Nice and integrated.

08.18.2007

Nice and integrated.

Even though I’ve only been here 3 days now, I feel I can somewhat generalize already about the French as a whole. (Typical American approach, btw.)

First, all that talk of snootiness, holier-than-thou, liberty fries attitude we come to expect from this crêpe-loving country, has, in my experience been very unfounded. Every person I have talked to has been nice and helpful. People voluntarily say ‘bonsoir’ or ‘bonjour’ in the elevator and there have been no rude waiters, salespeople—even the street vendors have a refined air and treat the passerby with dignity. (Funny thing, you need to have a permit to ‘vend’ on the street, as I saw one arrested by the police today 300 yds from the Eiffel tower.)
If you think they’re only nice to me because I address them in French (just like I first thought), just listen to my current French, a shade above atrocious, and you will discover this is not the reason (as have I, L).

Second, and perhaps no less shocking, the overall societal integration. If New York City is the melting pot of the world, then Paris is like a Jackson Pollock work—lots of colors dabbed over the whole canvas with many unlike colors pairing up instantaneously. Seriously though, a more integrated city I have not seen. Certainly not in the US, or anywhere else I’ve been. People seem to coexist here unlike elsewhere. Lots of interracial/interethnic couples (and thus children). Interesting.

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Lots of demographic studies show that Europeans in general are having fewer kids than their immigrant counterparts and thus altering the makeup of the continent.
Have these demographers ever been here then, to Paris at least???
Every group of people I see that isn’t a couple has a stroller. And I don’t mean the tourists (most tourists have older children with them). Clearly the French, their proud selves, have decided to show up those demographers and naysayers by bringing out, showing off, and strolling all of the available infants and toddlers.
Now did I get a representative sample? Perhaps, I’ve walked around for a good 15 hours the past 3 days, outside: that’s a lot of f-ing strollers. Way to go French people, reproduce at will.

A brief shout-out.
Oslo. Spring 2005. Sam Richter and some younger girls and I completed a 5-6 hour walk around Oslo, starting roughly from Henrik Ibsen’s grave, getting lost, finding a park, then a river, some hobos, and then finally finding our way back to the hotel.
Paris. Fall 2007. Apparently, I wanted some more of that. It’s one of the best ways to see a city—just to wander around. Today, I saw the Eiffel Tower and surrounding Martian Fields (Champs de Mars, Marsovo Polye). That’s where the tourists are. Damn, that’s a lot of people. Then I walked around about ¼ of the city, seeing nothing in particular and everything in general for 5 hours.

I highly recommend this sort of tourism.