Paris!

Katie and I spent the week after Christmas in Paris. Or as my friend Steve Fong (see 12/25 blog entry) put it, "you took a vacation on vacation?" Yes, such is the life of the house husband. We were quite lucky because our Parisienne friend Anne-Louise offered to let us stay at her parents' apartment (they were on vacation). It was a really nice place (much nicer than Chez Kaku), and it was just 15 minutes by foot to the Arc de Triomphe. Not bad! We got to spend New Year's Eve on the Champs-Elysées soaking up the scene. Don't have too much to say about Paris really. We did very touristy things... Centre Pompidou, catacombs, Champs-Elysées, shopping, Notre Dame, Palais de Tokyo, blah blah. We also saw my cousin, Jennifer, who's lived in Paris for about 15 years now. All in all it was a very good time. Paris--what can I say--it's an unbelievably city.

Katie and I had both been to Paris before but it was interesting this time coming from Toulouse. The streets and sidewalks of Paris are much much larger than Toulouse so it was a bit strange seeing so many cars and having these expansive sidewalks to stroll down. Which leads me to one FANTASTIC aspect about Paris... there is far less dog crap on the sidewalks!!! Yes, I admit that I'm fixated on this topic (see my 11/12 entry). I used to think that the Parisian sidewalks were disgusting, but compared with Toulouse it's practically heaven. In some parts of the city I think it's possible to walk without looking down every 5 seconds. I originally thought this was simply a matter of real estate: wider sidewalks + lots of trees = more places for dogs to do their business; however, Katie's boss Pierre informed us that this was a result of a concerted effort by Paris to clean things. Apparently they even had pooper-scooper machines. To my amazement, Pierre told us (without any prodding from us) that the situation in Toulouse was quite bad.

It was also a bit strange seeing so many tourists (French and otherwise) around. It's actually much harder to speak French here because everyone just cuts straight to English (when it becomes obvious that you're not French, i.e. the instant you begin talking). I occasionally wondered what it would like to live in Paris with so much to do and see, but I'm quite happy to be in Toulouse where it's not so overrun with foreigners. Besides, there are no A380s flying overhead each day. :)