“Oooooooo. I LOOOOOVE Paris!” exclaim most travellers excitedly after a visit to the City of Light. After all, it’s the home to some of the world’s most recognizable landmarks; of high end fashion, art, and literature; the streets are filled with the aroma of baking bread and designer fragrance; and there is always something new to experience.

But, like every city on the planet, some aspects of life for a resident or a traveller, are more rosy than others. (PS also using this chance to pop in some photos I haven’t posted elsewhere).

Oui!

The bread – fresh, crunchy, delicious. Obviously not filled with preservatives because it generally only lasts a day…but we are going through two French sticks a day anyway!

Cafe culture – cafes are everywhere, and they are always full. Not just with workmates having ad-hoc meetings, or parents with pushers catching up for some adult conversation, or older folk chatting to fill their day. There are friends just enjoying each others’ company and conversation, food and drinks…enjoying life more than we seem to fit in time for in Australia. The decoration on some of these cafes is “extreme botanical” with fake blooms bursting from their facades.

Night owls – like us, the French get up late and go to bed late. Maybe it’s also because the sun doesn’t go down in summer until after 11.

Friendliness – with the sun out, Parisians everywhere were in high spirits. Everyone was a delight. And the volume that often come with other European “friendliness” is just not there. People seem respectful of others around them where conversation levels are concerned.

Electric vehicles – they are everywhere, meaning that even on busy streets, it’s reasonably quiet. There is an obvious lack of aggressive driving that is excessive in Australia. Pedestrians are safe to cross streets. Drivers let others in and wave people through. People use rental scooters and e-bikes, and their own bicycles and even remote control unicycles, wearing suits on their way to work, dresses and heels. Unfortunately, we mostly all live hours away from our workplaces in Australia. The peril of distance makes many of these options an impossibility for us.

The lack of crazy eyelashes and plumped lips – Parisians are classy. Down-played, natural, low-fuss beauty. The proliferation of crazy horse-length eyelashes and chubby filled lips that are fashionable in Australia at the moment were nowhere to be seen. And the only mullets on guys were on Australian tourists.

The Metro – got us everywhere we wanted to go all week, with one easy tap-on pass.

Non!

Erratic opening hours – every shop seems to make up their own timetable. It changes every day…on one street, each day we were surprised to see what was hidden behind the shuttered windows when they did decide to open up. “Oh look, it’s a stationery shop!”

The sameness of every block. This was evident when we saw the span of the city from Sacré-Cœur. Every building the same colour. All the same height. At street-level, every neighbourhood looked identical when you pop out of the Metro station. Another beige 5 story street. All beautiful, with engraved timber doors, and intricate stone work…but all the same.

The cost of clothing – while we were hoping to come home with fancy new wardrobes, everything was just so expensive. We found it difficult to find clothes that weren’t either Dior/Chanel which is obviously way out of our price range; or Dotti type fast fashion that had the same $5 singlet tops you’d find back home.

Smoking and vaping – JUST GIVE IT A REST. Breathing in cigarette smoke while we were eating was something I didn’t think we’d have to exprence again after Australia thankfully banned it years ago. Did these guys just not get the memo. It’s not cool. It reeks. And sucking back on your vape every two seconds instead of breathing in oxygen is desperate and filthy. Just no.

Finding and paying for toilets – They’re not at the Metro stations. They’re not in shops. There are some in the streets, but they are so complex to operate. A homeless dude had set up a tent near one of them, and made his money explaining how to use them to tourists! (Thanks buddy)

Groups of military characters, toting machine guns, just wandering menacingly through the streets and shops.

The Marche aux Puces de St. Ouen Flea market – I was looking forward to this market more than anything. It wasn’t a “flea market” in the end…more an “antiques market” with gilded furniture, chandeliers and artwork more suited to a palace than a house in the burbs. I did enjoy flicking through boxes of old photos and postcards however, and bought some First Communion cards from the 1930s for 1 euro each.

The Metro – crowded, un air-conditioned, loud, dirty, falling apart. Having to violently shove your way through the exit turnstiles.

Quelle surprise!

What surprised us about Paris:

The lack of queues – I think we managed to time our excursions just right

The quiet in the streets – as mentioned above, electric vehicles, polite people, and lack of birdlife all contribute to this. Our house in the suburbs back home is a cacophony of noise; cicadas, crickets, frogs, dogs, cockatoos, magpies, kookaburras, cats, lawn mowers, bogans doing burnouts (mostly this tbh). It’s incessant!

The city is bursting with people, and not just tourists – if the Metro is anything to go by, there are too many people. Train after train, every 4 or so minutes in every direction, with people squished in like sardines.

How people have time to be out eating and drinking. All the time. Even at cafes or on the train in Australia, people are madly working. Tapping out emails, replying to urgent business messages…work, work, working. It didn’t feel like that was happing in Paris.

Lucky them.