A cette époque, environ 2 ans, j’étais à Paris. Il fut un temps que je n’oublierai jamais. Rencontrer de nouvelles personnes. L’apprentissage de la culture.Manger de la nourriture incroyable. Je veux revenir en arrière. J’ai besoin derevenir en arrière.
“Tout arrive en France.”
I love traveling because it opens your mind to new ideas, cultures and traditions. Whenever anyone asks me why I love travel, it’s really a simple answer. I enjoy it.
When I studied abroad in Paris, France about a year ago, it opened my mind to a new culture. I studied French language and culture back in school, but it’s totally a different ball game when you are actually immersed in the culture. Waking up in the morning and going to a local market for fresh produce. Struggling to make conversation and get help if you get lost or you’re confused. Taking life slow and enjoy the pleasures of laying on the lawn beside the Eiffel Tower. There is nothing more rewarding than going out and having experiences.
Travel also gets you to actually go out and see new things. It seems when we live in one place for awhile, we still never go out and do everything. Whenever you are out traveling, there is always a list of things you want to see while you are there. Ultimately, I want to go out and experience life and culture so that when I have children, I can raise them with a more open-minded and worldly perspective.
I plan on taking a trip to Spain, Germany and Amsterdam in a couple months. Here are some of the things I plan on doing while I’m there (on-going list that I will continuously add on to):
1 ) Bring shirts without skulls on them. Skulls are seen as the sign of satan and not a lot of parisians have shirts (or at least I didn’t see many) with skulls on them.
2 ) Only really need 1 pair sandals, 1 pair casual shoes, 1 pair nice shoes
3 ) Parisians dress more “metro”. More polos, more button-up shirts.
4 ) If you don’t use travel books often (or when you’ve traveled elsewhere), don’t bother bringing them. I found I googled most of the time or just walked around and stumbled on restaurants, bars, clubs, etc.
5 ) Cheap wine is your best friend. If you plan going out, it’s much better to buy wine to drink before as drinks in a club/bar are usually 7 euro+ for a bottle of beer whereas a bottle of wine will be 1.50+ euro.
6 ) Metro face. I know we like to smile, but especially for girls, if you smile, that means you are interested and then guys will stare at you non-stop…like creepy staring. They won’t look away. I don’t think it’s as big of a deal for guys.
7 ) Americans talk loud and take up the whole walkway and walk slow. Don’t shout. Notice the level that others talk in, try to be polite and stay around the same volume. If you are traveling in groups, try to stick to one side. Don’t take up the whole sidewalk.
8 ) If you usually drink a lot of water, bring some with you. Restaurants aren’t always so generous on water as they are in the United States. They usually expect you to drink wine or something.
9 ) Be patient. I went to a “fast food chain” called Quick (french mcdonalds). It is NOT quick. Markets are NOT quick. The pace of life is much slower, so be prepared.
10 ) A lot of people smoke cigarettes, so be prepared.
11 ) French people dance farther apart from one another. Also they listen to mostly electro music. Good thing, they listen to a lot of American music.
There is this one french bridge by the pont neuf that is kind of the local student spot/late night hangout where younger people go and drink wine and have a picnic. The bridge is called “LE PONT DES ARTS”. Tuesday night a couple of us went to this bridge to drink some wine, eat some food, and I brought my guitar. Let me just tell you that everyone brings a guitar..usually.. but this night I was one of only a few. It was funny that weird random strangers would walk up and listen, some asked if they could play, and some sang along. The night ended with a french rap duel. There were 2 pairs of french people that just went at it. It was awesome! French rap sounds really cool.
Also on a side note. The fast food hamburger resturant in paris called “QUICK” (the french version of mcdonalds) is not quick at all. It was very deceptive. I would name it l’escargot.
These are my last few hours in Paris and France for that matter. Thank you to all my new friends for all the great memories. I look forward to hanging out with you all in the states!
bon voyage mes amis
EDIT: Here is a video of the french rap session!
I went to see the Tour de France today. There were soo many people! I was able to get really close to all of them though. If I stuck my hand out.. i could’ve touched them. I’ll post pictures soon!
