Some initial observations

After being in Paris nearly two weeks, I have a few things that I have noticed that stand out to me as specifically Parisian, or at least French. They are as follows:



1. No matter what time of day or where you are, you will pass someone on the street eating and walking. I see at least 5 or 6 people on my way from the Archives to the metro eating a sandwich of sorts and it makes me both hungry and awed that they can walk and chew so effortlessly. And it is usually a bread product that is being eaten because the French love their breads and pastries. No Atkins diet for these people - not ever and thank God because they do make a fine bagette. I had the pleasure of discovering an award winning boulangerie just down the street and their bagettes are fantastic!



2. The escalator is nothing but moving stairs to nearly all Parisians. If you aren't walking up or down the escalator at a fast clip, you will be passed. For some reason, again, no matter what time of day, people are always in a rush. Don't even get me started on the moving walkways. I try to keep a good pace on those and I am still passed. So, if you want to allow the escalator to do its job, you better keep to the right, cause these people have got places to go.



3. I have noticed several older French men and women walking with both hands clasped behind their backs, which looks rather uncomfortable, but somehow very French. I don't quite understand it, but they seem to make it work. I don't know that I've seen people walk like that anywhere else.



4. The Parisians dress weird. For instance, there is a man in the microfilm room who wears a full-on tuxedo every day. The first time I saw him, I did a double-take and looked around to see if anyone else in the room noticed this madness. No one did. And he was there again today wearing the same thing. The guy looks like he should be conducting a symphony, not sitting in a microfilm room, but that's Paris. And I won't even get into the interesting outfits I see on the metro, the men in pointy shoes and tight pants, or the teenage girls in the most mis-matched outfits you have ever seen. But, I guess that's the style.



That is about all I can think of for the moment, but I'm sure that I will have more as time goes on. I had an interesting night last night as I took in the Obama inauguration in a bar near the Tuilleries. H-France was meeting there to watch the festivities, but I got there right before 5:30 our time (11:30 EST) and the place was packed! I mean crammed from wall to wall. I squeezed my way in and got a view of the TV which was on CNN. It was weird to be in Paris watching the US inauguration, but the French love our politics, at least when it comes to Obama. When Bush or Cheney came on the screen, people booed and when they saw Obama, they cheered. There was this one flaming gay guy who did not like the pastor from the Saddleback Church who gave the convocation because apparently he was a big supporter of appealing the right to gay marriage in California, so he got all fired up and started singing "To the left, to the left" a la Beyonce, which was funny. Although I couldn't really move for an hour and a half, it was cool to be watching the inauguration, and the bar even joined in the last few bars of the national anthem. Paris loves Obama!



No plans for the rest of the week besides working at the AN. One of the H-Francers was there today, so I had someone to talk to during my brief lunch break. I'm still in the microfilm room, but I hope to be done with it soon. I took some pictures of the apartment that I will be putting up on Facebook and probably Myspace, so those who want to see the glamorous life I'm living here (yeah right!) can check out my digs. I miss everyone (DAN the most!), would love to hear from ANYONE, and I hope all is well back home!