There are some obvious stereotypes about the French - and some were confirmed and others disproven to me today. Some things I learned about the French:
Real:
-- They love their baguettes. Honestly. I saw at least a dozen people carrying around bags with baguettes in them - and sometimes just baguettes, no other food. Their love of pain (bread) is no joke.
-- Secondly, these are the best baguettes you will ever have. Trust me I tried a baguette sandwich for lunch today and I just about thought the heavens were going to open. And for those of you familiar with Ratatouille - yes the bread did have the crunch, mmmm.
-- They love to smoke. I mean when you see those pictures/videos of the classy women sitting at a sidewalk cafe or the men lounging on the park bench enjoying a cigarette - yeah that's real, saw both of those today. And I hate to say this, I do, but they look so cool while doing it! Now disclaimer for all you kids out there: I am by no means advocating drug use. It is bad. Cigarettes are bad. Pipes are bad. Cigars are bad. They destroy your lungs and kill you. Plus they make you smell super gross all the time. And don't even get me started on the nasty things they can do to your mouth. I once saw a picture of a hairy tongue as a result from smoking...yeah that was enough to make me swear never to smoke - or kiss a smoker. But if anything is going to counteract that picture and make me think smoking is actually cool and not super gross, it's the image of the Parisian women smoking their cigarettes while they drink their coffe (also something I highly discourage. I'm not doing that great at dissuading drug use right now - but I participated in the D.A.R.E. program. I was part of the "Just Say No Campaign". We even had a little graduation ceremony! But I digress...
Not Real:
--Not all French men have mustaches
--I have not seen a single beret since I got here (which makes me a little sad b/c I was planning on buying one to wear for myself...oh well I'll probably get one anyway! The Americans won't know :)
--NO ONE says "Haw haw haw" EVER. Though I have heard quite a bit of "Oh la la" - that is real.
Let me just say that today was one L O N G day. And I'm not going to bore you with all the details (I'm sure you're relieved by that) - I have few enough viewers as it is, no need to go running the rest off with long detailed explanations of the plane and its flight and what I was thinking and how I was feeling about what I was thinking...
However, I will make note of some of the highlights. I took two flights to get to Paris. One was from Sacramento to Dallas and the next was Dallis to Paris. The first flight was 3 hours and the second was close to 10. I did NOT get pat down when I went through security!! For those of you who are familiar with my track record, you'll realize what an accomplishment this is. The first flight was great I slept through all of it. Then I met up with 4 other kids from my study abroad in the Dallas airport and we all took the same flight over. I sat next to a French girl. We chatted a little (yes, in French) but didn't really talk much. I tried to sleep on this super long flight. Tried. Mostly failed. And we didn't even have our own TV screen - just one fairly small one per cabin - I was disappointed by that. I didn't watch any movies and the dinner was cheese ravioli that was essentially a microwave dinner. But I'm a college kid so I'm fairly used to that right? The flight wasn't that long but essentially I was just uncomfortable THE WHOLE TIME. Which made me realize, yeah it probably is worth it to pay $200 more for first class where they can lie ALL the way down (seriously?! The seat extends to a bed - like a Bark-a-lounger!!) and one day when I'm rich and not a college kid who is familiar with eating TV dinners and beans out of a can, that will be my first order of business. I must have slept some though b/c I don't remember either of the two movies - though I do remember having to flip my pillow over b/c my drool had made my pillow so wet it was uncomfortable...ewww. Oh and I slept by huddling over and resting my head on my tray - and yeah my body was too big for that - and yes, everytime the lady in front of my decided she was going to try and pretend she was a first class customer and extend her seat as far back as possible, my head literally got crunched and I had to move it quick for fear of squishing my brains. Like I said, uncomfortable. But it was all worth it!!! Because I arrived in Paris for the first time of my life. Somehow us crazy kids managed to find our bags and get a taxi and make it to our hôtel.
Then we started seeing cool sites like
And here's the thing. The streets of Paris really are as great as they are in the movies! They really are cute and lined by beautiful buildings.
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