Living Cheap in France

Differences in Business Mentality

2012-01-05T00:10:00.022+01:00

In 1987, Paul Kennedy, a historian at Yale University, wrote a book called "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers". Kennedy delves into the histories of past and current world powers, discussing how they came to be important, and how most eventually faded into history. Throughout this book, one sees a common theme: a nation gets powerful as a result of good decisions, a strong economy, and success in war. As a result of their success, many of these countries became over extended, had strewn their money and resources over far too large of an area, and eventually were the cause of their own demise.

One might wonder what this has to with the subjects that I normally discuss in my articles, but I'm getting there.

As I came across this theme in Kennedy's book, I came to realize that this type of rise and fall could be applied to other fields as well.

Let me give the example of someone opening a restaurant in the United States. With good promotion, products, and/or success, the workload will most likely increase. This is a good thing, to a point. It becomes tempting to continue to expand operations, hire more employees, and try to make more money. Since the restaurant one has is successful, why not open a second one? Why not use the extra capital to expand into a totally different direction or industry? Occasionally this works out, though oftentimes it does not. Companies can get too spread out and pay less attention to small details. This may lead to less personal attention to clients, more stress, and an increasingly unpleasant work life.

In France, French chain restaurants are a rarity in comparison to the seemingly endless amount of restaurant chains in the United States. Most restaurant owners in France are in charge of one sole restaurant, or in rare occasions, two or three. When posed with the question: "Your business is doing so well. Why don't you take advantage of it and open a second restaurant?" most would respond, "Why would I do that? I am already busy enough as it is."

By keeping operations relatively small, the French are able to focus on the quality of their products. Occasionally this will lead to high prices, especially if a vendor is offering a product with high demand. Many French culinary delicacies are able to pull this off.

In Julia Child's book, "My Life in France," American experts made suggestions for the French on how they could "increase productivity and profits" in their respective businesses. She suggests the following response to be what an average Frenchman might say:

"These notions of yours are all very fascinating, no doubt, but we have a nice little business here just as it is. Everybody has a decent living. Nobody has ulcers. I have time to work on my monograph about Balzac, and my foreman enjoys his espaliered pear trees. I think as a matter of fact, we do not wish to make these changes that you suggest."

To comfort those that work far more than necessary, some complain that the French are lazy and don't get much done. As a result of this misconception, the fact that France is one of the most productive countries in the world is a surprise to more than a few. A survey conducted by UBS, a banking and financial services group, found that French workers are on the job more than 300 hours less per year than the world average. When comparing GDP per capita and number of hours worked per year, it actually turns out that the French are more productive than the Americans (French: The Most Productive People in the World, Business Insider, August 20, 2009).

Another difference in mentality is what one wants to achieve by working a full time job. Does one work to buy nicer things, or does one work just enough so that they can have plentiful time off? The differences in vacation time between the United States and France are well known, and yes, the differences are as staggering as reported. The French have, on average, 5 to 6 weeks of vacation time per year. Americans have, on average, two. Furthermore, many choose not to take their full vacations, for they feel like they will appear lazy for taking more than a few days off a year. I know of many Americans who work constantly throughout their vacation, even though they are supposed to be off work. An American friend of mine was told that he would be reprimanded if he turned his work cell phone off, even at night while sleeping (I should add that he was supposedly on vacation). The puritanical work ethic has remained ingrained in our collective consciousness in the U.S., whether we are aware of it or not.

Meanwhile in France, no work related anything gets done while on vacation. Bosses even tell their employees not to work while on holiday (not that they needed the reminder). While on vacation, emails are left unanswered and phones calls are hardly acknowledged.

No one in France would think of giving up his or her vacation. A friend of mine who worked in Paris told me that in her office of 60 or 70 employees, only 2 of them were at work for the majority of the month of August. Not surprisingly, the ones that stayed were not French.

While some in the world would prefer to work to increase prestige, privilege, and productivity, others are content to work just enough to provide a comfortable living for themselves and/or their families, have ample time off from work to be with them, and have time to pursue other pleasurable activities. Who can say whether one way of viewing one's career is the right or wrong way, but given the choice, I personally would choose the latter.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat, in addition to walking around some of Paris' best neighborhoods, take a look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com.

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Hugs and Kisses

2011-12-07T05:02:00.012+01:00

Many of those who travel to France have encountered “bisous”, whereby people kiss each other on the cheeks as a form of greeting. The number of kisses depends on where you are, though it usually consists of somewhere between two and four. No matter how many kisses there are, those of us coming from the English speaking countries are usually pretty awkward upon our first try.

At first, we are tempted to shake hands, as kissing is a very personal greeting to us, usually reserved for close family members and lovers. As a general rule, girls kiss both boys and girls upon meeting. Boys will normally only kiss girls, unless it is a close friend or family member, in which case it is perfectly normal for guys to do a cheek-to-cheek kiss with a male counterpart.

Based on kisses being such an integral part of interaction in France, one might think that this implies that the French are more comfortable with intimate displays of affection, right? Not necessarily. Try hugging a French person.

My girlfriend and I are currently traveling in the U.S. for a few weeks. We have been using a French guidebook to get us around, as I don't have a guidebook for my own country. In this book, there is a section dedicated to social etiquette and respect in the United States called Faire/Ne Pas Faire. Almost every time that we have met up with a friend or family member, we have brought out the list and discussed its contents. Make sure you pronounce your H's. Don't drink in the streets. Not leaving a tip will lead to a horrible impression of one's character. Though these are all interesting (and important to know), the following suggestion is by far my favorite:

Ne faites pas la bise, quel que soit votre sexe, ça ne se fait pas. On se serre la main, en plus tendre, on se fait des "Hugs" (grandes embrassades avec tapes affectueuses dans le dos et grognements béats).

In summation, (when in the United States) don't greet people with kisses, especially if they are the same sex as you. they don't do that. One shakes hands, or more affectionately, one does a "hug" (big embrace with affectionate pats on the back and blissful growls or grunts).

Do French people really not know how to hug? I asked my girlfriend and she confessed that when she first visited the U.S., she was not sure of proper hugging etiquette. She thought that she was supposed to gently place her arms around her counterpart, and rest her chin upon their shoulders, only letting go when the other person made the first move. If one is not used to hugging those that are not their lovers, then this makes sense. French people do hug, but this is usually reserved for couples. Hence the reason why people from France might melt in your arms (if they are not uncomfortably squirming) when you are greeting them with a hug.

If you happen to visit France and feel awkward during the kissing process, don't feel bad. Just know that a French person might feel equally maladroit in your homeland when you are tapping them on the back and affectionately grunting.

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French Administration

2011-11-03T13:50:00.015+01:00

One of my first experiences with French administration was when I was renewing my visa a couple of years ago. I had to get to the prefecture early enough so that I could be waited on, as the foreign service office at this prefecture is only open for two and a half hours a day. In front of the prefecture was not a line, but a bunched up group of people struggling to keep order. Some people are claiming that they are in front of the line, some people are repeating that nobody run.

Why would anyone need to run?

There is a big wooden door blocking the entrance to the courtyard of the prefecture. To be served at the prefecture, one has to collect a ticket with a number at the other end of the courtyard from the attendant at the reception desk. When the door is finally opened, everyone tries speed-walking their way to the door. Some people send their more nimble children to get to the front.

It is frustrating, chaotic, and occasionally nothing short of baffling, but in a way, it sums up French administration.

It can take eons to get anything done in this country, and people have come to accept that in France. Long waits and a mind numbing amount of repetitive paperwork are the norm. While in line at the prefecture, you might see three guichets and four employees, and yet only one of these windows is actually open for business. Meanwhile, the other three employees are drinking coffee and complaining about how they hate the job that they hardly pretend to do. You'll be asked for numerous documents à fournir, and upon arrival you'll probably be scolded for not bringing others that you were not told to bring. I've learned my lesson. I bring every document I have ever received in this country, with at least one copy.

After I had lived in France for one year, my girlfriend urged me to save copies of my pay stubs, as I will be asked for them whenever completing an administrative task. I've even been asked for some bulletin de paie that were three years old, so this means hanging on to every single one I receive from here on out in my lifetime.

As soon I opened a bank account, I was told to hang on to my account statements each month, even though I have them online. I could live with hanging on to bank statements and pay stubs, as they are handy to have around sometimes.

However, while renewing my visa last year, I received a letter from the prefecture that stated that they did not have proof that my girlfriend and I were in a domestic partnership from between June and November of 2010. Oddly enough, they had sufficient proof that we were together before the end of June and after November, but not enough for in between. We were asked to find things that could prove that we were sharing a place of habitation. It turns out we had some junk mail from that time that for some reason, we had not thrown out. We obtained a giant envelope, stuffed the junk mail inside, and mailed it to the prefecture. It was just what was needed to renew my visa.

So not only do I have to save my pay stubs and bank account statements, I now have to save my junk mail as well. Magazines from Office Depot, Google, and several clothing stores are kept in a folder, waiting for their time to be sent to the prefecture next year to prove that we still live together.

Earlier this year, before one of my two or three visa appointments per year, I called the foreign service office at the prefecture to make sure I had a proper list of the paperwork I needed to bring. Defying logic, they said they cannot tell me over the phone. So I wrote a letter asking for a list of things to bring. They sent the list, but it was the wrong one. I called them again to ask, once again being reminded that they could not tell me what I needed over the phone. They sent another list, which happened to be the same wrong list they had already sent me. For my prefecture visit, I brought every paper known to man (at least to this one) in a backpack, just in case.

After waking up at 5:00 am in order to arrive on time, followed by a brisk speed-walk through the courtyard at the prefecture, we were called to the guichet pretty quickly. Per usual, everything was wrong with my dossier. First, we were told that I was at the wrong prefecture. After arguing with them for a few minutes, they realized that I was at the right one. They bring out the list of things I needed to bring with me, which of course was completely different from the one that they kept sending me. Even though I expected this and brought every paper I knew of with me just in case, it turns out we only had 17/20 of the papers that we needed. Fortunately, we were told to mail the rest in. For reference, we asked if we could have the list of papers to bring. The administrator told us that she was not allowed to give us a copy, even though she had an enormous stack of copies of this list on her desk. In what I would call a breakthrough, as she finished her sentence, she realized how illogical this was and gave us a copy anyway.

Hopefully more examples of common sense will prevail to reform administrative incompetence in France. However, those that wish to change it should prepare themselves to wait in line.

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What is Fluency?

2011-10-03T14:19:00.013+02:00

Everyone seems to have a different definition of fluent. I remember hearing a grown man tell me that his friend went to Sweden and was fluent in Swedish in three weeks, with no prior experience with the language. Then again, the man who told me this never learned a foreign language and had never really travelled abroad.

In the United States, the bar seems to be set a little lower for quantifies "fluent." I've heard people tell me that they were fluent in a language, yet couldn't order dinner without the waiter switching to English. Perhaps it is because we have so little exposure to foreign languages that anyone that speaks a few words in something other than English can be considered a fluent speaker of the language.

Conversely, one must have a high level of command of a second language to consider themselves fluent in Europe. A high proportion of native Parisian students would be considered fluent in English if they were judged by the same standards as those used in the United States. However, if you were to ask them if they are fluent or not, many would decline and say that they do speak it well enough.

This leads to the question: What is fluency? What constitutes the progression to fluency?

Exposure- While I'm sure it is possible to become a fluent speaker of a language with limited exposure, it is very difficult. If you want to speak a language well, you have to be around it. Speaking for 5 minutes a day in your high school classroom just isn't enough.

I had this naïve belief before I moved to Paris that based on my 6 years of middle and high school French, that I would probably be fluent within 6 months of living in Paris. I had studied here for a month in university, and I felt pretty comfortable with my French while I was here. However there were a couple of things that I didn't take into account:

First, I was spending most of my time with American students, and we weren't speaking in French to one another.

Secondly, since I wasn't passing time with the French, my only real exposure was in restaurants, ordering food. I was a pro at getting dinner but I couldn't contribute much to a real conversation. I remember someone asking me where the post office was and I was able to tell them that I didn't know. I was proud of that moment up until two years later, when I moved back to France.

Upon arrival, I realized I was nowhere near fluent. I made friends with some French kids, and this is where I made some progress. At first, I just listened to the conversations. I couldn't contribute anything meaningful, so I just concentrated on understanding the dialogue. I would concentrate so hard that I occasionally fell asleep at the table (surprisingly not as a result of alcohol). It was here that I started picking up useful words and expressions like "truc", "machin", "mec", "en fait", etc. I would look these up and then try to use them in the conversations I attempted to have with my girlfriend.

After about three months of living in France, I actually felt like my French was worse. It was actually better, but only at this point I began to realize how often I made mistakes.

On a side note, from time to time I started having dreams in French. This is no indication that I was fluent, as at this point I was far from it. I feel this is misconceived as a sign that one has a command in the language. Almost every dream I had in French at this time involved me buying a croissant, or asking what time it was, or telling my mom to put away the dinner plates.

Speaking- One cannot have a command of a language without being able to speak it, right? I made quite a few attempts to speak French as often as possible. My biggest help is that I started dating a French girl a few weeks after moving here. Instead of me going to my French classes, I would come over to her apartment and attempt to speak nothing but French for two hours, two to three days a week. It was incredibly frustrating and exhausting at first, but within a few weeks I saw some improvement. Here's how I gauged that my French was getting better:

At first, when I came into a shop, I would ask for something and the vendor would respond in English. From thereon, the conversation was in English.

After a while, when I came into a shop, I would ask for something and the vendor would still respond in English. However, I would respond in French, and then we would continue butchering the other's language until one of us gave up. At first I would give up. A couple months later, they would give up.

Three or four months after moving here, when I came into a shop, I would ask for something and the vendor would respond in French.

Making Progress- I knew that my French was improving when two thoughts occurred to me:

First, I no longer had to mentally translate my sentences word for word from English to French before I spoke. French and English sentences do not always have the same structure, so until you start thinking in French, it can be very difficult to have a fluid conversation in French.

Second, and perhaps most importantly, I no longer cared if I made mistakes in speaking or writing French. I make mistakes in English all the time (hopefully they have been edited out before you read this), and it is my native language. How can I expect myself to speak French perfectly if I don't speak and write perfectly in English?

From here, the learning process becomes much more smooth. One might not notice the progress as much as they did previously, but those around them, especially those they only see every now and then will be able to tell the difference.

Fluent- I think it took a couple of years before I could consider myself fluent in French. How could I tell? The telltale sign for me was that when my girlfriend and I had conversations, we couldn't remember in which language we had been speaking. The languages begin to blur together. We could be equally comfortable speaking English or French. Though we both have much work to do before we could be considered native speakers in the other's language, and though we still both make mistakes, it doesn't really inhibit the conversation, nor is it as mentally draining as it was in the past.

I would love to hear other's experiences with this. As I said, seemingly everyone has a different definition of what constitutes fluency. What is yours?

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Why Do I Keep Staying in France?

2011-09-03T10:26:00.010+02:00

Working as a tour guide in Paris, I get asked a lot of the same questions on each tour. When I get asked "Where are you from?", "How long have you lived in Paris?", or "Is John-Paul your real name? (yes it is)", my answer is automatic, to the point where I can almost think about other things while I am giving my response. However, when I am asked "Why do you still live in France?" or "What keeps you here?» I am never really sure how to respond, no matter how many times I am asked this question. Perhaps the following story can give you an idea why.

In the summer of 2010, while beginning to prepare dinner one evening, I decided to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner at a shop around the corner from my apartment. For New Year's, I had made the resolution to start spending more than four euros on a bottle of wine, and so far, I was doing a pretty good job (even though I still rarely go above seven euros a bottle). It's not that I felt that I was becoming too good for 3 euro-a-bottle wine, as every now and then one can procure a good bottle of wine for that price. It's just that the difference is pretty noticeable when you spend those two to three euros more in France.

As I walked into the shop, I was greeted by a guy who was in his early twenties, and was eager to help me find something. I was wearing a shirt from work, which has English written on it, so he asked if he could practice his English on me. We chose a bottle of Régnié and made our way over to the cash register. After I paid for the bottle, he suddenly switches back into French and asks me, "Do you want to meet an Alsatian?" I have no idea what he means by that, but I say, "OK, why not."

The vendor directed me behind the register to a small passageway, which led to some stairs to the basement. I get down to the bottom of the stairs and take a good look around. He's led me down to their wine cellar! In the middle of the cellar, sitting on a pink couch that looked like it had been abandoned on the curb, were two of his friends, drinking rosé wine, which they had placed upon a folding table. Sure enough, one of those guys was Alsatian (he didn't seem as keen to introduce me to his other friend, though he was as good of a guy as any of them). They offered me a glass of wine, and I sat down and talked with them for a good thirty minutes about Alsace and about getting robbed here in Paris, as the vendor and I both had stories about being victimized the week before. They offered me another glass, but then I realized that my girlfriend was probably wondering where the hell I was, especially since I said I would be gone for five minutes. I thanked the guys profusely for their hospitality and made my way back home to continue chopping vegetables for dinner.

If a story like this happened once in my time living in Paris, I would already be impressed with the serendipity of this city. However, incidents and occasions like these seem to happen all the time here. I've lived in Paris since February 2008. Though I originally planned on living here for three months, I have now lived here for three and a half years. Chances are that I will be here a while longer.

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Duck Fat

2011-05-31T11:06:00.005+02:00

In several of my articles, I have written about the wonders of the French Paradox. To sum it up, people eat a high fat diet, lots of pork, salt, and drink plenty of wine and other alcohol to wash it all down. Yet, as a whole they seem to be one of the healthiest countries in the world. Today I want to address what may be the most surprising secret to their success: that is, duck and goose fat.

Even though many people in France eat a lot of fatty foods, smoke cigarettes as if they were breathing air, and don't pay any attention to exercise (Paris is becoming an exception to the latter point), France has one of the lowest, if not the lowest risk for cardiovascular disease in the industrialized world. For example, according to a survey conducted by the World Health Organization's Multinational Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular Disease (MONICA), on average 315 out of 100,000 middle aged men die every year in the United States from a heart attack. In France as a whole, approximately 145 out of 100,000 middle age men die from the same cause each year.

In the Gascogne region of France, there was a puzzling find. Though this region eats more saturated fat than any other group of people in the industrialized world, only 80 out of 100,000 middle aged men die from a heart attack each year. What is their secret?

Apparently, it is duck and goose fat.

These two fats are used for cooking nearly everything. While best known in France for adding scrumptious flavor to sautéed potatoes, the Gascons use duck and goose fat with nearly everything they prepare. Where one in Italy, Spain, or Provence might use olive oil, the Gascons use duck or goose fat. While in Brittany one might put salted butter on their bread, the Gascons use goose fat as a spread.

What is it that makes duck and goose fat so healthy? Apparently it is a result of the kinds of fats that make up its composition. Duck and goose fat are low in saturated (bad) fats, and very high in unsaturated fats. Saturated fats are solid at room temperature, and can clog up arteries in the human body. Unsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature, and go through the system much easier. Duck and goose fat are actually closer in composition to vegetable oils like olive and grape seed oil than they are to butter or lard. This is a reason that duck and goose fat need to be kept refrigerated, as it becomes liquid at a fairly low temperature (14° C, or 57.2° F).

Duck and goose fat are pretty easy to find in France, though I would say that duck fat is less expensive and more prevalent, at least here in Paris. One can buy duck fat in a jar, in a refrigerated section of almost any grocery store. It is pretty cheap (2-3 euros), and it can potentially last for years (though once you get in the habit of cooking with it, it is likely that you'll run out of it in a couple of months at most). It adds the taste of duck or goose to a simple meal, so its a cheap and healthy way to add a lot of flavor to your dishes.

This is just another mystery solved in how the French Paradox lives up to its name. Go get some duck fat and start living a healthier, and tastier life.

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Heavy Legs

2011-05-24T10:33:00.011+02:00

Is there a time of year when your legs seem to be heavier than normal? Are there days where you feel like you have weights tied to your legs? You might be suffering from Heavy Leg Syndrome, one of France's most peculiar maladies.

Heavy Leg Syndrome, from a non French perspective, is just a hypochondriac's term for "my legs are tired," but it seems to be a troublesome widespread epidemic that is mainly confined to mainland France.

Last night when I was watching the news, a commercial came on promoting a cream for the treatment of Heavy Leg Syndrome. I hadn't thought about this in a while, as I guess it's not the Heavy Leg time of year. I went on to google and typed in "crème jambes lourdes" just to see what might come up. The amount of cremes that treat this "illness" is nothing short of astonishing. The claim is that if your legs are feeling tired or a little heavy that rubbing these special cremes into your legs will provide instant relief for the suffering caused by this debilitating malady.

Now why is it that people feel the need to see a doctor just because their legs are sore? The French do have great health care here, and as it is quite inexpensive (at least in comparison to the United States), people head to the doctor anytime they happen to fart or cough a little more in the course of a day. And referencing an interview given in a great article on the subject of French hypochondria, to which you can find the link here, French doctors don't feel right unless they prescribe something to treat you. Anything less than a written prescription implies that the doctor doesn't care and is not doing his job correctly.

As a result, medications are over-prescribed, perhaps more so than anywhere else worldwide. According to a French consumer's organization UFC Que Choisir, France prescribes 40% more medication than most other countries in Europe. The French Health Ministry even came to the conclusion that 40% of it's medications are useless (The Economist, The Price of Popping Pills, 13 May 2004). The only purpose of these placebos is to give relief to patients that expect a medication to cure whatever illness they may or may not have.

So, perhaps these cremes and other holistic heavy leg treatments (such as walking in the sea and drinking copious amounts of herbal tea) are a product of the desire to sooth those sufferers who were tired of coming away from their doctor's appointment without a solution for their heavy legs. However, until someone scientifically proves that Heavy Leg Syndrome is little more than having tired legs, then I guess gravity will continue to pull a little bit harder underneath mainland France, much to the chagrin of its suffering populace.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com .

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Pessimism

2011-05-16T10:54:00.003+02:00

C'est comme ça.

There is no other phrase, word, or expression in the French language that irritates me more than this one. The literal translation would be "It's like that," similar to our expression in English "That's the way it is." English speakers certainly use this phrase a lot, but seemingly nowhere near as much its French equivalent is used.

In the United States, we being the eternal optimists that we are, always try to look at the brighter side of things. When someone loses their job, one could be consoled by being told that they now have the freedom to find their true calling. Someone might tell this person that they are sure that they will find a new job. Or, at the very least, one could say that they are sorry to hear about the news, and give them a pat on the back.

Not so much in France. One is likely to say c'est comme ça and then rant about how France flat out sucks.

Heatwave in France? C'est comme ça.

Girlfriend run off with pizza delivery guy? C'est comme ça.

Car run over your foot? C'est comme ça.

A few weeks back, there was an article in the Economist that discusses how France has lots of reasons to be happy. It is becoming increasingly easier to set up a business here (I can attest to this). If you have a good idea, there are fewer barriers to get your idea off the ground than in the past. Not to mention, France has a high quality of life, beautiful landscapes, amazing food and wine, lots of time off from work...

Yet, when asked if they felt if 2011 would be better than 2010, only 15% of French people said yes. This survey was conducted in several countries, and according to these results, France is the most pessimistic about the future. By comparison, Afghanistan and Iraq are close to four times more optimistic about 2011 than the French. The Americans, who have had hard times and are becoming increasingly more pessimistic about the economic recovery, had around 45% of those surveyed say yes, that this year will be better than the previous year.

Why are the French so down about their chances? There was a quote that stuck with me from a book written by James Baldwin titled Giovanni's Room. In this novel, the main character, who is American, falls for an Italian bartender, and both have been living in Paris for several years. The main character mentions something to cheer up the Italian, who responds with something like, "Oh you Americans. Your country hasn't been around long enough for you guys to be pessimistic." Perhaps this holds true in Europe, as according to the above-mentioned survey, most of the old European powers are not terribly optimistic about their future, though they are not nearly as pessimistic as the French. However, China has been around a long time as well, and they are very optimistic about things to come.

When I was setting up my business last year, I had a meeting with someone from the state to explain the creation of my company. The lady I met with took a quick look at my resume as I explained to her that I would be giving eating and walking tours in Paris. She saw that I have a Master's Degree in Political Economy and Public Policy, and as a result, she commented, somewhat jokingly, that my new job had very little to do with what I studied. I went to tell her that in the U.S., things like this are possible. You work as a banker, but have always dreamed of opening a restaurant? You certainly can do that in the United States. If one has a dream, one can see it through.

The lady conducting the interview said that it's amazing how Americans can think like that. She said it is just not possible in France. There are too many restrictions, and mainly, people are taught when they are young that if they are satisfied with their occupation, chances are it was an accident. I told her that I beg to differ, that if she didn't like what she was doing, that she could find a way out, and that maybe she too could find the calling of her dreams. However, she seemed hesitantly resided to her fate, and uttered that over-utilized phrase to end all discussion-

C'est comme ça.

A Brief History of Anti-Semitism in Paris, Part 3

2011-05-10T10:12:00.004+02:00

In the last installment of this subject, I will discuss how France has come to deal with its actions towards the Jewish during World War II, and whether or not anti-semitism is prevalent in France today.

France was in an interesting position following World War II, at least in comparison to their German neighbors. The German role in World War II was pretty clear, which seems to have led to a more clear understanding of their mistakes and has allowed them to educate their populace with the hope that they can avoid making similar mistakes in the future.

The French role is not as obvious. While they were at war against Germany and worked towards their defeat, they also complied with the Nazi government and assisted in achieving the goals of the Third Reich in France. In the summer of 1944, the French military (thanks to the assistance of several other countries) felt safe enough to band together to fight against their invaders and declare victory. In an effort to cleanse their population of collaborators, many were sent to their deaths for their roles in complying with the Vichy Government and the SS. As a result, the French activity during the war is remembered differently, depending on who one asks.

The average American has the impression that the French did not fight back against the Nazis and it was the Americans, with help from other Allied troops, who saved the French following the invasion in Normandy. The French did fight, albeit they were poorly organized when the Nazis pushed through the Ardennes Forest in 1940. Many did fight with the French resistance throughout the war. It is true that the Allied forces did strike the death blow that led to the surrender of the Nazis in France, though the French did their part to help as well.

The impression is slightly different in France. Until recently, French film and other media related to the war, at least in my opinion, gave the impression that France was conquered by a superior army, and were brutally oppressed until the French, with allied help, rose up triumphantly and banished the German forces. The parts included in this impression are accurate, although there a quite a few details, in particular in relation to the Vichy Government and their treatment of the Jews in France, that had for a long time been overlooked.

Until very recently, the French government denied any responsibility for the actions of the Vichy Government, as they claimed that they had nothing to do with the choices of Philippe Pétain and his supporters. This seemed to be something that has been widespread in France- in retrospect the actions of the Vichy Government were horrendous and inexcusable, and although the Vichy Government received widespread support in France during a large part of World War II, everyone seems to point their finger and say that they had nothing to do with those guys. It is almost as if the Vichy Government was seen as an invading body as well- they crossed the border and took power in France, and as soon as they were defeated, they packed up their things and returned to their native land.

In 1995, Jacques Chirac , on the anniversary of the round-up at the Vélodrome d'Hiver, blasted the French government as well as the French people for ignoring the entirety of their role for so long. In sum, he declared that the French needed to own up to their past, and accept that France "delivered those it protected to its executioners." Though much had been made of their heroics during World War II, little had been discussed regarding French complicity in World War II in sending thousands of Jews to their death.

In 2010, the deportation of the Jews by the French suddenly received unprecedented attention. Last year, two of the top grossing films in France focused on the round-up at the Vél d'Hiv. The first, "La Rafle" is a French film that focuses on the round-up and deportation of several Jewish families in Montmartre during the war. From what I heard, this was the top grossing film in France last year and many were saying that it would be used in schools so that French students would learn more about the complicated role that the French played during the war. This story uses real names and was based on interviews with several of the characters featured in this film.

A second film, "Elle s'appelait Sarah" based on a very popular book (known as Sarah's Key in English) focused on the story of a reporter tracking down the story of a Jewish girl who apparently survived the round-up in 1942, and the connection of her husband's family to this girl. The story itself is fictional, but the events regarding the round-up are true. As the film was shot in French and English, I believe that it should now be available in English speaking countries (of the two films I mentioned, I thought this was the better one). As a result of the recent attention, the French (and the rest of the world) have the opportunity to become better informed on the complicated situation in France in World War II.

The last issue that I need to address is regarding anti-Semitism in France today. Does it still prevail today? My answer would be not necessarily, though there were many who were furious with Israel regarding their attack on a ship headed for Gaza in 2009 to provide aid. Protests were huge and quite angry in the Arab neighborhoods of Paris, and did lead to some violence against Jews in Paris, or at least some strong words. However, general anti-Semitism is not a common site in today's Paris. The Marais, home of much of the city's Jewish population, is a thriving quarter that is considered by many to be the most desirable place to live in all of Paris. It is a neighborhood popular with tourists as well, as it is filled with good delis, as well as the most popular falafel stands in Paris. Furthermore and most importantly, it gives people an inside look at a thriving Jewish community that is very proud of its identity and their traditions.

Thank you for reading, and as always, if you have comments, let me know!

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours atculinarytoursofparis.com .

If you are on facebook, click like on my facebook page here. Thanks for reading!

A Brief History of Anti-Semitism in Paris, Part 2

2011-05-02T09:44:00.005+02:00

In the second section of my three part article on anti-Semitism in Paris, I will focus on the attitude towards the Jews in Paris and their subsequent treatment during World War II. Obviously, this article could be long enough to fill a book, so I will try my best to keep this brief enough that it could be read in a single sitting.

The memories of the First World War had left the French military and government indecisive in the face of the Nazi threat; the government collapsed several times leading up the war, though most times the governments consisted of the same people, just their positions had been reshuffled. Though the French did offer resistance when the SS made their way through the Ardennes forest in the late spring of 1940, they were caught off guard, and stubbornness as to how a battle was supposed to be fought cost them dearly. The French did not expect the Nazis to come through the Ardennes forest, so they actually moved the barriers that they had blocking the way so to focus their attention elsewhere on the French/Belgian border. In addition, as the SS were making their way through, the French sent planes over the enemy lines to observe the incoming threat, yet they were told not to fire upon them, as according to the commanding French officer at this time, planes were to used for gathering intelligence, rather than attacking. Within a few weeks, to the surprise and horror of many, Paris had been captured.

Many in Paris fled, by some accounts, more than 50% of the city. Then they realized that the Nazis were in the countryside as well, so they might as well return to where they at least had a place to live. Many fought bravely against the Nazis as well. The French resistance needed to keep themselves underground throughout the war so that they could operate without interference from the French war time government (which I will get to in a moment). However, this article will focus more on those that welcomed the new overlords and submitted willingly to their doctrine.

To help distribute pro-facist and anti-Semite propaganda, several newspapers were created, including a couple that were becoming widely read even before the Nazis made their way into Paris. Je Suis Partout (I Am Everywhere) was first published and 1930 and from 1936 on, they championed the Nazis and Adolf Hitler. Though briefly banned in 1940 by the French government, it grew in popularity upon the arrival of the Germans, and eventually had a circulation of 300,000 issues. Several others, including L'Humanité and Au Pilori (On the Pillory) applauded French citizens who made friends with the SS soldiers and declared that all Jews should be arrested and deported, without hesitation.

Perhaps the most famous example of collaboration in France would be the French government itself. Maréchal Philippe Pétain, a former WWI hero, became the head of the Vichy government, based in Vichy (in Auvergne) because of its reliable electricity, and being a resort town, a city with plenty of hotels. Though he claimed that the goal of the Vichy government was to protect the French from destruction, they willingly worked with the Nazi Party, and followed through with their desire to assist in eradicating the Jews in France.

On July 16, 1942, 13,152 people (almost entirely Jews) were rounded up in the middle of the night and taken either directly to an internment camp at Drancy, a northern suburb of Paris or to a former bicycle racing track known as the Vélodrôme d'Hiver, or Vél d'Hiv for short, which was located a couple of blocks away from the Eiffel Tower. For five days the captives were kept with little food or water in a stifling hot building during an especially warm time of year. Many killed themselves by jumping off of the upper deck of the seating area. Very little medical attention was provided. From here, the Jews were sent to internment camps close to Paris, and from there, Auschwitz.

While this action was promoted by the Nazis, it was not them who followed through on the deed. This was done by the Parisian police in cooperation with the Vichy government. The Nazis originally requested that only the male heads of families be captured, however a senior French official argued that one day the children would become adult Jews as well, so they should capture them as well. Whole families were arrested, and many were separated to never see their loved ones again.

With the liberation of Paris, the collaborators were naturally treated very severely, as many were beaten, jailed, and executed. However, it could do little to erase the memory that many in France had willingly submitted their wills and energy to the Nazi cause.

In my last article in this three part series, I will try to give a brief rundown on anti-Semitism in Paris following World War II, up to the present day. In particular, I will focus on how the French have accepted their role in complying with the Nazi party, including how French collaboration during WWII has become an increasingly popular subject in film and literature in France.

This is a very short article written on a very complex subject, so I appreciate the understanding as I had to skip over a lot of detail for the sake of brevity, and yet still give an accurate picture of the situation faced by the Jews in Paris during World War II. Thanks for reading, and as always, if you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to let me know!

A Brief History of Anti-Semitism in Paris, Part 1

2011-04-26T09:59:00.009+02:00

Before beginning this article, I would like to state that I am by no means an expert on this subject. I am addressing this issue because when I have talked with people about the subject of the treatment of the Jews in Paris throughout its history, for better or for worse, there are quite a few misconceptions on this subject. For example, I've heard from people that Jews did not have a hard time in Paris in World War II (definitely not true), and I have also heard that there is an underlying resentment for the Jews that exists in the populace today (not that I have seen). Over the next couple of blogs, I will do my best to give a brief outline of the treatment of the Jewish population in Paris, beginning with the Middle Ages and going up to the present day.

The persecution of the Jews in Paris began quite early in their history with King Phillippe Auguste in 1180. Under the pressure of his court, he arrested the Jews while in their synagogues, had them imprisoned, and left to purchase their freedom using their wealth. This was done as a political move to get on the side of the many debtors in Paris, who owed significant amounts of money to Jewish moneylenders (the Templars also worked in this field, and were persecuted for it not too far down the road). The money earned from the Jews who bought their way out of jail helped build the famous wall that surrounded the city of Paris, known as the Louvre (not the museum). Pieces of this wall are still visible today in parts of the Latin Quarter, St. Germain, and the Marais. Two years later, Phillipe Auguste expelled the Jews from France and confiscated their savings, which wiped out the country's debt. He later repealed the decree, but his original expulsion created a wave of anti-semitism that made it difficult for the Jews to be treated fairly upon their return.

The Jews made their way back into France and slowly brought themselves back into prominence, as great centers of learning were created and wealth was being restored. However, under Phillipe le Bel in 1306, the Jews were once again expelled from France, this time for supposedly charging too high of interest rates. The Lombards, also known as money lenders in France at this time, were treated in a similar fashion. The Templars were perhaps treated even more cruelly as many were forced to admit to bogus crimes and were subsequently burned at the stake.

One of the most infamous cases involving anti-Semitism in Paris occurred in 1894-1895. Alfred Dreyfus was a French artillery captain from a somewhat wealthy Jewish family from Alsace, which had been annexed from France by Germany following the disastrous Franco-Prussian war. Many Jews fled in the direction of Paris, and with the influx of Jews moving to Paris came a subsequent rise in anti-Semitism (somewhat similar to the current influx of North Africans entering France leading to an alarming rise of the French far right political parties and candidates. This subject in itself is worthy of a another article). In October 1894, Dreyfus was accused of passing on intelligence regarding a new cannon being used by the French army. A cleaner apparently found this paper in the waste basket and passed it on to the Chief of the French General Staff, who accused Dreyfus of having written it, though Dreyfus himself claimed that it was obviously a forgery since it wasn't his handwriting. Unfortunately, no one took confidence in his word and he was subjected to a sham of a trial, stripped of his decorations and rank, and sent to serve out a life sentence on Devil's Island, off the coast of French Guiana in South America.

Years later, it was found that the note on which the case was based was indeed a forgery. An intelligence officer brought this to the attention of his superiors, who refused to believe him and to cover up the discovery, sent the intelligence officer to jail as well. In 1898, Émile Zola, in perhaps one his most famous written pieces, "J'Accuse!", attacked the Parisian populace and brought to the forefront the real issue in this case: "Dreyfus symbolized either the eternal Jewish traitor or the denial of justice" (Seven Ages of Paris, Pg. 286). Though his efforts led to a retrial, Zola himself was imprisoned briefly following the article's publication, and perhaps led to his suspected murder in 1902. Dreyfus was finally cleared of the charges in 1906, after more than a decade of captivity. Leading up to his release, the Parisians became divided into "Nationalists" and "Revisionists", and provided a preview of things to come down the road.

In Part 2 of this subject, I will briefly cover events involving the Jewish populace in World War II.

Most of the historical information included in the article came from Seven Ages of Paris by Alistair Horne. This is one of the best, if not the best, books that I have read on the history of this city. If you have interest in the history of Paris, this certainly worth checking out.

Rollerblading in Paris

2011-04-18T09:36:00.004+02:00

Remember rollerblading? I certainly do. I had my first pair of rollerblades when I was maybe 6 years old. I had them so I could practice playing hockey off the ice. This further evolved into joining a street hockey team, then secretly signing with their rival. I even got into the inline phase of the mid to late 90's, wearing jnco's and senate t-shirts and trying to grind on curbs and rails (that phase only lasted a few months however). Lastly, I played roller hockey for my school while in grad school. I certainly had a connection to rollerblading growing up, but mainly as a way to play more hockey.

Rollerblading seemed to hit its peak somewhere in the 90's and has slowly tapered off from there. Whenever back in the U.S., it seems rare to see kids rollerblading to school, or playing in pick up street hockey games in the schoolyard. Aggressive inline skating has all but disappeared from the mainstream, as the X-Games, which used to be the pinnacle event for the sport, stopped paying attention to it and even cut the event in 2005. Seems that rollerblading's popularity is on the downswing.

In the U.S. perhaps. Not so in France.

I remember hanging out with a French friend on a Saturday night, and I was asking how long they would be staying at this party. He said he wouldn't stay out too late since the next day him and his friends planned on getting up to rollerblade.

On Sundays behind my apartment in the 15ème arrondissement, there is a gathering of 30-40 people skating very slowly and clumsily around tiny cones that they brought with them for the purpose of having a place to turn. They set up on a big patch of concrete which is reserved for pedestrian traffic. I was jogging yesterday and stopped what I was doing to watch for a few minutes. I was impressed that not only were there little kids out there, but the majority of the skaters were adults, and quite a few were at least in their 50's, if not older. People of all sizes (as there were a couple of bigger ones out there) and ages were parading around in circles on the pavement, having a great time. This is far from the only example of rollerblading in Paris.

On Friday nights, there is a group that gets together and rollerblades at a fairly good pace around the city of Paris. The police even get involved and block off traffic for them.

When I say a group, I don't mean a few friends. There are occasions where 15,000 people will show up for the weekly event. If you don't believe me, look at their website here.

So this is what I would like to understand: how did rollerblading become so popular here? And why now?

It can't be a result of their underlying love of ice hockey, as aside from those in the Alps, most people in France could not care less about the sport. There are a dedicated few who play roller hockey near Pont Alexandre III, as well as a few kids who play near my old office, but other than that, the motive for rollerblading seems to lie somewhere else.

A thought crossed my mind yesterday: Disco was huge here, and by many accounts, is still pretty damn popular here. I never liked disco music in the U.S., and I like it even less now as I hear it more often. Not only that, people don't necessarily cringe when they hear it, they actually seem to enjoy it. What's more is that rollerskating and disco were inextricably linked for a while, as many when to roller discos in the 1970's and 80's. Could this be a continuation on this pastime? Could it be that young people want to emulate their parents by using the modern equivalent of roller skates? Could it be that those in their 40's and 50's want to get back on to some wheels and roll as they did in the days of yesteryear? Maybe this helped the sport to take off in Paris, but it's not what is keeping it going.

The one thing that cannot be argued here is that rollerblading is extremely popular here in Paris. How it became popular, however, is still a mystery to me. If you happen to know, don't hesitate to let me know.

Wearing Shorts in Paris

2011-04-12T11:25:00.006+02:00

In the last few days I have had a couple of experiences which aid in reinforcing my reasoning for writing this article on the French perception of shorts.

Just yesterday, Julie surprised me for my birthday with a guided tour of L'Hôtel de Ville, or Paris' big city hall. It is very difficult to get access to the city hall, so I was thrilled to be along for the tour. Through a contact, Julie got us on tour with an elderly group from the Loire Valley.

About halfway through the tour, one of the ladies asked me "Where you with the group this morning?," even though I'm sure she knew that I wasn't, since we were the only ones below the age of 55. I told her no, that we got on this tour thanks to a friend, and this tour was a total surprise. She responded by saying, "Well it must have been since you are wearing shorts." She also commented to Julie to be careful when she sat down, as people might be able to see up her shorts.

In retrospect, if I had known that we would be on a tour of the city hall, I probably would have dressed a little nicer. I was wearing a collared shirt, shorts, and Birkenstock sandals. It was warm yesterday, so I wanted to be comfortable. Most of the group on tour were dressed as if going to a wedding; men were in suits and ties and ladies in elegant dresses.

If this was the only instance of being repressed for wearing shorts, I probably wouldn't be writing an article on the subject. However, this was not the only occasion.

A couple of weeks ago, I was giving a tour on another unusually warm day for April. As we were eating at one of the restaurants on tour, one of the cooks came out to say hello and see how things were going. As I got up to shake his hand, he comments, "Oh, are you being a tourist today as well?" As he said this, he looked down at my legs.

You guessed it, I was wearing shorts.

There was nothing mean in the way he said it, so I replied that it was hot and I like to be comfortable when giving a tour, and he agreed, and then we continued talking about other things.

One other example: A year or two ago, I was giving another tour with a group of anglophones when I heard a lady behind us start to comment to her daughter, "I don't get what it is with those tourists and wearing shorts." She didn't realize that someone in the group might speak French. I turned around as soon as she said this and made eye contact with her. Before I had the chance to respond, she realized that I understood, and pulled a 90 degree turn into the closest shop.

This is something that continues to baffle me. In a country where topless beaches are prevalent, and magazine kiosks next to schools are plastered with nude women in sexual acts, why do people here have fits about others who wear shorts?

When I first arrived here, I really tried my best to blend in with the French. I tried to eat like them, talk like them, and also dress like them. When it started to become warm, I tried to wear jeans when I worked outside, but alas, I gave up. It wasn't worth it for me to sacrifice my comfort for conformity.

Perhaps in a city where people still get dressed up just to go downstairs to go to the baker for 30 seconds, shorts are seen as sloppy. Rarely will one find a Parisian male whose legs are not covered by pants. Sandals, in addition, are still a rarity here, and a good way to stand out as a tourist.

Nevertheless, the amount of indignation and disgust with wearing shorts seems strangely out of proportion, especially considering how France is usually seen as more relaxed and liberal in terms of lifestyle. If anyone could provide further insight into why shorts are seen in such a poor light here in Paris, please let me know. Until then, I guess I'll just put up with the whispers and comments about baring my hairy legs to the public.

L'Ortolan

2011-04-04T14:17:00.005+02:00

Without a doubt, France is a country full of culinary tradition. UNESCO even decided to recognize it last year as "part of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity." Many of their specialities are very well known, such as their wine, cheese, mustard, and bread. Many common French meals are known to and eaten by people who have never set foot in France, and perhaps have no desire to do so. However, today I am going to discuss a little known tradition which could actually lead to prosecution in modern France.

When I was studying French culinary traditions this past winter to prepare myself for my tours, I came across one that seemed almost unbelievable in terms of its cruelty and perhaps its originality as well. The Ortolan is a small bird that is native to most of Europe, France included. As is the case with almost any creature that has once been walking or flying on its own in France, it has found its way to the dinner table. In the past, eating Ortolan was fairly common in the Gascogne area of France.

There are a couple of ways to prepare the bird, but I'll give the most graphic way first. Once these birds are caught with a net, they are kept alive in a darkened room or space, such as a shoebox. These birds are constantly fed, and as they are nocturnal feeders, they continue to eat and eat as they are not exposed to sunlight, or really any light for that matter. Once they are deemed fat enough, they are drowned in Armagnac and then cooked whole in the oven. Once brought to the table, they are eaten in one bite, with everything except the head and the feathers.

An alternate way of preparing the bird is doing so on a spit, cooking it solely in its own fat. I took this from a French book on traditions, La France Retrouvée, which mentions the fattening of the birds, but not their method of slaughter. This lets the reader come to their own conclusion on how to execute the bird, though I doubt many would have thought on their own to drown the birds in liquor.

When eating an Ortolan, the tradition says to eat it in silence with a napkin placed over the head. One reason given is that the bird is quite juicy and can potentially explode when bitten. Another reason I found was that it is said that the napkin allows one to get the full aroma of these birds, as they are apparently quite flavorful. However, my favorite hypothesis that I came across was that the diners in the past felt ashamed of eating the bird, and thus were hiding from God.

In France, it is illegal to catch these birds or pay for them, but oddly enough, it is still legal to eat them. Hypothetically, if a friend cooked an ortolan for you, you could eat it without getting in trouble. However, if you happen to pay money for the meal, then both parties could potentially go to jail. Therefore, it won't be likely that one will find these on a restaurant menu in France anytime soon (nor will it be served on my tour).

Every now and again, certain culinary traditions, both in France and worldwide, give the need to try and forget what exactly you are eating, or how it was prepared (foie gras would be another great example from France. If you like foie gras, yet don't know how it was made, I probably wouldn't bother looking into it if you happen to be squeamish with food). If the rare opportunity arises and you find a roasted Ortolan on your plate, I can't tell you what to do, but no matter your choice, the outcome of the experience will no doubt be memorable.

PACS

2011-03-28T09:50:00.005+02:00

Last year, my girlfriend (I guess in the spirit of this article, my domestic partner) and I were PACSed. PACS is a term that is used with increasing frequency here in France, but probably means little or nothing to someone from outside the country.

PACS stands for Pacte Civil de Solidarité; essentially, a domestic partnership. It was originally created in France to give rights and benefits to homosexual couples, and then eventually heterosexual couples started doing it as well. I have even heard of roommates getting PACSed so that they can acquire a visa (I'll explain how in a second).

To be PACSed, a couple has to prove that they are in good standing, that they live together (providing an electric bill or a joint bank account statement, for example), and they intend to stay that way. Though this did not happen to us, some of the forms we read said we need to find proof that we had been together for two years, just to show that we were serious. PACS was perfect for us, as it gives me almost all of the benefits of being a French citizen, without having a hasty marriage. Most importantly, it allows me to obtain a visa, which I am allowed to renew each year as long as we stay together.

As I was saying, I have heard of roommates doing this before. Let's say a French guy and another foreigner, guy or girl, live together. They like hanging out, but they aren't dating, nor do they plan on it. To keep the foreigner in the country, the roommates can decide to get PACSed, basically proving that they are together, which will allow the foreigner to renew or obtain a visa. As they don't ask couples to prove that they love each other physically, this can be relatively painless.

Our "ceremony" was pretty uneventful. We traveled out to a sub prefecture, dressed in t-shirts and shorts as it was warm that day. At the desk, we were asked to present our ID's, and to verify that all the information on our papers were correct. After signing the paperwork, they handed us a copy of the papers we had signed, and that was it. As the ceremony itself was so administrative and unremarkable, it is easy to forget sometimes that we are legally bound to each other. Apparently they even put my name on Julie's birth certificate (though we have yet to see this).

PACS seems to be viewed as a preliminary step towards marriage these days. We've known a couple of friends that were PACSed, engaged, and then married, in that order. We had a few friends ask us when we were going to have our party to celebrate our union, which seemed funny to us because we didn't realize it was that big of a deal. In one of my many meetings with the French State regarding the creation of my company, as they were going over my personal information, they asked "OK, so you are married?" I laughed and told them no, my girlfriend and I are PACSed. To my surprise, she continued to fill out on my forms that I was married and said "Yeah, well, it's pretty much the same thing."

If you happen to be dating someone that is French and want to stay in France, or move to France, getting PACSed is a relatively simple way to do so. However, like pretty much everything in France, it requires an a lot of paperwork, and from what I have heard from other friends in different prefectures, not every prefecture has the same requirements for being PACSed. While the process was fairly easy for us, I have had friends dealing with mind boggling stupidity courtesy of their prefecture, putting them in real life catch-22's where obtaining their domestic partnership status was technically impossible, no matter which route they took per suggestion from the official.

Unfortunately, PACS is not recognized outside of France, so when Julie and I happen to leave the country, we are just boyfriend and girlfriend, and don't receive the same benefits as we enjoy here. At least in France, we are pacsou and pacsette.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com.

If you are on facebook, click like on my facebook page here. Thanks for reading!

Where Are You From?

2011-03-21T11:19:00.009+01:00

When I have given tours over the last three plus years, one of the first questions that I ask my clients is "where are you from?" Once I find out, I try and think of something I know about that place, or someone I know from there, or maybe even some tidbit that has been in the news lately pertaining to their locale. Occasionally, we are able to make some connection, which can make things a lot more interesting when some common bond is established. Over the last few years, some truly bizarre connections have been made on my tours. For example, I met one lady who grew up in the same small town in rural West Virginia as my mother, and went to the same school, though she was a year older than her and I don't think they knew each other. I've met people that went to the same small college as I did in Colorado. I've met people who grew up in the same town as me, and on one occasion, as soon as I mentioned that I was from St. Louis, somebody in a large group suddenly recognized me from high school. These are just a few examples, as this seems to happen fairly often over here in Paris.

Establishing connections is a field in which Americans seem to excel. As soon as we meet somebody, if a good feeling between them exists, they might even tell some intimate details of their life to someone they just met an hour before. In finding out where someone is from and a little about them, one might find out that they possess similar interests, or perhaps they might work in the same field, or vacation in the same places. It seems to me that a majority of the jobs found in the U.S. today are found by having some sort of connection with someone who is working or has worked for a company, or has a family member or good friend that is in the certain field of interest. It was how I moved to Paris in the first place.

When I took a tour with my former company in 2005, after the guide had explained the first stop, he happened to ask me that question: "Where are you from?". I told him, and it turned out that he happened to be from Missouri as well. We talked off and on about Missouri throughout the tour, and by then end, I mentioned (half-jokingly), "Maybe I'll see you over here as a guide." He immediately told me about how to get a job here, and a little more than two years later, I was back in Paris, working as a tour guide for the same company.

In the U.S., connections seem to mean everything. Connections certainly get you places in other parts of the world as well. However, in France, connections are much harder to establish.

Last year, I returned to the U.S. for a job interview, and was stuck for a few extra days because of the volcanic ash floating over parts of Europe. I flew to Saint Louis while I was waiting, since I had no idea when I would be so close to home again. On my first day back, I returned to the airport to try and work on my plane ticket to return to Paris. As I was standing in line at the American Airlines ticket counter, I noticed that the lady standing in front of me was speaking in French on her cell phone, and it sounded like she was trying to go back to Paris herself. I was thrilled since outside of French class in high school, I had only heard French being spoken maybe once or twice in Saint Louis, and now I could speak it well enough to actually have a conversation with her in line! I was almost shaking with excitement to get the chance to speak with her.

Finally we were standing close enough where I could be heard, and I asked in French if she was trying to head back to Paris. Turns out she indeed was trying to get back after being stuck for close to a week already. I told her that I was trying to go back as well, and being American and wanting to get more familiar and talk about Paris, I told her that I lived in the 15ème. She became noticeably uncomfortable by my telling her in which arrondissement I live. Fortunately, the two people standing behind her also happened to be French, and cut into the conversation and saved the uncomfortable silence I had created by crossing into forbidden territory.

Example two: Julie and I were in Boston, watching my brother play a hockey game at Boston University. I went to order a bottle of water at the concession stand, and judging by the name tag and the vendor's accent, I asked her in French if she happened to be French. It turns out she was French. I was so excited about this, I called to Julie to come over and meet her, so they could maybe talk together. Julie seemed very timid about it, and when I turned to look, the vendor seemed uncomfortable as well. Neither one would ask details about the other, so I decided to tell the girl about where we have lived there. It turned out that the girl had lived a block or two away from Julie's old apartment. Afterwards, I thought the coincidence was crazy that this could happen in Boston. Julie and the vendor, however, seemed happy that the encounter was over.

Example three: When I first went to Auvergne in central France, I was taken to a bar owned by Julie's cousin. In the bar, there were maybe 15-20 people, who most likely were all cousins of Julie as well (this seems to happen a lot in small towns in France, and a lot of times, the people aren't even sure if they are related or not). We did our rounds and said hello to everyone in the bar. As I shook everyone's hand or kissed them on the cheek, I told them my name. Not one of them told me their name in return. Finally by the 10th person, somebody told me "You don't have to tell us your name." Slightly embarrassed, I continued greeting the rest of the patrons of the bar in silence.

Example four: I have been getting my hair cut in Paris by the same guy for the past two years. Every time I come in, he seems really excited to see me as he is trying to teach himself English, and in a part of Paris where few English speakers venture, he doesn't get much of an opportunity. He always shakes my hand, greets me warmly, and then, as he cuts my hair, we talk about things since the last time we saw each other, and give each other pointers in French and English. I like him so much, I sent an email to my old colleagues and told them about him, and that he would love to practice English with whoever wanted an inexpensive but good haircut.

A couple of people did ask me about him, and asked me his name and how to find him.

I had no idea. In the two years I have known him, neither of us has thought to introduce ourselves.

This doesn't mean that we don't get along or aren't friendly. However, in France there seems to be more protection about intruding into someone's private life. For example, almost all apartments have shutters that close over the windows, which can make apartments pitch black even in the middle of the day. Houses in the countryside have fences and stone walls that surround their gardens or property. In France, younger people are more likely to introduce themselves by name when greeting someone than the older population might be, but it is not necessary awkward if you don't show much interest in getting to know someone. As a result, it appears connections are less likely to occur when meeting someone for the first time in France compared to many English speaking countries. Whereas in the United States, when introduced to someone we almost feel obliged to ask for more details regarding someone's hometown or occupation, occasionally to the point of superficiality. Contrastingly, the French don't feel the pressure to ask certain questions that almost seem obligatory to ask in other parts of the world.

In speaking with a few French people about how we get jobs and find friends like this in the U.S., many times I've been told that things like that just don't happen here. With this knowledge, it is a little easier to see why.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

If you are on facebook, click like on my facebook page here. Thanks for reading!

Decline in Standards in Restaurants in Paris?

2011-03-09T14:56:00.008+01:00

A few weeks back, a friend of mine sent me the story below, which asks if restaurants are starting to cut corners here in Paris, which is leading to lower quality food in Parisian restaurants:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12461361

I thought this to be an interesting argument, and especially pertinent since I have recently started a culinary tour company here in Paris. One of my goals is to show the opposite of this claim, that if you know what to look for here, the food industry in Paris is perfectly fine and in many cases, getting better.

First, why might there be an argument that restaurant standards are not as high as they once were in France? The argument I seem to hear quite often is that the cost of business here is going up, so owners need to cut back on costs, and in some cases, spend less money on the acquisition of food for their kitchen. Whether or not costs for restaurant owners have indeed increased is a question for which I don't know the answer, but it seems to be cited fairly often, not just in the restaurant industry but in regards to life in general in France.

As in many cities that receive a lot of tourists, there are those that own restaurants that know they can get away with serving food and drink of lesser quality. In Paris, many tourists have never eaten real French food, so they might head to a restaurant that is mediocre in quality (and perhaps a rip-off price-wise as well), and if they try to complain about the food, the restaurant and waiters can suddenly pretend that they do not speak English. The Rue de la Huchette in the Latin Quarter is well known for having many restaurants of this caliber. Unfortunately, the vast majority of restaurants in Paris that are of this sub-standard quality happen to be situated close to the big tourist attractions (Notre Dame, the Louvre and Eiffel Tower to an extent, Sacré Coeur). If these happen to be the only places that a certain tourist visits on their trip to Paris, then there is a good chance that they won't be eating the best of what Paris has to offer.

Fortunately for those that inhabit or visit Paris, you do not have to be stuck eating in the tourist traps. Good food does exist here, and people do stick to their principles about using whatever is good and standing behind their product. For example, when I first got my company running, I was working with one of my restaurants on what to serve my clients for my tour. Initially, I suggested the idea of having just one small menu item being brought out, so that we wouldn't be too full from just one restaurant. The owner disagreed, saying that it would hurt the reputation of her restaurant by doing so. I was confused by her rationale and asked why, if her food was good, would serving it alone hurt her reputation?

She said that in France, all meals must be served with the proper accompagnements. For example, if she was to serve a meat dish, it would have to be served with a vegetable and some sort of starch, such as potatoes or pasta on the side. If she was to move away from doing this, word would get around that she was moving away from tradition, and would hurt her business with her regular clients. I thought that was a damn good response.

What made me even happier was that she said that the menu changed each week, based on what they find at the Marché de Rungis (the Paris area's biggest market). If they were not happy with the quality of a certain fruit, vegetable, or meat, then they have no obligation to use it. Thus, they create their menu each week based on what is fresh and what looks good.

While this may seem a rarity in today's culture, this type of food preparation is gaining popularity in Paris. Anthony Bourdain, host of No Reservations on the Travel Channel in the U.S., hosted his 100th episode in Paris, where he was shown from restaurant to restaurant, finding that cooks are getting away from fancier haute cuisine and getting back to using very simple ingredients and simple recipes to make some outstanding food. Many cooks are taking more time to select their products each day (some even go as far as to run across the street to get food items from the markets just after the customer has ordered), making sure that their food is fresh. Another finding is that several cooks are getting away from working at more exclusive restaurants to open places that are more approachable, and much more affordable. I have found as well that many of the most popular and most difficult to reserve restaurants in Paris are surprisingly affordable.

I have cited this in a previous blog, but it is worth noting again. If you want to avoid the touristy restaurants of Paris, there are two things to look for. First avoid the places where the menu is in more than French and English. Second, avoid the restaurants where someone is standing outside begging you to come in and eat, or where the food is displayed under plastic wrap in the window. People that have traveled around Europe might have noticed similar tactics in more touristy areas of Brussels, Rome, Venice, and Prague, among many others.

Hopefully I've shown that one can eat very well in Paris, and as long as you know what to avoid, finding a good meal at a reasonable price is fairly easy.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

What do the French Think of Americans?

2011-02-14T14:36:00.008+01:00

A few days ago, I realized that I have not written on this subject yet. I feel like I talk about this a lot, and yet for some reason, it took me a year to think of writing a blog on the subject. At last, I will address some opinions I have heard from the French on what they think of my country and its people.

1. Everyone Has a Gun: This may seem pretty laughable to someone from the United States, but on several different occasions I have been asked about safety in the United States. A perception I have heard from some people is not only do they think that everyone has a gun, but many people have one on them when they leave the house. This might be the result of the popularity in France of such shows like CSI, Bones, and NYPD Blue.

This also might be the result of both the French and American medias' tendency to blow the other countries news stories out of proportion. When I was here in December 2005, the American media was still reporting about riots in Paris and continued to advise Americans against travel to Paris. Meanwhile in Paris, the French media had stopped reporting on the matter at least a week or two before, and furthermore, there were no signs in Paris (minus a few suburbs) that any rioting had taken place.

As I said, the French media acts in a similar manner. In the last few months, the last three documentaries on the United States that I have watched in France were on the following subjects: polygamy in the United States, the Tea Party, and violence in the inner cities. I guess if these are the subjects that are the focus of attention on French basic cable, then maybe I can see why they have the impression that we are all packing a pistol in our undergarments.

2. We've held on to Puritan Ideals: Of all of the American stereotypes I have heard over here, this one might be the most accurate. It's not something that crosses the mind of an American on a daily basis, but there are certain ideals which we have upheld since those times. For example:

-We frown upon those that are not punctual. I remember having not one, but two teachers in high school who gave me detention for walking into class as the bell was ringing, in effect being less than one second late.

-Perhaps most importantly, too much pleasure is a bad thing. Americans think that the French get nothing done business wise because they spend all their time at cafés and bars; eating, drinking, and smoking their lives away. People just are not working hard enough to their tastes. There is no rush (Paris, by comparison to the rest of France, is very rushed. Paris, in comparison to an American city, is very relaxed).

-The best way to achieve happiness is to work hard. Working hard brings the satisfaction of accomplishing something, or maybe it's just way to keep oneself busy. Either way, people in the United States that don't work hard are also looked down upon.

-Kissing and other forms of sexual interest being exhibited in public is viewed as wrong. These are things that are supposed to be done behind closed doors, where there is no risk of being seen by others.

-Alcohol, though allowed, is treated as sinful. By American standards, pretty much everyone in Europe is an alcoholic. The biggest difference I feel is that while in France, alcohol is taught to be respected, in the United States, alcohol is taught to be feared.

3. We are oblivious to what is going on in the world: In a sense, this might be true, but in my opinion, no more so than any other country. The reason why this stereotype exists results from lots of media exposure in the U.S. As we are perhaps seen as a hegemon, pretty much every country focuses on relations with the U.S., whether to build good relations or to antagonize the US to show that they are a country that matters and boost popularity with the citizenry. One way or another, everything we do is closely examined by pretty much every country, if not all of them, in the world. But just because everyone follows what is going on in the U.S. doesn't mean that people follow what is going on anywhere else. Could an average French person answer who is charge of Belgium? Or the current state of affairs in Zimbabwe? Probably not. If another country took over as hegemon and the world's microscope focused on its everyday activity, I guarantee that the world would not be so critical of the United States.

This article is just a starting point on what I've seen in terms of what the French think of Americans. If you have another to add, or have a comment to add to the discussion, don't hesitate to write!

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

New Light on the French Paradox

2011-01-08T11:24:00.008+01:00

Many back in the United States, and perhaps every where for that matter, have heard of the French Paradox. The French eat tons of saturated fats, smoke about as often as they breathe, drink good wine, rarely exercise, and yet seem to be in better overall shape than my countrymen. Not only that, on average they live 2 and a half years longer than Americans. Why does this diet seem to work so well?

Here are couple of theories which I have heard before:

1. All natural ingredients- The French rarely use preservatives in their food. But make sure if you ask someone in French if the food contains preservatives, use the word additif rather than préservatif, as the latter translates to condom.

2. The French walk a lot more- compared to more spread out countries such as the U.S., Canada, and Australia, the French can get away with walking to the grocery store, the bank, or the pharmacy. For example, I have at least 6 grocery stores within a 10 minute walk of my apartment, not to mention several boulangeries, boucheries, and épiceries. Many people in France, when faced with the choice of elevator or stairs, will take the stairs.

3. Red Wine- Red wine, when drank in moderation, is seriously good for you. For example, red meat apparently contains molecules that can lead to several different types of cancer. One study I read states that drinking red wine while eating red meat actually eliminates the harmful effects of those molecules. Among other benefits, it apparently lessens the risk of cardiovascular disease, may decrease the risk of lung cancer in men, and keeps Superman from kidnapping your children.

While I was back in the United States this past week, I was really enjoying getting to eat a lot things that I haven't had in a long time, such as good Mexican and Barbecue. Even after paying the tip, it was amazing how cheap everything seemed compared to France and in particular Paris, where people are going out to eat less and less since restaurant prices continue to rise.

I did a lot of grocery shopping for my parents as well. It was while buying vegetables for my Mom that this part of the French paradox dawned on me.

By comparison to Paris, groceries are ridiculously expensive in the United States. One bell pepper cost $2 US each in my hometown of St Louis. I went to several grocery stores in different parts of the city and this seemed to be fairly average. On the contrary, in Paris, among the most expensive cities in the world, one kilo (2.2 pounds) of bell peppers generally costs 2.95 euro, which at today's exchange rate would be $3.80 US. With this data, one in Paris could buy 8 bell peppers for the price of 2 in the U.S. This doesn't even include markets in France, which are occasionally cheaper than the supermarkets. There are some markets in Paris where one can buy a kilo of bell peppers for 1.20 euro. The few things that seemed cheap in the grocery stores in St. Louis seemed to be loaded with preservatives.

When it comes to fast food, this seems to be a little different. Personally, I have been to McDonald's 3 times since I have moved to France. The last time I went was last year, the day Julie and I moved into our apartment. We got two meals, and Julie got an extra burger. Our meal cost around 18 euros. We could have gone out to eat at a cheap restaurant for that price (without wine). To spend just over $23 at McDonald's in the U.S., one would have to order pretty much everything on the menu.

Though I haven't studied economics in a few years, the economics involved in this article are straightforward. An average consumer, when given a choice, usually goes for what is cheaper. Therefore, I present my new addition to the theory of the French Paradox.

France- an average consumer cannot afford to eat at restaurants regularly. Groceries are cheap by comparison, forcing French people to cook more. Fast food is becoming more popular here, but still has a long way to go to catch up to the United States.

U.S.- restaurants, mainly fast food chains, are very cheap. Groceries, noticeably fruits and vegetables, are very expensive, perhaps due to transportation costs, scarcity, etc. Thus people with little money want to get as much food as possible for their money, which leads to people eating fast food. Fast food is not known for being very nutritious in comparison to fresh fruit and vegetables.

My main point here is this: Given what I've seen and written, it seems that France and the United States encourage different tendencies with food. It seems that it is cheaper to eat healthy in France, which could also contribute to why French people, as a whole, seem to be healthy than Americans.

If you agree or disagree, or don't know if you agree or disagree, I'd love to hear what you think.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

De Gaulle and Wikileaks

2010-12-26T17:38:00.005+01:00

It's been a while since I've written. I'm enjoying my time back home in St Louis, USA, and at the same time, prepping my business for the year to come. However, in the midst of all this, I came across something that I felt would be worthy of an article.

A few days ago, I finished an excellent book called Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris written by Graham Robb. It covers various stories on famous historical figures and events from the late 1700's through the past decade. I'll return to the book in a moment.

When I worked as a World War II guide in Paris, I often finished my tours by discussing Charles De Gaulle and his march into Paris on August 26, 1944. He marched down the Champs-Elysees, through the Place de la Concorde, had a brief ride in a car, and arrived for a service at Notre Dame. As he led an entire parade, shots rang out, first in the Place de la Concorde, and then in front of, and even inside of Notre Dame. Throughout the whole event, the only one that seemed to show poise was De Gaulle himself, as he essentially ignored the shots around him, even though he was the likely target. This moment raised him to the status of a near-deity in France, and helped his cause for many years to come in establishing himself as the leader of the French.

Though De Gaulle himself claimed that it was the Communist opposition which was trying to assassinate him and cause disorder, this case to this day remains unsolved.

I feel that a lot of groups could be to blame here (one of many communist factions, the remaining Nazis as the city had been liberated from them the day before and some die hard soldiers were still fighting to the death), an interesting point of view that I have tried to argue is that he could orchestrated the attempt himself. Here's why:

1. De Gaulle seemed to ignore the whole thing. Even as shots were fired at him, he did not speed up, nor slow down. He just kept his leisurely pace.

2. People were injured from gunshots, but there is a good chance that they came from soldiers that were marching in the parade (De Gaulle invited an entire division to march with him), who started firing wildly in the midst of the confusion following the shots at De Gaulle.

3. Perhaps the most intriguing piece of evidence is that no one ever saw a bullet come near De Gaulle. Several dozen shots were fired, one would figure that if he was the target that a shot at least come within a few feet of him. It's not like he was trying to move out of the way either. At a height of 6'5", he should have been an easy target.

4. He eliminates his political opposition by blaming the whole thing on them. This won't help the communists come in to power, and basically ruined years of work to get to where they were in the political arena. The communist movement has never recovered in France.

5. No one was ever caught. Well, a couple of guys were, but nobody was ever really sure who they were and they beaten to death before anyone could figure it out. Some thought they were French, others German. Even as the shots continued at Notre Dame for close to an hour, the gunmen somehow got away. A French police officer was found standing around in the bell towers, from where the shots originated, after some people finally decided to track down the shooters, and everyone just assumed he was up there trying to catch the perpetrators.

De Gaulle seemed to have an unbelievable amount of luck. He survived a ridiculous amount of assassination attempts, in particular during the 1960's, where they seemed to be a regular occurrence. No matter how intricate and well planned the attempt, something always seemed to go wrong for the bad guys, and De Gaulle would escape unscathed.

To reference Parisians, Robb writes a chapter on De Gaulle and François Mitterand and the attempts on their lives, and though he doesn't outright say De Gaulle organized the his own assassination attempts, he does seem to hint at it:

In all of the emergencies he had faced in the last twenty years, he had never made a secret of the fact that it was sometimes necessary to deceive the electorate in the interests of the nation. Most of the electorate admired him for saying so. It was commonly believed that without a leader who knew how to fool his enemies, France would never survive in a world of treachery and violence (Robb, 343).

In the midst of the Wikileaks scandal in which many have jumped on the side that misleading the public is wrong, this gives a voice to the side that these papers should not have been released, as misleading the public may be for the greater good. Though there have been quite a few slip ups brought to the forefront with the release of thousands of diplomatic cables, the cables have also shown that many of the secret activities were done for the greater good.

Was De Gaulle right in misleading the people? He may or may not have been referring to one or many of these assassination attempts, we may never know. Though De Gaulle was generally respected in France for admitting to misleading the people, would something like that fly today in France, the United States, or anywhere else?

If you have something to add, I would love to hear it. Bonne Année!

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Culinary Tours of Paris

2010-11-05T21:33:00.003+01:00

For those wondering why I haven't written in so long, I've been working on getting something organized here in Paris. And now the opportunity has presented itself, and this dream has come to fruition.

Starting today, Culinary Tours of Paris is open for business.

So many people come to Paris come here to eat, but the overwhelming amount of choices and language barrier can be a bit intimidating. My purpose with this tour is to make the cuisine more approachable: I will show off the vast diversity that exists in French cuisine, and also take some time to point out some cool sites here in Paris.

The first tour I have set up is in the Montmartre neighborhood. There will be three restaurant stops, where we will eat an Entree (Appetizer) of Charcuterie and Fromage, A Plat (Main Course), and A Dessert. All Plates are paired with appropriate Wines and Cider.

Between restaurants, we will take in the sites and explain the history of Montmartre and its inhabitants, and what makes this quarter of Paris so unique.

Group size is maximum 8 people

Runs Wednesday through Saturday, reservation only

2010 Tour Price: 95 euros per person

Tour starts at noon

If anyone is interested in this tour, take a look at my new website culinarytoursofparis.com. If you want to contact me about taking a tour, contact me at info@culinarytoursofparis.com.

A bientôt!

The Importance of Learning a Foreign Language

2010-08-11T23:07:00.006+02:00

Last week, I found myself standing in line at a bakery around the corner from my apartment, waiting to pick up a couple of baguettes to bring home for dinner and the next day's breakfast. As I often do here in Paris, I stared down everyone in the line trying to guess if they were Parisian or not. Usually, tourists seem to flock to the bakeries in the morning to pick up croissants and bread for breakfast, so for the most part the evening crowd at the bakery consists of neighborhood clientele. There was one lady in front of me though that seemed to be different. Judging by the way she was dressed and skin tone, I guessed Portuguese or Spanish, though I am no expert on the matter.

As she ordered what she wanted, she resorted to pointing at things and making noises like "unh" and "eh" and "ah". These were more like things that an infant might mutter. I thought to myself how I knew that feeling when I visited bakeries in Hungary and Poland, when I had absolutely no idea what to say, other than the words for "hello," "please," and "thank you." In between those pleasantries, I resorted to guttural noises. It's not because we want to sound like this, it's just we don't know what else to do, and so we are left with nonsensical gibberish to explain our desire.

It is while I was regarding this scene that I began to think how this lady, who could be considered very intelligent with a deep vocabulary in her own culture is rendered just short of helpless here in Paris. It was also during this moment that I began to think of the importance of learning a foreign language, which leads to the topic of this week's article.

I am big supporter of those that make the efforts to learn a foreign language. To start off, I believe that it doesn't even really matter which foreign language one tries to learn. Rather, the process itself is a valuable experience which promotes a greater understanding of the world around you. I remember once talking with a friend who was considering studying abroad in Greece, but decided against it because she felt that there would be little use for learning Greek. Perhaps she may never speak Greek again after leaving the country, but the process of learning a foreign language gives insight to cultural nuances that an outsider could never learn. It allows a the student of the language to think in a different way, to see things as someone in the language's country would see it. More words, more wisdom, more understanding.

Not every word or phrase can be translated literally from one language to another. One example I hear often in French is n'importe quoi. The best translation I can think of is "no matter what" in English, but in context, the phrase c'est vraiment n'importe quoi! is made ridiculous when translated to its literal English equivalent, "That is really no matter what!" One might even find that they prefer certain expressions in other languages compared to their own. For me at least, words like méchant and bouger seem to flow better than their counterparts in English.

There are some downsides to the learning process. Compared to where I used to be when I lived in the United States, I sometimes feel like I take more time to speak than in the past. I spend time searching for words in my own language far more often today. In March 2009, I was back in St. Louis for two days while I was waiting on some visa paperwork to be processed in Chicago. I spent one evening at a friend's house, barbecuing and enjoying being outside in unseasonably warm weather. As my friends and I stood around the grill, looking intently at the burgers (as men usually do when a grill is around), I tried to ask if I needed to get the spatula. Only problem is I couldn't remember that damn word. The conversation went like this:

"Do you want me to get the...the...uh.."
"John-Paul, think before you speak."
"I honestly forgot the word for that thing to flip the burgers."
"A spatula? Wow you are getting dumb over there."

I'm lucky that I get the best of both worlds here: I speak English at work most of the time, and have accessibility to speak French whenever I want to as well. Otherwise, I would probably make more blunders like the one above.

To sum up my argument, if you have an interest in opening your eyes to the world around you, take a shot at learning a new language. Though you may remember next to none of the words down the road, the process of learning a foreign language allows us to come closer to understanding the differences between cultures, which in turn brings us all closer together.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Getting Robbed (in Paris)

2010-08-06T10:33:00.006+02:00

I am often asked if Paris is a safe city. The quick answer is, yes, it is. Most of the crime tends to stay outside the city in the banlieues, or suburbs of Paris, quite the opposite of many cities in the United States. And even then, some of the suburbs are really nice, akin to Beverly HIlls or the Hamptons. However, sometimes some petty theft, street fighting, and the occasional riot seeps its way past the Périphérique and into Paris proper.

A week from yesterday, I was out at a picnic on the water at the Eastern end of Île St Louis with Julie's colleagues, as well as a few friends of mine from work. It was a good mix of people from all over the world, and it was fun jumping back and forth between French and English. I had a French friend who was en route but unfortunately couldn't find where we were, so I offered to come up onto the bridge above the tip of the island and see if I could find him.

Once on the bridge, I started to walk the length of it alone to see if I could see where he was. I noticed a few guys walking the opposite way on the same side of the sidewalk, but thought nothing of it. Though it was 12:45am, I have never felt the least bit threatened in this city.

One of the guys in the group asked me if I had a lighter, to which I replied no and tried to keep walking. The guys surrounded me in a half circle, with my back to the back of the bridge, just over the Seine. Another asked, "Well, what else do you have in your pockets?" I showed them my metro pass, and even offered it to them, which they gladly took. I even said "I have a shitty cell phone if you want it." I was hoping that distracting them away from my wallet might help, but of course, it just delayed the inevitable.

Two guys fished into my pockets and took out my wallet and my camera, which for some reason, I thought to bring with me that night. One started sorting through all the cards in my wallet and cried out every time he found something that looked like a credit card. I pointed out that a couple of them weren't credit cards (which they were), but I believe they were just happy they had something that they could get money from. "Walk with us this way," one of them said.

During this process of being escorted, I started to think to myself that I had already prepped myself for this. In April, I took the oral exam for the U.S. Department of State. If I had passed, I would have had an almost guaranteed position working in embassies and consulates around the world, occasionally in countries that few would ever dream of visiting, nor perhaps even knew existed. I figured if I had passed the exam, that I would be mugged somewhere in the world, and if I just kept my cool, the guys would get what they want and get on with their evenings. I felt lucky that these guys were so calm during the whole process and that they were not some 16 year old novices waving their switchblades in my face as I frantically try to empty my pockets.

I imagine they were expecting a fuss or someone to get angry with them, but internally, I felt nothing. They asked if they could run with my card to the ATM and withdraw some money with my code, and I told them (though I have no idea why I said this) that I preferred to walk with them and do it myself.

It was around this point, I got the impression that these guys started to feel bad about the whole incident. One of them even offered me a cigarette, to which I replied that I don't smoke. "Oh, that's good for your health," he replied. They said they would give me my phone and camera back, so not to stress too much.

We finally arrived at an ATM, and they handed me back my wallet, with everything still inside except 25 euros cash, and also my metro pass. Four of the guys stood with their backs to me, while the fifth stationed himself next to me while I typed in my PIN at the ATM. He started to turn around to see the screen, and suddenly jumped back, saying "Oh, pardon" when he saw that I was still entering my PIN. As far as muggers go, this had to be one of the more polite bands out there. It was almost respectful, except that they took 200, 200, and 400 euros out of my account on three consecutive withdrawals. After the third, the guys slowly walked away all together, turning around to see if I was following them. In all, they made off with 825 euros, my camera, and my phone.

When I got back down to the picnic spot a few minutes later, I found that a couple people had been frantically searching for me, since I had not answered my phone and the friends I was searching for had been at the picnic for about 10 minutes already. After telling a little of the story, Julie called the police, who were nice enough to drive Julie and I around while we looked at random groups standing around the Bastille area to see if I could identify the muggers. We even stopped a public bus so I could take a look at some guys that were being arrested inside to see if they were my friends from earlier. I felt a little embarrassed getting out of the police car with so many people staring at me both on the bus, and on the street, as a crowd had started gathering around the scene. It didn't look like them, so we got back in the car and went to go chase some more bad guys. After an hour or so, they dropped us off, said sorry, and wished us luck.

So in the aftermath, the guys have not been caught, and it doesn't look like the bank is going to refund me. Apparently since I entered my pin, they are saying that I could have prevented it and so on. I'm not too bummed about it. First, I wasn't hurt. Second, it gives me a pretty good story to tell my readers.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Mass Tourism: Why Do We Visit What We Visit?

2010-07-29T10:34:00.007+02:00

On tour, I usually begin by doing some small talk with the customers. Occasionally this method will allow us to form some common bond, whether through birth place or interests. During my interrogations, I almost always ask "What will you be doing while you are in Paris?" Almost everyone says the exact same thing: Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Louvre, etc. A few of these things deserve the attention, whether or not you are a fan of artwork or gothic architecture and the like. There are some, however, that make me wonder why they are such a "must see".

For example, many tourists want to go to the Moulin Rouge. A lot of people actually spend an outrageous amount and go through with it. When I meet someone that happens to be visiting the world-renown cabaret, I ask if they have ever been to a cabaret before. Far more often than not, they say no. I ask if this would be something that would interest them in their hometown, and once again, the answer is usually negative. Alas, if you would never attend a musical cabaret in New York, Sydney, London, or wherever you come from, why in the hell would you do it in Paris?

The answer is simple. People want to be able to tell other people that they saw it. They won't be able to comment too much on the service, nor the show itself, but they can at least check that off their list.

When people go on trips, it is fairly rare that they come into a city without a general idea of what they are going to see and do. If it is their first time in a city, they are going to have to get that advice from somewhere else, meaning either a tour book or a friend, who either got their information from another person or a tour book themselves. Thus, most visit the same monuments as their predecessors. In addition, by doing so, they establish a link with those predecessors, and can say "Hey I've been there, too". For example, with the Mona Lisa, almost every tourist that has been to Paris has seen it. People go because her fame has grown exponentially through time, and they, the visitors to Paris, would like to judge it themselves. Rarely do people visit her to admire da Vinci's masterful brushstrokes which seem to be non-existent upon his subject's face. Rather, people seem pretty disappointed. The comment I hear most often is "I thought she would be bigger." You would think with so much disillusionment that people would stop spending so much valuable time going to see it, but it still gets more visitors than any other painting in Paris, perhaps even the entire world. I'm not in total disagreement with the judgement that La Joconde's fame seems to be disproportionate with its size and intricate detail (look at paintings by Meissonier for the latter), as the Louvre has literally thousands of other equally impressive paintings. Nonetheless, people will run by every other painting in the Italian wing to visit the Mona Lisa, pretty much because it is usually the only work whose existence they were aware of before their visit.

I wish I could say that I have not been guilty of coming into a trip with a sort of checklist of things to see and do, but like most others, I have come into trips with some suggestions to see certain museums and monuments, even if I really didn't give a damn about the collections within. When Julie and I visited a friend in Madrid in October 2008, I came up with a rough list of things I wanted to see. Aside from visiting Plaza Mayor and El Retiro, I felt that we should try to see at least two of these three museums: Museo del Prado, Reina-Sofia, and Thyssen-Bornemisza. Many of the most famous "must-see paintings" in these musems I had never heard of, but felt as a visitor to Madrid, that I was obligated to try and see them.

The first night there, as so many do on a Saturday night in Madrid, we went out and partied until 4 or 5am. Around noon on Sunday, we went to a market, shopped for food to make for lunch, and ate a great meal. By this point, I was already figuring that we could probably only do one museum now, but instead, we decided to sit on the balcony and listen to our friend play the guitar for an hour or two. It was during this time that I realized how much I preferred relaxing and absorbing the culture and my surroundings to standing in line at museum after museum. To sum up the wise words of our host,"Whenever I travel, I prefer to tell my hosts 'Show me your life!' ". After that experience in Madrid, I understood what he meant and why he saw this as the way to travel.

So, if I was to give advice to those visiting Paris, probably the most important thing I could say is to try not schedule too much. If you run around to 3 or 4 museums in a day, chances are that you won't really get a feel for Paris, and will probably be quite exhausted and stressed by the end of the day. Of course, you should probably see the Eiffel Tower, but that doesn't mean you have to wait in line for four hours to go up the elevator. The Moulin Rouge will probably not convince an avid football fan to get season tickets to their hometown cabaret. Take some time for yourself. Go sit for two hours at a café over one cup of expresso. Go lounge in a park with a bottle of wine and a baguette and fall asleep under a tree. Just go for a walk, meandering aimlessly until you stumble upon a good bistro or beautiful courtyard. If you find a good balance between seeing a couple of those "must-sees" and taking time to get a feel for your surroundings, I guarantee that you will have a much more satisfying vacation than one spent vacantly oggling every painting and sculpture in Paris.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Tips to Eating Well at Restaurants in Paris

2010-07-23T11:38:00.006+02:00

Two of the most common questions that I receive at work are these: "Do you really live in Paris?" and second, "Where could we find a good place to eat?" The first is completely ridiculous as I obviously fly into work from St Louis every morning just so I can give you, the tourist, a whirlwind tour of the city.

The second question, however, is one of the most difficult to answer, and not because I haven't eaten at any good restaurants. Rather, it's just that there are so many of them, for me to single out one or two "typical" French restaurants could be scanning a dictionary and picking my favorite one or two words.

First, for clarification, there really isn't such thing as a typical French restaurant. Because France has so many regions that produce different types of food products and beverages, a restaurant from one region will almost always be completely different than a restaurant from the region next to it. Paris itself is not very inventive in terms of cuisine; most of the famous French foods that one associates with Paris were stolen from another region in France. Boeuf Bourguignon is from Burgundy, French Fries are probably Belgian in origin (though some French claim they invented it, the Belgian ones are better in my opinion), most of the duck dishes come from the Southwest, and Fondue comes from the Alps. The Parisians are lucky in that people immigrated from so many regions and brought their foods with them. The whole concept of the restaurant was invented in Paris, and with a wealth of foods to choose from thanks to their inhabitants from all over France, one could not have picked a better place to start serving food for enjoyment in addition to serving it for survival.

There are really two things to remember when looking for a restaurant in Paris. Though, I might say these are more of things to avoid when looking for a restaurant in this city.

First, avoid restaurants where the server is standing outside trying to beg you to come into their establishment. This is a bad indicator since that means that their meals do not speak for themselves, and that they need to harass every passerby and tell them that they need to eat at their restaurant. The Rue de la Huchette just off of the Place St. Michel is notorious for this kind of restaurant. Occasionally, it is entertaining to watch some of the stupid stuff that the waiters will do to get your attention in the streets, such as break plates at your feet and then tell you that you can do the same in their restaurant.

Second, avoid the restaurants where the menu is in any other language than French or English. Almost every restaurant in Paris has their menu in both since they assume that most tourists can read and speak at least a little of one or the other. However, if you start seeing the menu in Russian, Japanese, Urdu, or Greek, you should run like hell. This means that this restaurant cannot get local clients to eat there, so they need to start manipulating the tourists that come from countries where English and French are not really spoken, and especially from those that have different alphabets from the Latin Alphabet that I am using in this article. The only exception would be a pizza restaurant, as those are more or less the same at 95% of pizza restaurants in the city, and they will from time to time have menus in four or five languages.

Another hint is to be weary of the restaurants included in backpacker guides or general guide books. The one example that really stands out to me is Le Refuge des Fondus in Montmartre. How this place gets good reviews and gets so much hype absolutely baffles me. I have eaten here twice. The first time I got piss drunk, ran into a friend from university who happened to be sitting at the other bench in the restaurant, and had a great time, though I remember nothing good about the food. The longer I lived here, the more I realized what a tourist trap this restaurant can be. All of the people eating in the restaurant are anglophones. Usually they are backpackers. They serve wine in baby bottles for 2 euros, which is very inexpensive, but the wine is the cheapest, most hangover-inducing wine that one can imagine.

The second time I visited, I had already been living here for almost two years. I had pretty much been avoiding the place, but I saw a good opportunity to hang out with some good friends. After we sat down, I went to the restroom, and along the way, I saw that the food being served came in bulk from Leader Price, which is the cheapest grocery store in town. Not exactly gourmet food, but whatever, I shop there from time to time. I just think it is a little absurd to pay 15 euros to eat it in a restaurant. When the fondue came out, you could tell that it had not been cooked long enough as the wine hadn't really evaporated. Basically it tasted like someone dumped half a bottle of shit white wine on melted cheese, and voila, fondue. Even this didn't bug me that much. When we were finishing the meal, the owner tried to take the unfinished baby bottle from Julie's hands and while doing so, said "Give me that, you slut." I don't think he realized that she is French. Julie lost it and was damn near close to throwing a chair through the window by the time we left. She stood outside the restaurant for a few minutes and warned all of the customers not to eat there, and instead go to a restaurant across the street which happens to be one of my favorites in all of Paris, Le Potager du Père Thierry, which had no line at all. People just kind of laughed off the advice. I mean, after all, they serve wine in a baby bottle! Imagine that!

In closing, use your own judgement in choosing a restaurant in Paris. Don't let the plate throwers and the baby bottles of wine fool you. If the menu looks good, the customers look happy (and non-touristy), then it's probably a good bet. Good luck and bon app!

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Weather in Paris

2010-07-12T13:52:00.006+02:00

When dealing with a lack of subject material in conversation, apparently the subject most often brought up is the weather. I am in complete agreement with this. Normally, I end up talking about the weather with three quarters of my clients on tour. It's not just that we can't think of anything to talk about, it's something we all experience, unless living inside an air conditioned bubble. We all have different reactions and preferences, and thus discussing how the weather affects every one of us can give a little insight into our counterpart's psyche, and perhaps establish more of a bond.

Paris is fortunate enough to be blessed with four seasons, and each one of them different. Personally, September is my favorite month out here, as the hot summer days of July and August are fading into the background, the massive summer throngs of tourists start to return to their normal lives at home, and the flowers, as they are replanted at the end of summer, begin to bloom once more, giving the impression of a second spring season.

In this article, I will discuss summer and winter in Paris, as spring and fall are both fairly temperate and similar to what many in North America and Europe imagine of those two seasons.

Paris Summer

Though Paris is quite far North, it can get hot out here. To give an idea of its location, Paris is fairly even latitudinally with Vancouver, Winnipeg, and north central Ontario and Québec in Canada. It is one of the northernmost capital cities in the world. But that does not exclude it from getting pretty warm.

In 2008, Paris had just 20 days over the summer that exceeded temperatures of 25 C (77 F). In 2009, we had 40. So far in 2010 (counting today), we have had 22 days that have been at least this warm, and at least half of those have been above 30 C (86 F).

Considering where I grew up in St. Louis, MO. these temperatures do not sound that bad at all by comparison. The weather there in summertime is akin to walking through a swamp inside of an oven. But fortunately for those in the United States, air conditioning is never too far away. If one steps outside for an hour or two, most can return inside to cool off with assistance from central air or an AC unit.

For the most part, that option does not exist in France. Aside from hotels, almost no one has air conditioning. There are a couple of reasons why. First, even though it can be oppressively hot in the daytime, it normally cools down at night, making it a little easier to sleep. Second, many houses or apartments have windows on two opposing sides of the building, which allow crosswinds to pass though and work more or less as a natural fan for the apartment. However, if it is really hot at night as well, you have to find ways to put up with it. Personally, I haven't used anything more than a tiny blanket to sleep in the last month. Many nights I sleep with no covers at all. A wet rag has helped a lot in cooling me off when necessary.

Though it does get quite hot in July and August in Paris, normally it is a very dry heat. When temperatures soar near 30 C, we start to see percentages of humidity drop down somewhere between 25 and 35%, and occasionally even lower. This is about the same as I experienced when I lived in Colorado at more than 6,200 feet (1,900 meters) elevation. This allows the shade to be very refreshing on a hot day.

Paris Winter

Paris winters are perhaps some of the most oppressive that I have ever experienced. Temperature-wise, it does not get that cold. Rarely does the temperature plummet below 0 C (32 F). Snow is a rare sight in the city, though last winter was unusual in the fact that it probably snowed 10-12 times. The snow almost never sticks, as the ground temperature is too warm, and when it does, it barely lasts through the day.

Henry Miller, who wrote quite possibly the best book on life in Paris, and one of my favorite books all time, gives a perfect description of what the weather is like in Paris over the winter:

A foul, damp cold against which there is no protection
except a strong spirit. They say America is a country of extremes, and it
is true that the thermometer registers degrees of cold which are practically
unheard of here; but the cold of a Paris winter is a cold unknown to
America, it is psychological, an inner as well as an outer cold. If it never
freezes here it never thaws either. Just as the people protect themselves
against the invasion of their privacy, by their high walls, their bolts and
shutters, their growling, evil-tongued, slatternly concierges, so they have
learned to protect themselves against the cold and heat of a bracing,
vigorous climate. They have fortified themselves: protection is the
keyword. Protection and security. In order that they may rot in comfort. On
a damp winter's night it is not necessary to look at the map to discover the
latitude of Paris. It is a northern city, an outpost erected over a swamp
filled in with skulls and bones. Along the boulevards there is a cold
electrical imitation of heat. Tout Va Bien in ultraviolet rays that
make the clients of the Dupont chain cafes look like gangrened cadavers.
Tout Via Bien! That's the motto that nourishes the forlorn beggars
who walk up and down all night under the drizzle of the violet rays.
Wherever there are lights there is a little heat. One gets warm from
watching the fat, secure bastards down their grogs, their steaming black
coffees.

When I first moved to Paris in February 2008, I would look at the weather and try to dress myself appropriately for the conditions. However, I found that I was almost always underdressed. My rule now is whatever I think that I should wear outside, add an extra layer. It has not been unusual for me to wear a sweatshirt, a heavy sweater, and a wool jacket when the temperature is still above freezing.

Whenever visiting Paris, make sure to pack accordingly. While you think it might be hot in July, there might be a day where the temperatures dip down to 10 C (50 F) or even lower, and there might be a fluke day in the winter time where shorts and t-shirts are suddenly more appropriate than a winter coat. In sum, expect anything, and perhaps everything.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

La Grippe A

2010-07-05T18:26:00.003+02:00

It has been close to a month since I have written anything, and if you happen to be an avid reader of this blog, I offer my most sincere apologies. Work has been quite chaotic lately and I haven't felt all too much like writing on the few hours that I have off. But, I've been getting an itch to put down some more thoughts and I have a little bit of time to talk about them tonight.

So...does anyone remember swine flu? I know it was a huge blown out of proportion mess back in the United States. Like the U.S., France also took many precautions to make sure that its citizens were informed about the potential dangers of the H1N1 virus, or as it was referred to in France, La Grippe A. Seemingly every commercial break this past winter mentioned ways to protect one's self against the potentially deadly strain, whether it was wash hands frequently or to go receive a vaccination. More people seemed to be getting vaccinations than the previous winter- across the street from our office was a vaccination center, and while the line was non-existent the previous winter, there were days in the 2009-2010 winter where the line stretched around the block. Nicolas Sarkozy, the president, even suggested banning the importation of pork, though once it was proved that this would solve nothing, he rescinded his suggestion.

Probably the most interesting thing that came out of this were the suggestions in many of the workplaces in France. The government put up signs in many companies and public places that said to avoid close contact with others. This included shaking hands with people, and especially kissing them.

The last suggestion was where the state seemingly crossed a line. In France, when meeting a friend, you will always exchange either a handshake or kisses with your counterpart. If you are a guy, you kiss a girl and shake hands with a guy, though with close friends and relatives guys will kiss guys. If you are a girl, you kiss everybody. If you are in a workplace setting, handshakes are usually exchanged, regardless of sex. This system is significantly simpler than the one that I know in the U.S. I'm never sure what to do as I feel odd hugging a girl every time I see her, or fumbling around trying to figure which kind of handshake/fist-pound/high five combination I am going to get when I am meeting a friend of a friend.

The bisou is nothing short of a God-given right in France, it's like the right to fresh bread or protest anytime that they feel like it. The state telling people not to kiss their friends and their colleagues was utterly laughable.

Did people listen to the advice? Of course not. People made jokes about it. After everyone made rounds to kiss everyone at work or at a party, I heard people comment "well I guess we're all going to die now." Everyone laughed, and maybe one or two of them actually got the virus. Fortunately, nobody I know died from it, so they were allowed to scoff at the fact that they had cheated death and blew kisses in his face.

The state will have to try a lot harder to keep people from greeting each other with kisses in France. Perhaps instituting a fine would be the right step, though that seems to be making matters worse with the new Burqa propostion here in France. That in itself is worthy of an entry, but I will save that for later.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Unemployment in France

2010-06-04T17:32:00.009+02:00

I remember in my first year that I came to work in France, I somehow got into a conversation with an older lady regarding unemployment in this country and how it works. I had always heard that it was generous and even a bit ridiculous, but even then I was still caught off-guard by what she relayed to me.

She told me that she had been working for a financial institution here in Paris, and had just given birth to her second or third child. Even though the state provides very generous maternity leave, she felt she could have used a little more time to be able to take care of her young children. She asked her boss politely to lay her off so that she could collect unemployment. She said that her severance pay was quite generous- something like two years with the same pay that she received while working. All she had to do was participate in three job interviews over a period of six months to continue to receive these benefits. She was not obliged to actually take any of the jobs, she just had to show that she was making an effort to find a new position. Apparently it takes an average French person about ten months to find a job, so even then that could give her fourteen months to tend to her kids without really worrying about finding employment.

The story which I recounted may sound completely outrageous for someone not used to the French system, but this story could embody the situations of many other people in France. The unemployment rate hovered near 10% between 2000 and 2008. For one of the largest economies in the world, this unemployment rate is deceptively high. The United States, by comparison, was between 5 and 6% during those years. The difference is that many of the people in France could find work, but because of the generous unemployment benefits, have the option to wait until an ideal job opening presents itself, while many other countries do not have the benefit of this luxury.

This past winter, I was fortunate (or unfortunate depending on how one looks at it) enough to be able to observe this phenomenon first hand. Julie had a seasonal contract for a boat tour company here in Paris that ended at the beginning of November. A couple of days after the contract was finished, Julie went to a meeting to inform the state that she was now unemployed. She brought in her pay stubs as evidence of what she earned over the past few months, signed a few documents, and that was all it took. She was told that over the first three months that she would receive 95% of her average paycheck over the last year, 85% between months four and six, and then 75% between months six and twelve. The only thing she had to do on her end was to apply for jobs (once again, she needed to complete three in six months, if she had not found work before that point) and attend one-on-one job counseling meetings when requested.

To me, it seemed like a gift. You worked hard for a few months, and then you are rewarded for it by being paid to sit on your ass for a few months. Not only does the state provide for you financially, they want you to be able to keep yourself occupied with your newfound leisure time. Julie was allowed to go to any public gym for free. She was allowed to go to most museums for free. It made unemployment seem very attractive.

Of course, few things in life that seem so perfect are, in fact, perfect. Several of Julie's other colleagues were in a similar situation once their seasonal contracts ended, and for the most part, they seemed disproportionately depressed in light of what I saw as an amazing system. Many of them were on unemployment for the second or third time, and they seemed to be very tired of the routine; find a short term contract, work for a few months, go on unemployment again, and then start over, almost always working in the same field as before. Unemployment amongst those under 25 increased 41.1% between 2008 and 2009, and I would imagine that those figures would be similar for citizens under 30 as well (BBC News, June 25, 2009). It seems at times that almost every person that I have met around my age has taken advantage of unemployment in this country at least once. This could be another article subject in of itself.

In France, it is pretty difficult to transition from one field of work to another. If you studied to work in a certain area, chances are you will be stuck there for life. Julie tried to work in cafés and bars, and all of them said they needed someone with experience. However, when she put up an add on the website for a hostess agency, she received 10 calls in the first hour with offers for jobs. She eventually turned off her phone because some of them were calling multiple times. It's demoralizing to consider that when entering unemployment, you have seemingly been freed from the shackles of a previous job that you hated, only to go back and work the same position a few months later.

Technically, one can work a part-time job while on unemployment, but one has to be careful that they do not earn too much money. For example, last year, Julie's mother was riding unemployment and was able to take a position helping at a veterinarian's office a few hours a week. Though it was only a couple of hundred euros a month, it was a nice addition to what she was receiving from the state for unemployment. She was obliged to report her hours and earnings each month so that she would continue to receive her unemployment check. Unfortunately, one of those months, she happened to earn too much to qualify for assistance. To make matters more complicated, the state informed her of this a month late. The money that they wanted back was already spent. She was forced to write a check to the government and then had to quit her part time job so that she could actually earn more by doing less, that is, by not working.

To conclude, the unemployment system in France is a remarkable system in that it allows people to live a relatively similar lifestyle while unemployed as they did while working a full time job. It can be a welcome reprieve from the stresses of the working world and allow some time to consider the pros and cons of future prospects. However, from those with whom I have spoken, most that are in the unemployment system would rather be employed as opposed to sitting at home, waiting for their next unemployment check to show up in their bank account.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Tu vs. Vous

2010-05-18T11:08:00.010+02:00

Those of us around the world who speak English are pretty lucky. English most certainly has rules on how to speak it, but seemingly less and less people follow them than before. English is a language that one can speak badly and usually not have to fear condescending remarks or corrections. I'm sure I've made several grammatical mistakes and faults while writing this blog that would have taken points off of papers that I wrote in college. As long as us anglophones understand what somebody needs, we're usually just impressed that a non-Anglophone can speak our language at all, because most of us from English speaking countries don't speak anything other than English.

Many of the English speaking countries, like the United States, Canada, and Australia for example, are huge. While the Europeans can have several different languages within an 100 mile radius, we could drive 25-30 hours in the above-mentioned countries and never encounter a foreign language. Thus, we just really don't have as much of a need for a second language.

Back to original point, in English, rules aren't that big of a deal. Whether someone is the Queen of England or a toddler, when speaking to them, we refer to them as "you". In French, it is not as easy. For me, this is one of the issues I still struggle with the most. This is the battle of tu versus vous.

First off, both of these words translate as "you", it is just that each are used in separate occasions. One would use tu if they are talking to a close friend, a child, and more frequently, a stranger their own age. Even in the latter circumstance, tu shouldn't be used when in a business setting unless it is someone that you know very well.

Conversely, vous is more formal. If you are meeting someone for the first time (unless they are a child), you should use vous in the conversation when addressing them. This should also be used until it is deemed appropriate to start using tu. There is even a verb to use when asking if you can address someone in the tu form, which is tutoyer, though personally I don't think I've ever heard anyone ask this to me before.

This doesn't really seem that complicated, and for the French, it really isn't difficult to do. Remembering these rules when writing French isn't really that tough either, even for someone learning the language. However, for those of us who are used to having only one word for "you", this can be incessantly complicated when speaking.

From personal experience, several times I have addressed a septuagenarian as if he or she were eight years old, while I have spoken a child as if they were my friend's grandparents. It can be quite difficult to remember these rules when speaking on the fly. Usually the first thing to come out of my mouth, no matter whom I am addressing, will be tu. If it is the wrong time to use it, I'll try and make up for it by saying vous the rest of the time I am speaking to this person worthy of the vous form.

When I was working on my visa last year, I had to travel to a town called Melun, about an hour southeast of Paris in order to get my paperwork started. A translator came with me just to help make the process smoother. We spent about an hour in line chatting and at first, we addressed each other in the vous form, but after we started to discuss more personal stories, such as where we grew up and how we came to be where we are, I felt confident that we could start using the tu form. When I spoke to her again afterwards by email, I used tu throughout the message. When she responded, she only addressed me in the vous form.

This instance left me feeling pretty confused. I felt that we had crossed the vous frontier into tu territory, but it turned out I had been sent right back to vous again. Since then, we have only used vous when speaking to one another. What I've learned here is that we Americans are a very social bunch, we want to be personal and on familiar terms with everyone. In France, that doesn't happen as often. Though I know that people in French companies go out for drinks and socialize amicably, I feel that the French are more reluctant to be on familiar terms with a client or coworker. Simply put, keep the personal life and business life separate.

The point of this entry was not to show how to differentiate the tu and vous forms, rather it was to show how complicated it can be. Fortunately, if you happen to address someone in the wrong form, they probably will not mind. Maybe you will help an aged person feel young again, or a child feel like an adult. In these cases, confusing tu and vous might not be a bad thing after all.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Euh....

2010-05-12T15:03:00.008+02:00

Earlier this week, Julie and I went out to lunch at a café that is located close to my work in the 15ème. The lunch was great, especially considering the price, and the Coriscan wine was surprisingly good as well. However, as we were approaching the end of our meal, we could hear on the other side of the café "OH MY GOD! I KNOW! THAT IS SO TRUE!" One would have to strain themselves to be able to hear the conversation of the French coworkers sitting adjacent to us, but make no effort at all to know that some Americans on the other side of the café had just made their presence known.

We Americans are a fairly loud group. While the French tend to be more private when sharing their personal lives in a public place, the whole café would be able to learn that the Americans love France and everyone within a five table radius can collectively share their relief when they proclaim the results of their latest colonoscopy to the room. This isn't to say that I am not loud myself, as I tend to over-project when I cross over into inebriation. It's just that our general lack of volume control can stand out in places like a restaurant or the métro, especially when considering France is a country that takes their privacy seriously.

Back to the scene at the café. Julie said that she could understand most of the conversation, but occasionally she didn't pick up on something and said that in those cases the people talking more closely resembled birds jabbering away. She then asked me, "What do you hear when you hear French people talking and don't catch everything they said?"

To me, it sounds like this, "Euh...bah oui...euh...et puis, voilà....euh....blah blah quoi...tu vois?"

On their own, most of these words actually have a meaning. However, when appropriately placed in a sentence by a French speaker, one can in turn say very little at all. These are essentially great words for one's arsenal when they have nothing to say. I'll break this down some more.

Euh is probably the most common of all stalling words in the French language, if one can indeed call it a word at all. It is the French equivalent of "uhh" and it is used for exactly the same purpose. It lets the listener know that you are thinking of something to say, yet simultaneously you don't want anyone else to step in and stop you from finishing your point. The pronunciation is fairly similar as well. The only difference is that euh comes from further back and deeper in ones mouth and throat than "uhh".

Perhaps my favorite of these superfluous phrases would be et puis, voilà. In English, this translates to "And then, there you have it". As a tour guide, I often find myself caught way off on a tangent and with little idea how to close off the subject with a bang. Most often I come up with something like this: "And...well...yeah." The sudden transition from being so passionate in one's story to ending so anti-climatically has the potential to lead to a disappointed listener. In English, we don't really have one phrase that can get us out of a jam and close off the conversation before the listener figures out that we have no idea what we are talking about. Fortunately for the French, they have et puis, voilà which can usually bail them out before leading whatever point they were making into oblivion.

Most people who have studied even a little bit of French know that quoi translates to "what" in English. However, those who have not spent much time in France are probably not aware of how often and uselessly this word is mixed into conversation. When I visited a friend from the south of France a couple of years ago, I remember how he seemed to use quoi at the end of almost every sentence. For example, "Bah oui, c'est comme ça quoi". This translates to "Well yeah, it's like that". The quoi doesn't add emphasis or anything at all, it's just there. When I came back to Paris after this trip, I seemed to notice it even more. I remember one girl I met who seemed to use it for one of every five words in her sentences. If you happen to find yourself learning French and in a conversation with someone who uses quoi gratuitously, do not mistake it for some sort of nervous tick and do your best to pick out the meaning of the conversation between quois.

Tu vois happens to be the phrase that bothers me the most. It translates to "you see", but it is akin to the excessive use of "you know" in English. What is interesting to observe is that the guilty parties are essentially the same, regardless of country. The culprits are almost always girls between 13 and 30, and those that use these phrases finish pretty much every sentence with this nonsense. Perhaps this shows that adolescent girls and those who have crossed into early adulthood are constantly looking for confirmation that other people have the same beliefs and values as themselves and feel the need to suggest that the other person should agree with them as well. But hey, I'm not a psychologist, I'm just writing a blog about all things pertaining to France.

In sum, one doesn't need to say anything close to meaningful to pull off sounding as if they have a good understanding of French. Tu vois?

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Salutations in Boutiques and Restaurants

2010-05-05T11:25:00.004+02:00

In a previous article, I held a one man debate on whether or not Parisians could be considered rude. Though there are a few who will go out of their way to make you upset or show you that they feel they have been wronged, for the most part, the people in Paris, and especially in the provinces, are unwaveringly friendly.

For example, whenever one enters a restaurant, store, or boutique, someone will come up and say hello to you. They don't do it in the "I'll help you find what you need because I am working for commission" phony sort of way. The employee will say hello to you, and then get out of your way until you've made your decision as to what you want. No pressure from the vendors makes shopping a little less stressful all around: if you want some help, you know where to find them, but if you don't, then they won't.

Now this isn't a one sided deal here. If you are going to be looking around in their store, you had better say hello and goodbye when entering and exiting. Stores here are considered like an extension of their home. If you are walking into their store and flipping through their merchandise, you had better greet them first. Once the exchange of salutations is completed, it's almost as if the vendor is saying, "Ok, now you have permission to sift through my belongings."

This really is a simple procedure, and thus, I propose to briefly explain how this should be done.

First, when walking into the store, be prepared to say bonjour or bonsoir, depending on the time of day. I tend to say bonjour until about 5pm, after which I will say bonsoir. There are times, especially during the summer when the sun stays out until close to 11pm that I will say bonjour later into the evening.

Second, when saying the chosen word, it is best to actually address it to someone, though it doesn't necessarily matter which employee receives your greeting. Occasionally, when scanning the store for a target, one might not be easily found. If you find yourself in this scenario, just say your greeting out loud, with the hopes that someone will hear you. In this situation, another shopper might step in and actually greet you, just so that you feel like your greeting was not wasted.

When leaving the store, regardless of whether or not one has bought something, one should always thank the merchant and say goodbye. Usually just a merci, au revoir should suffice, but depending on the time of day, one could add on a bonne journée or bonne soirée, or even tack on a bon weekend if it happens to be Friday or Saturday. Once again, your response may not be heard by a vendor and the responsibility may fall upon a customer. I once saw in a restaurant a man sitting by the door taking lunch, and whenever someone walked out and said goodbye, he would always step in and return the greeting if a staff member was not around.

It's not as if this takes a lot of extra work, and after a while, it just becomes a reflex. In my opinion, this is just another piece of evidence that the Parisians are not as rude as many perceive.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Bossnapping

2010-04-28T12:17:00.005+02:00

For those that have traveled to France or at least studied a decent amount about the culture would probably be aware that people like to strike here a lot. Though I could break this down in another entry (which I probably will), one of the reasons that so many people protest here is because it often works. Over the course of time, many corrupt monarchies that have allowed the vast majority of the populace to suffer and starve gave way to a very angry and rebellious population, which culminated in that famous Revolution of 1789 (yes the one with guillotines). Since then, the French have had numerous uprisings, including 1830, 1832, 1848, 1871, and 1968. The people here are not afraid to use force to get what they want.

Stemming from this, a curious tactic has come to the forefront in the business world. If you've been laid off from work and feel that you have been wronged or feel that you deserve a better severance package, why don't you and your other terminated colleagues kidnap your boss?

In early 2009, this becoming something that I saw in the news pretty frequently. A good example would be the "bossnapping" conducted at Caterpillar, Inc.'s plant in Grenoble last April. When Caterpillar announced that it planned to lay off 733 workers at its two plants in Grenoble, the unions demanded talks over the severance package that would be given to the newly fired employees. Although Caterpillar agreed to increase their severance from 37 to 47 million euros, the employees still felt that it wasn't enough. On March 30th, the employees went on strike and the next day, the bosses began their 24 hours in captivity at the mercy of their former employees. The managers were allowed to call their families to let them know that they were alright. Most spent the night sleeping on the floor in their offices. By the morning of the 1st of April, the managers agreed upon a 10 day schedule of meetings over the severance packages, and in addition, agreed to pay the employees their wages for the days on which they were striking. They were released, and no charges were filed.

In what other country would this actually work other than France? I cannot think of a country in the world where this practice is legal and would spare jail time for the abductors. It is technically illegal in France as well, but according to Jérôme Pélisse, a sociologist, it is way for the employees' voices to be heard (Wall Street Journal, "In France, the Bosses Can Become Hostages"). Furthermore, the police are afraid that by arresting the employees, they could further antagonize those that have been wronged. The French have sympathy for those that take their issues to the public to make the injustice they have suffered known to the populace. There was even an occasion in 2001 where a protest in Aveyron led to the burning of a McDonald's which was under construction, and as would be the norm in most countries, the man claiming responsibility was arrested. Soon after, people were outraged and threatened to cause more damage, so the police decided to let the detained José Bové go, having served just 44 days in prison. Last year, Bové was elected as a member of the European Parliament.

When bossnapping, there seems to be an unwritten code of conduct. The police will let things be as long as the captive is treated humanely. In another instance, a kidnapped boss was treated to mussels and fries while his office was barricaded shut by his former and current employees. The purpose isn't to harm the former boss, it is to make them realize the magnitude of suffering that they are causing their formerly loyal workers. It is to show them their perspective. The police may wait outside the building to be on hand in case things do get out of control, but they don't want to step in it as this could further anger the workers. Once an agreement is reached, the captive is set free, unharmed, and almost everyone goes home with a sense of satisfaction, except for the managers, who will probably have to give away more money and funding for re-training to keep their former employees content.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Facebook Finds Friends

2010-04-23T16:04:00.006+02:00

After five days of waiting, two rescheduled transatlantic flights, three additional flights purchased, four flights that I cancelled without the assistance of the volcano, a few days back home in St. Louis, ten hours spent sitting on the floor in Charlotte, North Carolina's airport, and a flight to France that was delayed by close to three hours, I have finally arrived back to my apartment in Paris. I felt that writing today could stave off my exhaustion. Furthermore, I have a pretty easy topic today, so hopefully my lack of cognitive ability which I possess today does not show through.

In April of 2008, I was sitting in front of my laptop at my desk in my first apartment in Paris, enjoying a glass of red wine following dinner (what made it so enjoyable was that it was only a little above 3 euros a bottle and actually pretty good). As I often did when I first arrived here, I started thinking about home, about my friends that I'm missing and some activities which I could not easily do in Paris. When away from one's country for a long period of time, it is actually quite amazing the things that one misses. I missed Mexican food a lot, even though I don't eat it that regularly, I missed certain streets which I would drive down to visit a friend, and on this particular night, I even started thinking about my kindergarten class. Suddenly, I was startled out of my reverie when I remembered that my best friend in kindergarten, François, was French! Being the case, it seemed that there was a good chance that he would be in France as well. One issue that seemed to stand out was that I had not seen him since I was five years old, when he moved back to France with his family. Would he remember me if I contacted him and even then, how could I find him?

Fortunately for me, I love messing around on facebook. No matter where I've lived, I've been able to keep tabs on my good friends (and even on people who claim to be friends who I cannot for the life of me remember who they are), so that when we finally meet up, we already know a little about what is going on in each other lives. In François' case, I started by searching for his name on facebook, though I immediately realized that there are far too many people with the same first name in France to actually find him without searching through 10,000 other profiles as well. I called my parents and asked for his last name and my Mom happened to recall it, albeit with a slight spelling error. I looked him up and sure enough, found a guy whose birthday was just a few days apart from my own, French, and looked like the François that I knew as a kid, though much older obviously. I sent out an introductory email, hoping he would remember me, and seeing if we could meet up at some point.

This plan worked well. By August, I was on a train out to Brest, which is the westernmost city on the French mainland, to meet up with some guy I hadn't seen since we had mandatory nap time at school everyday. I exited the train station, and was able to find him with little trouble. What amazed me after a couple of days is that we talked and got along as if it had been only a few days since our last encounter, and not 19 years. Since then, I have also visited him in Provence, where he and his lovely fiancée live today, and Julie and I will be attending their wedding in Bretagne (Brittany) in July.

I know some people happen to think that facebook is a colossal waste of time. To some extent, that is true. There are tons of applications, games, and other distractions that don't really contribute to my personal enjoyment of the site. I personally do not care how many sheep you have raised on your virtual farm, or what drink you have virtually sent me.

However, facebook, when used for its original purpose (that is connecting people), is nothing short of phenomenal. Thanks to it, I have been able to reconnect with my best friend from kindergarten, meet up with an old friend from high school in Brussels, and get travel advice from people I barely know. For example, if you put on your status "Anyone know something to do in Barcelona?," chances are that you will get several responses from friends who want to help, some that you know well and others that you don't. You might even have a cousin of a friend who lives there that would be happy to put you up in his guest room or on his couch for a few nights. From this point of view, I have nothing to say but good things about facebook. It has made traveling easier, and as long as you aren't too shy, it can make a positive difference in your traveling experiences as well.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Volcanic Activity

2010-04-18T15:07:00.004+02:00

This is currently the longest period of time over which I have not written an entry since I started this blog two months ago. I am one of those stranded souls who is in traveller's limbo because of the volcano erupting in Iceland.

I was in Washington D.C. this past week to participate in the oral assessment for the U.S. Department of State which would allow me to work in embassies and consulates worldwide as a consulate officer. It was mentally and physically exhausting. In addition, I did not pass the assessment, but I guess it was a good learning experience.

On Friday afternoon, I was supposed to fly out to Charlotte, North Carolina and from there fly to Paris. However, there happens to be a pesky volcano in Iceland that continues to spew ash into the atmosphere, which is preventing flights from reaching most of Europe. I was lucky enough to change my flight before the Paris flight was cancelled and get the last seat on a flight the next day to Paris, though it seemed likely that it would be cancelled as well.

Yesterday morning, I awoke at 7am to check the news and saw that French airports planned on closing until at least Monday morning, which meant that my flight would be cancelled as soon as U.S. Airways figured it out that they could not fly into a closed airport. Fortunately, the lady who helped me the day before in Reagan Airport remembered my predicament and found for me the last seat on a flight for Thursday to Paris, once again from Charlotte.

This gave me a five day window where I really have nothing to do. So I decided to head back home to St. Louis. I tried to buy the ticket online for $105 online, but as soon as I went to book, the price increased more than fivefold to $566. After cussing and banging my head on the table, I continued to look and bought a roundtrip ticket for $386. Unless I get things changed on Thursday, I have 4 flights to take that day: St.Louis to Chicago to Baltimore (not to mention a train between Baltimore and Washington-Reagan), then Washington DC to Charlotte to Paris. As I write this, I am on hold with U.S. airways to work on cutting out two of those flights and one train ticket by flying directly from St. Louis to Charlotte, but I may be on hold for a while.

One great benefit of this whole thing is that I get to spend some time at home, which I was not expecting to do for quite a while. I plan to make the most of this situation and enjoy myself here, as I am trying to accept that it may take me a while to get back to Paris.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Metro Performances

2010-04-08T14:22:00.005+02:00

As my last few blogs have been on fairly serious topics, I felt that it's about time for me to lighten up a little for this entry.

If you have ever visited Paris and rode on the metro here, you have probably encountered some sort of performance while en route to your destination. Whether it be some guy playing the accordion or a beggar unemotionally reciting the same tired speech that they will say hundreds of times per week, Parisians just accept these performances as part of the commute. Every now and then, an old lady or someone in military regalia will give some pocket change to a metro performer, but for the most part, the only people who pay attention to these speeches/songs are those that haven't seen them before- mainly the out of town folk.

Around 19 out of 20 metro performances that I happen to see are nothing spectacular. The most common one seen is a guy that plays an accordion, usually plays two half-assed songs, gets out his paper cup for tips, and moves on to the next car. Usually there is an Edith Piaf song included. Another common instrument used to seduce the metro passengers is the guitar. No matter what, almost everyone of them plays Ritchie Valens' "La Bamba". I actually learned the lyrics to that song just from hearing it so often when heading to work.

Every now and then, someone will hop on the metro with this boombox and a microphone, complete with a paper tip cup duct taped to the stand. The amp will almost always have some distortion effect turned on so that it causes an echo when the person sings. This is used to mask the fact that the singer actually sucks at singing. Some guys come on with a ghetto-blaster and try to rap over some beat where the stereo is turned up so loud that you can't even hear what they are saying. I don't think I have ever seen the rappers make any money, but since I seem them all the time on Line 4, they must be making enough to justify annoying the hell out of 99.9% of passengers in the car.

Perhaps as common as musical performances on the metro are performances by beggars. Usually they say the same line, and honestly, they don't put a lot of effort into it. I can't blame them as they probably spend most of their day saying the same couple of lines dozens, maybe even hundreds of times. Those that want to give them money will give them money. Most people avoid eye contact as soon as these guys step on the metro, just to show that they aren't going to pull out their coins for anybody. I remember one time when a kid about my age got on and started yelling a speech. At first I thought he was begging, but then after 5 minutes where he was still screaming while barely stopping for a breath. After 10 minutes of this, I decided he was probably crazy and got on the next car so I could get back to reading my book.

Over the last couple of years, there have been a few performances that have stood out to me, where I was even tempted to give out a little change.

-There were these two guys from South America who came on and played the guitar (one smaller than the other, so it had higher notes), and simultaneously played an andean pan flute called a siku, and these were hung by strings around their necks. They also had incredible voices. Pretty much everyone stopped what they were doing to listen to them. If I wasn't paying so much attention to their music, I probably would have given them my whole wallet.

-When a friend and I were coming back from a tour, a guy steps on the metro with a guitar and introduces himself. He seems pretty typical of most people that do this- but anyway, he starts out strumming the guitar pretty well. Then he just screams. No words whatsoever. He was even making spitting noises (like putting your tongue between your lips and blowing really hard). All the while he was still playing the guitar. Everyone was keeled over laughing, and I think he actually got a lot of tips.

-One night when heading home, a father and son duo were playing the accordion and stand-up bass, respectively. The son was maybe 4-5 years old, and he couldn't play very well. However, I gave them a little money because a). it was cute to see him try and his dad seemed happy to be playing with his son and b). it was original and wanted to give a little encouragement. A few months later I saw the the same duo playing on a bench in Montmartre, only this time their instruments were switched. The kid was phenomenal on the accordion. My guess is maybe they made more when he was bad at the instrument which was twice his height as opposed to being good at the accordion. Both times I saw them, plenty of people gave them money.

If you have any stories of metro performances to contribute, because I'm sure there are some good ones that I have never even heard of that would be worthy of including.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

The Rise of Extremism in France?

2010-04-04T11:25:00.004+02:00

Some of you may already be aware that the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, is not very popular here. To compare, his approval ratings are currently what George W. Bush's were at his lowest point (hovering around 30%) (Wall Street Journal). In the regional elections held just two weeks ago, his party, UMP (Union for a Popular Movement), received the majority of votes in only one out of 22 regions in France. This is bad news for a man who is in power for at least another two years.

Though the numbers look grim for Sarkozy, a perhaps even more disturbing trend arose from the mid term elections- that some extreme political parties that many thought dormant actually fared well in March's elections.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, President of the National Front, an extreme right party, received 21% of the vote a couple of weeks ago in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region in the south of France. Among some of his public comments, he has been noted to say that the concentration camps and gas chambers were just small "details" of World War II, that former president Jacques Chirac was on the payroll of numerous Jewish organizations, and that the French soccer team has too many non-white players, which is not an accurate representation of French society. His daughter, Marine Le Pen, garnered 18.3% of the vote in the north in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region in the same elections. Though not yet as controversial as her father, she is the president of the organization Generations Le Pen, whose goal is to promote the teachings of her father to the youth of France.

In Languedoc-Roussillon in the southwest, Georges Frêche won the majority with more than 54% of the vote in his region. He was a member of the Socialist Party until he was booted out in 2007. He is also known for his inflammatory comments regarding the French soccer team, in addition to other statements like this one below, taken from his recent book:

"What I know is that progressively the Socialist Party [Parti Socialiste or PS] has erected itself into a vehicle for universal values: anti-bigot, anti-alcoholic, anti-smoking, anti-racist, pro-homosexual, pro-black, pro-white, pro-yellow, pro-red, pro-Jewish, pro-Muslim, pro-orthodox, pro-Japanese, pro-garden gnome, anti-pitbull, anti-unhappiness, anti-anger, anti-vulgar..."

These statistics and voting results are quite alarming. Does this mean that the French are becoming racist, bigoted, and/or anti-Semetic?

Probably not. Here's why:

First, there was a very low voter turnout, at least by French standards. According to the Economist, 49% of voters completely abstained. A voter turnout this small is usually rare in France, where by comparison, this would be an abnormally high voter turnout for a midterm election in the United States. The reason that many chose not to vote is resulting from the fact that many young voters don't know what each candidate represents, so they just don't bother to show up to the polls. The second and perhaps more prevalent reason would be that as young people don't really see much change from election to election, they just don't even care to waste their time and effort to vote for someone else that probably won't change anything in their daily lives.

Second, the regions which were won by the Le Pen family are regions that have higher proportions of geriatrics. Traditionally, voter turnout in the 55 and older age bracket is significantly higher than any other age group. Provence, being warmer year round than most of France, filled with beautiful farmland and sprawling beaches is a natural location for the aged to retire. Contrastingly, the Northern reaches of France have been hit hard by the poor economy and many have lost their jobs as many factories and mines have ceased their production. Younger people are having to leave the region in order to find work. Many of the retired population, who have spent their whole lives there, are more reluctant to leave their homes and as they usually aren't looking for work, they usually don't need to leave their region.

Both of these regions have been subject to a large amount of immigration, both illegal and legal. Many North Africans enter France through its Southern ports in the Provence area. On the other side of France, many immigrants used to come to work the mines in the North and many have stayed. The Pas-de-Calais area is also a popular residence for many immigrants who are trying to cross the English Channel into the United Kingdom. As problems with crime and the economy have hit these regions in recent years, it seems that the elderly population places much of the blame on the immigrants, many of which have arrived only in the last 50 years.

Frêche's case can be explained that he seems to pride himself as a country boy who doesn't care what the elitists in Paris think about him and his ways. From those that I have spoken with from the south of France, including Languedoc, there seems to be a distrust and aversion to anything Parisian, and I won't lie, I definitely agree that they have some valid points. Frêche usually apologizes after he makes an inflammatory speech, so at least he occasionally realizes he goes too far.

In sum, people should not be worried that France is going to become an extremist or fascist state. One thing that can be can be considered a conclusion from the recent election is that people don't like their President and barring a major turnaround, will be ready to vote for someone else come 2012.

(All of my voting statistics for this entry were obtained from the Economist)

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Treatment of African-Americans and Africans in Paris (Part II)

2010-03-30T19:56:00.007+02:00

In my last entry, I discussed how many African-Americans were able to find success and liberty in France as a result of a populace in France that did not seem to judge on the basis of the color of one's skin. The French welcomed many talented artists and performers to France that would have suffered prejudice in the United States, and many of the artists were allowed to blossom in a way that was impossible at the time in their homeland.

However, the Black African population might argue against the claim that they are treated the same as anybody else in Paris. While the African-Americans were revered for their artistic talents, the Black Africans are treated poorly. Though nobody should be treated differently because of their skin color, why are two minorities of the same color treated so differently?

First, many in France believe that "Blacks are a social problem, not racial" (French Blacks Skeptical of Race Neutrality, New York Times). It's hard to try and explain how in 2005 in a span of five months in Paris, 48 people were killed in fires, and that all of those who perished in these fires were black. My guess would be that these are in neighborhoods that have poorer housing conditions, perhaps faulty electricity, and are in crowded areas where it might be much harder for the fire department to respond in time. At the same time, why aren't issues like these addressed?

Officially the French government refuses to recognize minorities. The census does not ask for one's skin color, nor religious affiliation. The reasoning is that by not identifying one's background or beliefs, the French are upholding an egalitarian society. In concept, this isn't such a bad idea, but there is one major issue with this. The European Union allots money to each country in order to provide assistance for their minority groups. Unfortunately, as France does not recognize minority groups, they do not have any programs to assist those minority groups within the country. Alas, equality in principle is upheld, but there are those, mainly minorities in France, that need more help than the state is willing to provide.

In the United States, when submitting a resume or applying for a job, it is illegal to ask for a person's ethnic identity or religious background. In France, this is not asked outright, but in many cases, an interviewer will ask for a photograph of the potential employee. Many of the jobs I have searched in France ask to include a photo of yourself with the resume when sending in a job application, and these were not for modeling jobs, which might be the only acceptable time in which to send one in. If a recruiter has any sort of racial prejudice, it is easy for him to pick out those that he does not want as employees.

The education system does quite little to help those in the banlieues or African dominated areas of Paris. Schools are in poor shape in a lot of the minority populated areas, especially in the suburbs of Paris. New teachers are put into these schools to test the determination and patience of the new recruits, and many of them quit as a result. Even if a student in an area like this is to graduate from a lycée (high school), he or she probably has little chance of attending a good school or getting a good job, and as unemployment rate is significantly higher in these areas of Paris and its suburbs, there is a good chance that the young student may join those ranks. With a future so bleak, what is to stop him or her from selling drugs or becoming a prostitute on the streets, where they might actually be able to make enough money to fend for themselves? This might sound eerily familiar, as many inner-city kids in the U.S. face the same issues.

To return to my initial question, I intend to address my personal opinion of why blacks from the United States and blacks from Africa are perhaps treated so differently in France. As many African-Americans were perceived to be creative expressionists of some sort, they were seen to be contributing to the well being of French society. Furthermore, many were fighting in wars side by side with the French, coming from a country that has been seen equally, if not admirably, as a world power by the French. These two facts help contribute to the mindset that the African-Americans are helpful contributors to French society.

The Africans, however, are perhaps viewed in a different light as they are considered the root of many social problems in France, such as high unemployment, street violence, and crime. Many escaped to France as a result of political turmoil, in some cases, caused by the French themselves. Some of the suburbs of Paris are compared to war torn Eastern Europe, as muggings and harassment are frequent and burned out cars line the sides of the road. Most of these problems are blamed on immigration from Africa and several politicians have taken the stance to boot them out. The current president, Nicolas Sarkozy, once suggested that the French should only allow the intellectual Africans to enter the country. This further alienated Sarkozy from this population, as he was considered by many responsible for sparking the 2005 riots in suburban Paris by calling the rioters in the African neighborhoods "scum". There is little that Africans can do in regards to these views in government, as blacks are poorly represented in government, both at the local and national level.

With better representation in government and general understanding of the situation of Black Africans in France, there is a good chance that these issues could be alleviated. Progress has been made as frequent protests by organizations such as CGT (General Confederation of Labor) are receiving national attention, calling for assistance to those (mainly Africans) without working papers, among other issues. Though progress is moving along, there is still a lot of work to accomplish to give Africans in France the rights that they deserve.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Treatment of African-Americans and Africans in Paris (Part I)

2010-03-26T13:58:00.007+01:00

When I came to Paris in December 2005, this was the subject of the class that I was taking while here. We took a look at how the African-Americans who came to Paris in the early 1900's lived here and how many were very successful in Paris. We also examined how black Africans were treated, many of whom came to France as a result of French colonization. Even though they possess similar skin color, the treatment by the French is vastly different for these two groups.

France prides itself on being a nation of equality. For example, the census does not ask about ethnic origin nor religious affiliation. Religion and politics do not mix, as it is rare when a politician brings his or her religious beliefs into their campaign. It is also said that there is not prejudice on the basis of the color of one's skin. This is what attracted many African-Americans to France, as many of the rights of which they were denied in the United States were attainable in France.

Many African-Americans were first introduced to Paris when fighting for the Americans during World War I. Many loved the fact that people were actually willing to invite them into their houses, that they were permitted to hang out at the same cafés as everyone else, and that there didn't seem to be an aversion on the basis of the color of one's skin. Naturally, this proved attractive for these soldiers, and many began to ponder staying in France as a result.

Numerous African-American performers received attention in France that would be considered unimaginable at the time in the United States. Josephine Baker, born in my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, is considered a national icon in France. Until the age of 15, she scavenged for food in garbage cans on the streets of St. Louis. Once she began performing in New York, she was paid fairly well, but it wasn't until she moved to France that she obtained iconic status. As a result of her influence, after Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968, she was approached by King's wife to lead the American Civil Rights Movement, though she declined so that she could look after her 12 (all adopted) children. She was the first American woman to receive full military honors in France at her funeral.

Josephine Baker, though an excellent example, is far from being the sole African-American to succeed in Paris. Eugene Bullard from Columbus, Georgia, though uneducated, opened a very successful night club in Montmartre, was the only black pilot who flew in World War I, and worked as a spy on the Germans on behalf of the French leading up to World War II. Other famous African-American writers and musicians who lived freely in Paris include Langston Hughes, Sidney Bechet, James Baldwin, and Richard Wright. If I were to write about all of these men, this could become a very lengthy entry.

The artistic and personal liberty that these people received in the France was essentially the opposite of what they might receive in the United States. Once Bullard returned to the United States during the outbreak of World War II, he was unable to find a steady job, working as a perfume salesman, elevator operator, and other jobs that did not live up to his accomplishments on the other side of the Atlantic. He died in poverty in New York City in 1961. Baldwin, being both black and gay, was subjected to prejudice for two reasons whenever he returned to the U.S.

African-Americans also had another benefit when moving to France in that their skin color actually helped them, rather than provided a burden. Many Parisians, when meeting an African-American in Paris would assume that the person was an artist, writer, or performer of some sort. As Parisians have a profound respect for those involved in some form of artistic and/or creative expression, they were treated with the upmost respect.

Naturally, these reasons above provide enough justification for an African-American who would have liked to live freely in the early 1900's. Many African-Americans, including my former professor here in Paris, have commented on how racism does not seem to exist in France. Our second professor from my former class, as he is a Black African from Senegal, angrily refuted this claim, as he felt that he was treated with disrespect and suspicion in Paris on the basis of his skin color.

Next week I will continue with the second part of this entry, which will discuss the treatment of Black Africans in France.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

French is Becoming English

2010-03-23T14:27:00.006+01:00

If you think that you do not speak French, you might already know more than you think. The gap which exists between the French and English Languages seem to be inching closer together every day. While it may seem daunting, French is becoming increasingly approachable for English Speakers.

Leading up to the 20th century, French and English already had many words that were the same in both languages. This is a result of numerous invasions, both by the French and the English, against each other. As a result of William the Conqueror's invasion at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, French was considered the language of the ruling class for close to 300 years in England (A History of the French Language). French names such as Robert and Richard became very common among the upper echelon. Today, most words in the English language that end with -tion, -ant, -ont, -ent probably owe their roots in the English language to this invasion.

In 1964, René Etiemble, Professor of Comparative Languages at the Sorbonne (France's most widely known university), wrote a book called Parlez-Vous Franglais?. This book declares that the French language is losing its status and importance as English is taking its place. Not only that, the English language is seeping into the French language, much as a weed does over a garden. I've heard some accounts that when this book was written, about 25% of the French language was already English, and I would not be surprised if it is higher than that today. Etiemble states that if the French language continues to surrender its ground to English, French students will no longer be able to read authors like Voltaire or Jean-Jacques Rousseau, let alone Hugo or Zola.

To combat this, an organization known as the Académie Française was given a wake-up call to defend the French language. This is the body that is known to be the official authority on the French language, and by one account I heard, these guys still dress in Napoleonic era clothing in their meetings, complete with swords, as they are "defending" the language from outside sources. It became a sort of witch hunt to track down those detestable English words, throw them into the Seine, and replace them with a more French equivalent. For example, efforts were made to change "le weekend" to la fin de la semaine (the end of the week), "le walkman" to le baladeur (the walker), and even le hot-dog to le chien chaud (the hot dog).

Unfortunately for the Académie, few of these words actually stuck in the consciousness of the French. Some of these phrases were viewed as ridiculous and flat out ignored. However, the Québecois actually use a lot of these Académie created words, and even created some of their own. As they are surrounded by all English speaking states and provinces, the people of Québec are more isolated, and as result, more willing to defend one of the last remnants of their uniqueness.

Why is English becoming so popular in France? The media certainly helps. It is a law here that 50% of the songs played on a given radio station have to be by French artists. Even then, most stations stick to the bare minimum and play French and English language songs half and half. Furthermore, many of the popular movies over here happen to be the American ones. France does put out some great films, but the output is far exceeded by the United States. When English language films are screened in France, in most cases they are shown in the original format, just with French subtitles, which can be a great exercise for learning slang, both in English and in French.

Technology has also helped advance the spread of the English language in France. As new technologies continue to emerge worldwide, the French cannot keep pace to create a French equivalent for each new product or invention that surfaces. Thus, they just use the English word. Windows, iPod, Playstation, Email, Segway, and Satellite among many others, are pronounced essentially the same as they are in English (minus the eating of the syllables that Americans like myself tend to do). The only one I can think of that is different in French from English is computer, as pronouncing this word with a French accent will cause you to say "fucking whore". So it's probably not a bad idea that they choose to use ordinateur, which translates to organizer, instead.

In the last few years, it seems the Académie has started to give up. I feel that at least half of the billboards that I see here in Paris are in English. They are required by law to put an asterisk next to the English phrase and translate it somewhere in the advertisement. The translation is usually found in small letters towards the bottom of the ad, barely legible if one happens to be standing on the other side of the métro platform for example. The one I found above was from walking out the door of my apartment to the grocery store. As I started writing this entry, I realized I didn't have any photos to prove my point, and it took me only 5 minutes to find a great example.

To name a few, outsider, boost, feeling, and coaching are the same in both languages and have recently been introduced into the French vocabulary. These words do not have French roots. As the French language is only 1/5 the size of the English language, sometimes it is just easier to use the English word, rather than create a wordy French equivalent.

There's no need to feel stressed about learning the French language. Whether or not they are aware of it, an English speaker already has a good head start.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

How to Identify Your Tourists

2010-03-19T19:14:00.009+01:00

According to a statistic that I found online, Paris has somewhere close to 45 million visitors per year, making it one of the most visited cities/landmarks/anything in the world. In addition, about 60% of those tourists are from abroad.

I used to enjoy trying to pick out Americans in the crowd when I first moved here to Paris. Maybe it's just because I grew up in the United States that it seemed relatively easy, but after two years here, I've had some practice at trying to pick out people from other countries as well. Here are just some observations I have made, and if you can think of some others (within good taste of course), then feel free to contribute as well.

Americans

Once again, this one was the easiest since it's what I see at home as well. Anyway, certain clothing items to help identify an American tourist in Paris:

-White tennis or running shoes- I'm not sure why this is, but it seems to be an almost completely North American thing.
-Hats with any sort of sports logo on them, with the exception of the New York Yankees. If you see someone here with a Yankees hat, don't automatically assume they are American. The Yankees (or at least their hats) have a huge fan base in Paris.
-Shorts- though more Europeans wear shorts as well, I rarely see Parisians wear them. When I went running in them last month, people looked at me as if I was running naked.
-University Apparel- this is a surefire way to tell, unless you have the occasional kid who studied abroad in the US that brought back a souvenir. French people are not as proud of their universities as we are back in the US, nor do they have sports at these schools for which to cheer. The one exception is Franklin and Marshall College, which is located in southeastern Pennsylvania. A clothing company in Italy took their logo and made it a huge hit in Western Europe, and many French teenagers wear these shirts around. The company has no affiliation with the college either.
-If you are a girl below 25, North Face jackets and Uggs. On second thought, North Face apparel in general, more often than not, is a sign that one comes from the US.

Canadians

This is a little more tricky, because in most ways, the Canadians are similar in makeup and appearance to those from the US. However, there are a couple of little differences.
-Roots- like North Face apparel and Americans, Roots apparel and Canadians seem to go together pretty well.
-Canadian Flag on Backpacks- this is a good way for a Canadian to show that not only are they from Canada, but they are NOT from the United States. Since a lot of people believe that Americans do not have a good track record abroad, something needs to be done to differentiate those that could easily be mistaken as Americans themselves.

Australians

Like Canadians, Australians seem to fear being mistaken for Americans. To keep this from occurring, I have seen many Australians that wear Australian flags on their clothing. In addition, I have seen quite a few that wear Australian flag hats, berets, vests, t-shirts, etc.
-Kathmandu- This seems to be worn uniquely by Australians. Easy way to tell an Australian. Other clothing that helps include Billabong, Quicksilver, or basically anything that has to do with surfing.

Italians

-Loud-Don't get me wrong here, Americans are very loud as well, probably on the same level as Italians. In France, you'll notice that when sitting on the metro, you won't be able to hear the conversation of two people sitting no less than 5 feet away. However, replace them with Americans or Italians, and you'll be able to know every detail of what they are doing today, and maybe even their personal life, if you are lucky.
-Glossy Coats- This is the big clothing item that stands out to me. During the winter, it seems that almost every Italian has a long glossy jacket with a hood. On these hoods, one finds a fur lined collar. I have no idea what kind of animal was killed for these, but a lot of them were maimed for the sake of style.
-Designer Eyewear and Purses
-In many couples I have seen, the women are taller than the men. I don't know why this is, and this item is very much debatable, but I seem to see it a lot.

Germans

-The only thing I can think of here are Jack Wolfskin jackets and apparel. This is a German company, so I guess it makes sense.

French

-Dressed Like Going Camping- When I see French people coming from the provinces to Paris, they have a unique way of standing out from the crowd. I often times see them dressed in rainproof jackets, pants, hiking boots, backpacks for hiking, and occasionally walking sticks. To be honest, I guess it isn't such a bad idea to come dressed like this, but it is hard for me to imagine these tourists dressing like this when they are back at home. I included a picture above that I took near the Eiffel Tower. I felt that these guys were just as likely to set up a tent and camp for the night as they were to climb up the Eiffel Tower.
-Quechua- French sporting goods company. French travelers may be seen decked out in Quechua apparel.

This is just a general note for tourists of any background: Parisians do not wear berets. The only people that can pull it off are geriatrics and occasionally some girls that match a beret with other clothing. If you want to stand out here in Paris as a tourist, however, go buy one of the colorful berets with an Eiffel Tower on it that can be found in every tourist shop in the city.

As I said above, these are just some observations that I have made. They aren't necessarily true of everyone from a given country. If you have anymore to add, or if you disagree, feel free to contact me.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Mistakes in Speaking a Foreign Language

2010-03-16T12:21:00.004+01:00

When learning a foreign language, there seem to be a couple of internal signs that indicate when one has started to make progress. First, one does not have to translate every thought word for word in their head before speaking in the opposing language. Hypothetically, imagine someone asking you for directions to a restaurant, and by chance you happen to know the location of this restaurant. If this was asked in one's native tongue, this would take very little effort on either person's part.

Now imagine that this question was asked in French by a native French speaker while you happen to be a native English speaker. Let's imagine that you had been practicing your French, but still had limited experience. The most likely internal scenario would be for you to think out the directions in English, translate word for word in your head to French, and then explain to the other person where to go. Once a person becomes more comfortable speaking a foreign language, this internal process becomes less frequent.

The other sign that progress in a foreign language is evident is when a person begins to lose their fear of making mistakes. It is perfectly normal to feel conscientious and embarrassed when speaking a foreign language to native speakers, as one will wonder what the others think of them, perhaps laugh at them, and just make an awkward situation all around. Fortunately, it is rare when people will laugh at you for trying to speak their language, they will probably encourage you and particularly in Paris, might even be more helpful with your query.

Once people lose their fear or consciousness of making mistakes, this does not imply that people stop making mistakes altogether, and far from it. At this point, a person might make even make more mistakes because they are making less effort to sound perfect every time they happen to speak. Though we might not notice it, we make mistakes speaking in our native language all the time, making the notion that we should be speaking a foreign language without faults seem frivolous.

On one occasion in the summer of 2008, myself and some friends from work were meeting Julie and one of her friends from home at an Indian restaurant close to her old apartment in the 15ème. After I greeted both of them, I noticed that Julie was rolling her shoulders and rubbing the back of her neck, which gave me the impression that her neck was probably sore. The word for neck in French is cou, while the word for ass is cul. In French, there is a fine line, at least for me as an English speaker, in the pronunciation of these two words. In addition, the word for sore which I had learned from Julie was bloquer , which literally means blocked. I tried to ask Julie if her neck was sore, but instead I happened to ask if her ass was blocked. Fortunately, they saw my mistake and didn't give me too much trouble about it. Needless to say, those are two words that I rarely mix up anymore.

Inversely, we as English speakers can gain insight into how a foreign language is spoken by how a non native speaker converses with us in English. If a non-native speaker says something that to us sounds ridiculous, there is a possibility that one word in French has similar meanings, or what they said was literally translated. For personal example, I remember when Julie was doing her taxes a couple of years ago and she kept telling me how boring they were, though her tone of voice seemed to imply that she was pretty frustrated. I thought, "Well, I guess they can be boring." After she said it a couple more times, I finally realized that she meant that her taxes were in fact annoying. In French, the verb ennuyer can mean to be bored or annoyed, depending on the context. Julie just happened to choose the wrong English equivalent. There are several words in French that have more than one meaning, depending on the context and the words placed around it, such as encore (still, again, more, another, too) and toujours (always, forever, still, all the same, anyway).

Translating catch phrases word for word from one language to the other almost never works. For example, one might hear in France that "it's raining like a cow pisses" to describe a hard rainstorm. In English, we happen to use "it's raining cats and dogs." Both describe the same event, though I have to say that I think the French one seems to make more sense to me. If one tried to say in French that it is raining cats and dogs, a French person could rightfully be confused and might wonder how to protect the outside of their home and car from the unprecedented cat and dog rain.

So if you happen to be learning a foreign language, the only way that you will improve is through practice. So get out there, embarrass yourself, confuse your ass with your neck, and find yourself a little closer to understanding and fluency in another language.

Are Parisians Rude?

2010-03-11T17:44:00.010+01:00

Both in and out of Paris, Parisians do not have the best reputation. On my tours, I am asked all of the time: "What do you think of the people here? I always heard that the French are rude." In the eye of most tourists, the French and the Parisians are clumped into one category, which is about the American equivalent of saying that one will find the same kinds of people in Nebraska as they will in Boston or New York City. One is more likely to find someone pushy, arrogant, and hurried in the big city than they will in the countryside, and this is the same in France as it is all over the world. So to begin, the terms Parisian and French are not synonyms.

The distrust of the Parisian is not just a common sentiment amongst foreigners. French people from outside of the city seem to have an equal dislike, if not misunderstanding of the average citizen of this city. Last spring, I attended Julie's cousin's wedding in Normandy, near Fleury-La-Forét. We stayed in a gite (bed and breakfast) that Julie, her Mom, and I shared with another gentleman. At breakfast the day after the wedding, I found myself outside in the garden, discussing trivial things with the other guy, who came from Provence. I remember telling him across the table that I live in Paris, and his facial expression immediately changed. He went from a jovial disposition to somber and reflective within a matter of seconds. "Oh. Paris," he said. "The sky is always grey there. People knock each other over to get onto the métro. They step over the homeless people without saying hello or giving change. Everyone wears black." Julie's mother came outside and joined the discussion, nodding in agreement as this man continued to recount the atmosphere in Paris as if he was talking about a recently deceased lover.

I have to say, I actually did agree with most of the things he said. The sky is often overcast in Paris. It rains a lot here. A lot of people do wear black here, more so than anywhere else I've ever seen. People would trample over their grandmother to board the métro, even though most lines operate every 2-3 minutes during rush hour. I even find myself sprinting to the métro, even though I'm usually not in a hurry to get anywhere. I just feel satisfied knowing that I saved two minutes of my day.

The homeless people do receive attention here, but the thing is that many of them are faking it to prey on gullible tourists, so a lot of times they are ignored. But there are enough people in the city that people will find them a coffee or a bite to eat, and the police do go around asking the homeless to come with them to a shelter if it happens to be very cold outside.

To be able to address my question, one needs to be able to define what constitutes a Parisian. This is not an easy task.

First, I have only met a couple of people who happen to be born and raised in Paris. Even then, everyone claims to be from somewhere else. Julie occasionally claims she is Auvergnat, even though she was born in Paris and raised an hour to the east in Seine-et-Marne. According to her, too many people think that Seine-et-Marne is essentially Paris (the western half could be considered suburban Paris), so Auvergne (where her father is from) might give her more credibility. The family I lived with last year were Breton in origin. A lot of my other French friends in Paris are also from Brittany, Burgundy, Normandy, and the like. Not many people from the provinces want to be considered a true Parisian, thus perhaps a true Parisian is one that admits that he or she is, in fact, Parisian.

So back to the question: Are Parisians rude? Yes and No.

First of all, I think that the concept of the rude Parisian is blown completely out of proportion. The biggest shock for most tourists is the fact that many people will go out of their way to help someone enjoy the city. Waiters and waitresses in cafés are usually extremely patient and hospitable, and many love taking the opportunity to practice their foreign languages on their clients. I often see residents help those in need of directions by showing them where to go on a map, or occasionally, just take the person to the site itself. Usually the only people I see that believe from experience that the Parisians are unfriendly and rude are those that are rude and unfriendly themselves. If this is the kind of person you are, then trust me, most Parisians are equally good at giving you shit.

However, like most urban environments, there are some individualists who think of themselves as a gift to Paris that everyone should respect and obey, no matter their whims or demands. I have seen many times where people will make the extra effort to let someone know that they are upset. I've seen people in grocery lines complain to the cashier that the communists probably had shorter lines to wait for food, even though there is nothing the cashier could do about it. I've seen people yell at someone on a bike for passing through a yellow light, even if they weren't crossing the street themselves. I've seen French people correct other French people when they make a mistake in speaking, whether it is the conjugation of a word or word order. I had a neighbor who introduced himself to me by coming to my door and complaining that I walk too loudly in my apartment. The first issue which made his complaint absurd was that I was asleep. Secondly, he often hosted parties which ran until 6 or 7am, in the middle of the week, and when Julie or I complained, he threatened to beat us up, or worse.

In conclusion, most people in Paris are well mannered, polite, and helpful. Every now and then, one will come across an irritable and self-centered individual. When I happened to encounter persons like these, this is when I happen to think to myself, "There is a real Parisian."

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Smoking

2010-03-09T15:34:00.005+01:00

In 2008, a ban on smoking was enacted in France that extended to cafés, bars, restaurants, and more or less every public place that is enclosed. Some here talked as if it was the coming of the apocalypse. Many people, when imagining the café scene of Sartre, Beauvoir, and Camus, for example, cannot think of a café in Paris without placing the description of "smoke-filled" in front of it. How could the French hold on to the cherished tradition of going to the café to have a glass of wine or coffee, to read a book, or talk to a friend without being able to have a cigarette?

To be honest, France is doing just fine with the ban. If someone wants a cigarette, they either sit outside at a table, or they put on their jacket and step out the door for just enough time to light up. Occasionally it will stop the conversation, but more often than not, the conversation will continue after the smoke break. Personally, I do not smoke, but oftentimes if I am in a conversation, I will accompany the smoker outside. It seems that the biggest complain against the cafés in Paris are the prices, not the fact that smoking is no longer permitted inside.

Though ignoring the law can be penalized heavily, sometimes the rules can be ignored. In an earlier blog, I wrote of a day in Seine-et-Marne where one of Julie's father's friends asked the owner of the bar if he could light up. The owner had no problem with it and brought out an ashtray. We were the only customers, so it wasn't likely to bother anybody. The owner said that most of her clients smoke, and if she said no, then she would probably have no business.

In Paris, a lot of the cafés have big open windows, and tables and chairs can be placed inside these openings. Even if only a leg of the table is outside, then technically one can smoke in these seats, which I have noticed on one or two occasions to make the smoking ban somewhat pointless in these particular cafés.

Since living in France, I have noticed a difference regarding etiquette with smoking between France and the United States. Here's why:

1. When hosting a party in the United States, most people, when in need of a cigarette, will step outside in order to smoke. If in a small apartment, then usually people will lean out the window. What is important is that the smoke is not inside, thus not bothering those who are inside and choose not to smoke.

Here in France, many times when hosting a party, people will just light up a cigarette in the room, regardless of the presence of ventilation. We've had to remind Julie's mom several times not to smoke in our apartment, as she has lit up several times without the windows open in our place. At Julie's apartment when we first started dating, her roommates smoked in her room a couple of times a day. Julie never thought to tell them no, because she said everyone does it here and she didn't want to inconvenience them.

2. In the United States, a lot of my friends, particularly in St. Louis, tend to smoke regularly as well. Only a couple of them actually do it in the presence of their family. Even if they have been smoking for years, and even if their parents smoke, they don't want to disappoint their family by showing that they have chosen to be a smoker. It is viewed by parents as shameful and embarrassing. Announcing to your parents that you smoke is about as difficult as a 17 year old announcing to his parents that his girlfriend is pregnant.

Though I'm sure there are parents in France that are upset when they find their teenage son's pack of Marlboros in his jacket pocket, there seems to be a lot more tolerance regarding smoking from one's parents. When I lived with a family in 2008, I was amazed one night after dinner when the mom, son and daughter were all enjoying a cigarette at the dinner table. Her kids are both in their early 20's. I commented that I didn't realize that they smoked, and she said, "I could tell them to stop, but I'm not setting the best example myself." Another time, when Julie and I went to a friend's housewarming party, our friend had several cigarettes with her grandmother, and though our friend's father is a doctor and did not smoke the whole evening, he didn't seem to mind his daughter going through half a pack over the course of the evening.

According to data from the OECD in 2005, 27% of the population in France smoke at least one cigarette a day. If I was to give my personal estimate of what I see over here, it is hard for me to imagine that less than 50% of the population under 18 are daily smokers. Of the people I have met and know from France, I can literally count on my hands how many I know that do not smoke. Smoking is so prevalent here that I've had friends from the U.S. who actually started smoking over here, just because everyone else they spend time with seems to do it as well.

Sometimes I think smoking is just something that is done here just to keep the French from living forever. Everyone in this country seems to smoke, and still they have one of the highest life expectancies in the world (80.7 years, ranked 10th in the world). Without cigarettes, they might live to 150. Some sort of vice has to keep people in check. In the United States, it is the diet. In France, it is the cigarettes.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Scams of Paris

2010-03-06T20:13:00.006+01:00

If you have ever visited Paris and been to the Louvre, Pont Alexandre III, or Jardin des Tuileries, there is a good chance that someone has attempted to scam you. You may or may not of known it. Some of these are very clever, some of these are stupid, but all of them can be entertaining from time to time. Here are the most common ones that I know of:

1. The Ring Trick

This is the one that I see the most and probably spend the most time discussing with my groups on tour. What happens is a Romani (Gypsy) will walk past and suddenly stoop down to the ground, pretending to drop a ring on the ground. Somehow, they will articulate that they found the ring on the ground, and then ask if the person next to them dropped it. The people will say no and walk on. Then, the ring bearer will return, saying that it doesn't fit their finger, and as they cannot wear it, try and give it to the victim. They also might point out that it is real gold (which is not even close to true). A lot of times, the people don't know what to say and so they just take it. The Gypsy will then shake the person's hand (though I have seen them kiss people too) and then walk away. The people will stand dumbfounded, or keep walking. Meanwhile, the Romani will walk four or five steps away, turn around, and then come back and ask their victims for money for food. They usually show this by putting their hands to their mouths in the motion of shoving food into them. Sometimes people will give them money, sometimes the people will realize it is a scam and give the money back.

If this happens to you at some point, just keep walking. If you want to go through the experience just for the fun of it, then I guess that could be fun, too. This scam can be found in the Champ de Mars, the Jardin des Tuileries, the Louvre, and on a handful of bridges in the city such as the Pont Alexandre III, Pont Neuf, and a few others as well.

2. Deaf/Mute

Occasionally, one might find some people with sheets, usually near Pont Neuf, asking for people to sign something for the deaf and the mute. And when I say ask, I mean point at their sheet with their pen. Some people sign it, and then they will make some gesture to give them money. Do not bother with these guys, as I've seen them talk to each other, which pretty much ruins their credibility as mute people begging for money.

3. Bracelets

In front of the Louvre, and especially at the bottom of the steps of Sacré Coeur, you will probably find some West African guys who will ask you to stop and ask you to put out your finger. Unless you want to pay for a bracelet, don't do it. What they will do, if you so happen to extend your finger in their presence, is throw a loop around your finger, and start tying the bracelet together. If you try to move your finger out of it, it tightens up like a Chinese finger trap, leaving you trapped until they are finished. They might even tell you that it is made from rare African thread, even though it comes from a shop just down the street from Sacré Coeur. Furthermore, if it was so rare and expensive, you wouldn't find pieces of it strewn all over the ground where they work.

Once finished, they'll come up with some ridiculous price for the bracelet, and you'll either pay what they tell you, or try and talk it down to something reasonable. I have a little more respect for these guys as the bracelets actually look pretty cool, and you might get away with paying five euros or less for it, which if you wanted a bracelet, is actually a pretty good deal.

4. Sign For Peace in Africa

This scam is by far the most successful of any of the scams in the city of Paris. These guys are also West African in origin, and hang out near one of the back entrances to the Louvre. They are usually only there in the morning, but honestly, with as much money as they probably make, they really don't have to work more than a couple of hours a day.

What these guys will do, when they see someone pass, they might come up and say "Ah good morning big family! Welcome to Paris! Sign for peace in Africa!" The location in Africa tends to change based on which country is in the news at the moment. The first year and a half I was here, they usually said sign for peace in Darfur, but as Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe has been getting a lot of press around the world for his total disregard for democracy, Zimbabwe has been name-dropped frequently in recent months.

These guys will then throw a pen and paper in front of the victim, who will then start to sign. The scammer will probably grab the person's arm, shake their hand, even hug them to show their gratitude for the money they are about to give them. Then, the victim will be asked for donations for food, water, political assistance, or whatever causes a person to give their money over to Africa. The scammers also mention that the average donation is about 20 euros. Amazingly, people give over 20 euros all of the time. I've seen people give 50 euros without even flinching.

I made a rough estimate that if every few people happen to give five euros to the cause, then in a morning's work, these guys should easily make 100 euros a morning, if not more. If that is the case, and these work maybe 6 days a week (though I see the same ones daily), that would allow them to make close to 32,000 euros a year, untaxed. 36,000 is considered an excellent salary in France, and that includes the high taxes. These guys are doing well.

So why don't the police stop this? They do try from time to time. Let's say the police start to walk by- all these guys have to do is to close their binders and walk away. If the cops do not see them soliciting people, they will leave them alone, even though they know what the scammers are doing. Security at the Louvre is maybe worse, as I see them come and high five or handshake these guys when they happen to pass by. They might tell them to cross the street and stand in front of the Pont des Arts, but they are always pretty nice about it.

5. Do You Speak English?

This one is also very common and is probably the most widespread around Notre-Dame, the Eiffel Tower, and the Louvre. Scores of Gypsy girls will come by, one at a time, and ask you if you speak English. If you actually say yes, they will show you a piece of paper that usually says something like this:

Ladies and Gentlemen: I am an immigrant from Bosnia, my father has cancer, is on life support and has one arm/leg/lung. My mother is dead, my sister is blind, and we live on the streets. Please give me some money.

I have to say I somewhat doubt that everyone of these girls has a dead mother and father with cancer. Everyone of these girls has a sheet of paper that says the exact same thing; they seem to be working with a template. If you want to give them money, go for it, but don't feel obliged to do it as someone else will probably do it.

These are just the most common that I have seen here. If you can think of any other scams in Paris, let me know.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Differences in Drinking Habits

2010-03-02T21:22:00.015+01:00

I remember the first time I tried drinking beer. I think I was 11 or 12, and we were on vacation in St. Barth's in the West Indies. My Dad was having his usual beer after diving and he decided to pour me about a finger of beer into a tumbler and had me try it out. I don't think I liked it that much, but my father told me that beer is a developed taste and that it takes some time, so he just wanted to help me on the path to responsible drinking.

I get the impression that a story like this is somewhat taboo in the United States. A parent giving their kid beer before 21? Is he out of his mind? Quite the contrary, he lived in France as a kid, where children are taught about the delights of alcohol, but more importantly, they are taught to respect its potency.

To begin, the official age for buying alcohol in France is 18 for hard alcohol and 16 years old for beer and wine. However, drinking underage is not forbidden. It used to be a common practice in schools to serve kids a little bit of wine mixed with water at lunch so that they could develop a taste for wine. This doesn't happen too often anymore, but parents here still may serve their kids a little bit of alcohol with meals. Julie's father first served her homemade cider when she was 5, and she drank it with certain meals as if it was water or milk.

The point being taught isn't to learn how to get drunk; rather the emphasis may lay on two issues. First, alcohol can be paired with certain foods and really enhance the taste of the meal. The second point is to make alcohol accessible so that getting drunk isn't looked upon as something cool to do.

In France, certain meals are not complete without the presence of wine, cider, or beer. Red wine is touted for numerous health benefits, and in addition pairs well with red meat and barbecued foods, among many other things. With a cheese course, a well paired wine can seriously enhance the flavor of a cheese. Along the Eastern border, a lot of heavy dishes are paired with white wine from the area, or in the Northeastern quadrant of France, beer. In Normandy and Brittany, one is most likely to find cider paired with their meal. These are all facts that can be looked up pretty easily on the internet.

Now, my second point is regarding its accessibility. Though a lot of people I knew drank during high school, drinking in the United States seems to explode once teenagers head off to college. People challenge each other to see who can puke first, who can drink the most without having to pee, who can finish a power hour, and so on. In essence, once people go to college, they are likely to be encouraged to drink quickly. It doesn't help that most of the popular beers in the United States are weak in alcohol content, which encourages people to drink more of them, or mix in some shots of liquor to speed up the process of drunkenness.

Why do kids go crazy on the alcohol when they head to university? It's because suddenly their parents are not watching their every move, and now they can do things that were once forbidden to them, like drink alcohol. Not only that, many times when one starts talking with a friend about what they did yesterday, the conversation will begin with "Man, I got so wasted last night" or "We started drinking and things got crazy." Showing that one can get wasted can establish a common bond, and then one can trade stories of the stupid things they did the night before when they were inebriated.

In France, I don't seem to see people bragging about their drinking prowess as much. Of course young people in France drink, and yes, they too can get drunk. It's just that with the fact that alcohol is easily accessible and in many cases its consumption is encouraged, drinking, being drunk, or being able to drink a lot isn't that impressive. The main reason? Pretty much everyone can do it.

Beer and wine are very easy to obtain in this country. In most places, a small beer is the same price as a small soda, and it is fairly common to find a beer for cheaper than a Coca-Cola in a bar, café, or restaurant. Not only that, people can drink at 18 at a bar and if you are with your parents, younger than that.

By comparison, my girlfriend Julie, who at the time was almost 26, was turned down in two bars in the United States; once because she forgot her ID and another time because no one in the restaurant recognized the French ID card. The latter was very frustrating as we were at dinner with my parents and Julie, who was the oldest amongst me and my brother, was the only one that was not allowed to have a beer with my family.

Someone pointed out to me that it seems when we (Americans) go out to bars, we assume we will be drunk, and thus hungover the next day. As a result, not many people go out during the workweek in the U.S. In France, if you are going out to hang out, this doesn't necessarily imply that you are going to get drunk. One of my friends from back home, when visiting me last year, commented on how surprising it was that people went out during the weeknights. It wasn't because people want to get drunk. Rather, it is because they wanted to meet up briefly to talk with a friend, or just hang out somewhere else than in their living room. People return home at a decent hour and still get plenty of sleep (as I mentioned in a previous post, the French lead the world in average number of hours sleeping per day).

Just like in the U.S., a lot of kids in France go through the phase of imbibing too much alcohol, but it seems to be at a younger age, around 15 or 16 years old. Not only that, many times parents accept this as a phase and let it slide, and will let their kids host parties at home, or offer to pick them up from a party at whatever time the kids feel like coming home, or encourage them to sleep over wherever they were drinking. They prefer that if their kids drink, they do it responsibly rather than get themselves into trouble.

Aside from exposure, perhaps there are a couple additional reasons why French kids appear to be more responsible with their drinking. First, many of them are not exposed to the same atmosphere as many of us were in the United States. Far fewer French adolescents attend university, 1/3 fewer than the U.S., per capita. In addition, many of those French students who attend university do so while still living with their parents. I'm sure the majority of us would have done a lot less partying if we had to explain to our parents why we were hanging out so late and so often instead of getting our homework done.

Would French kids drinking habits be different if they attended Universities like those in the United States? Would American kids drinking habits be different if we weren't sheltered from it until attending college? My guess is that these changes would result in a closer parallel between American and French drinking habits and education, but I certainly cannot prove it.

If you have any questions or feedback, please let me know, I'd love to hear it.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Baguettes

2010-03-01T15:13:00.009+01:00

When I returned to the United States in December 2008 for the first time in almost a year, I was happy to get settled into my old routines and habits, such as playing hockey, eating a burger, and tipping for next to everything. Aside from my girlfriend, there was only one other thing from France that just felt like it was missing from my daily regimen: the bread.

Bread is more than just a filler in a basket placed out on the table. In France, revolutions have begun as a result of bread shortages.

It's still one of the only cheap food items that one can find in this country. No matter where you are in Paris, an average baguette is sold between 80 and 90 centimes, or $1.25 US. Even if you find a baguette more expensive than that, look for another couple minutes and you should find at least one other baker within a one block radius. A boulangerie across the street from our new apartment charges 98 centimes, and so instead I go across the street to another one that charges just 80.

Before the French Revolution, bakers started raising their bread prices to combat the scarcity of materials for bread, and this is considered one of the major reasons why the people revolted and started tearing off the heads of the wealthy. Since then, baguette prices stay relatively constant, and considering its necessity in France, that's probably a good idea if the bakers don't want to face the guillotine (not literally of course).

There are hundreds of bakeries in this city. When I lived in Montmartre, I had 4 boulangeries within a two minute walk of my apartment. It's not like there is a surplus of bakers here either, they actually need this many. Around 6 pm, when a lot of people are heading home from work, the bakeries are packed with people, picking up their baguette or two for dinner that night. By 8:30 pm, most bakers have already run out of baguettes. This also happens every week day around lunch time, and in the mornings on the weekends.

It's not like people can stock up on baguettes for several days- as there are no preservatives in the bread, a baguette is stale within 6 hours, so it has to be eaten fairly quickly. The ingredients in a baguette, by law (seriously) in France, must contain only four ingredients: flour, water, salt, and yeast. If it does happen to become stale, it can be put in the toaster or oven in the morning to be served with butter and jelly as breakfast.

If you sit down to dinner in a French restaurant in Paris, bread will be brought out, regardless of what you order. You should always be able to get a refill too, as bread is served in unlimited quantities to customers. During the meal, bread can used to soak up the sauce of whatever is served, and it can also be used in place of a knife and fork to scoop some hard-to-grasp food left on the plate. If you happen to get a cheese course, more bread will be brought out so that you can spread the cheese upon it. Two people could easily split a whole baguette during the course of a meal. Thus, you can pretty much expect bread with your meal wherever you eat in Paris. However, the first time Julie's mother, Evelyne, went to McDonald's, after getting a burger and fries, she went back to ask the guy at the cash register for a basket of bread. Unfortunately, McDonald's hasn't picked up on the French concept of serving bread with everything.

Since I have lived here in Paris, I average at least a baguette a day. I always buy two every time I visit the baker because Julie eats even more bread than I do, so it is fairly common that I have to visit the bakery a couple of times a day. When I returned to the U.S., I went through a withdrawal of sorts. I was able to find enough bread to eat, but it just was not the same. The crust wasn't flaky enough, or the soft middle (la mie) was too firm; I could always find something that was not right. When Julie came to Saint Louis a month later, it was even harder for her. We ran out of bread the first couple of days that she was there. Though she never said anything, there were times at meals where she would reach out to a bread basket that wasn't there. My Mom, who slightly overcompensated, started buying four baguettes a day to keep up with demand.

Julie and I went to a French bakery in Saint Louis, that I had remembered being the closest thing to a good baguette in Saint Louis. We drove 30 minutes to stop by the bakery, and we even said bonjour when we came inside, hoping that someone there would see that she was French, get excited, and give us some free food. Instead, the high school kid at the register ran into the kitchen to get someone, and brought out a lady that appeared to be Russian. Our hopes were dashed, but we loaded up on some good looking pastries and, of course, some baguettes. As soon as we were handed the baguettes, we could immediately tell that these were frozen. They were far too light, which seems to happen when the baguettes are thawed out and rebaked. I wouldn't have noticed this before moving to France, but after spending countless hours in close proximity to real baguettes, it was kind of disappointing to think that when we move back to the United States at some point, it is going to be really difficult to find a good baguette.

Then again, maybe I'll just learn the trade an open up a legit bakery of my own.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Pace Yourself When Eating

2010-02-27T16:04:00.005+01:00

As France may be the gastronomic capital of the world, one could imagine that I have eaten well here. Compared to the way I used to eat in the United States, I eat like royalty here. I actually believe that I eat more food here than I do back the United States, yet I have lost weight.

If you come to France and have the chance to eat with some French people, my best advice is this: Take your time.

When I was visiting Julie's cousins in Auvergne in February of last year, we got up around 10 am and had a glass of orange juice a piece. I was pretty hungry and asked if they had anything to eat for breakfast, and they told me that I should wait, that we'd eat lunch around 1pm. For someone like me that is used to eating every couple of hours, this is not easy, but I had to respect them. We went out shopping for baby clothes and I had to try my hardest from sneaking clementines out of the trunk of their car.

Around 1pm, I was getting so hungry that I was shaking. We sat down to the table and started off with a little appetizer, which I devoured in a few seconds' time. After that came the quiche. Everyone was handed a huge slice and once again I made haste to make sure it didn't escape from my plate. I was ignorant enough to think that would be all before the cheese and dessert. Of course I was wrong.

Just after, Sylvie brought out a boudin noir, which is a very heavy blood sausage. For me, it is very tasty for the first few bites or so, but once I'm about halfway through, it is pretty hard to finish. I was handed a massive helping of this. I made it about three quarters of the way through before I felt like food was escaping my stomach and now finding storage in other organs throughout my body that had more space. What was embarrassing was that I was probably the only one out of ten people, including kids, that was too full to finish. And then the cheese course was brought out. When we finished, a fruit basket was set on the table, and I proceeded to spend the next two hours trying to eat one clementine. Everyone else was pretty full, but no one seemed to feel it more than I did. They thought something must be wrong with me, since Americans are supposed to be gluttons and eat way too much. They heard I was starving, so why couldn't I finish everything?

The answer? It's about the pace of eating.

Last year, the Economist magazine came out with a graph measuring the "Simple Pleasures in Life". Part of it measured the average amount of time a citizen of a given country spends eating, and the other axis measured the amount of time spent sleeping. On average, France is number one in the world in both categories. The French average a little less than nine hours of sleep and close to two and a half hours eating and drinking each day! Americans on the contrary spend just over one hour a day eating and drinking, though sleeping just a little less than the French.

When I was in high school back in Saint Louis, we were allotted 27 minutes for lunch each day. That is essentially enough time to eat all of your food, throw away the wrappers and trash, and go back to class. Considering I ate off campus most of the time, that meant we had to make a dash for Burger King, Subway, or Lion's Choice, eat in about five minutes time, and come back to class. Even then we were usually late, which encourages us to eat faster.

Furthermore, in American restaurants, everything can seem rushed. Waiters will ask you repeatedly how your meal is going, if you are close to finished, if you are finished, if you need a check, and so on. I somewhat went through reverse culture shock the first time that I came home after a year abroad to find that I was paying my check within 25 minutes of arriving to have a leisurely brunch.

In France, still to this date, French kids have two hour lunch breaks. This allows them to go home, prepare lunch or eat lunch with the whole family, take the time to digest, and head back to class feeling relaxed and satisfied. Unfortunately, two issues make this unnecessary at times. A lot of times, school is too far away for kids or teachers to return home, so after taking their time for lunch in the cafeteria, they still have to sit around until class begins again. The second issue is that fast food restaurants are becoming more popular, which is further defeating the purpose of the two hour lunch.

The long lunches can apply to cafés and bistros as well. When you pay to sit at a restaurant, you are paying for your table as well. You own it until you decide to leave. The waiter will only come over when it looks like the people at the table are ready to leave (leaning back in their chairs, not talking, getting their wallets out). A couple of times, I've even gone to sleep in a café without anyone bothering me, since I had at least ordered something to eat.

What I have noticed is that when one tends to eat quickly, one can eat a great proportion of food and still be hungry. However, there is a lapse between the time that your stomach senses that it is full and the time it takes to send the signal to your brain that you have eaten too much. Often times, people who eat quickly will eat a lot, but then will feel sick to their stomachs as a result of eating too much too quickly.

The French, however, probably eat more food in one sitting than most Americans do. However, when one takes their time to eat, becoming full is not a sudden impulse that stops people from eating. It becomes gradual, like rolling up to a stop sign while applying light pressure on the brake. After you start to become full, the French will usually have a cheese course, which is supposed to help with digestion. After that, there may or may not be a fruit or dessert course, which is usually something light that takes the taste of a heavy meal away.

In addition to pacing oneself during a meal, eating a large meal once a day helps a person resist the urge to snack or eat smaller meals throughout the day. The French believe that the reason why Americans have such a comparatively high rate of obesity is because we tend to eat several smaller meals. When one partakes in one of these marathon French meals like the one discussed above, it becomes difficult to want to eat at all the rest of the day. Just a couple of weeks ago, I ate a long lunch with Julie and her father. I didn't eat another meal until the next day at lunch time, aside from a small salad I made for dinner. This was one of many times since I have lived here that I have been too full to eat for close to a day after a heavy meal. So while the French can eat more food in one sitting, the Americans seem to eat more food over the course of an entire day.

In sum, if you find yourself in France, take your time when you eat. Your food isn't going anywhere.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Foreigners in Paris

2010-02-25T17:04:00.010+01:00

On paper, Paris is a French city. One can't drag Paris across a map to China, Vietnam, nor Algeria, no matter how hard one tries. On any given day, however, one can walk out their door and feel like they are in Haiti, Sri Lanka, or West Africa, among many other places.

Paris, like New York or San Francisco, is full of ethnic communities. The southern half of the 13ème, the suburbs to the south of it, and also the Belleville neighborhood contain at least 50,000 Chinese, Laotian, and Vietnamese nationals, where you are just as likely to see signs written in a Chinese Language as you are French. Up in the northern quadrant of Paris and its surrounding suburbs, one can find a North African (mainly Algerian) population of at least one million. When Algeria won its qualifying match for the World Cup in late 2009, thousands of people spilled out onto the street next to ours to celebrate. It was the next closest thing to being in Algeria itself. Just a couple of blocks east near Château Rouge, one can walk through the West African and Haitian markets that spill out out of the shops into the streets. Between the La Chapelle metro and Gare du Nord in the 10ème, there is a large community from the Indian subcontinent where one can easily find a Tamil-language newspaper or a shop selling traditional Indian dresses. When walking in either of the neighborhoods, one gets the impression of being transported somewhere else.

The above mentioned should give you the idea that Paris has a very large immigrant population. The city of Paris itself contains around 2.1 million people, which doesn't sound that large. The suburbs, however, contain somewhere between another 7 to 12 million. The reason there is such a gap in these numbers is mainly because the French government has no idea how many immigrants are actually living in the Paris metropolitan area. Most of the immigrants do have legal paperwork to keep them here in France, nonetheless there still is a large illegal immigrant population in Paris and its surrounding banlieues.

France is not the most difficult country for a foreigner to enter. It might be one of the easiest. France shares a border with Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Andorra, and Spain. There are no border patrols waiting at each entry point into France (Switzerland is an exception). It's about as easy as crossing from Missouri to Illinois. For example, if someone wanted to enter France from Morocco, all one would have to do is cross the Strait of Gibraltar into Spain by ferry, perhaps flash their passport, and catch a bus or train to France from there. Once in the European Union, it is rare when one will be hassled for their papers.

Sometimes, illegal immigrants enter the country and do very little to hide their status. There was a tent community in the port city of Calais, which is the crossing point to head over to the United Kingdom, that contained close to 800 migrants, mostly Afghani, that only recently has received attention from authorities. The camps came into existence in the Calais area around 2002 and were torn down on September 22, 2009. The occupants were arrested and were to be offered 2,000 euros for returning to their country of origin, though they will also be offered the chance for asylum here in France as well (Daily Mail, Sept 22, 2009).

From personal experience, I do not carry my French identity card with me, nor do I carry my passport. I think the only time I've ever been asked for my card was in the emergency room when I had to get some stitches for my lip in December 2009. Even though I did not have it, no one really seemed to care.

Even more impressive is crossing by plane. When I came over as a student in 2005, I had to fill out a questionnaire regarding my trip and my whereabouts during my trip, among other things, and I was to turn it in to a border patrol officer when I would pass through customs. I could not find a pen, so I decided to ask when I stepped off the plane. I asked the border patrol officer in pidgin French for a pen, and he just waved me through, basically telling me not to worry about it. When I came back in 2008, France had stopped giving out the questionnaire to planes arriving from the United States entirely. On one of my crossings from the United States, I handed over my passport, the officer looked at the back of the passport (which is blank), and handed it back to me without even opening my passport, let alone even asking from which country I came. I don't know if the treatment would have been the same had I been flying in from Africa, but it is certainly less intensive than what I've gone through in the United States.

As I have shown in my previous two blogs, getting a visa in this country can be exceedingly difficult. If one does not have a job nor family, nor has enrolled themselves in a university in France, it is next to impossible to obtain. That's why some people just skip the whole process and just work in the black. Our old plumber, who in reality fixed just about everything, came from Tunisia a few years back. He's told us he would love to go back home at some point, but as he doesn't have any working papers in France, this would send up a red flag as he crosses back into Tunisia, which could block him from coming back into France. Alas, he just stays in France, and seems pretty content with that.

If you have ever visited Paris, you have probably seen the African guys that sell Eiffel Towers and other merchandise near the real Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. For the most part, these guys do not have a permit to sell merchandise in these spots, and furthermore, probably do not have working papers. At the Louvre in particular, there are at least half a dozen of these guys a day selling their wares, spread out on a blanket. On this blanket, there is usually a piece of string that is attached to all four corners and creates an x in the middle. If there happens to be a police officer coming, all they have to do is grab the x, which cinches the bag shut, and run off into the bushes. The police usually arrive around the same time everyday, and most times I see them come by way of a slowly trotting horse, which gives the illegal vendors plenty of time to run away. There's usually someone watching for the police just in case they come by surprise. Once the cops have done their sweep, the vendors open up their bags, spread out their merchandise, and go back to doing exactly what they were ten minutes before.

Not everyone that escapes to Paris from their homeland is able to find a job. In the banlieues to the north of the city, the unemployment rate is staggeringly high, in some cases close to 50% for young males. Crime is rampant and in some cases, the police just avoid it and leave it to the gangs to sort things out themselves. The schools are in poor shape, and even if some get through an education in one of the schools in this area, they will be hard pressed to find a steady job. On the other hand, one can make hundreds of euros a day selling drugs, which is more than they could probably ever make in a legitimate occupation. It makes for some difficult decisions.

As a whole, people don't really seem to be bothered by the immigrant population in Paris, whether legal or illegal. However, there exists a political party called the Front Nationale, headed by Jean-Marie Le Pen, which claims to be working for "France for the French". Le Pen constantly rails on how the foreigners ruin everything in France and ruin what makes this country great. Surprisingly, he made it to the final round of voting for President in the year 2002, where he was easily defeated by Jacques Chirac. The main reason it seems he made it that far is because many people who did not want Chirac as president as a whole didn't really seem excited about any of the other candidates, so they voted for Le Pen because he seemed the least likely to win. When it was announced that he was second in voting in the first of two rounds, the French seemed embarrassed, as his only real supporters seem to be paranoid geriatrics and xenophobes.

This could only be considered an introduction to the plethora of issues surrounding the immigrants, both legal and illegal, in the Paris metropolitan area. I will try to break down some other issues on the matter in further entries. If you happen to have any comments, suggestions, or things you would like to know, let me know and I will do my best to provide a solid response. Thanks for reading.

Both photos come from the day when Algeria qualified for the World Cup in Fall 2009.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Dream Big vs. Quit Dreaming

2010-02-22T14:22:00.005+01:00

If you grew up in the United States, you've probably been told these phrases time and time again throughout your life:

"You can do anything you set your mind to"
"When there's a will, there's a way"
"If you believe in yourself, you can achieve anything" (I think I heard this one on the Simpsons of all places).

This seems to sum up why the United States is viewed as the land of opportunity to many outsiders, because we are taught at a young age to dream big and pursue those dreams, no matter how outlandish they may seem, nor how many obstacles we may face. If a youngster in the U.S. says he wants to be an astronaut, then he is more likely to be encouraged than ridiculed.

There are some huge benefits to this way of thinking. The United States has a very high rate of ingenuity per capita, the second highest in the world behind Japan and significantly higher than the rate of France. Even with the economic crisis, people in the U.S. are equipped with the ability to change their ways of thinking and as a result, many (but by no means all) have created new jobs or found jobs in fields completely different from their previous occupation.

Another benefit that arises out of the American system is the ability to have a second chance. I can't count how many times someone has quit what they are doing to take a chance to follow their passion. My boss quit his well paid job in an accounting firm to start a bike tour company, which a decade later has become successful beyond imagination. Another friend of mine's father quit his job as a financial planner to open a restaurant, which did so well that he was able to open a second one. I could go on and on with these stories. Many seem to question, yet secretly admire the people who stop everything to pursue a long sought after dream.

The great thing is that higher education in the United States is more accessible than most anywhere in the world. If you decide to get through high school, even if your grades are poor, you can still get a college degree. Mind that degrees from certain colleges can hold greater weight than others, but the opportunities still exist. If you don't have enough money to attend college, if you work hard enough in school, you might be able to earn scholarships, which are plentiful, or one could attend a community college, where prices for tuition are significantly cheaper than a four year university. If you are 18 or 45, single or married, white or black, rich or poor, almost everyone that finishes high school can move on to the university level.

Something I did not realize until traveling abroad is that this mindset is not taught universally. Admittedly, there are many countries where opportunities such as those above really are impossible. It would be asinine for me to say that the chances for one to succeed financially or to achieve their aspirations are the same in Somalia or Afghanistan as they are in the U.S. But I do feel that I can safely say that citizens in both France and the United States have a fairly equal shot, given the right mindset, to follow one's dreams. However, the mindset is an important factor. Though there are exceptions, this mindset is a rarity in France.

In France, the system seems to want to avoid disappointment and encourage settling for something a little more realistic. If one tells their mother that they want to be an astronaut, they will probably hear "That's probably not going to happen." It seems that from a young age, people are taught to avoid too high of hopes so that when they are older, they seem less disappointed when they finally settle upon a profession. It's taught that it is a better idea to play it safe. I've met numerous highly intelligent people that are working at positions far below their potential, but still quasi-complacent because they feel lucky enough to at least have a job. The American ideal of dreaming big is almost laughable.

As I never attended school in France, I can't beat on and on about the education system, I can only go by what I am told and what I see. On the contrary, I can relate about the way of thinking that it seems to teach.

From personal experience, I remember when I first started dating Julie, she was working as a hostess in a company where she made minimum wage answering telephones for 6 hours a day. It was mind-numbing work and she loathed it, but it brought in a paycheck. I asked her if she thought about getting a different job, and she reacted by telling me, "I've dreamed of that, but then what will I do?" I told her that maybe it was time to take a chance and perhaps get into some work that she would like. The way she reacted provided evidence that she no longer thought she was crazy for wanting to leave her job to take the leap to find something more pleasant for a job. After a week of reflection, she turned in her letter of resignation and she suddenly saw the world in a completely different light. A month later she was dancing on the back of a truck down the Champs-Elysées promoting a DJ competition. Many of her former colleagues thought seemed to look at her as if she lost her mind for giving up a steady paying job to take a risk like this. Her parents were more vocal about expressing their concern. It wasn't the best paying job by any means, but as she loves dancing, she was far happier than she had been with her work in the previous years.

One year ago, Julie and I were back in the U.S., and I was contemplating attending law school for the fall of 2009. If I was going to be moving back to the U.S. to do studies, we'd have to find a way for her to come back as well, but neither of us were ready for marriage. Around the corner from my house is Webster University, which has a fairly reputable dance program. Why not give it a shot?

Julie couldn't even believe that this was an option. She was almost 26, and had never attended college in France. Was it possible to do it in the United States?

She spent some time practicing with the dance program, and filled out most of her application, and took the English as a Foreign Language exam (TOEFL). Julie speaks English very well, but I even had my doubts about how she could do it at a University level. Without even studying for the test, she received a high enough score to qualify to attend any public university in the United States. We were both shocked that she did so well. For me, that wasn't the only reason.

How is it, that in her home country, she was told that she was not destined to attend college, while in the United States, which contains 37 of the top 50 universities in the world (Academic Ranking of World Universities, 2009), she could actually attain a four year degree? It makes little sense to me.

To reiterate, I am no expert on the French education system, and far from it. I'm just writing down my observations about what ideas it seems to promote and how I see a marked contrast in the way those in the United States are raised. In addition, I am not saying that every American takes a chance and goes for some dream job, and far from it. There are plenty who hate their jobs, but will stick to them anyway because they have the obligation to bring in some income. My personal opinion is that people in the United States are more willing to take chances to reach their dream than here in France, where taking a risk while you have a paycheck can be considered foolish and unrealistic.

But maybe my experience is different than others. If you think so, let me know.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Finding a Place to Call Home (Apartment Search)

2010-02-21T15:37:00.008+01:00

If you're going to live in Paris, you have to find yourself a place to live. This can either be really simple or back-breakingly complicated.

The French system of finding a place to live can drag out for months. In order to view an apartment, you need essentially every paper or document that you have ever received in your life. This is an exaggeration of course, but sometimes, it doesn't seem that far from the truth. Usually, you will need to find your last three paychecks, tax records, photocopy of your identity card, and two or more garants (people that can send you money if you find yourself running low.) In addition, each person that acts as a garant needs to create a dossier that includes their last three paychecks, a photocopy of their identity card, and their gas/electric bill, their tax forms (for the house and for revenue). Oh yeah, don't even think of getting an apartment without a job (unless you are a student it is a little easier.) That's already a lot, and I'm probably forgetting some stuff too.

There's a skit online where there is a young couple that has been searching for an apartment for the past 18 months, and they arrive at a place that is overpriced but they decide to take it anyway. The landlord asks for all of the paperwork, and it still isn't enough. He needs to make sure they couple is in good health, so he asks for documentation of their cholesterol levels, EKGs, and even gives a breast and rectal exam. Then, for the wellbeing of the neighbors, he needs to make sure that the girl in the couple doesn't make too much noise when they fornicate, so he has to try with her just to verify. After this is all done, he says he'll call them back eventually. I watched this with some friends who feel that that though it is a parody, it highlights how ridiculous this system can be. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf1dyX7b4sI.

I'm always amazed when I talk to some friends here that are looking for apartments about how long it takes them. It's not unusual to spend a couple of months with this process, and I even know some that have spent as long as six months without finding a place.

On the other hand, the employees in the company I am with, who rarely speak French nor are aware of the French system of apartment shopping, tend to find places within a week of moving here. How is that possible? What do the Americans know that the French don't? It's all about the way you look.

I was talking with my old landlord a couple of weeks ago, and he told me that he prefers to have foreign apartment dwellers because they don't care about not having all this paperwork drawn up. As long as he gets the money every month, he doesn't give a damn how you actually earned/found/stole it. Plus there are laws that protect the renter which can be a pain for landlords. In one instance, he tried to kick some people out of his apartment, and spent months dealing with paperwork and red tape before he could actually get them out of his apartment. One source (Julie) even says that it is illegal to kick renters out of the apartments during the winter months, barring extreme circumstances.

So anyway, let me give some on ideas on how to go about this whole process.

1. Pros and Cons of Searching Online

There are some great sites for looking for apartments online, and that even list their ads in English. On sites such as Craigslist, PAP, and Fusac, one can find a ridiculous listing of apartments, which makes one wonder how the hell people cannot find apartments in this city.

Occasionally, one can find a good, reasonably priced apartment on Craigslist, but on the whole I advise against using it. The reason why is that as it is a very popular site in the United States for looking for apartments, many Americans tend to look there first. As a result, a lot of landlords will put up prices for apartments that are much higher than what they are really worth, because they assume that if craigslist is the first place that the reader looked, then they won't know that they are paying too much. When I first moved here, I went to one of these apartments. It was 750 (maybe more) euros a month for a one bedroom place near Père Lachaise, the famed cemetery in the 20ème. I arrived and walked into the place. There were about 5 other guys looking at this place, and all of them happened to be American, or at least English speaking. This apartment was ridiculously small, and looked as if a storage space had been converted into this apartment. What made me laugh the most was the bed- I am no giant, but if I was to lay my head on the pillow, I could have bent my knees over the front of my bed and rested my feet on the floor. I almost laughed as hard at the douche bag of a landlord who wore a leather jacket, slicked back black hair and a Bluetooth. The other apartment I looked at on craigslist ended up being some scam where the girl asked me to pay for lawyer's fees to draft a contract for the apartment while her father was in Nigeria.

The other sites I mentioned such as PAP and Fusac are great as well, but you really need to be prepared to call a lot of people before you find a place. The thing is since the listing is online, people don't have to move their lazy asses beyond their beds to sit and call or send a mass email to everyone with an apartment. The problem with that is that if you are looking at a listing from the day before, that place is probably already gone. So if using these sites, be diligent and be ready to call a lot of people.

If you happen to speak any French, a great site for this is leboncoin.fr. The prices on here are legit, and about as low as you'll find online. However, you might have to prepare your stack of documents for this as a lot of these people seek those that have all the guarantees and documentation.

2. Get Out and Look

Probably one of the best places to look for a place if you don't want to deal with the draconian French apartment hunting system is through the American Church in Paris. Every morning, they post notices for employment and housing, and because people actually have to get up, go to the church, then stand there and look at the bulletin board, far fewer people actually see these, thus giving you a better chance of snagging one of these places. I called two apartments here, actually looked at both of them, and chose one for 500 euros a month, which is not cheap but reasonable.

When you look here, as well as on the other English speaking sites, you deal with landlords that don't want to go through the French system either, because it is a hassle for them, too. Not only that, they get taxed for renting out their apartment, so they'd rather just draft a brief little contract with you that basically keeps you from screwing each other over and just tell the government that they are letting a friend stay there or that they are living there themselves. These people also tend to include electricity, internet, tv, and maybe even telephone with the price.

In my personal opinion, I feel that if you are paying more than 700 for a one bedroom place, or 550 if you have a roommate, you are probably getting ripped off and could do better. Of course there are exceptions, and it depends where in Paris you happen to be living. Once again, as with bars, the further you get away from the center the better. In addition, the west side of Paris (16ème, 17ème, 15ème in parts) is also very pricey. Sometimes you can get lucky and find a cheap place in the middle of an expensive quarter, but this is more an exception rather than a rule.

Happy hunting and I hope if you decide to look for an apartment in this city, that your search goes better than the young couple in the video above.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Traveling Cheap from Paris

2010-02-20T13:28:00.003+01:00

Paris is an amazing city. There are days when I walk out my door and go down the street to get a baguette and it suddenly hits me that I actually live here, let alone for the past two years. But there are days when the city and the work schedule, among other things, can get to you and you need to escape the city to breathe in the country air, or lay on the beach, or just get plastered in another country. Fortunately, travel from Paris can be very cheap.

In the last two years, I have visited at least 11 other countries, and taken at least 40 trips outside of the region, not counting visiting my girlfriend's family an hour away at least a dozen times. To do that, it sounds like one would need a large income. On the contrary, there are months where I make less than 1000 euros, before tax. My apartment alone costs 500 per month for my half. Yet I still have spare money in my account, and can afford to get out of town every couple of weeks. I'll show you how.

1. Get a Train Discount Card

If you are under 26, you are eligible to get a Carte 12-25 for traveling by rail from France. You don't have to have a French identity card nor visa, all you have to do is show up at the SNCF ticket office nearest you (they are everywhere in Paris), bring a mugshot of yourself (photo booths can be found in many of the metro and train stations in the city) and pay 49 euros for a one year subscription. This almost automatically entitles you to up to 50% off of train tickets in France, as well anywhere else that French trains travel. After 2 uses, this card is already worth every bit of the 49 euros paid. Travel to places like Lyon, Marseille, Brest, and Biarritz become much more realistic for a quick weekend getaway.

2. Check out some of the deals on the SNCF website

A couple of times this year, Julie and I wanted to get out of town for a day, but we really didn't have any ideas of where exactly to go. We really were wanting to get out to the beach. On the SNCF website (), after researching numerous towns along the coast in Normandie and Picardie, I saw that it was 27 euros roundtrip to a little town called Fécamp, with the Carte 12-25. I instantly bought the tickets, and two days later, Julie and I caught the morning train out to the coast. Including those train tickets, we spent somewhere around 50 euros a person that day, which included eating at a couple of restaurants, and stopping for a drink or two when we got tired of laying on the beach and walking along the cliffs. The next weekend, we did almost the exact same thing- Mers-les-Bains for 28 euros round trip. In two trips combined, we spent what some people spend on dinner in Paris. Hopefully this is getting you excited.

3. Skyscanner and Low Cost Airlines

Over the past three months, I have flown to Budapest, Rome, and Helsinki for 43, 47, and 59 euros, respectively. I did not get lucky and win any sort of lottery, nor was this some sort of promotion. I just knew where to look.

A couple of years ago, a friend alerted me to when we talked about meeting up in Italy. Since then, I look at this site almost daily. What is amazing about it is that it allows you to search for an entire month, or even year. Even better, is that you do not even have to pick a destination. For example. one can simply enter from Paris to Everywhere for 2010. Upon clicking search, you will find, in order from cheapest to most expensive, all of the locations that you could visit. This is great if you haven't done much traveling here and have a long list of places to visit, as it is very easy to find somewhere cheap and interesting to see.

In addition, you can also pick which dates you would like to travel, and then see where the cheapest airfare can take you to during the given dates. In June 2008, I had four days off and after running the search for my dates, I found that Kraków was only 50-something euros roundtrip. I had heard it is a spectacular city, though it wasn't on my radar until that point. We went and it was one of my favorite trips I've had since living here.

Almost all of the cheap flights I have done in the last two years have been through easyJet. The great thing about easyJet is that not only are their flights very reasonable, they also fly out of Roissy-Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, the two main airports in the city. A lot of times, discount airlines fly to very out of the way airports, which can make the trip a huge hassle. Which leads me to my next point.

Ryanair can be very, very tempting since a lot of their flights are ridiculously cheap. But with that cheap price, Ryanair is going to make you work for their flight. From Paris, Ryanair flies from Paris-Beauvais airport. Don't let the name fool you, it is not at all Paris, nor is it even in the same region of France as Paris. There is a bus that leaves for the airport three hours before flights, which costs 13 or 14 euros. In addition, a lot of the Ryanair flights are at odd hours, so you might have to catch a 3am bus to get to the airport, which is around a 90 minute drive from the city. In essence, I feel it is much more worth it to take a flight from Orly or CDG using Easyjet, Veuling, and others, rather than save a few euros to work your ass off to and screw up your biological clock to make a flight, where you might have to do the same thing when you arrive at your destination as well.

4. Call Up Some Old Friends

On many of my trips, I have gone to visit some friends of mine or Julie's. Some of them we didn't even know that well, but became good friends as a result of our visiting them. I have visited a kid I worked with briefly in San Diego who at the time lived in Belgium, a friend of mine from Kindergarten whom I had not seen in 19 years, and also a friend of mine's old roommate whom he lived with in Oakland but was at the time living in Madrid. Not only does this give you a chance to have a free place to stay, but it allows you to see what life is really like in these cities, through someone that lives there and knows it well. It's great way to experience the city in way that most tourists can't, eating, drinking, and meandering the way that the locals do! I've made some very good friends as a result of instances like these.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Eating and Drinking Cheap in Paris (Part 2)

2010-02-19T15:00:00.003+01:00

A couple of days ago, I spent a lot of time explaining the ways that I have found to eat and drink in Paris. Actually, I spent a lot more time working on the food. This time around, I'll get to explaining inexpensive ways I've found to drink in the City of Light.

1. Drinking at a Friend's House is Almost Always Cheaper Than a Bar

If you've ever gone out in Paris, you've probably noticed that a pint of beer, at on average 6 euros, is about what one would pay for lunch, or even dinner in a restaurant in the US. There's no doubt about it, drinking can be very expensive. Even if prices were slightly higher, people would still pay the price to enjoy an adult beverage.

However, if you pay a visit to the grocery store (Franprix, Carrefour Market, G20, Leader Price, Lidl, even Monoprix), you'll notice that the prices for alcohol are comparatively cheap. You can buy a good six pack of beer for less than 4 euros! Furthermore, if you want a good strong Belgian Beer, like Duvel or Chimay for example, you can still expect to pay 1/4 of what you would pay in a bar.

Now a fascinating anecdote...how much do you think the average French person spends on a bottle of wine? I ask this question on my tours all of the time, and people never get it right. You ready? Around 3 euros. It's not because the French are cheap and drink vinegar. It's just that wine is plentiful and you don't have to pay a marked up price to pay for transportation costs across borders and oceans. My first year and a half or so, I only spent more than 3.50 euro on a bottle of wine if it was a special occasion. My taste in wine wasn't very developed, why should I spend more money on a wine that I wouldn't appreciate properly? I've stopped being as stingy, but even then I usually stay in the 4-6 euro range. And even that isn't expensive, especially considering the quality.

So instead of rushing straight to the bar, head to a friend's apartment. This has numerous benefits;

-As already discussed, it is cheaper.

-You can actually hear what people are saying. A lot of times at the bars, you have to yell over people just to be heard. And even then, it takes some effort. Start out at home where you can sit down and have a decent (or indecent) conversation with your friends. By the time that everyone is drunk enough that everyone starts trying to talk over each other and people stop listening to what the others are saying, then you can go to the bar and at least pretend that you can't hear them talking.

-If you smoke, you can smoke inside. I personally do not smoke, but everyone here does, and they'll probably tell you that they prefer to sit cozily in their apartments when they smoke, rather than step outside and brave the elements every time that you need some nicotine.

-You can choose the music. You can play DJ and actually hear what you want to hear, rather than listen to "Living on a Prayer" or "Like a Virgin" ten times over the course of the night. I hope I didn't offend you if that is what you want to hear.

2. Happy Hours Are a Good Deal

Pretty much no matter where you come from, happy hours (which are also called happy hours in French, though on rare occasions a bar will translate it literally to Heures Joyeuse) are cheaper. I guess that is why they are happy. It's always worth the trouble to ask, if not posted outside, if a bar has a happy hour, and what the specials are, because chances are you'll pay half of what you do at night. A lot of times, the deals will be something like a pint for the price of a demi(half pint), or 2 euros off a pint, or buy one get one free. If you are staying for more than one drink, make sure you know when happy hour ends so that you don't buy your drink 30 seconds afterwards and have to pay more money.

3. If You Are Going to Go Out at Night, at Least Know Where To Do It

Just like most major cities, Paris has quarters that tend to be more expensive than others. This absolutely applies to bars. One should not go out in the 16ème arrondissement, around the Champs-Élysées, anywhere else in the 8ème, basically anywhere that looks expensive should be avoided. I know that's pretty much common sense, but hey, just a reminder.

Fortunately, there are places that are always reasonable. One of me favorite is around Rue de Clignancourt in the 18ème. A couple of the bars there charge no more than 3.40 euro a pint, which is just absurdly cheap for this city. Not only that, the people are cool and there's a good ambience. One of them even gives away free all you can eat couscous on Friday and Saturday nights!

Another good one is around the Latin Quarter, in particular near the Place Contrascarpe. Upon first glance, you'd get the impression that this could be an expensive area, which it very well can be. But if you dig a little deeper, like on Rue Descartes, Rue LaPlace, even parts of Rue Mouffetard, one can find really good deals on beer. It's very close to the Sorbonne, and lots of students like to go out there. It's really one of the few places in Paris where there seems to be any competition in terms of prices for drinking.

Other quarters worth mentioning- the 20ème arrondissement, the 19ème, the 13ème (in parts)...imagine Point Zero in front of Notre-Dame being a money sucking vortex, and essentially the further one gets away from it, the cheaper the prices.

Hopefully I have provided some helpful advice on how to save money and on eating and drinking. This way, you can save more money in order to blow it all on more eating and drinking. You don't have to be rich to be a glutton or a drunk in Paris, you just have to do your research.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

Eating and Drinking Cheap in Paris (Part 1)

2010-02-17T16:55:00.003+01:00

Without a doubt, Paris is an expensive city. For instance, a pint of beer seems to average between 5 and 6 euros (about $8 at the moment), and a plate in a restaurant is close to 15 euros for a main course. By comparison, one pays only about 2/3 of the price in other big cities in France, like Lille, Strasbourg, Lyon, and once out of the cities, even less than that.

Paris charges ridiculous prices more or less because it can. A lot of people come to Paris for a once in a lifetime trip and come ready to shell out whatever is necessary to have the real Parisian experience. Just because the prices are high doesn't mean someone from the US, Australia, etc. will refrain from eating out; they came this far, they might as well do it.

In reality, not a lot of Parisians eat out all that often. It's not because they don't want to, it's just because it's unreasonable. Minimum wage (le SMIC) in France is 1347.73 euros a month, before taxes (which in this case is about 22%). With payments for rent, cell phone, internet, and the rest, people can't go drop 50 euros on a meal for two all that often.

So here is how we can get by here in Paris, starting with the food.

1. Markets are a Lifesaver

No matter where you are in Paris, no matter what day (except Monday), there is a market nearby. They usually start early in the morning (7ish) and go into the early afternoon. I could be wrong, but I believe I heard once that there has to be a market operating within a kilometer radius 6 days a week throughout the city of Paris, and I would not doubt if this was true. Going early guarantees getting the best produce/meat/cheese, but going after noon will allow you to get the best prices.

When I lived in Montmartre, I always looked forward to hitting the markets on my days off. Usually I'd take a big cloth bag and a pocket full of coins and head up to the market on Boulevard Ornano at Métro Simplon. The deals to be had were cheap, no matter what your standards were be. In most occasions, I could get a kilo of vegetables for 1 euro. And usually if you ask for a number amount, the vendors will round up, especially in the afternoon, as they have to get rid of their produce. For example, if you ask for 6 clementines, they might just give you 11. You ask how much, and half the time they'll just make up some reasonable price, even though it's less than what they say on the little chalkboards with the price listings. I had similar luck at Barbès, where I spent maybe 3 euros, and had to have three big bags to carry home all of the food that was, in some cases, literally thrown at me.

Part of the fun with the markets is that the people that staff them are joyous and love making conversation. I remember a friend telling me he walked by one day and heard a vendor scream out "Ladies and Gentlemen! I have big news! I...have the best strawberries...in the world!" Whether or not that is true, people were certainly interested. Another time when I was buying some sausage, the vendor asked if I wanted some potatoes too. I told him I had them at home, He then replied "Oh but mine are better." It almost worked, except that I had used up all of my change.

2. Grocery Store Prices Vary

Since I have moved back to the 15th arrondissement, I have been reminded about how expensive grocery stores can be down here. In the 18th, I probably spent a few less euros every single time I went to the store. This even goes with supermarkets that are the same company; Carrefour market is much cheaper in the 18th, 19th, and 20th arrondissements than it is in the more central arrondissements of Paris.

Probably the biggest variance in this regard would have to be with the butchers, fromageries, and occasionally the bakers. For instance, one evening when I was buying a chicken on Rue des Abbesses in Montmartre, the butcher told me that he saw some for sale in the 16th arrondissement for close to 60 euros! I don't know what made this chicken so special, but I guarantee it wasn't worth that much. On the contrary, at Barbès, the best tasting poulet rôti that I've had since living here costs only 5 euros.

3. Cook at Home!

I think you can tell that the subject matter of the last two point implies that I eat more at home than I do out at restaurants. The great thing is that you can make most of the things that you eat in restaurants at home, and most likely with similar quality!

A lot of the best French foods are ones that can be made very simply. For example, if one looks at a lot of the foods from Savoie, close to the alps, one finds that a lot of the recipes involve potatoes, lardons (little pieces of bacon) or other cuts of meat, and melted cheese from the region. A lot of other dishes, like Blanquette de Veau or Boeuf Bourguignon are chunks of low cost meat simmered in wine or broth with herbs and served with some starch to soak it up, like potatoes, pasta, or rice. All you really have to do is throw everything in a pot and cover it for at least a couple of hours until you can cut the meat with a fork. Ratatouille? Take a bunch of vegetables, throw them all in a pot for 2 hours with olive oil and Herbes de Provence, and eat it whenever it looks good to you.

4. Picnics!

What better city in which to share a picnic than Paris? Just run up to the baker, get a couple baguettes (less than 2 euros), run across to the grocery store, pick up some fruit, cheese, sausage (5-8 euros), a bottle of wine (3-4 euros for something drinkable, though occasionally one can find decent wines at less than 3 euros), and you have a feast for 2-3 people for 3-4 euros a person! I made an effort to do this a couple of times a week last spring and summer, not only for saving money on eating out and effort on cooking, but because there are so many open spaces filled with other picnickers doing the same thing. Some great spots for this include the Champ de Mars, Pont des Arts, Parc Monceau, though my three favorites are the Canal St. Martin, Parc des Buttes Chaumont, and anywhere along the water around the Île de la Cité and the Île St. Louis, in no particular order.

5. If You Are Going to Eat Out, Do it at Lunch Time

As I said, eating out isn't cheap, but it can be reasonable from time to time. The cheapest options are buying sandwiches from the bakers, and these are usually around 4 euros. They're big enough to keep you full for a while. Sandwich Grecs at kebab shops are cheap and filling, but then you have to realize that you just ate 2000 calories in one go and you have no idea what part of what animal you just ate, though they are supposed to be cow and lamb parts.

Cafés offer great lunch deals where one can get an appetizer, main dish, and/or dessert for a fraction of what they would sell for at dinnertime. On the Île St-Louis, there are numerous little cafes on the main street which offer deals like this between 10-12 euros. The island is normally one of the more expensive spots in the city, but you can get a lot of the same things at lunch that you would at dinner for much cheaper.

One more little helper is that it is sometimes cheaper to eat at the bar than at a table. When you eat at restaurants, you are paying to rent your table as well for as long as you like, and some places will charge you for it. At the bar, you can still get a stool and pay a little less for your meal.

Tomorrow I'll talk more on how to get cheap drinks in Paris. It isn't easy, but it is doable.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com

The Beginnings of Learning French

2010-02-16T14:09:00.001+01:00

Often times I have heard that you cannot learn a foreign language unless you are completely surrounded by it, more or less living abroad. There is a lot of truth to that.

Before I came to France, I had studied French for two years in middle school, all four years of high school, and the equivalent of one year in college. I thought that my French was pretty good. When I came to France for the second time in 2005, I felt like it was really coming along, but now I realize that my only interaction with French was ordering food in a restaurant or a beer at a bar. Otherwise I was speaking English with my friends from class. I remember my proudest moment was understanding when a guy asked me where the post office was, and I said I didn't know.

Between 2006 and 2008, I did very little to practice my French. I actually thought in it from time to time as a sort of mental exercise, but even then it wasn't that often. When I arrived in February 2008, I realized that my French wasn't that good at all. I could read it and write it ok, but my speaking ability was fairly limited outside of finding ways to get food and agreeing or disagreeing in a very basic conversation. A lot of times if I had to get something done where I had to speak in French, I'd plan out my conversation two or three responses in advance. Nearly every time, however, the person would throw something at me that I didn't expect, and so I'd more or less stare like an animal caught in the headlights of an oncoming car until the person would have to speak to me in English.

To combat this issue, I started taking classes at Alliance Française, which is an organization which promotes French language and culture throughout the world. What sounded promising was that people were coming from all over the world, and that the only language that we would have in common was French, thus we would have to speak it. I started taking the class two nights a week, 2 hours a time, and I signed up for 6 weeks of class.

The first time I attended class, I was intimidated because not only had the students already been in class together for 6 weeks before this, they also seemed to speak much better than I did. People came from all over the world- Uganda, Italy, Brazil, Turkey, Serbia, etc., and the only people that happened to have trouble were the three Americans in the class. It was then that I realized how far behind we are in the US with foreign languages. As we don't have other languages encroaching on English in the US (with the exception of Spanish in certain parts, I don't think Quebecois French nor Native American Languages are really a threat), we don't really have a need for learning another one.

The thing in the class though is that we didn't really happen to be learning anything that would be all that helpful in everyday conversation. I remember the second to last time I went to class, I had one of those awkward situations where I made eye contact with the teacher just before she was about to call on someone. I cursed myself for having looked up as I heard the professor call my name seconds later. I came up in front of the class next to the overhead projector. She pulled a sheet of paper off of the projector and told me to explain what I saw. There were pictures of cheeses. I pointed out that I thought one was brie, one was probably camembert. After that, I said that I had no idea what to say. She just told me to sit down and that was good enough.

I remember the next time I was on my way to class, I was thinking to myself about how I really didn't want to go, and that I felt like this kind of a waste of time. I had been in France for probably a month, and yet I didn't really feel like I was getting anywhere with my French. Then I remembered something; I'm dating a French girl. Why don't I just go and talk to her? I was supposed to come over to hang out after class, but I decided I'd surprise her and show up a little early. I hopped off the metro just before my class and got back on the metro going the other direction.

I arrived at her door and said to her (in French I think) "Do not let me speak English for the next two hours." She was pretty amused and took me in to the kitchen, where she was making dinner. She asked me how my day was, and I responded back with "Today I go...no...I will go...no...I went to work..." and so on like that. I literally felt like ripping my hair out. But even after two hours of this, I felt a lot better. I could actually put together sentences a little more smoothly. So I continued doing this a couple of times a week instead of attending class, and after a while, I started speaking in French with Julie outside of our "class".

One of the biggest things that helped me when I got here was just listening to people. I really had to strain myself to do it. If I didn't give my complete attention I would lose track of the conversation and then become lazy and space out. There were some occasions where I would actually start nodding off because of the mental exertion that was required for me to understand what was going on. What was good about listening is that often enough I start hearing some words repeatedly, which led to me looking these words up, which then led to them sticking in my brain and eventually using them myself.

It was hard for me to notice if I was progressing or not, but I do remember a time where I finally seemed to have a decent command of the language. It was July 2008 and I was in my first apartment, where I lived with a family of a mother and three kids. I was sitting in the kitchen looking at photos of my recent trip to Kraków, when the mother came home. She yelled out in the house to her kids, but as I was the only one home, I responded back. She came in and sat down with me, and we looked through my photos and talked about whatever came across our minds for the next hour. Before that, I don't think I had said more than 3 or 4 words to her in French. She was shocked as well, because she didn't know I spoke any French at all.

This was a big turning point because it was then that I realized that I was no longer afraid of making mistakes. Mistakes are going to happen. I still make them all the time. But once one overcomes the fear of screwing up, then one can build upon their base and really start to become fluent in a foreign language.

If you are traveling to Paris and looking to see (and eat) what French people really eat and take a walk around some cool neighborhoods of Paris, look into my tours at culinarytoursofparis.com