5 Things I Hate About Paris

Paris. A city full of: diversity, life and good food, but it isn't the metropolitan that everyone makes it out to be..... (at least in my opinion it isn't).

Here are 5 reasons why…

1. Poop

Mind your step! Paris is famous for its dogs - especially those small cute white fluffy ones that you see prancing around in the park (as if they own it) - but for some dog owners their dog's business isn't any of their own (see what I did there?). It's as if they’ve decided to leave their responsibilities as a dog owner at home. Joking aside, this is a serious problem in Paris - at least for suburban Paris it is. I can tell you from my own experience of having lived and worked there, without any exaggeration whatsoever, that in one day you are likely to see an average of 3 dog messes on the street. Some of which you really have to be careful of or wise it'll get under shoe and no one wants to be dealing with that nonsense!

2. Annoying Words

First and formost I want to say that this isn't really something that I hate about Paris per se but rather about French, at least the French used in Paris. In this knowledge, I like to say that I usually love discovering new ways of describing something, and once I do, I tend to stick to them. For example in French there are 3 ways to say the number 88, in France you say ‘quatre-vingt-huit’ (which is considered the traditional way of saying 88), whereas in Belgium you can either say, ‘octane-huit’, or ‘huitante-huit’, - I prefer the Belgian way of saying numbers so I stick to that.

However there are two words, one of which I’m not completely fond of but still find amusing, and the other which I feel needs to be replaced completely. They are... ‘Coucou’ and ‘Truc’. I first heard the word ‘Coucou’ through my Parisian housemate, the first time she greeted me with 'Coucou', I thought she was crazy, and I didn’t know what to say. The second time around I thought it was just her thing, so I ran along with it, and echoed her greeting back to her. Then I started au pairing and realised that ‘Coucou’ (F. Y. I click on the link to find out more about 'Coucou') was just a standard greeting in France, usually used for greeting someone that you knew personally. ‘Truc’ on the other hand is just disgusting, in every way shape and form, (even though I'm getting use to it), I'll explain why. First off, even saying it out loud sounds as if you’re spitting out your mouthwash after having brushed your teeth, (who wants to hear that?). Secondly, it is so overused! Same as how the word ‘like’ is overused in English, so is the word ‘truc’, in French. And I promise you it gets so annoying to hear.

3. Carraige Doors

I have to admit this isn't much of a valid point, but hear me out. As a Londoner I'm use to the Underground, whose carragige's have automatic opening doors, so when I discovered that the carriage doors here in Paris had to be opened manually (not even by pressing a button), but by lifting the carriage door's handle upwards I was so confused. Thankfully, this doesn't apply to every line, yet it is a common feauture on most. It doesn't annoy me too much, but when I'm travelling aboard or going back home I don't want to be fussing over opening the métro train's doors (especially when I have heavy luggage to think about).

4. French Bank Accounts

Luckly for me I managed to open a bank account relativity quickly but there were several problems linked to opening an account. 1) Even if you're a student you have to pay a monthly fee towards your bank account (ok it's at a resonable price) but coming from the UK where it's free to open an account, it baffled me. 2) I had to wait about a month and a half to establish my account properly - what I mean by this is: have my bank card, set up my telephone, and online banking too; which I wasn't happy about.

5. EXPENSIVE ASSSSSSSS......

There are two types of people in Paris: broke or well off; no inbetween. From my own experience I can state that the prices in Paris are equivelant to those of London (if not higher), so be prepared: to settle for rent at anywhere between £500 - £1000 per month, and making Lidl you're go-to food shop - as you'll find yourself having to fork out the equivalent of £20 just for buying some: eggs, bread, jam, honey, cake mix, and shower gel from your local shop.

All in all, Paris isn't THAT bad, but there are a few things that need improving on!

BIG TIME!