Things I miss about Paris.

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I've been home from Paris for about a week now, and it has definitely been a cultural shock to come home. There has been lots of adjustments--getting used to being served mountainous amounts of food in restaurants, everybody talking incredibly loud, the amazing politeness and awesome customer service, etc. I have a hard time right now remembering not to do certain things, like saying "thank you, goodbye!!" to all the waiters and bartenders in the restaurants and stores that I visit (one particular incident in the library comes to mind... I got so many strange looks that day...). I also have to relearn TO do certain things, such as tip your waiter (what percentage is that, again???) and add on taxes in my brain to the marked prices on the shelves.

There are certain things I hate about Paris (no one cleaning up after their dogs, for example, leaving crap bombs all over the sidewalks, waiting to explode), but certain other things that I miss already. Here is a list.

1. Cheap, GOOD wine at the corner store for $2 USD (1.6 euros)
2. The cheeses. Camembert, Boursin, etc........
3. People complaining all of the time about dumb, unimportant stuff. It is so FUNNY!!!
4. The ridiculous amounts and varieties of vegetables sold everywhere, with the dirt still on them in lots of cases. It would be like seeing crates of fresh zucchini, fennel, and eggplant in your local 7-11.
5. The bread. Oh, the bread.... (costs $1.30 USD)
6. The sound of their language on the streets.
7. The lack of AC. Believe it or not, I miss this. Because the windows were constantly open, the fresh air came from nature directly instead of being pumped into the house and circulated by a machine. The houses feel more fresh there, and you feel more connected to nature and the weather. Plus, I miss the big, screenless windows (impossible to have here in Virginia...)
8. The fashion, the fashion, the fashion. Some styles from there didn't even make it over here!!! Everyone is so well-dressed.
9. People butting into your business. It is both annoying and, again, funny.
10. Cheap tasty beers with higher alcoholic content (6 and 7 percent, they make the beers here taste like water). Esp Abby beers, which are sold everywhere.
11. ALL THE WALKING I DID!!! I miss walking everywhere so much!!!
12. The ease and availability of recycling.
13. The smaller portions (smaller utensils, smaller plates, smaller cups... etc etc)
14. The wide availability of cheap, semi-healthy meals to go that are not from chains. The gyros with samurai sauce, the crepes, etc...
15. The specialty stores. There are stores that are solely dedicated to just about anything you can sell, and they sell nothing but that one thing. There are normal stores, like the bread store, the dessert store, the liquor store, the butcher, etc, but I've also seen more diverse things. I've seen vacuum stores, mirror stores, knitted finger puppet stores... you know that when you buy something from them, you're getting an EXPERT who really knows their finger puppets, which is such a wonderful change from Wal Mart (though, you're right, it is far less convenient).
16. Wandering around and stumbling accidentally on a magnificent 13th century church, or a 100 c. AD Roman Colosseum, or the site where Ben Franklin signed the Treaty of Paris, or the apartment owned by Picasso, or Emma Watson filming a commercial in Hemingway's famous old haunt.......

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