We sneer at their backpacks, their selfie sticks, their unquestioning queues outside the Mona Lisa or the most Instagrammed croissant shop in town.

It is a grim paradox that a nation so often accused of emotional restraint should turn, with such alarming regularity, to the liquid courage of alcohol.

Once you begin to see beyond the initial gloss—or grime, depending on your point of view—you find a city that is endlessly layered, filled with contradictions that make it all the more compelling.