Quelques conseils...

Me and one of my Parisian friendsMy advice: come to Paris. It’s an incredibly beautiful, historic city, but it’s also a really culturally vibrant and interesting place to live right now. Of course there’s the Louvre, the Champs-Elysées, the Arc de Triomphe; there are the people who attract tourists using these clichés, playing accordion in the metro and selling miniature Eiffel Tower keychains under the real thing. And that’s all wonderful, but living in Paris really gives you the chance to explore all the hidden corners and less-celebrated aspects: the North African bakeries dotting the north-east part of the city, the illegal roasted corn sellers on the sidewalks of the eighteenth. And if you speak French, even a little, living in France is probably the best way to improve and to start speaking a living language, not just textbook sentences.

That said, be prepared to spend a lot of money. A lot. Paris in general is just expensive (An espresso in Tours this weekend cost the same as one from my local café, and was three times the size.). And on top of that, the exchange rate is brutal. Learn to appreciate bread (good and comparatively cheap) and to enjoy cooking with friends instead of going out to dinner so often. But don’t constantly translate the prices from euros to dollars in your head—you’ll starve doing that. And if you want a pastry, go for it.

I live in an apartment by myself, which I really like but which might not be for everyone. I’ve heard about great home-stay experiences and not so great ones. I live in the fifteenth arrondissement, in the south-west part of the city; it’s really charming during the day, with wonderful bakeries and markets and little shops, but it’s also an expensive area with a lot of families and older people, so there isn’t much to do at night. If I ever live in Paris again, I’d try to live either between the tenth and the nineteenth/twentieth, or maybe in the fourth, both younger, hipper, and more diverse areas (though the fourth is getting pretty gentrified). If you like to go out to bars and clubs a lot, the eleventh or somewhere in the center might be best, because the metros close at 12:30 (1:30 on Friday and Saturday nights) and reopen at 5:30 in the morning. As for going out, a few people had recommended some places to me before I left; some were great, some were okay, and some were filled with Americans. I try to avoid bars that are full of NYU students, or Americans in general (maybe I’m looking for a more “authentic” experience), but regardless of what you prefer, you may have to search a bit before you find a bar or club you really like. Also, I think a lot of people come to Paris hoping to make French friends, but know that it’s not necessarily easy (most people go out with their friends, and stay with their friends), and sometimes your French friends aren’t as much fun as your friends from NYU anyway.

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