Wednesday, June 5, 2013

1. La vie Française

So far, every day has included a fresh baguette from the bakery down the street, cheese, espresso, a glass of bordeaux, and getting a bit lost. Daniele, our host, has been most welcoming. More or less, we are off to a perfect start.

My experience of Paris has been somewhat contrary to expectations:
  • I expected irritable: everyone has been very friendly
  • I expected sophisticated: I've seen a beer can thrown from a train (nearly hitting a lady on the platform) and people driving their cars onto the sidewalk (much to the chagrin and yelling of everyone there)
  • I expected some racism, and got it... but not towards black people in the least (it all seems directed at Turkish, Middle Eastern, and Roma/gypsy people)
  • I expected clean, and got fairly dirty
But to be fair, there are plenty of lovely things that I was expecting: gardens, charm, lovely architecture, and superb food. Photos of our environs to come soon. Today we're off to L'Atelier, a 3-star joint on the Seine, for lunch, and then it's lounging in the park with a book.

1 comment:

retlo said...

We were there last June. Spent time considering unlocking all the locks on the various bridges over the Seine. Got bored before unleashing all that silliness. Nice food and gardens. I agree about the dirt and car choices. Are you going to Versailles or Giverny? Both are worth the day trip on the train. We just got back from a trip to England and lots of gardens and geology.