They often say that nothing in life comes cheap. "Paris, c'est cher!" You'll often hear this reflection. It is always difficult to get used to the idea of paying an exorbitant price for something that shouldn't be such a sandwich or a coffee. Then, there is is the slowness of public administration and repeated strikes which are forgetting why and how.

It is well known that Parisians can not drive. If you live in Paris, the car will be useless. Especially since it is the cause of arguments, stress, visual, auditory, olfactory and chemical pollution, accidents or fines... This is the case in all big cities, you might say. But in Paris, some say it is beyond comprehension! The worst case is when a nice and rare driver stops to let you cross the street; you cross then, and you're in the middle of the crosswalk, when a ?!!#°) another driver, not understanding why the car in front of him stops for no reason, decides not to lose four seconds on his schedule and with rage, decides to double the car stopped in front of him with a big boost.

When people ask about Paris...well they usually don't actually ask anything. They rather frame statements like "You must be having a great time!" or "Tell me about your French girlfriend" as questions, or pose their questions with the answer already in mind, as in "How amazing is it there?" Unhappy with their own regular lives, they may expect to be living their dream by proxy. The problem is that, like most comparisons between idealised fantasy and reality, the Paris of imagination really doesn't stack up to the Paris of the real world.

The tour books, travel guides that create Paris usually don't mention the city's noticeably enormous homeless population, the shit walkways and traffic-jammed streets, or the bleak and sunless or snowless monotony that is from December to March. 

 

And once here, the tourists themselves don't notice these things either - because they don't want to spoil their own fun. For the brief time that they are in Paris, they get caught up in their partially self-constructed, partially super-imposed mythological dream-world because it is sadly reaffirmed by their revelries. It's a vicious cycle: they see what they want to see because they want to see it. They ignore the blank stares on the metro and they put up with outrageous prices they pay for the wrong orders in restaurants, which are usually served with a side of disdain.

But not everybody can be oblivious, and I now know why Parisians are so cold. They do see the homeless at every street corner. Every day. They do smell the piss in the Metro. Almost every day. They are overpowered by the daily grind of a city designed for temporary vacationing, and their recourse is to simply block it all out. Of course, that only makes life more miserable. In addition, Paris is probably the city where you feel most easily and quickly isolated and alone. Real encounters are rare. These are more clans, networks of friends already made and unlikely to meet other  truly.

The trick, then, is to find within the overbearing, inhuman and just plain-annoying reality of Parisian everyday life the elements that allow it to be romanticised. And I am not talking about taking time off from school or work to go see Notre Dame or the Arc de Triomphe, though that may be part of it. I am talking about taking from the city wahtever it is that you want it to provide. Living in Paris should not stifle your aura, but should strengthen it. To quote Antoine de St-Exupéry's Le petit Prince: "Droit devant soi on ne peut pas aller bien loin". In other words, we could say that "life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it".

We must therefore make a concerted effort to appreciate all that Paris has to offer; to rectify reality with expectations. Otherwise, sedated by regular responsibilities and frustrated by the gulf between real life and outside expectations, we find in Paris but a miserable place to live. It may seem like a heavy price to pay for complacency, but with the possibilities that provides those of the alternative mind set, it all becomes worth it in the end.

Indeed, as they say, nothing in life comes cheap.