Tips 1 - 10 of 18 Paris General Tips
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General Tips: Surprise !
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Favorite Thing: It all started end of June 1984. Once, my Dad told me that I was going to spend my holidays in Paris... and that we were going to leave in "one week". Or was it "one month"?... Anyways, it was not planned as well ahead as it should be for future travels.
I was excited, happy. And yes, I remembered that I had heard my parents talking about a new passport. Yet, I never suspected it was for me. Since my Mum used to keep all our documents (photos, certificates of all kinds), they could plan it without asking me to provide them with papers, id-photos... That was a surprise !
Fondest Memory: As far as I remember, I have never dreamt of Paris... not as much as many adults who plan their trips, read guides to know what to see, what to eat, to buy... would do.
I think I haven't had time to dream of Paris. My parents used to say that one day, they were going to show us Paris. Still, I never knew when... until they told me that we were leaving "soon". Really really soon :)
Would it have been a better trip if there was some room for dreaming? Think not. There was room for surprise, instead. And I DO like surprises.
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Favorite Thing: As days went by and departure time got close, I got really excited. OK, I said I didn't have time to dream of Paris but I sure got excited...
Excited because I was going to travel abroad. For many Malagasy, the only way to travel abroad was the plane. It is an island, remember. Plus, we would have visited neighbouring islands (La Reunion, Maurice, Comores) and would have used boats and ferries.. but that was the time we considered Europe as more important. And for historical reasons, France use to rank high in Malagasy preference. Well, if not preference, one should at least think of the language problem. Madagascar used to be a French colony so, by large, French country, French language & French culture are the first foreign influences Malagasy had been used to.
Excited because I was going to have a huge flight. It was not my first flight, but the first abroad, the first longest. At that time, a Tana-Paris flight lasted 14 hours (stopover included). Now, it is close to 10 hours.
Fondest Memory: For my first flight being to a Malagasy coastal city in 1977 when I was 4 then, I don't have any memory of it. So, this Tana-Paris flight was to be considered as the first. Still have my first passport with me (not of use anymore, of course). It was with a 747 Boeing.
My memory of the flight? I discovered then the big plane, the 747 (since then, Airmad had upgraded to 767). All internal flights were with 737 or Twin-Otter planes or HS (?). Only external ones were with 747. Notice however that to fly to Madagascar, Air Madagascar is "The Natural Choice" ;-)
That was also the first time I went through the "gate", the checking posts. I've seen so many times my parents passing through the gate & the checking points at the Ivato airport... and then, it was my turn. Wow!
Then, I remembered the choice of music stations on board. That may sound silly but I'd like you to remember your first flight... and you'd discover small but meaningful aspects, details. Also, 1984 was a bad year for Madagascar. We just underwent a big economic crisis... People queued up for rice, sugar, soap, oil... Oil was dangerous and not suitable for consumption. Many people died for having cooked with it. Prices of staple food (rice) rocketed so that even middle-class people ate maize corn at noon lunch... uuuh!
Since flights were (are) not cheap at all, I knew I was lucky to have experienced Paris at this young age. With all of that in mind, I was impressed and excited at same time.
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General Tips: Vazaha as cleaning personnel
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Favorite Thing: My first flight was great.. no fear, no malaise... I was with my parents, comforted so it went OK... I was given a plastic gameboard (jeu de dame) as pasttime on board. Yet, I didn't have time to play with it. At that time, kids used to receive gameboards, coloriage books to keep them busy. I think I spent time listening to the many music stations available.
When we landed at Orly airport.... I admit I don't have any memory of it. Except, the shuttle in the airport we took from a point to another (terminal?).
I knew my uncle (mum's brother) was going to pick us up... So, he was there.
Fondest Memory: We had a stop over Marseille. And I had some memory of it, indeed. When we landed, I could see then the sea from above... Again, it sounds silly to talk about that but this, so far, was engramed in my mind.
Something you wouldn't expect to be surprising: the sight of French (and whites in general) persons cleaning and removing garbage bins from corners in the plane. That was during the stopover. In Madagascar, vazaha (white persons) use to be bosses... not part of cleaning staff... Well, that was strange for me.
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Favorite Thing: So, we were brought to my uncle's home. So tired after our long flight that we went sleeping right away. The discovery of Paris started the following day.
Since we stayed at my uncle's place, we first had to go to supermaket to buy all we needed.
On our way to the supermarket, in my uncle's car, I noticed people in Paris used to listen to radio. In Madagascar, we didn't do that that much... or maybe I hadn't noticed others did... Anyways, that was the past... Nowadays, you can't walk in Tana streets without hearing songblast from flash cars, 4WD, SUV the young things use to drive.
Fondest Memory: It was during those rides that I listened to Top50 (music charts). I discovered a lot there.. all artists, French and non-French alike... and especially the 80s music "artists".
Say Michael Jackson (with Mc Cartney, they sang "Say, Say, Say" at that time), Tina Turner (a comeback), Rita Mitsouko (only Francophiles would know them)... I am sure there are more. Yes, more: Jean-Jacques Goldman (still listening to him), Lahaie, Phil Collins + Genesis, Cindy Lauper (I like her) ...
Pop music is one of thing I discovered in Paris. I liked it and it changed me a lot from classical music I used to hear playing home. This is also one of fondest memories of Paris.
As for my uncle, he appreciated "Les Grosses Têtes". Both he and my parents liked to listen to this program. It was (and still IS) all about witty humour. Philippe BOUVARD, the host invited(s) persons with his crew. Then, they have some chat, guessing games about news of various topics.. It can be about stars, politicians.. Sthg like "Guess who said this?".. or other guessing games. All of that with culture, laughters, wit and cleverness.
When it was on, I knew I was going to spend sometime not understanding anything. I could speak French but my French was not that rich.. Plus, I was shy. I remembered avoiding speaking to my uncle, the first days, in the fear of having to speak French. hihi... Whenever had then to ask to my parents about things in my uncle's house. My Mum used to say, "Ask your uncle". After some days, I started talking to my uncle and I spoke to him... in Malagasy. :) My uncle is a very tender guy.. really nice with kids.
Of course, in Brussels, I listened to "Les grosses têtes" once in a while... and I spoke French in everyday life, English at one of the jobs I landed. Malagasy is the one I use most, nowadays. :-)
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Markets: Huge supermarkets, big fruits, onions, fat chicken
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Favorite Thing: Oooh! I could never imagine that supermarkets could be that big. I think we went to Carrefour supermarkets. Bought stuffs.
Many stuffs I was not used to: milk powder (used to drink fresh milk), big onions, big fruits, big vegetables, big and fat chicken. Yes, those, at least, were the biggest onions I've ever seen in my life thus far...
Also, I was impressed by the wide range of items cc stationery. I was a schoolkid. I wanted the perfect paper to write on.. les cahiers (notebooks), apple-fragrant Papermate pens. I knew from TV commercials that I'd better buy Clairefontaine (haha.. who wouldn't have wanted to buy it?). My Mum stood firm.. no stationery bought... Indeed, what would be the benefit of buying a cahier "from Paris" if you are going to use a dozen during the school year... Better use the local production for everything (bad quality paper). So went money to something else: visits of Chartres, Versailles and some of the monuments & museums of Paris.
Fondest Memory: That was the first time I saw people reading magazines, comic strips in the shops... Not necessarily Carrefour but also in FNAC...
Yes, just pick what you want to read and you may sit in FNAC shelvings reading it without being warned... Still did that sometimes, in Brussels' GB-Carrefour and Brussels FNAC. That was compared to our supermarkets in Tana where we had employees all over the shops... looking at what you do, preventing you from reading your favourite magazine... And yes, FNAC impressed me for many reasons. It's still one of my fave amongst the many department stores... always things to discover there...
Also, a supermarket I really liked to go to: Monoprix.. I don't know why... maybe because it was smaller? The one I was used to is still on Rue Alésia (14ème).
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Shopping: Fragrant shops, streets... shoe addiction
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Favorite Thing: Of course, one of my ways to discover Paris was shopping. Don't laugh ! I mean buying things other than food and drinks.
Be it for clothes, for books.. and for shoes ! Thank God, I didn't know cosmetics at that time... except soaps and shampoos. I say "Thank God" because I think I developed from this first Paris experience my "shoe-addiction" (I was 10). Imagine the damage done on the bank account if I knew about cosmetics at that time... Shoe addiction is enough!
Reading my shopping tips, you'll notice I've developed an interest in make-up products... but later. Far later than this first acquaintance with Paris.
It was mainly Boulevard Haussman area: Galeries Lafayette, late Marks & Spencer (I knew the food section for my Mum buying there Genoa cake: with fruits confits). Then BHV (for DIY section)... not my type of thing. :)
Then FNAC.. fabulous FNAC, for books and comic strips.
Elsewhere, some small shops in 14e arrondissement... shoes, clothes. The closest to my home then was on Rue Alésia. And fabrics shops in St-Pierre area (Montmartre)... and Gibert Jeune shop on Boul Mich (they had the cahiers I wanted so much :))).
Fondest Memory: All of the shops had (still have) a common point: they all smell good. Indeed, I have a memory of walking in the streets and smelling some perfumes, home fragrances escaping from the shops. I could literally hop from a fragrant territory to another while walking in those streets. Even drugstores smell good there. I think that confirmed the reputation of French people (at least Parisians) as perfume users. Perfume is everywhere: home, on persons, in shops, in streets...
Compared to Belgium, where shops are clean and that's all, that's a difference.
Compared to shops in Tana, that was even a contrast.
[Side notice: Later on, I discovered that they spray newly launched perfumes (One year in the 90s, I could smell intoxicating Christian Lacroix' s "C'est la vie !" everywhere)... I also learnt during a traineeship in The Body Shop outlets how to promote home fragrance by engraming it in visitors brains: pour some drops in hot water and splash it on the ground and pavement in front of your door. ;-)]
Speaking of shoes.. I remember one night sleeping with my new brand shoes on my pillow. That was because I had a crunch on them in the shop... then I wanted to have them in my sight when I woke up... Still remember of them: brown and black.. The second night I had them, because I felt myself ridiculous, I laid them at the foot of my bed.. but then, I woke up many times in the middle of the night to see them. Of course, it took me days to decide to wear them... :)
I remembered it.. and my parents did too. One of vivid memories of shopping in Paris...
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Favorite Thing: Walking in Paris streets... you would find a lot of tourists, including you, in fact. :)
Tourists everywhere.. everywhere they can watch, walk, eat, buy... in those huge boulevards, along the Seine, at the feet of Tour Eiffel, on top of it, on Place de l'Opéra, at Champs-Elysées... in la Butte area, in Paris zoo, at Notre-Dame.
Also, pigeons everywhere. I'd never seen that before. What stroke me most was that people used to feed them.. I compared them with the treatment of stray dogs in Tana streets. very different... I didn't blame Malagasy people at all.. They had to struggle everyday to find food so how could they feed stray dogs ?
Fondest Memory: Away from Paris, I would miss the atmospheric Boul Mich... packed with students, bookshops... Don't know really why.. Maybe because my parents used to love hanging around there too? And that they got me used to it?
I loved sitting in cafés there, having some drinks and watching people passing by...
One thing is sure: for having studied in Paris, my parents had known the Boul Mich well. They were there end of 60s, beginning of 70s. So had they known Paris Chinatown with dead cheap Vietnamese restaurants. Still very popular amongst students, same as Place Monge. ;-)
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Walking Around: Parisians..of course.. smooching Parisians
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Favorite Thing: Walking in Paris and not finding Parisians? Unbelievable. Yet, since I was there during summer, I rather noticed the tourists.
But Parisians were there, on Trocadero, in cafés, in terrasses, in the streets. They like cafés ... Oh, I understood why.. evenings were hot and days were long. So, be they Juilletistes or Aoûtistes, they have to have some nightlife somewhere, while waiting for the near departure or just returning from holiday trips. Only tourists would spend holidays in Paris, obvious no?
At that time, before this globalization thingy, I could distinguish Parisians from tourists. First, their French..haha.. bravo Norali. Well, their typical accent was so contagious that even in Madagascar, we got used to it. Second, their attire... Even in hot summer, Parisian ladies managed to appear fresh, with a bit of make-up, with the right attire... no too holiday-ish, not too chic.. Just the right set to suit all circumstances in a day. There were rightly dressed for both working hours, some time at Galeries Lafayette, some moments catching a bit of sun at the end of afternoon, for the diner with friends... Would say, there should be some balance somewhere. Not too sporty, not "too much".
Fondest Memory: That was about the ladies.. but about youngsters... There was some kind of a shock walking in the streets, and especially in parks.
I was not that prudish but seeing youngsters kissing and cuddling everywhere was strange to me. Coming from a country where people were not tactile at all, it was unusual. I knew it was (is) common in Europe, I had seen that in films but still... I was not used to it.
Simply put, PDAs are not Malagasy's forte. At that time, you could only notice a couple when the guy and the girl are walking hand in hand in Tana streets, in some parks somewhere at the end of the afternoon... when it's getting dark. :) Yet, we are a very smiling people.
Of course, I was curious... And when there was not any family around, I used to stare at the smooching couples... They didn't mind. I was a little kid among others, just browsing around. :) And they, well.. they were busy.
"... C'est si bon
De partir n'importe ou,
Bras dessus, bras dessous,
En chantant des chansons.
C'est si bon
De se dire des mots doux,
Des petits rien du tout
Mais qui en disent long.
En voyant notre mine ravie
Les passants, dans la rue, nous envient.
C'est si bon
De guetter dans ses yeux
Un espoir merveilleux
Qui donne le frisson.
C'est si bon,
Ces petit's sensations.
Ça vaut mieux qu'un million,
Tell'ment, tell'ment c'est bon..."Were they only Parisians? Didn't know that at that time but I guess tourists did smooch too. :-)
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Driving: Crazy and excited drivers
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Favorite Thing: I know.. I would have copy-pasted it from any other VT pages here (so to speak, I don't copy-paste anyway).. but yes, I noticed Parisians are crazy drivers.
Not necessarily in the way they drive, rather in the way they behave while being stuck in traffic jams. I came from a country where very few people respected circulation codes and the rights of pedestrians. Compared to what I knew, Parisians were OK regarding that.
Still, I noticed they used to moan a lot. Traffic jams were the occasions to see that. They don't hoot that much... but I noticed, so many times, guys who were stuck in traffic jam who insulted the other drivers.
"Connard !", "Enc*lé !", those were familiar to my poor ears. Usually, no elegant women to do that. Instead, I saw them moaning in their cars and gesticulating with hands...
Fondest Memory: That is a fond memory.. in a sense that in Madagascar, people who are stuck in traffic jams use horns a lot... I would rather say "too much".
I was on holidays, not involved in any logicstics and timing concerns. I just enjoyed seeing every streets, listening the adults discussing, shopping... Time didn't have any hold on me.
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Favorite Thing: OK... I said earlier that I hadn't dreamt of anything Parisian. Now, I remember I had dreamt of the metro rides. I imagined it... Imagination triggered by the tales, explanations adults gave.
I was expecting the first metro rides. For Tana, my home and birthcity, not having any metro system, I'd never ridden any metro... By the way, except for the flights, these were the first times in my life I used public transportations. In fact, I've never used public transportations in Madagascar, except planes and two taxi-brousse rides in 1986.
Then, it was with excitement that I took those metro rides... In some stations, there were those machines where to find your way. Passengers just had to push on a button with the station they are heading to... then the whole ride (connection included) was on display on an electronic map... I was very interested in pushing the button, kind of kinetic type of person... :)
I also noticed that the metro was not that young. I liked the sound of the door opening. Like a metallic door opening sound the younger & more modern Brussels metro cannot produce.
Fondest Memory: For who coming from a country without any underground system, this is something to experience.
In fact, I was impressed. How could a kid imagine being able to circulate below pavement surface ? During some of those rides, I was imagining the worst: that soil would fall on the metro trains.. and that passengers would die suffocating.
Since I've never had similar events occuring, it became obvious that I liked this way of travelling. Nowadays [author's notice: in Brussels since this tip was written while still living in Brussels], metro is my best transportation means in Brussels. Quick, underground, no traffic jam... In Paris, I have to say it, metro stations & corridors stink. Don't know why (well, I know, I saw people peeing in the corridors: bums and non-bums alike)... so do some stations in Brussels but you really have to choose them to experience the smell.
Also, I have a memory of Châtelet station, because there is this long "tapis roulant" there. Very long for me... and fun to "ride". Strange enough, I was not the only kid to like this station.
Some other metro scenes kept engramed in my mind: the sight of clandestine vendors in metro stations. They used to sell flowers, some plastic toys. As soon as when cops got close, I saw all of this vanishing in thin air ... that was impressive.
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 Comments for Norali about Paris | | | | |
Nemorino Fri Aug 24, 2007 09:16 UTC
Looks like Geo magazine gave you a good introduction to Paris. You have written interesting texts about your personal experiences there. Glad you like the traditional brasseries. | cosmicroy Fri Aug 17, 2007 01:01 UTC
What the hell is politics in a cafe got to do with this guide page. Boring ! | irisbe Mon Sep 25, 2006 20:13 UTC
LOL what you mean no pictures? :) don't tell me you forgot your camera! oh gross that hotel tip!!! | Geisha_Girl Thu Aug 24, 2006 20:34 UTC
French Vanilla !!!! ;-))) |
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on Aug 24, 2007
