02 December, 2013

A Weekend in Paris: Part 1

I'm in a listing mood.  Here are my impressions of the city I ran around all weekend.

Paris > Amsterdam: 
  1. Being under 26 and a member of the EU (this includes me with my residence permit) will get you into almost any monument or museum for FREE.  The Louvre, Versailles...all at your fingertips for the price of zero.
  2. TOILETS ARE FREE.  THEY ARE ALL OVER THE CITY.  THEY ARE CLEAN.  AND FREE.  And any restaurant worker will gladly point you in the direction of their toilet even if you are not a customer.
  3. The metro system was SO EASY to use!  I did not get lost once traveling on my own...maps were everywhere, the diagrams made sense, there was always another subway car coming in 3 minutes even if you missed the first one.  Seriously.  Best in the world.
Paris < Amsterdam:
  1. Sales tax.  +7% was sort of a shocker after paying the price on the tag for the past four months.
  2. There were lots of homeless people everywhere.  I've seen maybe three homeless people in Amsterdam.  One of our Couchsurfing hosts told us that lots of Eastern Europeans have been immigrating to Paris in increasing numbers over the past few years, and recently there has been a rise in women and children especially.
  3. HUGE.  This is a personal preference, but I like living in a slightly smaller city.

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