I had an opportunity a few weeks ago to travel to Paris, France for a conference (Yes, I am extremely lucky and blessed). It was a bit awkward viewing the sites of the city since Paris is known as a romantic city and visiting sights individually, for some reason, did not feel as romantic ;-)As always, I like to examine random items of interest rather than focus on the touristy things, so below are my highlights:
- I had major language issues, my grade 9 French was insufficient. Communicating with someone where you don’t have a common language is funny, both parties end up speaking in their own language without progress.
- The subway doors do not open automatically; I found this out the hard way.
- Very diverse country, many people of African and Arab descent.
- Smoking is quite common indoors and difficult to cope with especially coming from a city where public smoking is banned.
- The listed price always includes taxes, and discounts are listed with negative signs, i.e. -20%.
- The basement and ground floors are not labeled as B and G respectively in buildings or hotels. The French use 0 for the ground level and -1 for the basement. See explanation here.
- The Swiss have their own check-in line when passing through immigration.
- The exit sign … why is the guy running?
- The public washrooms are typically not free, although the one below was free.
As always, you can check out my pictures here.
