Parisian Impressionism.

This is being posted quite a bit after it was written, but these are basically my first impressions of Paris.

·      I adore cheese. More specifically, blue cheese. Even more specifically, St. Agur. However, since tasting St. Marcellin, I have a second favorite.

·      For every three people you see in Paris there is at least one dog. They are a people obsessed.

·      Small dogs really are carried in purses. And in metros, and in restaurants, stores, everywhere.

·      Homeless people have dogs. Said dogs are dressed.

·      Homeless people also have scarves, an accessory more important than food or other clothing.

·      Making eye-contact with people on the metro is a social faux-pas. You will receive some angry and shocked looks if you do.

·      Touching people on the metro however is perfectly normal. If it’s crowded prepare to have four different people’s limbs all over you.

·      Madame-my-host-mother-Petillault makes the best Quiche Lorraine.

·      There is a South Korean diplomat in my French class who spent the past two years living in DC. I thought she was pretty cool.

·      Walking around the flat after 11ish and before 7 is strictly prohibited for fear of the downstairs-neighbors’ wrath.

·      Taking a shower is not the same. Madame-my-host-mother-Petillault’s shower head is one that you hold, and there is nowhere to attach it to. Thus you are forced to turn the shower head on and off. Not particularly enjoyable.

·      Two of the bedrooms are divided in half and one has a sheet for a door to accommodate the children who used to live here.  

·      I live on the seventh and highest floor: PENTHOUSE.

·      In a restaurant/brasserie/café how much you pay for your drink depends on if you stand at the bar, sit inside the café, or sit outside (payment in increasing order).

·      And of course the price of your meal also depends on its location and how much the real estate is worth around it. Mental note: don’t buy anything in front of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Champs-Elysees (…well, that was a given).

·      Boulangeries have really, really good French bread. But make sure you intend on eating it within the several hours following the purchase or you might just need a dentist.  

·      The French “coffee” is actually a tiny expresso.

·      Howard, my art history professor, is actually a disguised honey-connoisseur. To the max.

·      There’s a homeless person who camps out two blocks from where I live and after two weeks of consistently seeing him, I was worried when he wasn’t there anymore. But it’s all good, he’s back and drinking wine too.

·      There are absolutely no free bathrooms anywhere. You cannot even go into McDonald’s or Starbucks to use their bathrooms without first buying food. There is literally a guard at the foot of the stairs of McDonald’s, allowing only people with food trays to pass. And in Starbucks the password to get into the bathroom is written on your receipt.

·      You can buy really, really crappy wine from the grocery store for a euro.

·      You can also end up paying four Euros for a glass of mineral water at a café/brasserie if you sit on the terrace.

·      If you take the metro late at night on a Friday or Saturday you will see drunk people do any of the following: puke all over the metro (which makes for interesting observation of people’s reaction to said puke as they run out from one metro compartment and into the next) or be walking along nonchalantly and then decide to unzip and pee right there and then on the metro stop. dégoutant.

·      There are a lot of Americans in Paris.

·      There are just as many Russians.

·      Watching French men run across the street with pipes hanging out of their mouths is really quite amusing.

·      Old French men do wear berets; although they seem to fancy a particular style of beret that is rarely advertised in stereotypical French things.

·      Parisian beggars can be really rude and insistent. But I suppose that comes from living with Parisians.

·      Every time you go to look at a pretty historical monument there is either a. construction on it, or b. garbage/garfitti near it.

·      Having people hold doors open for you on the metro is a once in a million phenomena.

·      You start thinking desert that costs six euros is cheap.

·      Each metro stop has an unnecessary amount of stairs.

·      Apparently, Le Vieux Colombier is where all the cool people meet in the sixth, or so Howard claims.

·      The French have this odd habit of cleaning the streets by spraying it down with water – so be careful of all the dirty water that may be flowing your way!

·      Despite the fact that every street corner has probably three cafes on it, it’s difficult to find a café with a. free wifi, b. outlets to plug your computer in, c. coffee that doesn’t cost la peau de tes yeux, and d. an atmosphere that doesn’t frown upon sitting at your computer for hours with all of your books spread out, nursing a tiny expresso.

·      Every arrondissement has it’s own thing going on, which is why you are likely to hear phrases like “that bobo who lives in the 11^th…” (bobo = bourgeois-bohemian).

·      Parisians can at first seem to be arrogant and cold. It is because they live in Paris where to a certain extent you have to be arrogant and cold to survive.

·      Apparently the 14^th of July (France’s independence day) is only called Bastille Day by foreigners – the French know it as “La Fête Nationale”.