Quick turnaround …today I’m headed to London! It’s a bit wierd that I just got back to Paris and now I’m going to another country, but next weekend I definitely plan to stay. Every week we have a three day weekend so it offers the opportunity to make a few trips elsewhere. England is second on my list of places I’ve always wanted to visit, so I’m very excited. Hoping to see the Queen (ha) so I can wave to her in a royal manner. Hoping too to try a full English breakfast and some tea and milk!
But back to the subject of Paris, I’ve still been finding that waiters and people in general seem to be pretty friendly, or at least not rude or arrogant as some like to think. My one complaint so far is the ubiquity of smoke everywhere. You can’t walk more than 5 minutes without passing by someone with a cigarette entwined in their fingers. I was sitting pleasantly outside a cafe one day before a woman at the table next to mine lit one up, causing all the smoke to waft downstream to me. I was relieved when she left, until a man at another table lit one up to accompany his coffee. Smoking is clearly a normal thing here, unlike in the US where stringent laws choke out the available places for people to smoke in public. I heard the laws are slowly beginning to change and starting to come down on smokers here, such as forbidding smoking inside restaurants, though I also heard a lot of these laws are oftentimes not heeded. Purely from what I can tell, most people are probably not going to be kicking their habit in public anytime soon.
Some more general observations:
-The sun sets extraordinarily late here, around 10pm. It’s nice because you can be out later and still feel safe and like it’s still daytime, though even when it gets dark are so many people still out and about.
-So far, I enjoy riding the metro as it’s pretty quick and convenient, and runs the trains you need often. At least up to this point the trains can get crowded, but not overwhelmingly so.
-Going out to eat turns into a 2 or 3 hour affair. The waiters are slow to come take your orders, give you your food, and then give you the check. I say this not as an insult or complaint — I enjoy being given time and not being rushed! Unlike in the US the waiters will not be constantly hovering over you, coming to check if “everything’s alright” and subtly giving you hints that you need to get the hell out if you take too long. In France, eating out is truly something of pleasure, where one goes out to luxuriate and amble in good food and company, rather than scarfing down meals. As someone who is a notoriously slow eater, I absolutely love this.