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welcome to france, i'll be your tourguide
Good afternoon, all. I am no longer a pirate... for the time being. Instead, I am way-too-sleepy-person. However, I will take a break from falling asleep at my desk in order to complete my blogging assignment for today.
The pros and cons and things to see and things to avoid for Paris and Poitiers.
1. Poitiers
Pros: A city with lots of history. The regional accent is very easy on the ears. There is a little pâtisserie near L' Hôtel de Ville that makes the very best florentins au chocolat in the entire world. I have friends there who, although a little bit crazy and critical of americans, are very friendly.
Cons: It's on a hill, with a steep cliff on one side, so whenever you have to walk anywhere it's guaranteed to be uphill. Although it's a main stop on the TGV, it's still a ways from other places. It's where I went to high school, sorta.
Things to see: The town website. La cathédrale Saint-Pierre. La Place Notre Dame. Le Palais de Justice. Also, if you're in the neighborhood, go visit Le Parc de Futuroscope.
I can't really think of places to avoid, partly because I like Poitiers, and partly because I don't know it well enough to know about the really bad stuff.
2. Paris
Pros: It's Paris, for heaven's sake! You actually need to be convinced???
Ok, ok. Pros. You're completely plugged in to the heart and soul of France's culture, history and arts. It's a gorgeous city, with beautiful things to see all around. The transportation network is really great - better than any other major city I've visited. It's relatively safe, if you're not a dumbass. It's easy to get from there to many other exciting places in France and Europe.
Cons:
1)Tourists. Let me say that again - TOURISTS. I HATE tourists. Especially American ones. Who think that they should be allowed to complain that a waiter won't speak English, seemingly not realizing that they are in the waiter's country, which happens to speak French.
2) The French work ethic - trente-cing heures and closed forever for lunch and all Monday morning?
3) Parisians. The people in Paris hate everybody equally - you, me, foreigners, each other, themselves. Of course there are exceptions, but I have found this to be a generality.
4) Students. Specifically young American female students, who have the opportunity to explore this wonderful city full of art and history and culture and wonderment - and instead they spend their entire stay shopping.
5) Smog, bad drivers, and cigarette smoke. Also, little tiny doggie poo on the sidewalks. Also pickpockets, in touristy areas.
Things to see: I'm not going to waste your time listing La Tour Eiffel, L'Arc de Triomphe, La Place de la Concorde, Le Louvre, Les Invalides, Le Sacré Coeur, La Cathédrale de Notre Dame, etc. Ok, so maybe I will waste your time.
Here's some things that are more personal to me: La Place du Marché de la Sainte Catherine, which is one of my favorite places and is magical with yummy food. Le Pont de l'Alma, nicknamed my thinking bridge because I like to go there with something yummy and just stand and think and watch the ferris wheel at La Place de la Concorde or turn around and gaze at La Tour Eiffel. It's good to visit the textile factories at Les Gobelins, because I'm a historian and I want all of you to be one too. Also, there's this little café somewhere near Rue du Bac (I can get there on foot, but I don't know the street name) that serves the best lunch salads in the world. In the WORLD. I would gladly travel across town just to eat there. Oh, and even if it is touristy, I love Pizza Pino on the Champs Elysées.
Things to avoid: Tourists, unless you are planning on telling them how stupid they are and then educating them about how to be polite to the native citizens of a foreign country. Pigale, unless you like that sort of thing. Les Halles at night, because it's sketchy. And the one TGIFriday's in the city (at least, when I lived there) which is located somewhere at M: Grands Boulevards.
Next assignment, if you would be so kind.
katie - Thursday, 12 June 2003 - 3:11 PM
Tags: guest blogging
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Comments (21)
katie - June 12, 2003 - 3:30 PM - ℓ
No actual comments on my post? I must say I'm slightly disappointed.
2) I went to Poitiers because I requested an Orthodox family (for church-going purposes) and the only Orthodox family in all of France to volunteer to take students lived in Jardres, just outside of Poitiers.
4) Yes, I have seen a walrus, at the zoo. They are just like in cartoons - big, with silly moustaches, and they do make those funny noises.
5) The Katie Show!
6) The Katie Show... :(
Jez - June 12, 2003 - 4:10 PM - ℓ
I ate at Pizza Pino on the Champs Elysées last Friday. Very nice it was too. I shall be dining at the Montecristo Café on that very same avenue tomorrow.
The ferris wheel at Concorde is no more. I only went on it once. In the freezing cold. It was rubbish. And cold.
I am the walrus. Goo goo ge choob.
lee - June 13, 2003 - 4:07 AM - ℓ
TGI Friday's at Grands Boulevards has only gotten worse. Walking by there for the first time in months sometime last week, I noticed that the menus on the table still say TGI Fridays, but the name of the restaurant is now...yes...Sunset Boulevard.
I agree with you on the tourism bit, and the annoying Americans who come here to shop. They usually talk really loudly and pretend they speak good French, too (they don't).
But I don't agree that the Parisians are mean or hateful. I find them far easier to get along with than "friendly" Americans. But for some reason I seem to be one of the only people I know who feels this way.
Choose from these for your next assignment (I can't come up with anything as hard as you did for me):
1) Stories about learning French or making stupid, embarrassing mistakes in French.
2) Why did you go to Poitiers?
3) If France could learn/adopt one thing from the US, what would you want it to be? The US from France?
4) Have you ever seen a real live walrus? Because I don't think I have, even at the zoo, and I'm craving the sight of a walrus. 'Cause I'm crazy like that.