maybe you're looking to move to Paris
and you're looking to learn about the
reality of life in the big city maybe
you've heard the quote there's always
time for Paris one too many times or
maybe your best friend just moved to
Paris and you've seen so many photos
with the Eiffel Tower that you just want
to throw some facts in their face to
prove that their life sucks
well my spiteful friend you have come to
the right place now LA do you might not
know this cuz this is before my YouTube
days but I actually lived six months in
Paris
and like anyone who moves to a foreign
city for six months I don't know what to
tell you everything that's wrong with
that place the first thing I want you to
know is that there are two types of
Paris there's a touristy Paris that
everyone sees when they visit and then
there's the real Paris
so people arrive in Paris with this idea
of this romantic beautiful old-fashioned
city where everything is you know the
idea and in people go there to reinforce
that idea so they go down the touristy
streets and they have their cheese
fondue and they get their picture with
the Eiffel Tower with a bottle of wine
and a picnic and they go home with their
pictures content because they lived
their version of the Paris that they
wanted but that isn't necessarily the
Paris that you're going to be living so
that's the first thing the illusion you
have about Paris could quickly come
crumbling down when you realize that
there are a lot of things that are not
so great about the city and one thing
which you're probably not going to
notice as a tourist but you'll
definitely notice when you're living
there is that the bureaucracy is out of
control
when I did find a job and I'll talk
about jobs later in this video that's a
whole nother when I did find a job I
almost lost that job because I had to
wait two weeks to four weeks for this
office to get back to me with this stamp
to allow me to begin work even though I
was in France I was ready I had my
working holiday visa and my boss who was
also another Canadian that's probably
the only reason she like put up with
this because she knew the struggle as
well but she even told me like dan I'm
about to hire the Swedish guy because
like he Europeans can just begin work
immediately whereas I need to go through
all this bureaucracy so if
you're Canadian or an American or you
know anywhere else outside of Europe I
don't want to scare you but I do want to
scare you cuz the bureaucracy is real
and it's gonna it's gonna give you some
headaches II Paris like any city has
unemployment
it has locals who are looking for jobs
who can't find jobs and that means as an
outsider not only are you competing
against them you're competing against
their language ability the jobs that are
available for English speakers aren't
going to pay all that well usually and
they're typically going to be in the
hospitality it could be like concierge
you can work as a receptionist there are
pubs which is what I ended up doing I
got a job at an Irish pub that was cool
like I would recommend something like
that if you can get into it try to
connect to other people who have done it
before because they can give you a lot
of tips what was that why did I point
number four is that it's also hard to
find a place to live you know this could
be said of any big city especially these
days but Paris it's especially hard
because they have very strict zoning
rules which means that the the city
itself if you count the suburbs is huge
it's whatever ten million people but the
city itself has these these twenty
around a small which means these twenty
neighbourhoods which has been the same
size since like Napoleon's time
and they'd like it to be the same size
they French people like things the way
they are they don't like change sorry to
say that if your friends but you know
it's kind of true
alright so reason number five I hate
Paris is that people are cold in that
city even making eye contact with
someone for more this but second is like
Oh put down cash - uh-huh people have an
attitude about them I think part of the
reason it's like this is that there are
a lot of scams which is my next point
but just to finish this part off it's
it's it's tough to make friends and
there's a coldness aloofness to people
this is very French anyway the next
point as I mentioned is there are a lot
of scams in Paris and here are a couple
in particular to watch out for by the
Eiffel Tower there are people with
clipboards usually groups of young women
who will pretend to be deaf and get you
to sign something to like help deaf
people but they're not actually deaf
it's to scam and I've never actually
interacted with them that much and sign
their papers but I've heard from people
that like they will try to get you to
sign their petition they will then write
a number next to it and like demand that
you pay that amount of money and clearly
they're at the Eiffel Tower because they
know these are people who aren't
familiar with French society so the
scams that might not work on a local
might work on someone who just arrived
in Paris another one up by sacre coeur
the big church on the hill in the north
of paris there are people who will try
to like tie some bracelet around some
like string bracelet around your wrist
and then demand money for that and I
think that's part of the reason people
are cold on the streets of Paris because
they've dealt with that so many times
people who have like some hidden agenda
that they're trying to throw at you that
they just avoid it it's sad but you know
I can understand it what I can't
understand and I will never understand
is my next point which are lineups for
some reason in Paris there are lineups
everywhere and they all take
significantly longer than you think they
will because every time you finish a
lineup you get to the front and then
they send you to another lineup classic
examples so I'm at the bank right then I
was trying to deposit some money and for
some reason I needed some form or
something
there's always some form that you're
missing in France and I was at the
lineup I had my money I had my passport
I had my bank card and they wouldn't let
me deposit this money I needed to go to
some other lineup speak to someone else
in the bank and get some form and then I
did the whole lineup again but I'd
missed a question and instead of letting
me just take out my passport and like
quickly fill it out the information I'd
missed like someone else just came up
and started speaking to them and then I
tried to like just give it to her once
that guy was done but there was a blow
everyone else in the lineups like eh
like get to the back I don't know how
French people feel about that I would
love to hear a reasonable explanation
for this behavior because I've seen it a
few times and this kind of leads into my
next point which is that Parisians love
to argue remember I told you I ended up
getting a job at the Irish pub well we
kind of turned into a bit of a nightclub
at night so around 9:00 p.m. on a Friday
or Saturday we would have to like move
the tables from the middle of the dance
floor out so like people could start
dancing and the deejay could come in but
people would still be there from like
7:00 just kind of like chilling and like
slowly sipping the same beer for like
three hours they would always want to
argue and make a big scene like but you
know what it's just the way it is man
like you can move your table it's okay
c'est la vie as they say in France oh
yeah speaking of c'est la vie it is hard
to learn French in Paris that might come
as a bit of shock to some people but
it's true I can't count the number of
times that I've tried to have a
conversation with someone in French and
they've immediately said oh do you speak
English
like they hear like one grammatical
mistake though oh do you speak English
do you want me to speak English and then
they started speaking English it's like
no man like I moved to France I want to
learn now I don't started this video by
saying that there are the two different
types of Paris and that when you begin
you're in the touristy Paris well to
bring it all the way back to where we
started I'm gonna end by saying that
after a while living in Paris you start
to hate the tourists I know that might
sound ironic to say that I hate tourists
when I am in a
since still one myself I mean after six
months there's so much about that city
that I didn't know but I found myself
like I was living in the center of Paris
and I found myself going to the grocery
store and all these tourists with their
maps and their cameras taking photos I'm
like get out of my way man like I'm just
trying to buy my bread and my wine and
get going you know it's a Saturday
let's go let's go and that's when you
know you're a little step closer to
being Parisian when tourists annoy you
too now guys I know I've said a lot of
negative things about Paris in this
video and of course that's not the only
way I feel like there's a lot of great
stuff about that city like leaving no
just kidding
it's a city you can love you can hate
but if you don't hate it a tiny bit you
probably never spent much time in Paris
because there's a lot to hate there's a
lot to love too but you know what at the
end as I look back all the struggles I
went through they made me stronger I
feel like if I lived in Paris I can I
can make it anywhere truly if I went
after going through that I I'm not
afraid of being lonely in a new city I'm
not afraid of any of that stuff it's it
will never be as hard as it was
embarrassed and that's it those are my
thoughts that I'm sharing with you from
this porch in Costa Rica that has 10,000
birds chirping in the background I hope
some people found that video to be I
don't know useful or entertaining or or
something that you can scoff at and say
oh this this Canadian he does not know
about their culture quite a bit to live
Alou
okay max elephant Allah video a la
prochaine Minami
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