Paris residents fight overtourism and ‘Disneyfication' of beloved Montmartre neighborhood
Not anymore.
Stores for residents are disappearing, along with the friendly atmosphere, he says. In their place are hordes of people taking selfies, shops selling tourist trinkets, and cafés whose seating spills into the narrow, cobbled streets as overtourism takes its toll.
Baroin has had enough. He put his apartment up for sale after local streets were designated pedestrian-only while accommodating the growing number of visitors.
'I told myself that I had no other choice but to leave since, as I have a disability, it's even more complicated when you can no longer take your car, when you have to call a taxi from morning to night," he told The Associated Press.
Overtourism in European cities
From Venice to Barcelona to Amsterdam, European cities are struggling to absorb surging numbers of tourists.
Some residents in one of Paris' most popular tourist neighborhoods are now pushing back. A black banner strung between two balconies in Montmartre reads, in English: 'Behind the postcard: locals mistreated by the Mayor.' Another, in French, says: 'Montmartre residents resisting.'
Atop the hill where the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur crowns the city's skyline, residents lament what they call the 'Disneyfication' of the once-bohemian slice of Paris.
The basilica says it now attracts up to 11 million people a year — even more than the Eiffel Tower — while daily life in the neighborhood has been overtaken by tuk-tuks, tour groups, photo queues and short-term rentals.
'Now, there are no more shops at all, there are no more food shops, so everything must be delivered,' said 56-year-old Baroin, a member of a residents' protest group called Vivre a Montmartre, or Living in Montmartre.
The unrest echoes tensions across town at the Louvre Museum, where staff in June staged a brief wildcat strike over chronic overcrowding, understaffing and deteriorating conditions. The Louvre logged 8.7 million visitors in 2024, more than double what its infrastructure was designed to handle.
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