Now that Europe is entering it’s second wave, and we are slowly heading back to a life indoors, I have begun watching a lot of tv. One show that was recommended to me by a French friend, and then quickly renounced after he saw a few episodes, was “Emily in Paris”. The show is about an American girl who moves to Paris for work, a huge cliche in itself. I was interested, having lived in Paris a couple years during college myself. But does this show portray the truth of what it’s really like to live in Paris as an American girl?
I decided to investigate. After countless outfit changes by Lily Collins, and hilarious cultural miscommunications later, I am now almost done with the series. While I find the show entertaining, like most things on television, it is wildly exaggerated.
The Truth
There are a few things that are all too accurate. For example, her misunderstanding that a man in “college” is actually underage (this happened to me too and I still CRINGE), or her bemusement at realizing what “la douche” means in French, or her classic use of Frenglish. When depicting some of the funny culture shock moments, they nailed it. I remember living through some of those situations all too vividly. But, everything else? I can’t say I agree with.
The show portrays all French people as rude and unfriendly. They also depict the French as lazy, but scandalous, with work romances and affairs left and right. All of these things are mostly untrue. The show has the main character eating out in bistros everyday, and all of her friends dressing up colorfully like they were on a runway for everyday life. First of all, wearing color in Paris? Um, no. Plus, the fact she is meeting tall and mysterious, sexy men around every corner who are all interested in her is just far too much of an American fantasy than reality.
So, what’s it really like to live in Paris as an American girl? Here is a much more realistic and accurate list.
50 Things that Happen When you Live in Paris as an American Girl
1. You will at some point end up with a baguette in your purse
2. Black will become the main color of your wardrobe
3. You will quickly learn that you don’t have to wait until 5pm, and you can have a glass of wine at any time you please
4. You will miss at least one important class, flight or appointment due to a strike
5. You will have to enter the bipartisanship, and decide if you prefer the left bank or right bank of the Seine River (I am team left bank)
6. You will internally struggle every Friday night with the difficult decision on whether to go home at 1AM before the last metro or stay out until 6AM for the first metro
7. You will learn to eat only sweet food for breakfast, and almost forget bacon exists
8. You will get used to the opening hours (or lack of) here. Bank on Monday? Forget it. Late lunch after 2:30PM? Good luck finding an open restaurant.
9. You will have a favorite metro line (shoutout to line 14 and 6), and one that you would consider losing a limb to avoid forever (ahem, line 13 and line 8)
10. At some point, you will be drunk standing in the street with a kebab halfway stuffed down your face
11. Same as the point above, but this time with a crepe
12. You will find yourself living in a bureaucratic nightmare. The very fabric of French society is made up of seemingly endless paperwork that you have to fill out for anything mildly important. And the thread is made of your tears.
13. You’ll be glad that drinking in public is not only allowed, it’s embraced by society (PS : carry a wine opener in your purse, for those spontaneous apero-picnics by the Seine) (PPS: I made up the word apero-picnic, but it’s totally a thing)
14. You will be permanently high from all the amazing, inexpensive cheese at your disposal
15. You will get verbally abused by the staff at the prefecture immigration office every time you have to renew your Carte de Sejour (longstay visa)
16 You stop smiling in photos, because its uncool and like, so American
17. You become desensitized to PDA, and barely notice the couple horizontally wrestling with their tongues on the grass in Jardin de Luxembourg next to you
18. You will learn that customer service is a long gone figment of your imagination and you will happily come to accept a dining experience dynamic where the server mostly ignores you
19. Also, if you choose to sit down at a restaurant, you should be prepared to be there a while. Quick grab and go isn’t exactly the French way. Also take out boxes? Please don’t even ask
20. You will have at least one fling, with a guy you can barely understand but he had a cute accent so that sealed the deal
21. You will go for joy rides on the city rental scooters
22. You will have at least one drunk mishap and fall off said scooter
23. You will wish you were better at math every time you have to say the numbers 80 – 99 (4 x 20 +10 +9 = quatre-vingt-dix-neuf-omg-help-me)
24. You will become a museum connoisseur, even if you didn’t like them before. Afterall, on a winter day, this is where you have central heating which you refuse to pay for in your flat
25. The size of your apartment may resemble a broom closet, but you’ll still pay $1000+ a month for it
26. You will use a bidet, and secretly like it
27. You will start to refer to areas of the city, by the arrondissement number and get them right (yay)
28. You will have a favorite arrondissement (mine is the 5th)
29. You will have at least one ratchet night out in Bastille that you aren’t particularly proud of
30. You will embrace daydrinking and black out at least once before 4 pm in the park
31. You will mentally go back in time while walking through the 18th arrondissement, and secretly wish you were there during the 1920s
32. You will ask your friends if your butt looks bigger from walking up so many flights of stairs everyday since you don’t have an elevator in your building
33. If you didn’t smoke before, there’s a good chance you’ll start
34. You will admire the views of Notre Dame from Isle de la Cite, cliche or not, it’s f*cking beautiful
35. You will feel scared and confused in August when the city becomes a ghost town, after everyone leaves for summer holidays
36. You will embrace your inner hipster in the 11th arrondissement, and admire the street art and grungy bars
37. You will get smacked in the face by a tourist with a selfie stick while innocently walking down the street
38. You will start to hate tourists, and talk about them as if you aren’t a foreigner yourself
39. You will know your French is improving when you become fluent in sarcasm, an essential form of communication in Paris
40. You will love going for night walks and watching the city light up. It is the “City of Light” for a reason, and some cliches are true
41. You will question your own morals and what you’re willing to do to get a seat on the metro during rush hour. Move aside, granny
42. You will have new standards of personal space after getting stuck on the metro line 13 or 4 during rush hour
43. Even after a few years, you will get lost in Chatelet station sometimes
44. You will literally never see someone wearing a beret, and wonder where this cliche materialized from
45. You will buy a beret just for fun
46. You will go to rooftop bars and overpay for cocktails, but those views? Priceless
47. Even if you can’t admit it to your French friends, seeing the Eiffel Tower never really loses its charm, especially when it sparkles at night
48. No matter how clean your apartment is, you will at some point be terrorized by a cockroach
49. You will learn that it’s very American to be cheerful ALL THE TIME (or pretend to be). Alternatively, you will adapt the ability to complain about anything, and complain you will
50. You will fall in love with this city harder than any cliche, french love story you’ve seen in a film. You will keep a part of this city in your heart throughout your life, and you will always miss it wherever you may go
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to live in Paris as an American girl, here’s a good insight for you straight from an ex-expat. It’s definitely not all fashion shows and hot European flings, and it has it’s downsides. But living in Paris changed my life, and any girl would be lucky to live in Paris at some point in her life. I wouldn’t change anything about my time here.
Melissa says
Great post! I love hearing about experiences living abroad. I think the small apartment with those prices would get to me, but to be able to live in Paris would be worth it! It sounds like living in Paris would be quite the adventure!
jacquelinekieule says
Yeah, the apartments can sometimes be a buzzkill. There are ways to get better rental prices but it requires.. you guessed it, more paperwork. Oh, and French skills haha.
Joseph Benson says
Wonderful post highlighting all the intricacies of living in Paris an American by birth!