The Little Things

Yes, it’s the little things you discover when adjusting to life in a new city – not to mention a new country – that can both annoy and amuse you. A few things I have learned over the past couple days that fit into either category:
- If I thought a lot of shops were closed on Sunday, it seems Monday is even worse. One of the major market chains is closed on Mondays, as are tons of local boulangeries, small businesses, and so on. Some of these are possibly closed due to August vacation, but after conferring with the concierge of our hotel, it seems Monday is generally a day of rest. Annoying when you need to buy a couple key household items.
- However, tons of cafes and restaurants are open. I saw more people out for a leisurely lunch just in the half-mile radius I walked than I’ve seen lined up for Zazie every Sunday for a month (that’s a lot).
- Apparently (and we won’t be affected since we’re not buying a TV) the French pay an annual tax for having a television. What? In all fairness, this revenue funds national TV programming (some of which I hear is quite good)…but I find it hilarious nonetheless.
- People love to cut corners here. Nate tells me putting one over on The Man is a national obsession. And while I haven’t yet experienced the full of extent of this, I did see quite a few people jump the turnstiles in the Metro. I’ve seen lots of teenagers do this on previous visits to Paris, but never an elderly man in a suit or a family of four like I did the other day. The best part is, the cops rarely check for your metro tickets. They just make it so easy to cheat.
- I was wishing there were some corners I could cut this morning upon learning we had come to the wrong location for obtaining my carte de sejour. I had not only consulted a very reliable guidebook for expats living in Paris, but also 2 or 3 web sites – none of which referred me to the correct place. Sure, I could’ve called the phone number on Friday between dumping off our luggage at the hotel, getting an apartment, and opening a bank account – I had plenty of down time. We also discovered the agency wouldn’t accept the document I was using as proof of lodging, but I’ll have a copy of a lease contract soon, so that will help tremendously. Oh well. I was warned this would be one of the more frustrating aspects of assimilating…Better luck with it next week.