Well, the topic diverged quickly 
In 1789, Paris became the center of a French government that was dominated by the Parisians. Paris choose for France, and France followed, that's particularly obvious on the political side of things: although in 1789 everyone was fed up of feudalism, monarchism was way more popular in the French hinterlands that the new and radical idea of democracy. The returns to democracy (that is, revolutions) were all engineered by the Parisians... while when, during the second Republic, universal suffrage was instaured, the French population voted for Napoleon III to become emperor. It dominated culturally too, and there's proof enough that 19th century France was a lot more culturally homogenous than she was pre-1789.
But it was not colonization because also arguably the "peasants" of the rest of France were indeed considered backwards (the war in Vendee probably played its part), there were still considered French.
Although the "we gotta civilize the natives" argument that was widespread by Jules Ferry's time is similar to the reasonment behind the "parisification" of France, in colonialism it was very, very largely a pretext to economical and territorial gains - while IMO it was really the motive for the 'parisification'.
In 1789, Paris became the center of a French government that was dominated by the Parisians. Paris choose for France, and France followed, that's particularly obvious on the political side of things: although in 1789 everyone was fed up of feudalism, monarchism was way more popular in the French hinterlands that the new and radical idea of democracy. The returns to democracy (that is, revolutions) were all engineered by the Parisians... while when, during the second Republic, universal suffrage was instaured, the French population voted for Napoleon III to become emperor. It dominated culturally too, and there's proof enough that 19th century France was a lot more culturally homogenous than she was pre-1789.
But it was not colonization because also arguably the "peasants" of the rest of France were indeed considered backwards (the war in Vendee probably played its part), there were still considered French.
Although the "we gotta civilize the natives" argument that was widespread by Jules Ferry's time is similar to the reasonment behind the "parisification" of France, in colonialism it was very, very largely a pretext to economical and territorial gains - while IMO it was really the motive for the 'parisification'.