Paris, an Unforgettable Cliché
By Stinne Loo on Oct 23, 2014
The Eiffel Tower. The streets. The wine. Glamour. Everything we have read in the books. Just like Hemingway wrote. Everything we have seen in the movies. Like Midnight in Paris or Paris, I Love You. It's all true, however...
It's a Life That Costs You a Pretty Penny
When I first thought about life in Paris, I dreamed mostly about romantic walks near the river Seine, lovely people talking the language of Voltaire, endless warm summer nights accompanied by good red wine, and the list continues. Well, yes, you can have all that, but at what price?
The city of Paris is full of temptations but it is also very small and one of the most visited cities in the world. Demand grows along with the prices. Yes, I wanted to visit a cosy little wine bar in the 3rd arrondissement, but I changed my mind as soon as I saw the price list. Yes, I wanted to see a show in the famous Moulin Rouge - boom, 120 Euros! Yes, I wanted to have croissants and macarons every day - that would have cost me around 100 Euros per month. And I still haven't even mentioned the costs of transport, food, utility bills, etc. Honestly, the prices are obscene, but at least many of the museums (for people under 26) and the water in public fountains are still free! On those rare occasions when I decided to indulge my appetite with something very good, I took my friends with me and we went to an Italian restaurant. I learned to enjoy every mouthful of food like I never did before.
All photos courtesy of David Bacher www.davidbacher.com
Une Montagne de Dossiers
A mountain of papers - that is the picture you should envisage before moving to Paris. Luckily, I escaped most of it as I had people already offering me accommodation, but I still dealt with problems like getting a new SIM card, which took me two weeks and creating a bank account, which took me a month. One morning my colleague came to work in an exceptionally good mood. It turned out that the smile on her face was thanks to the „carte vitale“ (health card) that she had obtained the day before. Well, no wonder she was so happy as she had started the process of getting her health insurance papers six months before! I never even started going down that road. Coming from a country where everything can be done online with just a few clicks, all that paperwork can end up giving you a serious migraine.
Endless Art
Again, everybody knows how much there is to see in the great city of Paris. Especially when it comes to art. Le Louvre. La Musée D’Orsay. Centre Georges Pompidou. It's an unending story. So, of course I took advantage of the fact that mosts museums were free for me and tried to visit as many museums and galleries as possible. Just as predicted, most of the big and famous museums were overcrowded and that makes the act of enjoying art almost impossible. The last straw came when I was in the Musée D’Orsay, I had just made my way to one of my favourite paintings of Van Gogh, when a group of old people in wheelchairs also came to groove exactly the same little piece of art. Of course I vacated the space in front of the painting and left the building.
After that day I decided to pay for the smaller galleries and thereby really observing the art without any elbows pushing me. Later I also visited some buildings that had some contemporary art inside, I paid 8 Euros for the entrance and saw some gigantic sculptures that for me had no meaning. I’m sure there was something really touching and deep behind the big black ball made of unknown materials and attached to the ceiling, but I just didn’t understand it. So I ended my relationship with all the museums and started discovering the smaller corners in Paris, with their street art, colourful buildings and gardens. Therefore, I consider the non-touristy parts of Paris as masterpieces of their own.
Things That Can’t Be Overlooked
Walking around different arrondissements can also be dangerous. Some things can be disturbing and some even frustrating, especially when you live near a touristy area like I did. I lived just between two famous metro stops - Anvers, from where you can take the stairs to Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre and Barbès-Rochechouart, where you can easily get punched. I actually don’t know anybody who has been beaten up there, but my roommate was once stuck in a big Carrefour supermarket during the daytime because there was a violent riot on the streets and the chefs of the shop decided to close it. Broadly speaking, riots are in fashion all over Paris.
Montmartre on the other side is famous thanks to its romantic streets full of portrait painters, and its stairs that take you up to an astonishing view of Paris. Sometimes, after a rainy day in August, a walk up there can be really relaxing and soul stirring, because there is nobody else on the streets. Most of the time however, on your way there you will meet annoying stolen-smartphone-salesmen, importunate guys trying to sell you „Prada“ bags, little Eiffel towers and friendship bracelets and loads of tourists moving at a speed of 1 meter per hour. Add all this to the repugnant smells of urine and garbage, and you’ll get a full picture of Montmartre on a regular day.
Le Temps de Vivre
Everything in this world has two sides to it. The moment you are sitting on a terrace of a cosy café, enjoying your little plate of café gourmand as a beam of sunlight warms your face, you will forget the price of the coffee, the smell of urine, and everything else that bothered you a few seconds ago. It is the moment you realise that you will never find that specific atmosphere elsewhere. You can spend hours just watching the people passing by, wandering around the streets, holding hands with their loved one. It can’t get any cheesier, I know.
Hemingway was right when he wrote his famous words: "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."
