The Truth About Paris 🇫🇷 (a complicated city)

Ah yes, Paris. The smell of fresh croissants mixed with a thousand cigarettes hanging in the air. The way the waiter makes you wait thirty minutes before serving you at the slightest hint of an English accent. And the subtle feeling that this whole city is perhaps one manifestation away from descending into total anarchy. And yet, for all of its faults, an undeniable beauty in both the big details and the little details which makes Paris, Paris, for now and forever. We got a lot to talk about today, but first I'm going to take you to one of the places that's easiest to hate in Paris, le metro. The metro in Paris is 123 years old and it feels every one of those years, but it's only when you step out of the metro and you get to your destination, you begin to experience what the city is all about. And if your destination is not that far, you might consider just walking. Paris is definitely one of the more walkable cities I've experienced in the world. And you often find the most interesting places between your two destinations. When you begin to break out of the cliched tourist spots you might have been looking to visit. And I'll give you an example. So just yesterday I was exploring Paris and I started over by Sacré-Cœur, the famous church to the north of Paris. And I was walking towards the center, towards like, you know, Notre-Dame and all that famous stuff in the middle. And I thought about taking the metro, but instead I just decided to walk. It would be 45 minutes to an hour, but it would give me a chance to explore streets I would have otherwise never seen. And it was on these relatively empty streets between the two destinations that I began to feel what Paris is really all about. I got to see these streets that were nearly empty and had, in many ways, all the beauty or perhaps more of the more touristy areas that everyone likes to take their photos. And the area I'm about to show you is a place that I discovered entirely by accident on that very walk yesterday. Just for reference, we're walking past the Republic metro station. But as we walk past the empty bottles of Kronenberg, the self-cleaning toilets, and the quintessential cafes on the corner, why don't you try to guess where I'm taking you? It is somewhere very Parisian, but not something they put on the postcards that they sell at the gift shops. It's more something that the locals do when they have a weekend and it's a beautiful day. Have you noticed how even something as simple as a door is an expression of art in Paris? You really don't need to be looking for beauty in this place. You just find it in the smallest details. But if I tried saying that to a Parisian, of course, they would shrug and say, I don't know what you're talking about. It's very Parisian to be unimpressed and aloof about things, even about their own city. But the place I'm about to show you is so cool that I think even a Parisian would have to admit it. This is Canal Saint-Martin. And it runs for about five kilometers through the city. And what does one do at this Canal Saint-Martin? Well that's simple. You might already know the answer. I'm going to tell you about it in a moment. But first, allow me to take a minute to thank today's sponsor who made this video possible. This video is brought to you by this iced coffee. No, just kidding. I just stepped into this cafe to talk to you. How cool is this little place though? Right by the canal. I love it. This video is brought to you by Airalo. Airalo is the world's first eSIM store. And if you've never used an eSIM before, I'm about to change your whole travel experience. So you know when you get to a new country and you need to get a SIM card for your phone. Or you need to rely on Wi-Fi, which I've done a couple of times. But every time, it's just like, sooner or later, it's going to be super inconvenient and hard to find. You're going to be lost somewhere and wishing you had a SIM card. Well instead of the old way of doing things, which is you'd arrive in a country and you try to find a corner shop. You try to get them to understand what you're looking for. They might talk you into some expensive plan you didn't even want because you don't know what the options are. Airalo makes it super easy to get affordable eSIMs for over 200 countries and regions. Like literally, I had this thing working on my phone before I was off the airplane when I landed in Paris. And I really don't understand how affordable this is. It costs less than 5 US dollars to get a 7 day SIM card for France. If you're doing a big Euro trip or something, you can get one that's used for like a whole region and not just a single country. So I think eSIMs are going to change the game for travelers. I think Airalo has very, very competitive pricing. So if you're interested in trying Airalo, check out the link below. And thank you Airalo for supporting my work. And so are you ready to know what Parisians do when they go to Canal Saint-Martin? They do nothing. Seriously. Nothing. I mean, look around. Sure, some people are drinking. Some people are having a picnic. Some people are talking with friends. But the overarching theme is nothing. The only people trying to do something are the tourists like me, filming my video. Or the people rushing along the canal, taking a photo, and then quickly rushing off to the Eiffel Tower, quickly rushing off to Notre-Dame, Champs-Élysées, you know. The Parisians, they don't rush anywhere. They spend three hours eating their dinner. They roll their own cigarettes instead of buying the pre-made ones. The life here is all about the art of doing nothing. It's something that if you don't understand that, you might be too Americanized. You might be from a culture that teaches you you need to do something. Some people are scared to do nothing. Parisians will casually lean against a street pole smoking cigarettes for hours. They will sip their café, their little espresso and their little orange juice, for hours. They will read newspapers. And, of course, there are people working and doing stuff too. I mean, it's a bigger, major city, but the way that the calmness and the feeling of relaxation exists simultaneously within this big, busy city is something, it's a paradox I can't quite understand. But for me, it comes down to being comfortable doing nothing. And so for the next few minutes, I'm going to put my camera away and I'm going to try to be French. I'm going to try to do nothing and just enjoy the moment in this cool café. In fact, I would go as far as to suggest that most of the problems foreigners have when they visit Paris are a result of Parisians doing nothing. Think about it. I mentioned before the waiter who might make you wait 30 minutes to pay your bill. What is he doing? Nothing. I mentioned the metro system, which still seems like it's 123 years old. What have they done to change it? Nothing. If a Parisian bumps into you on the street, will they apologize? Probably not. What will they do? Nothing. And if you book a train to the south of France and it does not arrive, you know why it doesn't arrive? Because the people at the train company are probably on strike. They are doing nothing. No disrespect to the employees of the fine train systems in France. Actually, France does have some of the best trains in the world, so I fully mean that statement. All I'm saying is that Homer Simpson once called alcohol the cause of and the solution to all of life's problems. Here in Paris, the cause of and the solution of all of life's problems is nothing. Okay, and occasionally something does happen in Paris. Like this boat passing through the canal. You understand what I'm saying though, right? Have I made the point clear enough? The reason I both love and hate Paris simultaneously has to do with the way French people and Parisians in particular are so unmistakably Parisian. They don't change for anyone. As an English-speaking traveler through Europe, a lot of people are surprised by how difficult it is to communicate in Paris compared to other major European cities like Berlin. The Germans always switch to English. The Dutch always switch to English. The Spanish might not speak English, but they will laugh and try their best. But the French do not switch. They look at you with a confused look like, why would you come here if you don't speak French? It is something that gives people challenges at first, but when you really think about it, it's something beautiful. It speaks to a culture that enjoys their way of life, enjoys their way of thinking, their way of speaking, their way of experiencing their city. And change is for no one. A city that will protest for months if they try to raise the retirement age. Because after all, what is retirement really? Doing nothing. By the way, shout out to Orangina. Every time I come to Europe, I'm like guzzling these things. I don't know why they're so hard to find in Canada. And listen, as I stated, you know, like a lot of people who come to Paris, I have found things I love. I have found things I hate. And I think that's when you are taking an honest look at a city. When you can see both sides. When you only see the love, you're probably a tourist and you're in the starry-eyed mode because you just arrived. But when you only see the hate, you know, maybe it's not even the city at that point. Maybe it's your own life. When I first came to Paris, I was working a job I wasn't particularly happy with. I was lost. I was running out of money. Everything was too expensive. I didn't know what I wanted to do in my life. I had got a university degree that I wasn't really using. I just, like so many travelers, I didn't know what I wanted out of life. Now I'm more content. I have purpose. And making these videos gives me a large amount of purpose. So thank you, honestly, to everyone who watches it. Because it's your viewership which has allowed me to sit here on the street corner in Paris and eat this salad. So thank you. You gave me this salad. Think about that. But is this local side of Paris really so different than the tourist hubs? Well, to show you what's different about it, I've decided to venture into the belly of the beast. I'm here in the land of crowds, the land of selfies, the land of tourist buses. And for the next few minutes, I'm going to take you on a walk down some of the most visited streets in Paris. Now I'm sure for a certain class of people, this part of Paris is a paradise in terms of high-end shopping and high-end dining. But for people like myself, the vibe here is fundamentally different than what I was showing you before. So now I'm walking towards the Louvre Museum. I knew this would be a different experience than what I was having before. That's why I planned this. That's why I came here. But even I am kind of shocked by how different it is. It's really hitting me right now as I walk through this dusty, barren field, which is the garden in front of the museum. Okay, so there it is. The famous glass pyramid thing. Everyone, get your photos. Tell your friends that you saw Paris. But did you really visit Paris? And listen, I'm not trying to say you shouldn't go to museums. I'm not trying to say my way of traveling is the only way of traveling. All I'm trying to say is that the less time you can spend shuffling between tourist attraction to tourist attraction, the better. If you want to see the Louvre, get in and then escape. Don't eat at the ice cream stands next to the Louvre. Don't book a hotel next to the Louvre. Because these places are not Paris. Parisians don't hang out here. They avoid here, and when they go here, they are walking very quickly. They're shopping and they're getting out. And they're getting out to chill in the other parts of the city where they actually live. And if you travel because you want to see beautiful art, and you want to have good food, and you want to have some nice pictures to share with your friends, that's totally okay. You can disregard everything I said in this video, and you can spend your time here. But if you travel because you want to open your eyes and your mind to different ways of living, and you want to learn a bit about how French lived their lives, I would argue that the lesson we learned today about the art of doing nothing cannot be learned in a place like this. It takes, I mean it takes you kind of practicing exactly what we've been preaching. It takes you doing nothing. It takes you slowing down and sitting in a cafe and just watching the city go by. It takes you dropping all your perceptions of what the city should be like and allowing the reality to flow in, you know. Not to have a full cup when you arrive, but to fill your cup through every day and every experience you have in this city. That's the greatest part about traveling. Just as a souvenir from a souvenir stand can stay with you when you go home, these lessons you learn from other cultures can stay with you. And my lesson from my time in Paris has been to take it slow and really enjoy the little things like, you know, your morning bread, your morning coffee, your sits in the park where you don't necessarily have to do anything. I think it's a beautiful approach to life that the French have. It's one of the things that makes their culture so special. And I think a lot of other countries can learn from France in that way. So, thank you to all the French people who watched this video and left a comment if you think that this Canadian with this funny accent knows something about life in Paris. Thank you my friends. As always, I'm Dan from The New Travel, and I will catch you next time. Okay, now let's get out of here. I want to go back to the canals.