Some interesting observations about Parisians, or possibly about the French in general…
- PDAs (Public Displays of Affection) are common. Since arriving, I’ve seen couples french kissing in the middle of a crowded Metro while standing between lots of other strangers, couples with their hands in each other’s back pockets, couples hugging in the middle of the park, couples laying down and kissing each other while lying down in the grass, lesbian couples kissing each other right in the middle of the store as they change shifts…
- The French like their bread. Every evening, I’ve seen people walking away from the Metro, on their way home carrying a couple of loafs of bread under their arm. Breakfast, lunch and dinner all have bread of some sort
- In fast-food/street restaurants, it is customary to just leave after you finish your meal and let the staff clean up. This is in line with the rest of the world, but conflicts with the U.S. way of doing things where the patrons are expected to clean up. I wonder why the U.S. has the custom of cleaning up after yourself?
- Eating takes forever here… 2 hour lunches, 3 1/2 hour dinner… when do they find time to do anything? It’s nice and relaxing, but sometimes I do want to go somewhere after I finished dinner! On Thurs night, I wanted to do some shopping after dinner, but when dinner takes 3 1/2 hours, it makes it hard to make your next appointment!
- Service varies hugely, both in restaurants and other places. At some restaurants, I’ve had waiters doing their best to introduce the food, even when speaking broken English, teaching how to eat something, while other restaurants, where the waiter actually knows perfect English, they don’t help out at all, take forever to bring stuff you ask for, even when you’re trying to pay the bill. I’ve had hotels where they bend over backwards to make your stay enjoyable, while other places where you can barely get them to accept your room key when you are dropping them off. One of our profs explains it as the French being a people of extremes, wanting to takes both the good and the bad, where they would not be able to appreciate good things unless they experienced some bad, while Americans like to standardize things… I’m not sure… I think I prefer the minimum level for a standard, then be surprised when the minimum level is exceeded!
- Beggars are annoyingly insistent here… Then again, I think this is only around the tourist areas. In many places, I’ve seen these young, waif-like girls walking around barefoot, dressed in rags and running up to people asking "Do you speak English?" If you look at them or answer them, they hold up a piece of paper as though expecting you to read it and respond in some way. I’ve actually never seen anyone respond to them yet, and I’m wondering how effective they are, but I’ve seen them at three tourist attractions and at the train station
- Tourist vendors are also very insistent. When leaving the Eiffel tower, everyone on the elevator was raided by a group of street vendors selling cheap keychains and trinkets, running up to you and virtually yelling in your face "1 euro for two!" I think I counted 2 vendors for every passenger, with nobody buying! When visiting Montmarte, some weird vendor was approaching everyone and asking them to follow him to do something "related to the church". I saw that he was selling some weird string thing that goes around your wrist. The worst part was that these people were actually actively blocking your way, grabbing onto your arm and not letting you proceed. Such behavior would probably end with a fight in the U.S. I had to fight my way through these people twice in an hour. The first I just turned and walked in a different direction before he could catch up to me, but the second I had to actually shout down before he would back off.
- The French can be very friendly, and extremely unfriendly and snobbish… it all varies and depends on who you talk to, how you talk to them, and who knows what else…