Some of them include:
– Eat a bowl of onion soup at Les Halles.
– Drink a mint tea at the Paris Mosque.
– Spend an absurd amount of money on organic groceries at the Marché Raspail.
– Rendez-vous at least once in front of Notre Dame, on the steps of the Opéra Garnier, or at the St Michel Fountain.
– Go jogging in the Tuileries at dawn [Heather’s note: that’s when the local firemen happen to be doing the same thing, for those who need more motivation.]
– Get lost in the tunnels at Châtelet-Les Halles station.
– Float your toy boat in the fountain at Luxembourg Gardens.
– Attend the Firemen’s Ball for Bastlle Day.
– Dance to the DJ as the Batofar boat club sways on the Seine.
– Get turned away by the bouncers at Castel.
– Buy a record at Crocodisc in the Latin Quarter.
– Buy something (but not too expensive) at the Drouot auction house.
– Spend the month of August in Paris.
I counted 46 of them that I have tried at least once (some more than that, salut Ladurée!), and a good 30 that I would never bother doing because they’re either silly (No Parisian with a hint of taste would waste any money on breakfast at Café Marly) or irrelevant (taking my kids to the Guignols show on the Champs-Elysées…does it count if I take my tour clients’ kids?).
The best part of this post are the comments left by self-declared “real” Parisians (my translations):
– “What Bobo clichés…or the snobbery of a provincial who has moved to Paris.”
– “Consumption, consumption. What about admiring the gargoyles at St Etienne du Mont?”
– “I’m a REAL Parisian and I haven’t done a tenth of this list.”
And my favorite, which needs no translation:
– “C’est du grand n’importe quoi.”
And in case you think bad things only happen to tourists, here’s a comment by another local:
“You forgot a few : have your wallet stolen by a 12-year-old gypsy who has already been stopped by the police; have the police laugh in your face when you try to file a complaint; step in dog poop (yes, it’s better now, but I couldn’t resist); get pooped on by a flying rat (pigeon); get insulted by a café waiter for no reason; get insulted and threatened by the person in the car behind you because you stopped at the yellow light; spend a week in hell while the metro and train workers strike because their absurd privileges are being revoked; etc.”
Ah…to be Parisian is first and foremost to râler (bitch and moan). I secretly think they just don’t want anyone else to know how great it really is to live in Paris. 😉