Paris and family

I love my family very much, but I also quite like the idea that they are a long flight away and cannot visit at any moment of the day. Having lived in Paris then for a number of years, it was only natural that my mom decided to visit. She ended up visiting with my two half sisters (Dad’s daugthers from a previous mariage).

Welcoming people in your apartment is fun when you have a big apartment. Paris apartment tend to be small…or in American or Australian speak: miniscule. Having more thanone person stay in your place poses a challenge. So I ended up subletting a friend’s studio not far from my apartment for the duration of my family’s visit. I left them my apartment and I stayed in my friend’s (and she was staying with her boyfriend. So everyone was happy in the end).
I went to the airport to pick them up and we took a taxi back to my apartment. The expression on their faces when they saw my apartment told a lot. An expression that said : This is it ? The tour of the apartment lasted a mere few seconds (like you just turned your head). But this was, however, made up by the fact that everything was nearby…shops, cafés, restaurants etc.

If indeed they had problem adjusting to the small sizes of things (they never saw such small cars, such narrow streets, small kitchen or small bathroom), they adjusted to café life in Paris quickly and grandly. They would spend hours in cafés watching and commenting on passers by while sipping their coffees, menthe à l’eau (mint syrup with sparkling water) or Monaco (beer with grenadine syrup). Walks are kept to a minimum as, being non-Parisians, they are more used to driving places rather than walking. They admired the way the Parisiens dress (so what else is new lol ?), but also were non plussed by the rudeness of Parisians who push people out of their way and don’t give way on sidewalks. Aside from Parisian, another thing they don’t like on sidewalks was dog shit (Boy, they would really have hated it a few years ago when there was a lot more of that -- before the law that dog owners have to pick up after their dog…not all do of course…). For the first few days, they walked gingerly on the narrow Paris sidewalks, trying to avoid both the dog shit on the ground and the hurrying parisiens all around.

What amazed me most was how they take, almost too naturally, in (to?) the gay life that is so obvious in my quarter. They liked my friends, and accepted my friends’ flamboyance as simply part of their Paris experience. Once, walking on rue Vieille du Temple (le Marais), a guy wearing a wedding dress passed by us…their comment: How pretty the dress was ! I guess I also learned something new about my family during their stay. It was also great to visit all the tourist sites with them. I may have seen and done them all but these (re)visits reminded me why I love Paris.

The family visit also made me realise how much I probably have changed since arriving here. I now speak French without much effort which impressed my family to no end (OK, I speak it with a huge accent, but the family didn’t know that…..sssshh!!!). I also realized that I have omitted ‘comfortably dressed’ from my vocabulary (replaced by ‘nicely/elegantly/parisianly dressed' even if uncomfortable): I never owned so many hats or so many bottles of perfume (with scents ranging from androgynous to mysterious, I refused 'le male' or the man not considering it totally descriptive of me) or scarves (from huge wooly black ones for the winter to light colored cotton ones for the summer…big oversized scarf is indeed a must in order to look Parisien) and leather shoes (tennis shoes are for playing tennis only….no matter that we walk everywhere here). I might be uncomfortable, my feet hurt, my neck itches…but hey, I look the part in Paris! And yes, I kiss everyone I know twice to say Bonjour or to say Au Revoir.