This city has it all.

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Let me see how I put this. I’ve been two weeks in France and I still haven’t unpacked. My room is a mess, my clothes are everywhere and I really need to do laundry. On a more positive side, I’m beginning to really feel at home in Paris. It really is an amazing city. I’ve done so many things that I couldn’t write about them all. At least I can talk about last weekend which was pretty fun and is fresh in my mind.

Last Saturday a couple of friends and I went to the so-called “Techno Parade”. We immediately felt a little old and definitively underdressed when we got off at the Bastille metro station. Everyone looked like they were 15 years old, and the outfits were elaborate, to say the least. Eventually we got over ourselves and we had a lot of fun dancing with the thousands of other people through the streets of Paris.

Sunday was also pretty eventful. My friend and Anna had decided to go to the Flea Market near the Porte de Clignacourt to the immediate north of Paris. The market was very full, but it was definitively not what we were expecting. Most of the stores sold the same kind of shoes, leather coats, etc. There were some stalls that sold African clothing and others that had cool posters, but none of it was particularly special and we ended up not buying anything. I’m beginning to think that we didn’t go to the right part of the flea market because I had heard such good things about it. Anyway, we decided to take the bus back since that way we could see the city a little better. We couldn’t really find the right bus so we decided to walk towards the Gare de Nord hoping that eventually we would catch something.

The walk was definitively the highlight of the day and we saw a new part of the city that we had never seen before. Let me just say that this wasn’t the little picture perfect Parisian street next to the Seine. This was a realer Paris, a less majestic Paris, a more beautiful Paris, some would say. At the beginning, the sidewalks were full with people selling fruits, vegetables and all sorts of produce. The stores sold all kinds of meat (except pork of course since most were halal butchers). A little later the scene calmed down and the new neighborhood did not look much different than the run-down inner city areas in the United States. Being a Sunday, the street was very quiet and it was almost serene when we passed over the train tracks.

Getting closer to Gare du Nord, we suddenly found India. This was completely unexpected and it caught us both by surprise. All the stores, restaurants, and markets were run by Indians and sold Indian products. Everyone on the street seemed to be of Indian (or at least South Asian) descent. I remembered the street because I definitely want to come back (rue Marx Dormoy). Finally we made it to Gare du Nord and caught a bus home. But I’m glad we decided to walk. Clearly, the metro is a much faster option, but walking lets you discover things that you would otherwise not know about.

Paris’ multiculturalism has certainly surprised me. I had always thought of the city as predominantly white, with very diverse banlieues. While it may be true that the small towns and cities that surround Paris are filled with immigrants from all over the world, I have seen a great deal of immigrants in this city. The other day I went to the area near the Porte d’Ivry to discover the vast selection of Chinese, Vietnamese and Laotian stores and restaurants. Africans and Arabs, which were the earlier non-European foreigners to arrive, are everywhere. The only region that seems to be underrepresented is Latin America, but I have talked to some that assure me that their numbers are bound to rise. I can’t express how happy I am to be in a city which at once has such great variety of peoples, neighborhoods and food, but that also maintains the French flair for which it is famous all over the world.

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Photos

Champ de Mars
Yeah I know its very cliche. All three are from Georgetown.

Pont St Michel
Eating next to la Seine.

At the technoparade
Yes, that is the Bastille.

At the technoparade
It was supposed to be "for the environment" but there were empty bottles all over the street.

Somewhere in NE Paris
Anna and the train tracks.

Belleville
Good chinese food.

Older pictures
Going up to Montmartre.