I have a love hate relationship with Paris. Though maybe those words are too strong. It’s sort of what I imagine a drug addiction would be like, I can’t get enough of it yet it’s too much at the same time. Amoungst the clutter,the fast lanes and the slow lanes, tiredness and haze – this city is feeding me and I’m happy here.

(Jan playing on Fête de la Musique)

This is the first city I’ve lived in which is moving faster than I am! The amount of opportunities are endless! Rushing to work et ensuite par échange leçon de français, My brain overflowing with information sometimes sentences in English come out with a few French words thrown in, I think it’s normal for Parisian new commers learning French…

This blog post has been sitting in the wings for the past few days as I needed some new photos! I was been pulled under by another wave and have just come up for air, ha! Fête de la Musique was on Thursday and it was a great experience. I spent most of the night watching musicians I know through work do their thing.

The balancing act for time:

I think back now to my schedule in New Zealand and Australia, in the 9-5 I had to balance work with healthy eating, excersice and a social life. It was relatively easy most of the time. In Paris there is more of everything, sleep and excersise are tipping out of the scale. It feels like I’m constantly juggling everything and I’m meeting new people all the time. Back home there were moments where In my spare time where I couldn’t think of anything to do but here there are all ways several options at my disposal.

I’ve been waking up at short random intervals during the night with French sentences in my head, maybe my brain has been working so intensively at categorising everything that it’s enough to wake me up!! (I do mix up English from time to time, I don’t think I’m losing it but my brain is having a hard time with all the…stuff! ha!)

My job at the bar is great but tiring, the people I work with are fantastic. It’s helping my French in someways but It’s meant I can’t go to class four out of fives times a week. I have something else in the pipeline which I’m really excited about but we’ll wait and see!

It’s an Irish pub so 50 percent of the customers are native English speakers. The musicians are fantastic. There’s a German guy who plays Irish music (Yan, above) but does a great impersonation of Ramstein (complete with the hair). Those lads sure know how to put away a few pints of Guinness but they are seriously good value.

I wonder how the ‘French’ bars and pubs make a profit as the French customers don’t buy a lot of alcohol. I’ve seen some of them nurse a pint for well over an hour where as the anglophones would do more than double that pace. They also love mixing peach flavouring with their beer, I tried it and don’t recommend it.

(A Pantin local I bump into frequently)

In the past week I’ve met a ton of new people, some French, some Irish and English. I have quite a few English/French lesson exchanges going, on Wednesday night I had dinner with Xavier and his girlfriend at their roof top apartment in Jaurès. We ate wonderful French food including cheese, bread and artichaut. I took along a bottle de vin rouge which turned out to be a fantastic choice. A very good bottle of wine! and it wasn’t expensive. I’ve learnt to steer clear of the 2euro bottles as they can be vinegar. We spoke in French the whole evening, next time it’s English. Some translation was necessary but it really helped.

What I hate: I’ve probably said this before but Paris has a SEVERE lack of air-conditioning, it’s shocking! Especially at work, man alive! Bus de nuit: the night bus has all sorts of crawly crazy people, it’s a moving cluster of drunks and druggies and it certainly keeps you awake on the way home from work at 3 in the morning!

What I love: Crepes, the buildings, the people I’ve met, any French lesson, my workmates, the good bottle of wine I bought, the long sunny evening especially in Parc de la Villette, how well music goes with this city, the addictiveness of this city.

Paris is like a music video, be it Edith Piaf or the Feelers on my ipod it all fits. Music really has it’s place here.

Love/Hate: Love the metro when it’s not crowded and when it’s cool, hate it when it’s hot and crowded. Love my workplace, hate how hot it is. Love French people but hate the pricks who give me shit when I’m trying my best to string a sentence together – the next time some of them come to the bar, someone else can serve them. Love all the potentials that exist here, hate the speed people do things, those lines at the supermarket and post office – jeepers!

(In green, Poppy, a regular customer)

(My flatmate Mathias)

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 24th, 2007 at 2:36 am While Dave was in Paris. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.