Banshee16 said:
Paris was beautiful. I could easily see myself living there. I already speak the language, so it may not be such a difficult adjustment. And the people there were way nicer than I'd been led to believe.
I find them very nice as well--very genuine, very people-oriented. My brother-in-law tells me that it's gotten a lot better, that 10 years ago even everyone was worried about money and things were more edgy. But what I really like is that when you make a friend here, they're a real friend--they don't do things halfway.
There's an english-language used bookstore in the Odeon (right next to the Latin quarter) called the San Francisco Bookstore. Not long after I arrived, I went in and chatted with the old guy who owned it. I asked him if he missed San Francisco, and he said no. "I've been here for six months, and so far I'm pretty happy with it too." I said.
"You just keep getting happier." he replied.
It's great to be living with people who don't think that work is the purpose of life.
And I also found, very quickly, a great group of gamers in Paris--the Gamefreaks. They're about half French and half expatriats of English-speaking countries, and we play in English.
Your tip about driving was interesting.....I'd been told the same thing about Italy. So we walked everywhere and used public transportation. Traffic was really busy. It was funny because Europeans have much lower accident rates than Americans and Canadians....but I'm curious whether that's because there are fewer accidents, or because there are lots of little accidents but nobody reports them. We were noticing that 90% of cars we saw had dents and such.
I've been in Italy too, and Greece is ten times worse. Or maybe I blocked out my memories of Italy, it was a long time ago...
A funny observation I had was that everyone smelled nice in Paris. It was like everywhere we walked, people were wearing good perfume etc. Back home, since they instituted the "no smoking in public places, bars, or restaurants", I've been noticing a lot more B.O., so it was a nice change.
My wife (who is French) would disagree.
But she takes the metro to work during rush hour, and one stinky person can be enough to ruin your day! I don't think the level of stinkage is higher than anywhere else, though.
There was a store that I saw that I think was a gaming store, called "Descartes", but I didn't make it inside, as we were rather busy.
Yep, it is. I've been in there once, and they have a lot of good board games and strategy games. The RPG shop is called Fireball, and it's also in the Odeon. They've got a nice basement with swords and axes on the wall that we game in sometimes.
Next time you're here feel free to join us in a game.
Ben
