10 Things That Surprised Me About Paris
Some personal observations from visiting Paris in September.
Something I haven’t had the chance to write about is the fact that I went to Paris and Munich last month! It was a strange and surreal trip—not just because it was a big-deal trip for a Midwesterner like me, but also because I found out that my Dad passed away while I was there. I have some thoughts brewing about how strange and difficult it was to process that type of loss while I was thousands of miles away, but in the meantime I wanted to celebrate the fun side of the trip. It was still an amazing experience, and I want to savor it.
Allow me to preface this list with the fact that we were only there a week, it was September, and the weather was absolutely beautiful. Also, my perspective is limited to that of a white female living in the American Midwest (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, baby!). With that in mind, here are 10 things that surprised me about Paris.
People were nice! There are a lot of stereotypes about French people being rude to Americans. I was legitimately kind of nervous about it! But I experienced the level of friendliness I would expect in any large city, and people in restaurants and retail settings were almost always welcoming, helpful, and the vast majority were able to help you in English. There was one (particularly lovely) dinner where our waitress didn’t speak English, and she was exceedingly helpful and patient with us. She even prevented us from accidentally ordering a beer! Our intention was butter (which we eventually figured out with some context clues and pantomiming), but our ability to pronounce things in French—even with the help of Google translate—is pretty abysmal!
There are SO MANY BAKERIES or more accurately patisseries! There are more than I ever could have imagined. We seemed to encounter beautiful handcrafted pastries and breads on display on every block. On average, it wasn’t expensive at all. There were high-end options, but small patisseries with beautiful items at reasonable prices were simply a staple throughout the city. On one stop, we marveled at getting a chocolate croissant, a generous slice of flan and two espressos for only six euros. One of these items alone could easily be six dollars in Milwaukee! I also discovered my new favorite pastry while we were there. It’s called a Cravate (pictured above) and it’s made of the most delicious flaky buttery dough surrounding a layer of vanilla custard and chocolate chips.
Bras are optional. In retrospect, I think I’ve heard stereotypes about this before, but it still surprised me on a regular basis! Maybe if I were from a cool-kid coastal city this wouldn’t have stood out to me?! I’m not sure. But to be clear, I support this! I don’t wish to participate, but I fully support people wearing what they want to wear. Down with the patriarchy! Less underwire! More pockets!
The homeless people were super chill. This is probably a weird thing to say, but it really stood out to me how low-key and non-confrontational the homeless people were in Paris. My experiences are mostly limited to the U.S., but it surprised me that almost no one verbally asked for anything. Some people had signs or cups for change, but none of the homeless people we saw were aggressive. The guy who hung out near the Burger King by our hotel never seemed to say a word, but I saw him with food several times.
As a point of comparison, the most aggressive homeless population I’ve encountered was in Portland and Seattle. I don’t know if that was an anomaly based on when we visited (fall 2018) or if that’s actually true on average. Either way, I was not prepared for it when we visited!I felt safe (most of the time). I was prepared to avoid pick pocketers with belt bags that I borrowed from a friend to wear underneath our clothes. But after the first day of walking around it didn’t feel necessary. I used a small cross-body purse that I could keep in front of me and rest a hand on easily, and I didn’t keep anything valuable in my back pockets (or front pockets for that matter). The only time I was concerned about getting pick-pocketed was one time when the metro was so packed it was impossible not to touch strangers.
I’m sure I would have felt differently if I were walking around by myself. My husband and I are larger than the average Parisian, which makes a difference. But there were elderly people walking around alone, as well as and people with kids, and overall it just felt like a big city with a lot of people going about their lives.Prevalent green space with public seating. I was not aware of the famous green chairs that line a particularly well-manicured swath of the canals. There are so many of these green chairs! Seeing them scattered around underneath a perfect line of trees near the water made them so alluring. We couldn’t help but sit and take a moment.
There were lots of spaces like this scattered throughout the city with various benches, chairs, and greenery. We have several neighborhood parks where I live, but something about these spaces in Paris felt more integrated into the city, wholly separated from commerce, and in no-way tied to productivity.
In U.S. cities, the nicest places to sit tend to be connected with paying for something. These spaces were not. They invited you to just be. You didn’t need to be on a jog or on a playdate with a fellow family. You could just sit and read a book or enjoy a picnic, or close your eyes and lay in the sun. Or (gasp) you could just sit and do nothing. These spaces invited you to loiter! It was great.
Lots of people smoke. This is a stereotype I thought was outdated, but smoking traditional cigarettes is alive and well in Paris! They even have the scary packaging with gruesome imagery on it. This, apparently, is not a deterrent.
Dining out was cheaper on average. There were high-end options, of course. But we found that restaurants with two euro signs on Google maps tended to be less expensive than the restaurants with two dollar signs here in Milwaukee. Part of this is because the tipping expectations are different in Paris. And to my delight, glasses and bottles of wine were notably cheaper on average.
An exception to this is beef and pork. When passing butcher shops, the prices per kilogram were around 7 to 10 times what we’re used to (even when accounting for kilograms vs. pounds).Burgers and fries were super common. I know we call them French fries, but I wasn’t expecting there to be so many places offering burgers and fries! I think of burgers as a particularly American thing, so it just surprised me. I generally tried to prioritize ordering French food, but I had one burger while I was there, and it was delicious. We had so many fantastic meals. The French really know what they’re doing with food.
Tax is included in published prices. The price you see is the price you pay! This likely contributed to my perception that food was less expensive. It was such a refreshing change of pace to know exactly how much something would cost when you went to pay.
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