MY IMPRESSIONS OF FRANCE

I won't go into the list of things that everybody always observes about Paris (and France) which were reinforced by my observations, as these are too numerous to recount here. I'll try to stick to the non-obvious (even if it's obvious to you).

Food is expensive in Paris. It was very hard to get a modest meal for under $10. A big shocker was that soda cost as much as beer in most cafes. A coffee with milk costs about $2.50, and there are no refills. Speaking of which...

You don't know how much you miss readily available good coffee until you don't have access to it. I asked our bicycle tour guide (on our day trip to Giverney) why there were no Starbucks in Paris, and he quickly replied, "December." Starbucks could rule Paris. They say that people in Paris must stop to drink their coffee, but there are plenty of young people on the go in the streets who would probably enjoy themselves more if they had a big cup of good coffee in their hands.

The French get drunk, too. I remember times when people would tell me that the French drink wine with dinner, but that public drunkenness is something that Americans indulge in. Thas' bullshit. We stayed in a very active late-night district, and on the weekends, drunken French people were yelling all night long.

The French are universally polite, but not universally friendly. This may fall into the "obvious" category, but I was surprised at how true it was.

Parisians are economical and creative in how they get around town. I expected to see bicycles, scooters, and motorcycles, but not in the great numbers I did. Also, these forms of transportation were not just the choice of young people. I remember seeing a well dressed, middle aged lady riding a dirt bike down the Blvd. St. Germain. Also, lots of people riding bikes wearing suits. Even wierder, the vast majority of bicycles in Paris were old 3-speed style cruiser bikes (kind of like slower versions of the Road Gentleman). I didn't see any drop handlebars, except used by packs of enthusiasts in the countryside. (Also notable were the number of BMW Executive scooters I saw on the streets of Paris.)

The most heavily fortified building in Paris: the U.S. Embassy on the Place du Concorde.

The French can sense that you speak English more easily than they can sense you're an American. They all knew we spoke English, but they didn't know what country we were from.

King's ministers get the shaft, monument-wise. I could not find a statue of Richelieu, Mazarine, or Colbert in the whole freakin' city. (Counting Versailles.)

Notre Dame, while impressive, is not the most beautiful cathedral in Paris. In fact, it's not even the most beautiful on the Isle de la Cite. Saint-Chapelle, a few blocks away inside the Palais de Justice, was really stunning; smaller in scale, and with stained glass windows that seemed to make the ceiling float above them.