Kiwi's Birthday in Paris: Living like a local

So why stay in Paris for a month? My answer is always that I want to try to learn how to live like a local! So what's it like this time in the Latin Quarter?

The local everyday schedule is different from ours in the states. Folks here begin stirring in the morning around 8 or 8:30. The cafes fill with coffee drinkers and the boulangeries have fresh croissants and sweet rolls. Lunch time rolls around about 1:00 or 2:00 with tea or "gouter" late in the afternoon around 5:00. Dinner is at 8:00 or even later. Apart from the bakeries and epiceries, or delis, the little boutiques and gift shops open later in the morning, some not opening until the afternoon and staying open into the early evening.

It is just a different timing of everything. When we decide to eat out at night, we go on our American time schedule and easily find a place at 6:30 or 7:00. When we leave the restaurant it is full with a line at the door. However, we are slowly sliding into the pace of things, staying up later, getting up later, and exploring in the afternoon. The grocery stores and food stores open earlier, and we need to go every day or every other day to keep up with our supplies and tote them back home. We are careful not to buy more than we want to carry. Good wine can be heavy.

The second observation is the number of small stores. Around us in every direction are streets with little stores one right after another, block after block. It may be a stationery store, a clothing store, a children's shop, toys or food stores, a bakery, a restaurant, a deli with prepared food, a cafe, tea shop or bar. There are employees for each of these stores -- so there are many more people here in Paris who are shopkeepers than in the states. Some of the staff may be the actual owners, but they also employ others. Above all these stores are 4 or 5 more levels of living quarters. The buildings that have their dates engraved on them date from the 19th C. to the early part of the 20th C.

Third observation: in addition to the little specialty food stores there are also chain stores for food. All of the specialty stores are small, most of them with only one aisle and food displayed on both sides of the aisle. The chain stores are bigger, with mostly narrow aisles and are very crowded with both shoppers and clerks restocking the shelves. The chain stores are very much cheaper in price and have "house brands" for soaps, food and paper products. Within a few steps of our apartment are Franprix, Carrefour, and Monoprix, all chain stores found all over the city. Then there are the "grand epiceries" of Bon Marche or Hediard or Fouchon--places to behold, bien sur! I think it would be interesting to know the statistics for the number of people working in the food industry in France, compared with the states. Who knows what it says about either country? Maybe it is just "la difference."

Some of the little stores in the neighborhoods: