When you are visiting Paris for, say a week or
two, it's most likely your days may be spent gazing
at the Mona Lisa and your nights wallowing
leisurely along the Seine. That's a great fantasy
that, unfortunately ends the minute you become a
resident. But no one's complaining. For many
reasons, the experience of Paris improves once you
are living here, but it takes time to get
acclimated. Suddenly, issues like laundry and which
shampoo to use become all consuming and if your
French language skills aren't up to snuff, it can
be a trial figuring things out. Below are a few hints I hope will help all new
transplants to the City of Light. Some
recommendations are from my own experiences, others
are rumors I've acquired from reliable sources, but
have yet to check out. If you know otherwise about
anything listed here, please let me know.
FRIENDLY ATMs
On more than one occasion I've gotten
completely twisted to discover yet another
Paris ATM that only allows up to 360 Euros
withdrawn per day. If you know anyone in with
rent that cheap, congratulation. For the rest of us, paying rent usually
requires a minimum three withdraws at the
beginning of each month and those fees can
really add up. What to do, what to do? Well,
you could try the one ATM I've yet to find in
the city which allows 500 Euro withdraws. It's
at the BNP Bank located, naturally, in the
heavily tourist area near the Louvre. I've been
there twice, no hassles, but alas, with so many
tourists accessing it daily, it is regularly
out of cash, so take your chances.
"rue du Louvre" meets "Rue de Rivoli"
(directly across from the Musee Louvre),
Métro: (Line 1) Louvre Rivoli
FRENCH BAKERIES
Paris is one just
big bakery and thankfully you never have to
travel far to get your daily dose of "pain au
chocolate". Still, with so many choices, most
expatriates don't realize that far too many
bakeries in town are not French, but rather are
Italian, Spanish, Moroccan, etc. Not
complaining, as they are all good too; but if
you bent on finding an authentic French Bakery,
I'm told there are three things to look for:
As with all things French, if
you can't smell it coming, it ain't home grown.
A "real" French bakery just doesn't do "frozen"
or anything under 200 grams of butter, for that
matter, so if the smell from the side walk
doesn't knock you out, the taste probably won't
either.
While some non-French bakeries
do smell great, very few will have fresh baked
goods at "Tea Time". Therefore, if your bakery
is not packed between the hours of 3-5pm with
locals carting out artfully designed pastries,
cakes, tarts and pains, then it is probably not
a "real" French bakery (and is probably not
making nearly as much money as it could
be!).
France is a Catholic country, so it's likely
your "real" French bakery closes early on Friday
afternoons (or worse yet, isn't open at all that
day). Now, that you know what to look for-then
where to go? Well, believe it or not, one of the
best French bakeries in town is one you wouldn't
expect, the Monoprix Bakery in the 2nd
arrondissement. Located where rue Reaumur meets bd
de Sebastopol, it's not only one of the cleanest,
prettiest and to-die-for smelling kitchens in town
(and with the extremely long lines of well-dressed
patrons to prove it), but the exceptionally
friendly staff and daily special promotions make
this one terrific find.
Monoprix Bakery
"rue Reaumur" meets "bd De Sebastopol",
75002 Paris
Metro: (Line 4) Reaumur-Sebastopol
BEAUTY & NAIL CARE
Hair
Salon: For Parisian women of all creeds and
nationalities, hair is a BIG deal. The longer
the better seems to be the logic of the moment,
although we've seen a lot of wonderful short
styles, too. This small, immaculate salon is owned by a
woman who first trained in Los Angeles and she
speaks fluent English. Only drawback are the
prices, which are positively mid-western,
meaning that unlike Los Angeles or New York,
where acrylic nails are as common as Nutella,
they're just being discovered in Paris and a
full set can run you as much as 50 Euros (a
fill as high as 30 Euros). That's a lot of
cash, but still, if you're like me, a little
pampering every now and again is worth it. As
stated, these particular facilities are clean
and the service is the highest quality. They
even provide a complimentary cafe.
Top Ongles
46, rue de Bagnolet, 75020 Paris,
Tel: 01 4379-9773
Metro: (Line 2) Alexandre Dumas, Bus 76 (La Reunion)
On more than one occasion I've gotten
completely twisted to discover yet another
Paris ATM that only allows up to 360 Euros
withdrawn per day. If you know anyone in with
rent that cheap, congratulation. For the rest of us, paying rent usually
requires a minimum three withdraws at the
beginning of each month and those fees can
really add up. What to do, what to do? Well,
you could try the one ATM I've yet to find in
the city which allows 500 Euro withdraws. It's
at the BNP Bank located, naturally, in the
heavily tourist area near the Louvre. I've been
there twice, no hassles, but alas, with so many
tourists accessing it daily, it is regularly
out of cash, so take your chances.
Paris is one just
big bakery and thankfully you never have to
travel far to get your daily dose of "pain au
chocolate". Still, with so many choices, most
expatriates don't realize that far too many
bakeries in town are not French, but rather are
Italian, Spanish, Moroccan, etc. Not
complaining, as they are all good too; but if
you bent on finding an authentic French Bakery,
I'm told there are three things to look for:
Hair
Salon: For Parisian women of all creeds and
nationalities, hair is a BIG deal. The longer
the better seems to be the logic of the moment,
although we've seen a lot of wonderful short
styles, too. This small, immaculate salon is owned by a
woman who first trained in Los Angeles and she
speaks fluent English. Only drawback are the
prices, which are positively mid-western,
meaning that unlike Los Angeles or New York,
where acrylic nails are as common as Nutella,
they're just being discovered in Paris and a
full set can run you as much as 50 Euros (a
fill as high as 30 Euros). That's a lot of
cash, but still, if you're like me, a little
pampering every now and again is worth it. As
stated, these particular facilities are clean
and the service is the highest quality. They
even provide a complimentary cafe.