An American in Europe

15 September

Observations about Paris

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The roads go in every which direction – I don’t know how any of the drivers make sense of it. My friends and I have almost gotten hit by cars or motorcycles many times because sometimes the sidewalks spontaneously turn into streets.

I can never figure out how to open doors. The latch is sometimes by my foot or below my knee!! And I haven’t quite got the push / pull thing down yet.

Parisians don’t tip! So your bill is what it is. Cool huh?

At McDonalds, you can order an Evian with your Big Mac.

Some Evian with that burger?

Forget all the bull about the French being rude. The Parisians are really nice to me. They usually go about with a sour look on their faces, but if you ever need directions or have a question, they are friendly and helpful. They even tolerate my struggling, piss-poor French, and usually answer me back in English. For that, I’m grateful.

The biggest elevators are small by American standards. Phyllis, I keep thinking you’d never make it, you’d have to take the stairs!

“Pardon” is a great word. It’s French for, “get out of my way.” Just hold your nose and say “pah-doh” and you’ll get it right.

The floors start numbering at 0 instead of 1. So what would be the second floor in the U.S. is the first floor here. That’s my excuse for knocking on the wrong apartment door yesterday.

The cross signals in intersections change from “walk” to “don't walk” without warning – so you are left in the middle of the street when the cars start coming.

Ok, one final really cool thing. In one of the Metro transfer stations, there are moving sidewalks like you see in airports. On the outside are regular ones, but the high-speed one in the middle is awesome!

These metal-rolly-balls to get you up to speed and then it whisks you down the tunnel. Then the metal-rolly-balls slow you down at the end. I laugh every time I ride it. What a way to start your morning. Wheee!
posted at 05:24:10 on 09/15/04 by ajluvsu - Category: General

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