“Paris mon Amour” Arts and Culture Forum in Paris
On 9 January 2026, the “Paris mon Amour” Arts and Culture Forum, organised by the Global Youth Dialogue among Civilizations Alliance (GYDCA), was held at Rétro Fleurs on Île Saint-Louis in Paris. With Retro Café as event partner, the forum drew artists, storytellers and participants from France, China, Japan and Australia among others, to think about Paris as a city dense with emotion, creativity and cultural imagination.
Built around thematic discussion, personal storytelling and intercultural dialogue, the event made an intimate and welcoming setting for exchange. Guests included filmmaker Philippe Muyl, best known for Le Papillon (The Butterfly), and artist Frédéric Paul Baron, co-creator of Paris’s Le Mur des Je t’aime (The Wall of Love). Their presence brought artistic perspective and cultural insight into the discussions.
One of the forum’s strongest elements was the involvement of young storytellers, who spoke about living in Paris, moving through intercultural environments, and working out questions of identity and belonging. Their contributions turned the event into more than an intellectual exchange — into a space where people across cultures and generations could listen to one another and speak openly.
Participants from France, China, Japan, Australia and other backgrounds traded perspectives on urban memory, cultural diversity, personal experience and emotional attachment to the city. The discussion worked on two complementary levels: encouraging intercultural understanding by foregrounding Paris’s role as an international crossroads, and advancing intergenerational exchange between young participants, established cultural figures and members of the local community.
Through storytelling, shared experience and open dialogue, “Paris mon Amour” showed how Paris works as a common meeting ground where people from different countries, cultures and generations can connect, express themselves and learn from one another. The forum built a multicultural platform that encouraged young people into public dialogue and gave them room to share their experience of living, studying and taking part in intercultural exchange in Paris — while strengthening intergenerational connection across ages, backgrounds and experience, in line with GYDCA’s ongoing commitment to youth engagement, cultural diversity and meaningful public dialogue.
