It has been a very busy last few weeks. My mom came and visited and we did crash course Paris, and of course, we were both sick. But it was a great time despite that!
Jason and I are both taking our French classes now, which is fantastic, albeit, overwhelming. Hopefully, in a few months we will have more than just a working knowledge in French.
I wanted to take some time to answer some frequently asked questions about Paris and just some of my random musings and observations.
I will begin with the FAQs.
Firstly, food, wine and cheese:
To sum it up, fantastic. We typically don't eat out very much because restaurants are very expensive. This is due to the fact restaurant workers are actually paid appropriately, you actually don't tip in most of Europe. The service is still great, probably even better than in North America since the wait staff aren't being ridiculous fighting for a large tip so they can maybe make rent that month. The food itself is really not that much different than in Canada. Paris is very multicultural, there are a lot of Italian restaurants, Thai restaurants, Chinese restaurants etc... In the more "typical" French restaurants you can still order simple things such as burgers, steaks, roast chicken etc. We could order more traditional foods like andouilette sausage (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andouillette) and other random organ meats that the make up a good portion of a French menu. Randomly, a mostly raw egg is common on french pizzas. The wine, good, plentiful and cheap. Cheese, FANTASTIC. So much cheese of all kinds and varieties to suit your palate.
The French are rude:
Absolutely false. That being said I do understand where this stereotype comes from. Ile-de-France (Paris and surrounding areas) has an approximate population of 12 million people. That's a lot of people that need to get places. People here tend to be a bit pushy, but they aren't trying to be rude, they just need to get somewhere and when your in a crowd you have to push through, otherwise it will take everyone HOURS to get through a metro station. If you push past someone they don't even notice. For comparison the Edmonton Metropolitan area has a population of just over 1 million. In fact, in a work or home setting people are super polite. In the hall to our apartment or in the elevator if you see someone you HAVE to greet them. At work Jason has to say bonjour and shake hands with everyone he sees. They aren't rude, just products of their environment.
The French are smelly/ hairy:
This isn't completely false... It is very strange actually, people don't ever LOOK unclean there just seems to be random odours. I think this stems from the fact that the men's deodorant selection is awful. You normally only smell people in the metro, which could also be caused as seen above the population is much denser and when a lot of people are jammed in a metal tube it tends to heat up. As far as hairy goes, I've seen more hairy people in Edmonton then in France.
Driving in Paris is ridiculous:
YES. ABSOLUTELY. I AM NEVER GOING TO DRIVE HERE. Streets are jam packed, people make me nervous because no one hits the brakes until the absolute last second (which means stopping distance is about a centimetre away from the car in front). Street parking is a little unnerving as well, you find a spot (probably about a foot shorter than your car) back in onto the sidewalk, nudge the car behind you, straighten out, nudge the car in front of you, and now you are parked. The first couple times I saw this I thought they were just some terrible drivers, but now I see it's just what you do.
French people won't speak English:
False, a lot do and are more than happy to. This was actually a huge frustration we all experienced here. We all try to use French but as soon as our horrific accents come out the other person starts speaking English. Sometimes it is nice, but we want to learn French! We need to use it!
Everyone carries baguettes with them:
Yep, and why not. They are delicious, cheap and you can buy them on every block. Funny fact, there is a law about baguettes in France. It can only be called a baguette if the following conditions apply: it was baked on site, it was never frozen and they can only be so many hours old (not sure the number). At boulangeries baguettes are always 1€ (this is mandated by the law as well). If you buy one for cheaper than that if you look at the sign it will say flute or "pain". This means it doesn't uphold one of the conditions to be called a baguette. Most likely it wasn't baked on site.
The French are always dressed up:
Yes, and no. You will often see men and women dressed up in fancier clothing and not looking out of place. But, someone wearing jeans and tshirt doesn't look underdressed either. I still have yet to see someone wearing pajamas in public (thank god). So if you think you need to reinvent your wardrobe to come visit (we do have a spare bedroom...) just come as you are.
There is always a strike:
Yeah... This is true. Since we have been here I have definitely seen two strikes happening, both RATP (public transit). The first one they just ran the busses in our area much less regularly, busses that normally run every 5-8 minutes were running MAYBE once an hour. Annoying. The second was all the information booths in the metro and RER stations were closed, because the employees were striking. Of course there is never any information and you never know why or when these are going to happen. They just kind of... Do.
Now, here are some random musings:
So there is a phrase that we have coined as "the French apology" here is an example. When I started my French lessons there were some technical mess ups so when I got there I wasn't actually registered in any classes. I was... Upset, I had given them money and followed every instruction. They kept telling me the computer says I'm not registered so they couldn't do anything. We finally got it all sorted out, they had to switch me to an afternoon class which is not what I wanted. When I said it wasn't ideal for me they just said "but you can come in the afternoon so there is no problem anymore". It was frustrating, and all of us expats have all experienced our own version of the french apology before. Not going to lie though, I would love to overhear conversations at the IKEA returns desk with the French apology.
Stores have weird hours here. It is SUPER annoying. Most stores in Plessis are open 10-12:30 and 2:30-7. Restaurants are generally not open for dinner until 7pm. They will also be randomly closed on random days with no explanation. It is super annoying.
Pharmacies are strange. ALL medication is behind the counter. You have to ask for pain relievers, cold medication etc. Don't even bother asking for cough medicine, it has to be prescribed by your doctor. So far, with hand motions and broken french we have been able to get every thing we have needed.
Meals take FOREVER here. Dining is an experience not just a quick trip. A lunch at a restaurant is usually 1.5 hours or so and a dinner can be even longer (our longest has been 4-4.5 hours). Long gone are the days of a 45 minute lunch at BPs with bottomless pop. ALSO that doesn't exist, you buy a bottle of coke (or whatever) for 3-5€ and you have to be careful to order tap water, or else you end up with Evian (let's face it, probably is tap water) and you are paying for it.
That is all I can think of for now! But if you have heard any stereotypes or want to know anything at all I will ask around or try and experience it myself to answer your query!
A bientôt!
