Here comes my 6th instalment for the series 10 impressions of Paris . Time flies. I’ve been here for 2 years!!! Do you recognise this landmark? 😉
Un: McDonald France have beer & macaroon
Enough said, right? I kid you not. Plus they actually bring the food to your table. However, beer is not part of Happy Meals 🙁 so inconsiderate
Deux: Large quantity implies poor quality
To the French, large quantity is a sign of poor quality. For an example, a buffet at any establishment is perceived to be of inferior quality to à la carte. So that leads to restaurants purposefully reducing the quantity / size to create value for the French market. Take McDonald for example, the food size here is a lot smaller than USA’s.
Trois: Philosophy is an high school senior / matric year subject
Best way to teach young people to think a lot, right? It is traditionally the first national exam across France.
Quatre: Schools do not teach religious study
That’s right. The public schools only teach history of various religion (mainly the religious wars), but do not teach the value of each religion. Not knowing about different religions, believes and traditions is such a dangerous thing, no? Because the topic religion is considered somewhat taboo, people don’t talk about it at all… Ignorance breeds distrust and delusions in my opinion.
Cinq: Organic fertiliser is cool
This one confused the hell out of me.
Do people here know what organic fertiliser really means? Hello? It is chicken / horse manure; okay, it is possible to use coffee waste as well, but hey, manure is the regular. Hopefully been burnt as well, otherwise say hi to a bunch of worms. Hm… maybe the chicken / horse manure over here doesn’t have worms even without burning. Anyways, the point is, why are people willing to pay more for manure than artificial fertiliser that smell less repulsive?!?!?
I am pretty positive that the “nature fertiliser” is the default / cheapest option back in South Africa (and the most common option). Seriously, why are people willing to pay more for manure?!?!?!?
Six: No body in Paris in Summer (July – August)
Yup… where is everyone? And many shops are closed!!! It’s giving up a month of commercial rent. It feels irrational to me.
Sept: Cannot buy contact lens without a prescription from the doctor
!#$%$%$!% Seriously, why do I need to go to a specialist doctor for buying contact lens?
Huit: Sephora France has the WORST deals
When Sephora France send a 25% off voucher, the voucher excludes a BUNCH for brands. E.g. NARS, Too faced, Kat von D, Fenty etc… need I say more? O, and when they do hold a “big sale”, only a tiny fraction of the shades are on sale, but it doesn’t show that on their website until you click through. Sephora France site is FULL of click bait. Plus they tend to sell the same product at a higher price than the brand’s official website. There is no birthday freebies or birthday discount that’s meaningful (think 10% with a bunch of brand excluded). Why should I accumulate points with Sephora? The points don’t even lead to gifts. The points leads to more discount vouchers that are USELESS! With lame-ass vouchers like that, they might as well don’t bother with the point card.
If you’re moving to France, I highly recommend that you head straight to Nocibé instead. The shops are not as snazzy, but when they have sale, they mean business. No sneaky exclude 20 brands sort of situation. If you don’t know Nocibé, it is a national chain that sells cosmetic in France. Way better value for money.
Neuf: Someone different
Wahahahaha this is sooooooo far gone for me. I didn’t realised that this expression is referring to people that are not white. My initial thought was that they’re talking about disabled community or LGBT because the speaker made it sounded somewhat very sensitive. But no, “someone different” refers to non-white. Either I am completely oblivious or people are just too sensitive? Why can’t people just say that they are looking for a multi-racial mix crowd?
Anyways, point taken, in future I will stick to this sort of vocab.
Dix: Kids goes to Louvre, Versailles, Mount St Michel… all the iconic places for school trips
I am just jealous. The last 2 weeks of school, many schools take the kids to visit places around the country. Guess what French kids gets to do? Yup, that’s right. Iconic museums and other UNESCO sites. My jealousy is totally justified, right?
**The featured firework photo was taken by my husband 😀 Isn’t it beautiful?
So that’s it for this “episode” of 10 impressions of Paris 😉 Thank you for reading.
12 Comments
Someone different. Gosh I’ve never heard that once in a convo! Hope You enjoying it out there
Hey, Bee xox Thank you for dropping by. Yeah, that ‘different’ comment really caught me off guard lol
A fact you may not know about me. I love trying out different fast food chains to check out the regional differences! However, I did not go to a French McDonalds! Now I will need to go to get a macaroon! My favourite regional McDonald’s was in Russia – they offer these flavour powders and empty bags to “shake” your chicken nuggets to season them. 🙂
I can get onboard with the notion that large quantity equals lower quality. I’d rather get smaller portions of food – I can hardly ever finish my meals and it’s consistently wasteful. We can never eat at buffets because of how uneconomical it would be for me lol.
Philosophy is part of our high school curriculum here too. It’s usually a class for arguing, that’s all. 😛 We also had an elective course in high school called “World religions” and it was also a class for arguing. 😆
We require a prescription for contact lenses here too. Which is a bummer because I always wanted colour contact lens but don’t want the hassle of getting a Rx. I do not trust those off the shelf ones or those circle lenses.
What a crappy “sale” at Sephora France. At least here it’s really only Dyson that’s excluded. I do think American sales are absolutely insane – I love watching the tv shows with extreme couponing. We don’t have that here.
What is the literal translation of “someone different”… “quelqu’un de différent”? It has a hint of racism, in my opinion. Who’s to say who is “different”? White people are different to me! 😉
Sorry for my late reply 😢
Okay, I think either I spied on you or something lol 🤣😂 I did know that you try out different food chains. I love those shake bags from McDonalds!! They had them for the fries in Hong Kong.
For French, the smaller quantity is about the image. I honestly don’t feel that they do it for “less waste” reason.
🤣🤣🤣 I love your comments about the classes lol perhaps they can label them as 《free range debate》 class? 😂
Those circle lens things are mega uncomfortable hey. I can only handle them for about 3 hours.
O, Canada don’t get crazy sales like US? 🤤 super surprised. I thought the 2 markets are similar (and close logistically).
Well, I didn’t take it as racism. It was just over the top with being politically correct. Or maybe I am just insensitive. 🤣😂
Love your Parisian insights, Joyce! You don’t get to know these things as a tourist. xx
Interesting observations! I heard from a friend who used to livein Paris at the same time as me, over 10 years ago, that it has changed a LOT. I guess that ”someone different” term came after me because I never heard of such a thing!!
And is that a crane parked next to the iconic landmark? Huh.
About Sephora’s discounts… Dunno about Sephora in particular, but I always used to love shopping in Paris because the discounts were great! Cosmetics, clothes, home decoration, books…Over here in Finland discounts really don’t exist at all. Everything is super expensive, always. Discounts happen at the end of a season to get rid of the sizes no onewants and even then it’s like 10% off at the most. No one has even heard of birthday gifts 😂 Ok some brands have them like Esprit but you have to buy for 50 eur to get 10 eur off. Some kids’ stores have stamps you collect to get a discount.
Yes, that was a crane 😀 well spotted.
Okay, Finland wins when it comes to lack of deals. The tax and price in general in just super high over here (ouch). Wait till you visit the USA Sephora. They have a whole bunch of specials that the France one does not get. Free birthday gift, point system in exchange for mini, real 25% vouchers that are valid for the whole store AND they have these regular price reduction promo. Sooooo unfair. I am just jealous wahahah
Me too – jealous! 😂
Wonderful. I absolutely love this post. The featured pic was really really very awesome.😍
Thank you, Shreya xox 😀
Great impressions Joyce. What no beer with Happy Meals!!!!
Thank you, Sue~ no beer with Happy Meals is just inconsiderate 😛