WHAT IS IT LIKE LIVING IN PARIS? THE QUOTIDIAN LIFE

What’s life like in Paris? Walk the dog, go to the supermarket, stream movies….

“When good Americans die, they go to Paris.”
“Where do bad Americans go?”
“They stay in America.”
— Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

What is it really like living in Paris? Visitors often imagine a daily life filled with sidewalk cafés, beautiful architecture and views of the Eiffel Tower. And sometimes it is. But living in Paris also means grocery shopping, walking the dog, riding the Métro and stopping at the neighborhood boulangerie.

The extraordinary thing is that in Paris, even those ordinary moments can reveal centuries of history.

EVERYDAY LIFE IN PARIS NEAR THE EIFFEL TOWER

“What is it like living in Paris?” friends ask. “It must be amazing.”

I’m not going to lie. It is!

I’ve always lived near the Eiffel Tower, so it’s a constant backdrop, a neighbor, and a never-ending source of awe and amazement.

Yet so normal. Every day.

My answer to the question is, “I do exactly what I would do living back in New York—except with the Eiffel Tower in the distance.”

Shopping for groceries, walking the dog, staying home, and streaming shows, etc. It’s a normal life.

Except …

THE HISTORY HIDDEN IN EVERYDAY PARIS

There is something about Paris. Something that draws people from all over the world, as it has for centuries. Yet that fascination is soon married to living an ordinary life. The fascination doesn’t go away, but it is tempered.

I mean, where else can you walk down an ordinary street, and brush your hand along an ordinary wall, except that the wall was constructed 400 years ago from stones quarried from an ancient seabed 300 million years old, and see the fossilized imprints of the tiny sea creatures embedded in the stone?

I suppose many places, but they’re not Paris.

CAFÉS, MARKETS, AND THE PARISIAN WAY OF LIFE

Oh sure, sitting in cafés is a part of daily Parisian life. It doesn’t matter what day of the week, the cafés are thronged with people at night, talking, laughing, smoking, and drinking wine or beer or bubbly water.

I haven’t gotten into the habit of shopping at the twice weekly marché in my neighborhood, so I head to the supermarket, which isn’t very “French” except it is packed! on a Sunday, so I guess even the French find it easier to shop in a supermarché.

GETTING AROUND PARIS LIKE A LOCAL

Taking the métro and the bus has gone from a maze, a puzzle to challenge me, to now a daily routine. The only challenge being when the train is late, or (often) packed tight.

Walking the dog, I have several options for our routine balade (stroll) that can take me down quiet side streets, or along the busier boulevard, which isn’t very pleasant with the train trestle and the commercial feel to it.

SEEING PARIS THROUGH A VISITOR’S EYES

All in all, it is an “extraordinary, ordinary” life in Paris.

Probably the most “touristy” thing I do is give tours to tourists, which allows me to see the city—and the “ordinary” sights like the medieval Hôtel de Sens—like I’m seeing it for the first time as they look with wonder and hear the history of Paris.

I LOVE PARIS!

I love living here. I love showing visitors the city. I love going to the store for cheese and yogurt, and popping into my neighborhood boulangerie where they know me now, and don’t have to ask what I want (une baguette tradition, s’il vous plaît).

Ah, the quotidian life!

Johnny

DISCOVER PARIS WITH JOHNNY

Visiting Paris? Come explore the history, mysteries and hidden stories behind the City of Light with Johnny Paris. My Paris walking tours go beyond the usual sightseeing to reveal the people, places and stories that made Paris what it is today.