Washington, DC bonnes adresses

I’m back in Washington, DC for a week to move out of my apartment. If you’re ever visiting Washington, feel free to contact me for advice (although only for the next year or so, until my insider’s knowledge becomes completely stale…). Some of my favorite places in DC:

- The Spy Museum – One of the few museums you have to pay for, but worth it.

- Lauriol Plaza – Mexican restaurant. Especially good in early early spring, when you can sit on the heated outdoor patio.

- Bourbon in Glover Park – neighborhood hangout.

- Montsouris – Cute French restaurant with actual French staff and delicious country pate

- Teaism – Tea house with tasty bento boxes for lunch

- M St in Georgetown – For wandering, shopping and people watching.

- The Waterfront – not the best food, but amazing people watching on warm days. For maximum amusement, pay particular attention to the guys trying to lure girls onto their boats…

- Neyla – Mediterranean restaurant in Georgetown. Very dark, exotic atmosphere. Great for a late-night romantic dinner á deux.

- Eighteenth Street Lounge - late-night hangout, great music, in an old townhouse. Don't miss the live jazz on the 3rd floor.

Composting is good for the environment, right?

On my recent trip to Switzerland, I took the TGV. In first class. Ahhhh. Ok, not quite as luxe as flying first class, but can’t complain.

The French TGV (Trains a Grande Vitesse, aka, High Speed Train) are a popular and easy way to travel around Europe. I have to say it is significantly nicer traveling for work around Europe, than schlepping a huge suitcase and being a broke student (my last European train experience).

One thing I don’t understand: why do you have to compostez votre billet? Before boarding the train, you have to stick your ticket in a machine to composter. (I’m not exactly sure what this means, but I assure you that while the ticket is biodegradable, you do not in fact “compost” it.) Basically, this machine stamps a date and time on your ticket in really small, subtle writing. What is the point? Don’t they check your ticket on the train anyway? Besides, my ticket is non-refundable once the train departure time has passed. If you have any idea about the purpose of composting, please let me know.

I do vividly remember the consequences of not composting though. During one of my first train trips in college I didn’t composte mon billet, and when a conductor came by to check, I got a loud talking-to in French and a hefty fine. So beware!

Showering a la francaise

Apparently the French do not like shower doors or shower curtains.

This has always baffled me. In my experience, the French prefer a bathtub. This bathtub always has a detachable shower head, so you can rinse yourself. While studying in Lyon during college, I lived with a French family. Their bathroom only had a bathtub and shower head (which was not attached to the wall, but would sit on the side of the tub). I never quite mastered the art of bathing there. You couldn’t put the showerhead down while the water was running, because it would spray everywhere. So finally I learned to run some water for the bath. Get wet. Turn off water. Soap up. Turn on water and rinse off. Washing the hair was practically impossible because you could only use one hand.

Last year I stayed in a hotel in the 8^th arrondissment in Paris. This hotel had a bathtub with a shower head that was actually attached to the wall! Amazing. But, there was no shower curtain. Instead, there was a small piece of glass (12” wide) that was attached to the wall with the shower head. Apparently this was supposed to block the water spray from getting on the floor? Inevitably, everyday I would step out of the shower with fear of killing myself from slipping on the soaked tile.

In my current rental apartment there is, yet again, no shower curtain or door. It seems to work okay in this case though because it’s a very big tub, so when you shower, as long as you angle the spray towards the wall, things stay relatively dry…

Is this an aesthetic thing? Does anyone know? Actually can be kind of efficient for cleaning because your floor gets cleaned every morning after your shower…

Bittersweet'ish

I'm back in Washington, DC for a week. I'm also slightly delirious from all of the travel (spent 3 days in the Netherlands, got back to Paris at 10:30PM Friday night, then packed and flew out on Saturday morning. Whew!). And with my internal clock on Paris time, I woke up at 4AM this morning.

I'm in DC this week to clean out my apartment and Really Move. My apartment here suddenly feels empty and depressing. I've sold almost all of my furniture, so I'm sleeping on an aerobed and sitting on a folding chair. Not exactly relaxing to come home to. (Can I even call this home right now? Not sure anymore.)

I am 100% sure that moving to Paris is the right thing for me to do. In fact, I can't think of anything else I'd rather do right now, than move to Paris. That being said, it is still sad to leave a place where you've lived for many years. This apartment, this neighborhood, my routine, my friends, it was all great for years. Then suddenly, I make a big decision (to move to Paris), and suddenly this isn't my place or my routine anymore. It's very strange. I know I can come back and visit, but it will never be quite the same.

Anyway, I need to stop thinking and start packing!

Oh wait, now I'm that foreigner.

I’m realizing that every thing I do here reminds me that I am the Other, a Foreigner, the person who just arrived who speaks the language really badly. It’s an interesting position to be in for many reasons. I now have an appreciation for the challenge of moving into a new culture. But also, my awareness of everything is so heightened right now. Everything is a new experience. It makes me appreciate many little things about France and the French, but also, makes me appreciate some things that were so normal about the USA.

It is frustrating at times too. Even the most simple, routine activities become a challenge. For example, this weekend I was grocery shopping. In DC I had a nice grocery shopping routine where I could zip through the store and pick up the essentials, occasionally pausing to check out some new product. In France I am completely stymied when I get into the grocery store. I have to look at Every Single Product. First, I don’t know where anything is. Second, I don’t recognize any of the brand names! I wanted to buy some yogurt, and found myself staring at this huge wall of yogurt for a good 10 minutes, trying to discern the differences between yogurt nature, brassé, grec, demi-ecreme … Same thing with milk – does demi-ecreme mean 1% milk? Is there skim milk? Why is all of the milk in a box and not in a refridgerated case? And the eggs, they’re right on the shelf too! Does that mean they’re regular eggs, or were they specially treated? When I finally got to the checkout, all of my produce purchases were denied because I didn’t weigh and price them myself back in the produce section. I guess I’ll survive on frozen vegetables for a few days…

The Rules changed on me!

After almost three years of singledom, I've gotten quite good at dating. At least in the United States. But I'm quickly learning that in France, all of The Rules are different.

Yes, you still meet people in bars, swap phone numbers and go out on dates. BUT...then, everything changes. In the United States, at least in my experience, you can date a guy for a long time without being In A Relationship. In fact, in order to be in a Relationship, you have to have a specific conversation that goes like this:

"So, let's talk about Us. What are you thinking?"
"Well, we have a fun time together. I like hanging out with you."
"Ok, well I really like you too. Do you want to be my Boyfriend?? And not date anyone else?"
"Sure."
"Ok cool."

Yes, it is often that eloquent. No, we don't really say 'Do you want to be my Boyfriend", but you get the idea. You have to be That Explicit. Otherwise (in my experience), it is assumed that you are Just Dating, and therefore, can still be seeing other people at the same time.

However, apparently in France, you can go out once, maybe twice, but if you act like a couple (whatever this means), and especially if you kiss (not the polite cheek kiss but an actual Kiss), then you are Together. And that's it. You're a couple. No discussion. No angsting about "will he think I'm being too obsessive about wanting to commit??". Nada. You're just Together.

This is fine. In fact, both of these paradigms are Just Fine ... but they require different behaviors. I think I need to switch from the All You Can Eat buffet mentality to a "choose very carefully because you only get one scoop of ice cream" mentality. Other Americans out there - have you experienced this too?

Cheating

I think it's going to be a lot easier to cheat in Paris than I thought.

Cheating? I mean, it will be really easy to speak English. A lot. As a casual tourist to Paris, you'll find that you really do need to speak some French. If nothing else than to start off on the right foot with the Parisians. But once you spend some time exploring, especially if you speak a little French, you'll find a world of English just beneath the surface.

This weekend I went to this cute restaurant for a big lunch (I love the fact that you can have a 3 course meal for lunch in France and it's Totally Normal. I stumbled across Au Pied du Fouet by accident, and had a full meal with wine and coffee for 20 euros!). Anyway, I was speaking only French with the waitstaff, but of course I still have my Cute American Accent, and pretty soon the waitress was translating everything into English for me, even though I said "Oh no, je parle francais."

Saturday night I went out with some French friends, and I quickly realized that I could speak full-on Franglais and they would still know what I'm talking about. My French teachers would cringe. But it definitely makes it easier to sprinkle in some English when you forget some key vocabulary. We ended the night at a Canadian bar, Moosehead where speaking English was the thing to do (truth be told, perhaps there were more Anglos than usual because it was the night of the Rugby World Cup final). (Let it be noted that I do not, at all, enjoy sports bars. But for some reason I had a great time at this one. Maybe it reminded me of home!) I think I'll have to make a real effort if I want my French to improve. I can already tell my comprehension is getting better, but if I want to feel less like a 5 year old when I speak, I'm going to have to make Personal Rule #284 and Only Speak French for awhile.

Missed Connection in Paris?

For those of you who are not familiar, you should really check out the "Missed Connections" section on Craigslist for your city. The idea is that if you see someone who is interesting, but for some reason you couldn't meet them, you post an "MC" and hopefully they'll see it and contact you. Ohhhh isn't it a romantic concept?? You see someone on a subway going the opposite direction, your eyes lock, but then the trains are off, never to be seen again! Ok, in reality most of the posts are people who just didn't have the courage to say Hello, but the idea is the same...

Regardless, Missed Connections are very entertaining ... and addictive. In Washington, DC, my friends and I would often lament the fact that we weren't "MC'd" when we thought we were out on the town looking particularly good. Although I have never personally received an MC, one of my friends has ... twice! And after seeing a particularly cute guy on my daily commute, I have even been known to post an MC myself.

When I moved to Paris, I was thrilled to see that Craigslist exists here. The apartment listings and "For Sale" ads aren't too bad. But the MC's are so sparse that they barely warrant a monthly click! In DC, the volume of MCs was so high that you had to check at least daily to keep up with them (although with an MC addiction, this easily turned into 10 times per day). But looking at Paris MCs, there are still posts from over a month ago!! How disappointing.

So, I'm wondering about the cause of this pathetic MC'ing. Is craigslist just not popular enough in Paris? Or, in Paris, the city of Light and Love, do people actually talk to others who they find attractive, rather than resorting to random posts in cyberspace... I guess I will find out in the coming months!

Stairs in the metro

I get the impression that one is expected to be really self-sufficient in French society. There aren’t a lot of cushions provided in daily life – you just have to deal with things. (Although, if something goes Really Wrong, like illness or losing your job, the French really take care of everyone.). But in daily life, it can be really inconvenient.

For example, why are there so few escalators in the Paris metro?!

On a normal day, I don’t mind taking several flights of stairs in the metro. In fact, I think all of these stairs and walking are a key part to why the French are so slim.

However, for city-dwellers going on a trip, trying to navigate all of these stairs with luggage is a huge pain and quite a workout!

In particular, on my recent trip to Switzerland, I took the metro to Gare de Lyon, a major train station in Paris. I can understand why in a random metro station you might have not installed escalators. But in a metro stop at a train station?? I would guess a large percentage of people going to Gare de Lyon would be traveling on a train, and therefore, would have luggage. But yet, the stairs persist. (Ok this photo is not actually from the Gare de Lyon, but from another metro station...but you get the idea)

Snack Me Sandwich?

An interesting find in a Swiss vending machine: a "Snack Me" Sandwich. The picture looks like two crackers with a filling. Right below the word "sandwich" the filling is described as cheese, pineapple and the "flavor of ham". Hmmm.

Amazing diversity of electric plugs...

Electric outlet in my Swiss hotel room...

Which way is the Eiffel Tower?

We've all read numerous articles on how rude the French are (supposed to be). This article in the Sydney Morning Herald (which I found via The French Journal) reminded me of a recent experience. This weekend I went to a housewarming party in Paris. Almost all of the attendees were French. I'm guessing that the French don't always talk about Americans at parties, but when I'm present, the conversation almost always turns to something American-related. At this party, the discussion was about how many American tourists assume that everyone in France speaks English. In fact, one Parisian (with whom I was conversing in my preferred melange of French and English, aka, Franglais), told me that when he is approached by an American in English for directions, he first acts like he doesn't understand, and then gives them the wrong directions!!! But if they try to speak a little French first, he is quite helpful.

From my overly-friendly American perspective, I found this kind of shocking actually. And who knows if it's true (I think there is a similar ad on TV right now?? Anyone know?).

This same Parisian later told me that he felt like an American traveler when he went to Switzerland and automatically assumed they would accept Euros...

La Greve!

My job requires me to travel ... a lot. On Thursday I have a meeting in Bern, Switzerland. Normally this would not be a problem. Except that this Thursday in particular is la greve (a strike). All of the train workers are striking in France. Well, not all of them, I was assured by an SNCF employee, but 92% of them. Lovely.

Strikes are very common here, so what a better way to kickoff my business travel experience in France than to be inconvenienced by a train strike?! At least the strikers provide advanced notice. And apparently also provide a minimum level of service. Although judging by the pictures I've seen of previous train strikes, it will still not be pretty.

My solution? Arrive on Wednesday night and stay until Friday. Know any Bern hotspots I should check out while I'm in town??

Paris, enfin!

Enfin, finally, I've arrived in Paris. Temporarily at least. I'm still in the process of moving from Washington, DC. I'm here for a few weeks for work and the (very daunting) apartment hunt.

So what is this blog?? I've been an francophile for my entire life. I studied in Lyon, France briefly during college, but then Real Life happened and I pretty much gave up on the idea of living abroad. I tried to get involved in French things in Washington, DC, but that really just reminded me that I'd prefer to be in actual France, rather than trying to recreate France in DC... And then, one day, voila! an opportunity appeared at my job to move to Paris and I jumped at the chance.

So here I am. My idea with Frenchesque is to share my experiences about living in Paris, being an expat, travels around Europe and generally figuring things out about Life in my late-twenties. Bonjour et Bienvenue.