Paris was a pretty good city. We did spend less time there than originally intended due to our extended stay in Sorrento, therefore it was difficult to do everything in the city. Paris is so large, even if we had a week we probably wouldn’t get through everything. It would probably take a week just to do the Louvre and Musee d’Orsay!
I thought that being in paris would inspire me to want to learn French, but it did quite the opposite. After our stay, the language made my head spin. I think it’s the spelling and sounds that make my brain and ears hurt. Just too difficult!
I expected Parisians to be annoyed with Americans, especially us since we don’t exactly speak French. But I found them to be helpful and never felt at all out of place or unwanted in their city. This was a good feeling.
I also found France to be a lot less rushed than Italy. There weren’t nearly as many vehicles on the road and everything was very spacious. I thought the metro system was well planned and very simple to use.
I’ve always heard of Paris as the city of “amore” but was surprised when I didn’t see that “love-y” side of the city. In fact, I can’t even tell you how often I witnessed couples screaming in French at each other. Ahhh, love.
I wasn’t expecting the city to be dirty and smelly either. There was a lot of litter and we frequently got big whiffs of something that smelled like porta-johns or trash. Meh.
The city was very expensive too.
Would I go back? Absolutely! There is so much to see and do and we barely scratched the surface. And I didn’t get to try as much French cuisine as I would have liked!! Next time. Au Revoir, Paris.
