Paris bests, favorites and surprises

I always like hearing my visitors’ perspectives of the city. Paris inspires so much rapture and awe, but for different reasons. And sometimes it dredges up the not so positive impressions, too. Since I’ve been here over a year, there are certain things I no longer “see” or think about so I asked Connie and Nina, over buckwheat crepes at Breizh, about some of their impressions from their week in Paris.

Best Thing You Ate
N: Bread; Camembert cheese; limonades at restaurants; the rose macaron from Pierre Hermé; a Provencal tart from Picard (Seriously. One night, we were tired, cancelled our dinner reservations and rummaged in the kitchen instead. I had a frozen tart from Picard and it ended up being pretty good).
C: Eric Keyser and Arnaud Delmontel baguettes; Breizh crepe; Café Gascon salad and, “the macarons are crazy.”

Favorite Sight
N: The side streets, especially in the Quartier Montorgueil; the outside (but not inside) of the Eiffel Tower, the stairs in Montmartre.
C: The view of the Eiffel Tower from the residential seventh arrondisement; how all the streets comes together at an angle—“it’s like a puzzle.”

Biggest Surprise
N: Musée d’Orsay: “the inside’s so cool”; “how cute your apartment is.”
C: How everyone speaks English

Biggest Disappointment
C: Long lines; overcrowding (“it’s claustrophobic”); shocked by the dog shit.
N: Language barrier; didn’t take a Velib for a spin

Three Must-Sees
C: L’Orangerie; Musée d’Orsay; the open markets and “the view from Sacre Coeur is really special.”
N: Boat tour; Musée d’Orsay; Montmartre and Notre Dame

Most Noticeable Thing About French Women
N: “Eye makeup and boots and stripes and scarves.”
C: Brilliant use of accessories (“that includes cigarettes”): so casual but they really complete the outfits

Most Noticeable Thing About French Men
N: They wear leather jackets all the time and mostly have dark hair
C: They’re thin and there are a lot of cute ones

Struck Most About the French People & Culture
N: They don’t like it when you don’t speak French
C: They’re in a hurry; the quick pace (“But everybody’s friendly”)

Favorite Fashion Trend
N: Scarves, necklaces and bangs
C: Leather jackets everywhere and “no matter what size people are, they squeeze into skinny jeans.”