| Page Views: 5,035 Last Visit to Paris: July, 2009 I Live Here | "METRO, BOLOT, DODO": THE PARISIAN LIFESTYLE! by thinking - last update: Jul 11, 2009 |
| Claude Monet, Rue Montorgueil, Paris 1878 |
|  | Courbevoie (LaDefense) |
| Eugene Delacroix's "Liberty leading the People" |
| | THE FRENCH ARE DIFFERENT! What isn't advertised about France is what determines their social character:
1. France operates the country under socialism. That means the French are always complaining and wanting more. The unproductive want more money from the state which means only the productive members pay. Their societal goal is to procreate without regard to old fashioned ideas. They need taxpayers who are made afraid to leave France because foreigners don't speak or eat the French way.
French act like robots, never smile, and hope to "live hidden, live happy" due to the command nature of the French hierarchy. They are encouraged to spend money & to buy real estate, so eating out, smoking, and drinking in restaurants is de rigour. How else will the state collect 19.6% VAT of all those high, fixed prices? There is nothing romantic about that, IMHO.
2. Its energy is from nucleaur reactors.
3. The legal drinking age here is 18.
4. Sunday is reserved for the sacred "family lunch".
Sunday mornings famillies go to the market.
The liquor & food stores will be only open from 8h30 to 13h00.
5. The State provides free, obligatory and laïque education. Upon graduate from the free high school
the French are entitled to attend the university. One's grades do not matter. Fees are under $200 a year, and scholarships are available to low income families.
If you speak French, and are a foreigner and can pass the entrance exam, you can go to school free in France too. However, there is a "class" system here too.
6. Most workers have lifetime contracts of employment and the certainty that goes with it.
If you work at a bank, for example, you receive a rank just like in the military. You take that rank with you when changing companies. Everyone receives the same salary, only the bonus is different.
Workers clothing and transporation is deducted from their income for tax purposes. France asks you for a statement of income and sends you a tax bill. You do not need weeks to prepare a tax return.
7. Health care costs 8% of your income. Drug costs are minimal.
8. Property taxes are paid for mostly by the Corporations, but the financial crisis will change all of this. More of the burden will fall on the owners beginning in 2011 and continue for the next 3 years, as Sarkozy wants to lessen the burden on corporations. They need more money because regulators and bankers did not regulate or manage risks.
9. 40 average paid vacation days are provided everyone in France, not counting holidays or sick days.
10. The days run like "military clockwork" in France. Plan to eat between noon-14h00, as the entire country stops everything for "the lunch". Lunch is the main meal of the day. All large corporations have cafeteria's for their workers, as well as "cheque jeuner" food vouchers for them to eat elsewhere.
11. You are EXPECTED to have children and the pro-natalist state supports that idea with funds to back that up. In fact, one isn't considered an adult here unless one has children. Of course, jobs are outsourced as fast as possible to former colonies or Central or Eastern Europe. |
| | LA DEFENSE and PARIS If I can tell you anything else, it would be that Foreigners have to remind themselves that they are not only dealing with a country that really exists (ie: the multinational corporation one located in LaDefense & lined up to profit off of tourists on the Champs Elysee), but with a country that most Frenchmen dream still exists (the grandeur of life amongst Royal luxuries), their former importance in the diplomactic world, when France had a lot of power. The gap between the two realities is a large one, but the French indefatigably try to ignore it or forget it. Check out Sixty Million Frenchman Can't Be WrongAu Contraire: Figuring Out the French"Culture Shock France" and "Culture Shock Paris" I found somewhat helpful. I did find it very helpful to discuss the implications of "Culture Shock USA". After using this book as a way to discuss culture, anyone can see through the political & economic designs of both cultures.There is so much pleasure in understanding this most important fact. Downtown Paris is reserved for 25 million annual visitors and annual parades such as Bastille Day's, for New Years Eve street parties, for the finish of the Tour de France and for lots of demonstrating strikers and other ordinary malcontents. If there's any space left over, it is used for towing away illegally-parked cars. About three decades ago, some power types decided to place Paris' business downtown out of town so it wouldn't offend local sensitivities. This happened after the 56-story Tour Montparnasse was accidently built before anyone realized what an eyesore it would be - and still is.. The President of France is a pretty powerful person. I don't know if he actually had the idea, but he must have okayed the plan to go far out west - beyond the rich bourgeois neighborhood in Neuilly - and grab parts of Puteaux and Courbevoie in Paris' light-industrial & 'red' belt, & put the business downtown there. These two places are not even in Paris; there are in the Hauts-de-Seine department. Just in case anybody was thinking of protesting against this land-grab, the new place was called 'La Défense' - as in 'Don't mess with it.' Then it was given a Paris postal code of 92400. This allows businesses to be located, somewhat offshore, in La Défense and pretend to still be in Paris so they can put that on their letterheads. Visiting businessmen who have business to do in Paris must be surprised that the places they need to visit are not next to the Ritz or anywhere near the Champs-Elysé. The taxi fare from there to LaDefense would be high, but they don't pay their own taxi fares anyway. However, local residents do, so the métro's Line 1 was extended beyond Neuilly to La Défense, & a regional express rail line was run through it too so the hoards of working people could live far away & travel to work at La Défense. It must have been a very high-up decision, because the main axis of La Défense lines up with the Pyramid in the Louvre, the Obelisk at Concorde, and the Arc de Triomphe at Etoile. To 'anchor' it all, a huge arch - called the 'Grande Arche,' was built at La Défense's western end & you can see it in a clear day all the way from the Louvre, if the slight hill of the Etoile wasn't in the way. You can visit La Défense for the price of a round-trip métro ride. I would suggest doing this if you are in any doubt about what makes Paris great - because of all urban places in the world, La Défense is the current economic reality. The Royals of the Multicorporation Empire work here. This is were you will find the French. |
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| Pros: | "HISTORICALLY INTERESTING" | | Cons: | "HIGH PRICES! NO CHOICE AND NO SERVICE ! RAIN! RUDE, BORING & ROBOTIC PEOPLE!" | | In A Nutshell: | "SO MUCH HISTORY" |
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 Comments for thinking about Paris | | | | |
dr.firas Wed Aug 19, 2009 09:07 UTC
I wish you a very belated Happy Birthday my dear :-) | kenHuocj Fri Aug 7, 2009 08:23 UTC
as always, a joy to VT visit Paris with you . ARe you enjoying your Summer. ;-))) | Mailo Wed Jun 24, 2009 05:42 UTC
Your France and Paris pages are very interesting and serius info for the traveler, very helpful, congratulation and thank's for all that, it is really apreciated. Soon I hope to visit France based in your tips. Ismael | ForestqueenNYC Wed May 13, 2009 22:57 UTC
Elizabeth,regarding what you can't find in Paris, I have been unable to find a cast iron frying pan with a flat bottom. I may bring one from the U.S. the next trip. |
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