The Everyday - The Mundane

DUST

Is it because we have all wood floors, or because I am a lousy ‘housekeeper’, or because this is a large city with its fair share of pollution? There is exponentially more dust, and dust bunnies here in Paris than in Seattle. Clean stuff, and it feels like moments later there is a nice layer of dust/grime and errant bunnies on every surface.

HARD WATER

Why didn’t anyone tell us how hard the water is here? You scrub your bathroom/kitchen thoroughly, and the next day you’d swear it hadn’t been cleaned in ages. It is such an issue, that there are approximately a MILLION cleaning and anti-calcaire products for purchase in every store. I’ve taken to using a squeegee in the shower to help reduce the heavy deposits from appearing the glass screen in the shower. Also, I’ve taken to buying demineralized water for ironing – yes you can buy it. This is definitely a warning for those of you coming to visit us!

EYE CONTACT

People have been curious about the Parisien tolerance for making eye contact. This is a big city and it feels like a big city. Like New York, it is not normal to make eye contact on the street or in the Metro. Not only does one not make eye contact, but is very rare, very rare indeed to get any type of reaction from another person on the street. I’ve yet to have one of my ever-optimistic smiles returned on the street or in the Metro. It definitely doesn’t feel as restrained as New York, which is influenced by a good dose of fear, but people are just not open and friendly here.

CRIME

We thought the French were just paranoid. There are shutters on windows and doors – stores, apartments and houses. Houses are surrounded by high fences, which are designed to be locked and to conceal what’s within. On the contrary, I haven’t noticed that very many people use car alarms – you just don’t hear them going off very often. But there is clearly a high rate of home burglary here. When we first engaged our insurance company, they actually came to our apartment to “kick the tires” so to speak. They came and looked at the big ole’ lock on our apartment door, the locks on the building, the shutters. They advised about the best forms of security for the apartment – "close all shutters completely if gone for longer than 24 hours" (yes, really). In my class last week (15 people), my colleagues shared 3 stories of home burglary. These are all foreigners living in Paris for less and 1 year. Based on these very unscientific observations, I’d say burglary is common.