The City of Lights

Sorry for the lack of recent blog posts! I just got back from an internet-free trip to Paris and France's Aquitaine region. After spending a week at a restored French farmhouse in the heart of wine country (soo much wine) my family rented an apartment on l'Avenue des Bordonnais in the 7ieme arrondissement of Paris. We got to the city during a long weekend in France, so we definitely picked the worst time to tour around the most visited city in the world. There were tons of people everywhere, but I still managed to see a lot of the city.

The view from my apartment window=magnifique!

I left feeling a little jealous that I wasn't living in such a beautiful city and the birthplace of modern democracy, in a country where people are entitled to two-hour lunch breaks and five weeks of vacation. Some of my friends that have visited Paris have told me that they want to live there in the future, and I was starting to agree with them....

However, I think tourists seem to wear the thickest rose-colored glasses. Hell, I've had people who have visited Edmonton tell me that it's the best city in Canada? Before I could wallow in the reality that I'm trapped in miserable/white-washed St. Albert, while millions of people are living within a stone's throw of Champs d'Elysee, I hit up Wikipedia to learn what's really up in old Pareee. Here's what I discovered:

1. While North American cities are infamous for white flight and sprawling high-income suburbs, European cities are the polar opposite. Parisians will pay millions of their shitty currency to buy a 500-square-foot apartment on l'Avenue de la Grande Armee, while the banlieues (meaning "suburbs") contain some of the world's largest social housing projects for low-income immigrant families, which are beautifully referred to as les cités in French. These poor living conditions came to light to much of the world during the 2005 riots in Paris' northeastern suburbs. (On a side note: If you can understand French, try and find a copy of La Haine, it does a pretty good job of showing life in les banlieues).

2. Their currency is worth as much as dog poop, thanks to Greece. (On a side note: I actually predicted this in a term paper I wrote for a Poli Sci class four years ago and got like a 75. Thank god for appeals...)

3. Nobody in Paris recycles, like actually nobody. I'm pretty sure I only saw one recycling bin during my entire visit. On top of that, nobody picks up their doggy dooty (And you think they would, seeing as they can now buy their morning baguette and pack of Marlboros with it).

4. French people are actually kinda racist. While Canada is trying to attract as many skilled immigrants as possible, immigration to France is becoming heavily restricted. As the nice French lady that sat beside me on the plane explained to me: They have some of the best social programs in the world. Why would they want an influx of newcomers to ruin them? Meanwhile, their "world-class" schools won't let students wear articles of clothing that reflect their religious beliefs while they teach them about the "positive consequences" of French colonialism.

5. Paris actually does smell bad, like a musty/mothbally urine smell, probably from all the dog poop.

Great, I feel slightlyyy better about not missing my flight back to frigid northern Alberta....