My Paris for You!

Quite a lot of people who are about to go to Paris, have asked me what is there to see and do in Paris. 

What I usually tell them is "Google it, you genius!" 

OK. That I don't do, usually. 

Well. Paris is awesome all year around. Yet. Last January-February it was rather freezing. So If you want to take the most of it, dress properly or wait for the warmer times. 

Budget and accommodation.

If you like all luxurious, I can recommend you to go to few nice bars and restaurants. And hotels, The Ritz is unfortunately closed for refurbishment, but they used to have a fabulous Coco Chanel suite with a gorgeous view over the Place Vendome. I can't remember the exact price for a one night stay, but I remember it being more than 10 monthly incomes of average Estonian.  

Even the average middle class accommodation is rather expensive for average Estonian, but it's Paris and you can't go there every weekend (normally)....+ Estonian Air has no more direct flights there from Tallinn. And neither to London. :D

You could try the couch surfing too, yet. It is very important to be careful with this, because....there are a lot of strange people out there. And, you shouldn't be staying for for ever, because....the apartments of a average parisians are tiny and noone wants to have a 100 people living on their 10m2 called home. 

So, a hundred for a night might be expensive, but you'd get a sort of adventure out of it. Living in the city, where everything is in walking distance (mostly)... no crazy scary Arabic neighbourhoods. And you could save on public transportation and taxi. 

Other than that, everything is expensive (if you are an average Estonian). 

Getting there from the airport.

Taxi - about 50-60 eur. 

Easiest and less expensive is Roissybus. From the airport CDG, straight to Opera. Cost: 10 eur.

What you need to know about Paris. 

The city is divided into 20 different neighbourhoods which are called "arrondissements". The neighbourhoods are called by their number, for example, if you lived in 7th, then it will be 7eme or 7e in French. All arrondissements are spirally spreading from the centre, like a snail, in numerical order. All postal codes are 750XX, the last two nr are the ones that change and show the arrondissement. 7th is 75007. When taking a taxi, then be sure to give the postal code, or else you might end up at the address you gave, but in a wrong neighbourhood. Happened to me once - dressed for success and about to have a fancy night out and the taxi driver took me to a gheto! Really!?

And! If lost, there are always arrondissement number on a house, you know, where they have a street name...there is the neighbourhood nr too, so it is easier to figure out how to not be lost anymore. :) 

The arrondissements & What Maria would do:

1er - Louvre, Palais Royale

This is the geographical center of Paris and a haven for tourists. The Louvre, Les Halles and the Palais Royal are all here. Les Halles, there is many places to go to have a drink, many vintage shops and other than that, a centre of strangeness. Which is because of the big trainstation and metro - many metro and RER lines pass by this station, due there is a variety of stange people walking around this neighbourhood 24/7. 

2ème - Bourse

A primarily business district. The Paris Stock Market (the Bourse) is located here and the Place des Victoires is a favorite destination for shopping in trendy boutiques.

3ème - Marais, Picasso Museum

Along with the 4ème arrondissement, this neighborhood makes up the Marais, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Paris. The Picasso Museum is found here, and many 17th century mansions that once housed the noblest families in Paris are still to be seen in this quiet and ungentrified neighborhood.  PS. Piccasso Museum is closed for refurbishment. Sorry. :) 

4ème - Marais, Hôtel de Ville

The heart of the Marais is a lively neighborhood with lots of trendy bars and restaurants and it's also known as the center of Gay nightlife. The rue des Rosiers is a centerpiece of Jewish lifestyle in Paris and the Ile St. Louis and the Ile de la Cité are the oldest parts of Paris.My favourite vintages are located near the gay-hood. I love those tiny streets and there is this special feeling happening in this area. My favourite. :) 

5ème - Latin Quarter

This fabled neighborhood takes its name from the Sorbonne, where Latin was the common tongue for all students during the Middle Ages. The neighborhood has the feel of a small village and students mix freely with professionals in its winding streets. The rue Mouffetard is a primary artery where shops, international restaurants and student bars and cafés are found. My favourite!

6ème - Saint Germain

Once the hangout for bohemians and intellectuals, this district has undergone gentrification and is now one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Paris. Trendy upscale boutiques, art galleries, and restaurants can be found throughout this district. My favourite. :) There is so many galleries and boutiques, I used to love to do my window shopping there. 

7ème - Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower, the Musée d'Orsay, the Rodin Museum and the market street, Rue Cler can be found here. This very wealthy district is also known for being the home of foreign embassies and many international residents. My home arrondissement. And my favourite. 

8ème - Champs-Elysées

This upscale neighborhood is in fact quite diverse. The area around the famous Avenue des Champs-Elysèes has lots of shopping and lots of tourists, while in the area to the East, between the Champs-Elysees and Place de la Madeleine, you'll find a mixture of 19th century buildings intermingled with businesses. This area is in many ways similar to parts of the 16th, but is generally less pretentious. Nice to walk up and down the Champs, but! Too many tourists, still a must go!

9ème - Opéra, Pigalle

A diverse residential area popular among an artistic crowd. This Southern portion is similar to the 2nd arrondissement, with a mix of residential and business buildings. The Paris Opera is located here as well as Les Grands Magasins (Galeries Lafayette and Printemps). Further North is Pigalle, home of the famous Moulin Rouge and the fading Red Light district. 

10ème - Canal St. MartinThe two great train stations in Paris are here, the Gare de l'Est and the Gare du Nord. This multi-cultural neighborhood also contains a bohemian element. The cafes and restaurants along the Canal Saint-Martin make it a popular destination for both Parisians and tourists. Another centre of stangeness. :)

11ème - Bastille

Place de la Bastille and the New Opera are found here. This is a primarily residential district popular among artists. It’s well known for its nightlife which is centered around the Rue de la Roquette and the Rue Oberkampf. Nice places to go out to. 

12ème - Bercy

A residential neighborhood bordered on the east by the Bois de Vincennes. The Promenade Plantée, an elevated greenbelt that stretches for almost 3 miles from Place de la Bastille and the indoor arena, Palais Omnisports de Bercy are also located here. It's so beautiful there. 

13ème - Place d'Italie

A multi-cultural residential neighborhood which includes Paris' Chinatown and the ultra-modern Bibliothèque François Mitterand. The modernist Place d’Italie is the site of one of the most ambitious French urban renewal projects and the Butte aux Cailles neighborhood with its cobblestone streets and numerous restaurants, cafes and nightlife, preserves a village-like atmosphere within Paris. Good food!

14ème - Montparnasse

Montparnasse and the Cité Universitaire are found in this residential district traditionally known for its lively cafés and restaurants around the Boulevard Montparnasse. From on top of the Montparnasse, there is an amazing view over Paris (better than from on top of Eiffel....because you can see Eiffel. And it's less expensive to climb on top of there.) And! Justin Bieber performed there about around 06/12. Has he ever performed at Eiffel? I don't think so. Just walk the footsteps of Justin, for once! :) 

15ème - Parc des Expositions

This large primarily residential neighborhood ranges from very upscale in the area bordering the 7th arrondissement and the Seine, to relatively safe and affordable in the more outlying areas. Nice architecture! 

16ème - Trocadéro

Although it is not as exclusive as the 7th arrondissement, the 16th is widely regarded as the neighborhood for the wealthy. The areas around rue de Passy and Place Victor Hugo offer upscale shopping and the Place de Trocadéro offers a splendid view of the Eiffel Tower from its trendy cafes. Nice view from the place de Trocadero, yet, during daytime it's too touristy. In nighttime, it is the place to enjoy sparkling Eiffel. The coolest one is the last one of the day. where they turn of the other lights and there are only the sparklings... The last one is usually at 1am, during the summertime the times are moving a bit for later. Sooooooo nice. 

17ème - Palais de Congrès

This diverse district really contains more than one neighborhood, with the portion, in the West, near the Arc de Triomphe and Parc Monceau, being very upscale. It's allright. 

18ème - Montmartre

This artsy residential neighborhood situated at the top of a hill overlooking Paris has a small village feel. The view across Paris from the Sacré Coeur church is breathtaking and the nearby Place du Tertre is a popular tourist destination. It is so nice up there. Yet, when you go there, don't settle for just the stairs and the view from there.... go discover the tiny streets behind the church and you might find one of the coolest squares with many restaurants and artists at work and tiny shops for wine, cheeses etc.... So worth going there. My favourite. 

19ème - Parc de la Villette

The Parc des Buttes Chaumont. A residential neighborhood with many ethnic restaurants and shops. Parc de la Villette is located here with its Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie museum and cultural center.

20ème - Belleville, Père Lachaise

Belleville, Ménilmontant and the Père-Lachaise cemetery. Although traditionally working class, this outlying residential area is slowly becoming yuppified due to its affordable prices and its popularity among artists and creative types. Ethnic shops, culture and restaurants abound.

The 19th and 20th, to be honest, I remember myself once when lost looking up at a house tag and wondering that how the earth have I ended up at 20th! That's all I remember. Probably was nice. But, when you go there, tell me what was it like there. 

I guess I don't need to mention the Pierre Herme, Ladureeee... etc

Voilaa. 

Oh yeah, almost forgot. The Best Chocolate Cake you could get from Paris: Les Cocottes de Christian Constant restaurant. 135 Rue St Dominique, 75007. 

I miss my Paris so much! 

Bisous!

Bye bye, see you soon, my dear Paris.

The last days were good, sad and full of packing and re-packing and then again....re-repacking...

I must say, Paris was my love at first sight, and it was sooooo my city. It still is and will forever be. For sure.

I will miss my bridge, my latenight walks home...I will miss the smell of freshly baked bread and sweets in the morning in the hallway...I will even miss my stupid neighbours.
I will miss my restaurants and wine and cheeses and raw meats....well I will miss the good food in general.

I already do miss all that...+ my friends there.

Despite all that, what I know for sure is that London has some good stuff there for me and the future is going to be soooo good and CHOOLOS... :)
Good thing is that the English have porridges, yet, I'd rather a good cup of coffee instead of that, and THAT is not easy to get!

Peace. OUT.

Love

In between

This is it. The time of strange outfits is back! While me, who managed to turn into a Parisian in what comes to wearing long sleeved tops when it was 29 degrees outside, back in August. And now, when it is 15 degrees outside and probably even more, while I wear my winter gear - boots and jacket with fur, scarf and when really cold, even the gloves....the same time there are people out there, tourists mostly, wearing just t-shirts!! For example, a moment ago, there was a Asian looking dude entering the Starbucks in Opera, where I'm currently located, wearing a sleeveless top and sunglasses. And I was thinking: "Dude, c'est pas Miami!" :D 

And....I don't even start with the sandals and open-cut shoes....

Another story, that needs to be told involves a saying I heard lately. 

So, when something happens, something good. Then the French say something like that: It's good, but it's no America. :D 

It doesn't really fit in here, I mean, in this post, but before I forget this. :) 

What else. Paris is still awesome. Love my life. Of course, it could be better, I do have few depth, my rent is way tooo expensive for my income, I can not afford to go places and do stuff, go shopping and all that, but, it's all happening in Paris. One of the most amazing cities I know. Even if I had a shitty day at work, then there is a sparkling Eiffel tower on my way home. So, when things are shit, then the difference is, that the things are shit in Paris and it is way better than shit anywhere else, believe me! :) True story! 

This photo was taken yesterday around midnight, on my way home. 

Also, I have cute old Chinese man keeping a store downstairs. His "Ca va!" is sometimes just what I need to get my good mood back. :) And, in the mornings, when going to work or where ever....when I step out of my apartment, I can smell freshly baked bread. (there is a Boulangerie downstairs!!) MMMMmmmmmm! Love it!

Autumn is amazing in Paris. Sooooo pretty! :) The Sun shines more softly, leaves are falling... when rains, it's soooo beautiful, streets are all rain shiny and the city smells differently.

And as much as I love Paris, it will be London in few weeks! The Wannabe Parisian, me, is moving to London with her boyfriend to find a great job and get some more international experience and work hard and play hard and....do things I always wanted to do. It's like that! If not now, then when, right! Yay! This is going to be another adventure... and Maria's going cosmopolitan. 

Bisous!

In Paris..

..and so in love.

♥ ♥ ♥

Stories of my crrent reality

Paris, Prance & Las Vegas, USA

One of my funniest stories from recent history involves one French Casanova I happen to know, he's really young (20) and he's in the middle of seducing as many beautiful girls as possible. 

He is very picky. Like he says, it's better if she is beautiful, not too fat (skinny in this case), long hair, because it is more feminin and you have something to hold on to while in the middle of certain activities. Also, she has to have some sense of style and better if she is a tourist, even better if she doesn't speak French nor English too good or at all. And stupid. 

Like he says, girls usually come in pairs – one ugly and one gorgeous. Sometimes 2xgorgeous, but it's rare. And when trios, one is always (f)ugly. 

So, this story is about this Casanova I know and one of his many one night girls, she was a tourist from NY. Well, the thing is – he did he's usual, taking her out to a restaurant and getting her drunk so her morals would get more flexible. Sounds pretty universal, uh? The thing is that the French are more classy in this process and more gentleman-like and more considerate., more ...hm..charming ...and all this makes the girls let their guards down and falllllllll into the trap! This is what happened to that girl... I don't need to mention the place, right, the most romantic city in the world, the city where anybody would love to be in love, swept off their feet by a charming prince and etc... Those factors work in favour to those millions Casanovas in this city! Especially when you are used to those jerks who do not know that it is polite to open a door for a woman or actually, when walking on a street, to make her hold your hand to make her feel safe...

Sidenote: Hilda, my canadian friend is back in town for a week,  met up with her for drinks yesteday and what she pointed out was that while here, she thought French men were a bit too much for her. All this. And now, when she is back home, she misses that! She says that canadian men are booooooring. True. French are French. They sure do know how to make a women feel like a princess and how to enjoy simple pleasures of life...

Back to the story. He seduced her, she spent the night at his place, in the morning, he went to get croissants and after he drove her to her hotel, then she cried and they both went separate ways. 

Yes, she CRIED. Well, I knew he had conquered another one of those ...I simly asked how did it go and he said that all was good, but when she cried in the morning, that this was weeeeeeird. That one night girl and cryyyying... :D And, yes, for him, this was another Win after the usual game. For her this might have been one of the most remembable events of maybe her life (so far, I hope).  

Yes, so, she cried, that's funny! Or not, maybe it was win-win, if you know what I mean. :)

So, and the second story involves one of my friends, about a month ago, when I last saw her, we were sitting in a restaurant, having drinks and she was updating me with her life's most recant happenings - how she's in rather intimate relations with three guys from around here...oh, the details were juicy! :)
But the main line of this was that all she wanted was an actual serious relationship and a real BF. Also, she was real excited about her going to UK, home, and from there to holidays for a week with her girlfriends - girls gone wild trip to Las Vegas, USA. And what absolutley needs to be mentioned, she's gorgeous!
There she went.

A week later, I heard from another friend of ours, that the night before she had gotten married to a Swiss dude, who was shitloads wealthy and he's flying her to his by the end of the week. WTF. :) This is the most unbelievable story I had heard, yet, not that unbelievable of her. :) She's one of the craziest girls I happen to know these days. Yes, she's married now, for real, they are still together, a month later and this can be considered to be the happy ending of her foxy life as it was. Win! :)

You get what the waiter thinks you deserve.

I    This is The Post, that I didn't know if it was worth posting or not. Well, it all started....before I got to Paris in the first place - by hearing stories about French waiters being arrogant... or were supposed to be... or who knows.

Then, as you, my dearest reader, know, I'm currently working as a waitress. I'm really cool one in fact....BUT! What happened to me was that - on one of those nights there were 4 people sitting in one of my tables for 4 and they were having a pint of beer.

To be clear: 4 people, 1 pint that was half empty (and I'm no pessimist here!).

So I approached politely and asked them if they would like to order anything else to drink or some snacks. Because.... don't you just hate when you feel like having something and it takes forever from the waiter to ask you.... so.... All good. Done! And...their answer was: "No, we're good!"
What did I do: rolled my eyes at them right at this moment, didn't say anything and left! Voilaaa! I have turned into a French waiter stereotype! And I'm not ashamed of it! Because: they were directly messing with my sales - we have personal sales targets on every shift and they were f***ing with that. The table they kept occupied could have made me like 100 eur easy sales if it was taken by someone who were there to eat and drink and have a good time, not those cheap-asses. And, without even thinking about it, I acted as if they should know it! As I was walking away from them, I realized what I had just pulled off... & smiled a little.

And...all this got me thinking if the French restaurant business has gotten to me or not really and I needed to look into the topic about French waiters being arrogant and rude...because, almost noone has been like that directly to me. ...Well, I just needed to find out what that was all about.

II   Did my research and decided that this post was not worth posting.

III   Gave this some more thought and reconsidered the posting - all my sources were american and this is not the same to my cultural background and why  it is even worth posting. Cultural differences between French, USA and Estonia are enormous and somewhat the same. It's just the circumstances that dictate the act, right! I know I am right.

IV So, are the French waiters rude or is that you? (As how many of those research results were titled).
Well. It all comes down to one thing....two things and the first one has something to do with the culture and language. As I have already told you, the French language is very polite language (wild guess - among other things, is this a reason why this is one of the political languages in the world?). For them it is the matter of respect that you said hello to them....while entering a bus, in the post office, in the tabac...and restaurants of course! American approach is "let's get down to business" and therefore there are many articles about French vs American and how they should act in the restaurants. Works both ways, American believe French to be rude if they put on their rude act what they think the customer deserves by simply not saying "Bonjour!" when entering. And french, when going to a American one, they think of them as unpolite if they do not receive any superficial politeness from their waiters and they "go straight to business" or "What can I get you?".

The second thing is the circumstances - as you might know (!), both are countries with more than 1,34 million citizens. Which basically means that there are more people there to feed and give drinks to for money! So, when not buying, then you're no longer an "asset" to hold on to. Simple as that.

What comes to my confusion on this matter is the last thing, my cultural background is mixed with simple people, some are naturally polite and some are not so polite, I think I can not afford to describe the whole nation as polite or not so polite. I mean that I am proud of my nation and my heritage, but to be honest, where I come from, a lot of as*ho*es come from the same place. Sure, there are many in any nation, but it might have something to do with the smallness of Estonia that those stand out better....or who knows... Anyway. Since EST is tiny and there are many restaurants there, there are certain amount of people treating their-selves daily with eating out, but mostly it is considered to be a special day if you went out to eat. Sooooo, that makes the demand! And demand makes the rules! Due to that, in EST, even if you are not spending right now, but you spent some before (doesn't even need to be much), then you can drink your cold coffee and sit there with your friend for another hour or two... No-one comes nervously to your table to make you leave...it's rather to give other people an impression that the place is full and popular and makes other people to come in too...

Get it? That's the difference! :)

Nose-ology

Have you heard that the French have big noses? The stereotype is that French smell and they have big noses, French women are hairy and they don't wear a bra.
All wrong... well, OK, I have seen braless ladies, but those you can see everywhere in the world occasionally...

But, yes, a majority of French do have bigger nose than mine, remarkably bigger. Because, Ich habe eine kleine Stupsnase! 

French humour is a bit different from all the others I know, well sophisticated and real irony runs through. This can be illustrated by what I found out recently, French have a saying about having a big nose - that those who do,  can smoke in the shower!

How cool is that. :)


Bisou
Sincerely,
Maria (keeping her frenchyness up!)