representatives of a foreign culture, whose attitudes were expressed through the travel writing medium and formed by a changing diplomatic, social and cultural history, Americans perceived, interpreted, and evaluated the city's tourist infrastructures. As a result of this ambivalent cultural encounter they formed national images about tourist Paris.; Americans paid a considerable amount of attention to tourist accommodations. Their descriptions offer a rare insight into the Parisian economy of travel. Often critical of hotel customs, modes of building and living, Americans usually praised the organization, specialization and quality of hotel services, and the competence of hotels' personnel. They perceived first-hand the slow development of a modern tourist industry in Paris. They nevertheless remained constantly preoccupied about issues of hygiene and comfort. Tourist Paris greatly challenged Americans' expectations and standards. Their conclusions on the general lack of comfort and hygiene helped form an American discourse on the city and fashioned an American tradition of perception about the tourist city, a rhetorical heritage still put forward today.; Safety and hospitality accounted for Americans' appreciation of tourist Paris and epitomized early signs of urban modernity in the city. They were significant factors and may have proved clear incentives and drive to further American travel to France. American travelers built and helped endorse the city's reputation as an emerging capital of tourism, one centered around consistent categories of American discourse that resulted from their confrontations with Parisian social and cultural arrangements.