1) Food
I miss some food from Finland but I might miss the food from Paris even more when I move back to Finland. The variety of ingredients, dishes and different ethnic restaurants are amazing! I can find so many good restaurants serving French food, different kinds of Asian food, different kinds of African food and a lot of other choices. And I really like the fact that eating out is cheaper than in Finland. In Finland one usually needs to pay at least closer to 20€ to get something else than pizza, kebab or salads, whereas here I find delicious dishes or even full meals with 10€ only. In addition to the restaurants, also markets offer more choices here. The Asian district of Paris where I used to live before has so many Asian stores selling Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Indian etc. stuff. Both I and H enjoy the opportunity to go shopping there once in a while. And I am sure that on the other areas of Paris one could find a lot more ethnic stores from all around the world because the population here has many cultural and ethnic backgrounds and Paris is also one of the top places for tourism in the world.
 |
| We celebrated my birthday by going to a Mexican restaurant El Gringo. The food was absolutely amazing, they had big portions and when we booked it via an application to eat at 7pm, we got 50% off from the price. So cheap! |
 |
| Some delicious duck. |
 |
| If I miss Japan, I can always go to sushi chain bars here, as well. |
 |
| My new finding from Paris today: taiyaki! This was my second time ever after I ate it once during my year in Japan. |
 |
| I have published a photo of Bo Bun also before but since it's my favorite portion in our favorite restaurant, I have to add it here, as well. |
 |
| With this photo I want to point out how big Bo Bun really is. This is about half of the portion when I heated up my left-overs at home. I really can eat two times from that if I am not super hungry. |
 |
| Mochi ice-creams. I have never seen these before anywhere. |
 |
| In the Asian markets one finds exotic fruits, vegetables, noodles, drinks, spices etc. that cannot be found in "normal" markets. |
 |
| Okay... Sometimes I do find things that I prefer not to even see really. |
2) Liveliness
Considering that Paris has two million inhabitants (plus plenty of tourists around the whole year), it's no wonder that I feel there is always something going on. Whenever one feels like going out, there are always dance parties, concerts and lots of different events. Also, one easily comes across street music or small gatherings by chance and you can just stay there enjoying the atmosphere and socializing. French people do like socializing more than Finns so if you are in a need of chatting, one can always find people willing to do that. (Though, sometimes it is much easier if you speak good French.) As a Finn, I don't always find it easy or pleasant that I kind of have a little pressure to talk with people whom I have no previous connection with. But stopping on the street to listen to musicians or following other performed art while walking around the city or taking a metro, is very nice and makes me smile.
 |
| When walking a bit outside Paris, I and H happened to coincidentally see this small gathering with live music that was open for anyone to join. |
3) Art
And talking about street art, art in general is one of my favorite things in Paris and it can be found in so many forms. To continue the list after the music, visual forms of art are highly valued in France. You can obviously find museums of all sorts but what I like is how the city itself is like a piece of art. Many big cities put effort to have a nice-looking area with wonderful architecture but Paris and its surroundings are full of beautiful buildings. Even though one gets easily blind to one's own surroundings, the different curls and decorations on the walls of houses and on their balconies still keep stopping me when going around. And as I have mentioned some time before, the French really care about how their parks look like. The perfectly straight lines in planting and cutting amazes me always and I wonder how they cut even the top of the trees like with a ruler.
 |
| The first Sunday of October (when many museums are free) we went to the museum of immigration. The building is also a piece of art itself. |
 |
| Inside the museum. Posters from different years in the past. |
 |
| Also in the museum: Planete Paris - an interesting painting by Herve Di Rosa. |
 |
| Mairie de Vincennes |
 |
| An unexpected finding that looks like half of l'Arc de Triomphe. |
 |
| Art in front of Gare du Nord station. |
 |
| Paris has several "passages" that are like indoor shopping streets. |
4) Going through adventures
This one is not only applicable to France but whenever I have been living (or travelling) abroad. When you are in a different surrounding and a different culture where they speak a different language, you surely face some adventures, both pleasantly exciting and some harder ones. I really like travelling and seeing new places so there are lots for me to see and experience here in France. When I find my way around, understand French enough to go through situations, show to myself I can do it, I can feel proud of myself and I feel like I'm growing up and learning. And when there are some harder times, I have proven that I can get over those and I learn again. The more I face these situations, the more I feel that there are less limitations of where I can go and what I can do. I bet every traveler feels the same.
5) Travelling in Europe
Living in Finland most of my life, I am used to almost always fly if I want to visit another country. Now living in France gives many more options. Since travelling inside Europe doesn't require visas or often even border inspections, it is very handy to go and see how life is in the neighbor states when there are no seas in between them. I have already taken buses and trains to travel from Paris and if we had a car, we could just drive to Germany, Belgium and other places. It's still quite amazing for me.
6) People
My social circles are not big here yet, but when the time of moving out comes, I will miss some of the people I have got to know here. I miss my family and friends back in Finland, but I visit my country a few times per year so I have a chance to spend even some time with them. After leaving France, I am not sure when I would see anyone from here. This was my problem also when leaving the Netherlands and Japan.
 |
| Seeing a friend. My blueberry pie reminded me of Finland and my friend ordered Croque Madam. We never knew that version existed in addition to Croque Monsieur. |
7) Weather
Yes, in a way I prefer the climate of Finland over France because I want to have snow during the winter and less than 30 degrees in the summer. But at times I am happy that I can enjoy the weather of Paris, especially when Finland gets fast colder in the autumn, when the wet dirty snow is everywhere in Finland during the spring (while France already has flowers and leaves in the trees) and when a cold wind hits either in the middle of the summer or during the coldest time of the winter. Even though I fancy to get beautiful white snow for some months in the winter, I still prefer warm weather outside that time.
8) The atmosphere of Paris
It is hard to explain but there is something special about Paris all in all. Maybe it is the combination of all above plus some magic. But when you visit Paris, eat nicely in the restaurants, see all the marvelous buildings and art and walk along the river Seine when it gets dark - maybe seeing a street musician playing accordion on the bridge - there is just something in it. If you haven't tried, I recommend you to visit Paris and experience it for yourself. Paris is an amazing place for a vacation!
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti