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French Confessions is a tell-all on everyday life in France.
How are the French different from other cultures?
What makes France so amazing, silly, serious, annoying, joyful, and fun?

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Thursday, October 20, 2011

Paris and/or New York

I'm in New York on business.  I went to college in NYC.  I moved to Paris right after graduation.  I remember moving to Paris and hearing Parisians say "Ugh, Paris is such a busy, fast-paced and tiring city."   And I always thought that that was kind of silly.  I mean, try spending like a day working in New York.  I'm not talking about vacationing in Manhattan.  New York is a busy, loud, very faced-paced city, filled with sky scrapers, stores, taxis, buses, tourists, people, neon lights, honking, coffee to go, take-out, more stores, and offices; and all of that is mixed together without any rhyme or reason.  Mind you, there are many very beautiful neighborhoods in Manhattan.  But it's true that everybody is in a rush to go somewhere, to do something.  And that's also what makes NY so wonderful and vibrant. 

Paris is such a beautiful city.  Everything seems so put together, like it was built on a fairytale.  All the buildings match, and when they don't, it looks so elegant.  La Défense, the semi-skyscraper part of town, is actually outside of Paris.  It's like the French thought 'this is kind of ugly.  Let's push it out of town.'

So to conclude, Paris is not a difficult city to live in.  It's gentler, a little less exciting, and a little more romantic than New York, with a touch of 'je ne sais quoi.'  Paris is so très French.

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