Random reflections on France

Chickens are sold with the head on and the feathers attached from the neck up. This is now a requirement in Paris because people were selling birds other than chickens as chicken. It’s rather bizarre to see the chickens laid out in the meat market.

The metro and the trains run efficiently and exactly on time. Because of this efficiency, a newbie can easily get confused. There’s not a lot of time to process what you need to do. 99.9% of the people on the subways and the trains do this every day and almost all go through the procedure unconsciously. But which slot in the gate machine to put a ticket in, where to take it out, which platform to go to all require some processing for someone who is new at this. By the end of the week we had it down pat, but there was a learning curve. 

Children and the elderly are both very self-sufficient in Paris. We saw a 90 year old women pulling a suitcase boarding the train and then the subway. Children as young as third or fourth graders walk the streets of Paris with their backpacks. They go down into the subway to ride the metro to their school, get off and go to school. There’s no adult with them.

People in Paris and France are very polite if you greet them properly and are polite to begin with. One should never walk up to someone and just start talking. You must say “Bonjour,” and then begin to ask your question. You find many people very eager to help once you show common courtesy. Failure to greet is one reason the French consider American tourists rude. Greeting someone with “Bonjour,” or “Bon soir,” is a really big deal here, preferably in French. Then they are happy to continue, in English if they know how. And English is spoken very widely in Paris. The French know that English is an international language, and many look forward to the opportunity to practice their English with you. Outside of Paris, especially in small towns, you had better brush up your French.

Pastry shops are everywhere and they all have lovely delectable treats. I love the pastries in Europe because they are not nearly as sweet as our pastries in the United States. Also, European bread is made with a hard wheat flour, whereas in the US we make our breads with a soft white wheat. In the US, I often sneeze after I eat bread, but I never sneeze after eating bread in Europe .

The Parisians and the French in general dress very well. The children have beautifully coordinated little outfits, the older people are dressed like they’re going to church even when they’re on the subway. Older women will be wearing nice leather lace up flats but they are stylish and they always have a scarf on, and their makeup and jewelry are perfectly chosen . The men also have coordinated outfits and they surely do know how to wear a scarf and a hat—perhaps a tweed cap in an informal setting, but never a baseball cap.

French cooking is wonderful, and it is the sauces make the food here. They can take a plain piece of chicken or beef and make it taste fabulous because of the sauce or gravy. Presentation of food is also very important in France. The pastry, the plate, even the drinks all have an artistic flare to them . 

The Catholic Church is very strong here. So is secularism. Many philosophical, theological and political opinions coexist. The French seem to be able to get along with one another. Yet, even committed Catholics have a certain kind of pragmatism about them. For example, after the French revolution, Chartres cathedral was declared by the bishop not to be a church, but simply to be a “house of the people of France.” Because of this, its statues and religious objects were not destroyed by the revolutionaries. As a result, many of the artistic and religious treasures of the cathedral predate the French revolution. Few churches have undamaged pre-revolutionary artifacts. 

A large number of adults smoke in France. There’s no smoking allowed in the metro, the train stations or inside restaurants, but Parisians will choose to eat outside at a table in the cold because there they can smoke. We did not see e-cigarettes, but we saw regular cigarettes and vaping by teens and all ages above.

Nothing is handicapped accessible in France. Every bathroom in every public building and every restaurant is downstairs, and usually those stairs are steep and winding. Travelers with mobility issues must find European cities more difficult to navigate because of this. But some of these buildings are centuries old, built when wheelchairs were not even an idea. Nevertheless, every stairway, elevator, restroom, and airport has signs advising handicap persons to contact an agent if they need help. I am not quite sure what form that assistance takes. I did not see one handicapped person on the metro or on the train and I saw very few on the streets. I was most impressed by the way the elderly people navigate and handle stairs.Meer informatie