Many of you might remember the British Airways OpenSkies advertisement featuring a stunning time lapse video of Paris and New York City side by side. If you don’t remember, or didn’t see the ad, here it is:

Paris / New York from MATEL on Vimeo.

It’s a beautiful video, but also highlights a subject my wife and I have discussed when considering future travel plans: after you have visited X number of big cities, is it worth seeing others? Or at some point do they all begin to feel sort of the same?

That is, is a big city a big city a big city – no matter where in the world it is located?

I think this video clearly demonstrates that the answer to that question is “yes and no”. While Paris and NYC have some obvious similarities, there are distinct differences as well that give each its own feel.

What do you think? Are you big citied out in your travels?

Also of particular interest about this video is that the filmmaker himself, MATEL, posted it to his channel on Vimeo and is engaging in a lengthy discussion about the making of. You can read the discussion in its entirety.