Happy In Bag

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Pardon












I bought into the lie. French people are rude. They hate Americans. I discovered on my first trip to the country last week that the stereotype simply isn't true. Almost all of my encounters with the friendly, polite and attractive people of France were positive. Sure, it's easy to laugh at their foibles- check out this view of the traffic circle surrounding the Arc de Triomphe- but I'm completely smitten.

posted by Happy In Bag @ 1:53 PM  

6 Comments:

  • At 4:22 PM, Blogger Faith said…

    I still don't understand how they get around that monument without bumping into each other more often!

    And I, too, found the stereotype to be completely false when I lived there. Aside from the drunken old dudes peeing on my building at 2 in the morning who didn't like me yelling out my window at them to ARETE already, most everyone I ran into was nice, helpful, and generally friendly. Can't wait to get back, someday!

     

  • At 6:59 PM, Anonymous Nick said…

    I discovered, inadvertently mind you, that in the Parisian cafes you could raise an irate eyebrow or two if you insisted on a German blanc instead of their beloved rouges. That aside Paris is an extremely livable city.

     

  • At 7:04 PM, Blogger Happy In Bag said…

    How long did you live there, Faith? Do you ever dream about moving back?

    Funny you mention cafes, Nick. I intend to share a humiliating cafe story in this space soon.

     

  • At 8:51 AM, Blogger Faith said…

    I lived there for 3 months when I was in college. It fulfilled the rest of my language credits at Pepperdine (I attended school while I was there), and I got to live in an amazing city and see a lot of Europe to boot!

    I do want to move there again. When I'm older, my perfect life would be to live in Paris half the time, and live in Boston the other half. I don't plan on continuing to drive past the age of 60, so I primarily want to live in a city where public transportation is so key. Paris and Boston were a couple of my favorite places to live in the past, and it's due in part to their fab transport.

    I'm hoping to take a vacation in Europe next year. My husband's never been!

     

  • At 12:27 PM, Blogger Happy In Bag said…

    So much beauty, Faith! I'd like to attend Pepperdine for the rest of my life.

     

  • At 11:09 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    i was riding in a cab when going through that "traffic circle" around the Arc. one of the scariest rides i've ever had. your photo, hap, only shows part of the issue.... something like 6 streets feed into that thing, including of course the Champs E...(i'll never get the spelling right...).

     

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