okay
let me begin with this okay i love the
city i think paris is amazing i wouldn't
have moved here otherwise okay so this
city hasn't made me bitter yet
uh
yet
nah just kidding it's it really has not
i don't think it will i hope it doesn't
and look generally speaking i feel like
i've contributed quite a bit to the
dreamy romantic look of paris right
there's just something about the city
that has that effect on people i am
constantly rooting for the french and
i'm always trying to get all of my
friends and family to come here to at
least visit or even move i do think it's
the most beautiful city in the world
whoa are we gonna debate that no we're
not i mean i don't know you can in the
comments and look i have a
responsibility don't i i can't just talk
about the positive things right a lot of
people come to paris after watching my
videos and i don't want to let people
down you should know you should know
what you're getting yourself into and if
i'm going to criticize the united states
i have to be equal with my criticisms of
europe so in this video despite the love
i have for this place i am going to rent
these are the things that i hate about
living here and i'm gonna skip some of
the big ones that i've talked about
before okay like for example the
bureaucracy the complete lack of ac the
constant construction work and the cost
of this place we're gonna get more into
the nitty-gritty here all right without
further ado
let's dive in
[Music]
deliveries guys we lived through a
pandemic at this point we should all
know how to do deliveries we should have
systems in place and those systems
should be perfected and yet
for whatever reason ordering stuff to my
apartment here to this day is to one of
the most stressful things ever first of
all
if you're getting a call from your
delivery person you have to pick it up
it's always like hold on hold on one
second
if you don't answer you are not going to
get the package why because you need two
codes to even just enter the building
and even though i've written it all down
in the delivery instructions nobody
reads [ __ ] okay next because the french
like to pretend that we're still living
in the 1300s you also have to specify
what floor and where the door is located
because my apartment doesn't have a
number it just doesn't it would be so
much easier to just slap a number on the
door right and then you just have like a
number that corresponds with each door
and that just makes everything easier
but no instead we're like digicode
now one partial solution to this it's
kind of not really a full solution and
you're going to see why in a second here
is that many buildings have a guardian a
guardian that name always kind of made
me laugh the guardian is somebody who
kind of works in the building and it can
receive packages for you and kind of
help sort of manage the building right
except this too is problematic why
because for example in my building my
guardian retired months and months ago
and it's taking the building an eternity
to find a solution a replacement but on
top of that like even if you do have a
guardian they come in maybe a couple of
hours a day and therefore most of the
time can't even receive packages for you
this leads me to my next point the
french are allergic to work okay not
actually but kind of a little bit you
know whereas in the united states
there's this really dumb unhealthy work
culture of like who can work the most
right it's like oh you work 80 hour work
weeks well i do a hundred the french are
sort of the opposite they're like no you
know what 40 hours a week is too much so
they passed a law in 2000 that basically
made it illegal to work more than 35
hours a week and they took this very
french thing and made it even more
french by adding a million loopholes so
you actually can work more than that but
not and like look that's all cool okay
i'm all for the four day work week or
like shorter work days or whatever i'm
not going to be toxic about this all i
ask is that you clearly communicate to
me when you're working and when you
aren't but they don't they don't
do that they don't do that
google maps will say a place is open
the website for the store itself will
say that they're open and still you can
go and there's a one in three chance
that they're not open i came to pick up
tiles for my apartment and they're
closed right now they are closed for
another hour so i'm gonna wait here
because i'm way outside of the city
right now
god add to this the fact that there is a
two-hour block right in the middle of
the workday when everything closes for
lunch and they seem unable to take
shifts or cover for each other so
everybody does this at the same time
which means from like noon to two don't
even bother trying to buy anything that
you need so as you can imagine it
becomes difficult sometimes to get stuff
done oh yeah and while we're at it
vacation time is basically all the time
i am kind of exaggerating here but i
will say that i've already sort of
dedicated the month of august to getting
absolutely nothing done nothing is open
everyone is off but that's not even
enough for the french one month a
vacation is like the starter pack that's
like for babies okay they they really go
all out with this stuff and again like i
get it all right work life balance
that's cool
but sometimes this much vacation can be
problematic i'll give you an example
okay my banker over the course of the
time that i was trying to get a bank
loan to buy my apartment here in paris
went on vacation on three different
occasions it's like come on how are we
supposed to make this happen bikers
versus cars biking here is insane can i
film non-extremely bumpy material no not
really bro we're going so fast the mayor
and hidalgo is making a huge effort to
make this city a lot more pedestrian and
biker friendly which i think is great
actually i think there should be less
cars in my mind it's insane to own a car
and to get around by car in the city so
they're making these changes right over
the last few years they've added bike
lanes all over the place the problem is
that some of these bike lanes are super
dangerous this is because for whatever
reason the bike lanes will go in the
opposite direction as the cars look what
we have here
cars coming this way
bikes going this way
and then of course there's a bunch of
motorcycles here parked to just make
this even more chaotic to me that
doesn't make any sense it's kind of like
a suicide mission but this is just the
beginning of my complaints regarding the
transportation here because then there
is the metro paris is a very walkable
city which is a big plus okay but
sometimes you do need to rely on the
metro because you're trying to get
across town and it would just take too
long to walk the metro system is
actually really great but it comes with
some serious issues first issue with the
metro [ __ ] gets packed in the summer and
it gets hot you're cooking underground
like some sort of brisket which by the
way side tangent the french have this
sort of national obsession with food
metaphors and it's rubbing off on me
second problem the weekly or monthly
passes only begin like on the first day
of the week or the month and so that
makes no sense from a business
perspective because you know if you buy
the pass in the middle of the week or
the middle of the month you only have
that until the end of the week or the
month and then it resets so basically
you're paying the same price for this
thing that is becoming increasingly less
valuable over time it disincentivizes
you from getting the pass like i'm not
going to want to get a weekly pass if
it's already thursday or friday right if
it resets on monday third major issue
the stairs the stairs are everywhere you
can't avoid stairs stairs everywhere and
you know they're trying to make the city
more pedestrian friendly by removing
cars which is cool but the only way to
do that is if you make the public
transport more accessible to people and
so because of the fact that the stairs
are absolutely inevitable
if you have some sort of physical
disability or you're trying to carry
like a luggage for example because
you're like me you're always kind of
going on a trip or you're coming back it
makes everything way harder really
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and let's dive back in
smoking here's the thing about smoking i
get that it looks kind of cool okay and
if you see somebody smoking like over
there out their window you might go like
oh cool that's kind of cinematic and you
know everybody's happy yay but smoking
gets like considerably worse the closer
you are to it and unfortunately smoking
is still huge here way too many people
smoke here still and they smoke like in
your face you know it's like
or i mean they might do like oh but
they're just blowing this cloud still
all over the place and they're smoking
in your face i mean i first saw this
when i was on exchange here in high
school and there would be these
15-minute breaks between classes and in
those 15-minute breaks everybody would
go outside like there'd be this horde of
people going outside and everybody would
light up and it would create these like
clouds of smoke and we are talking about
like 14 and 15 year olds okay which to
me is just incredibly depressing i gotta
say this is a major point against french
women for me because again like okay
maybe it looks cool and french women
have mastered that sort of blase i don't
give a [ __ ] attitude but to make out
with somebody who smokes is just not fun
it's really just not fun i don't
recommend it it's not good they say it's
kind of like licking an ash tray and
that is
yeah open green spaces one of the most
amazing things about paris is the
density i mean there is an absolutely
absurd amount of things to see do and
absorb here it makes things really
interesting but there is a cost okay
well there are some really beautiful
parks here okay we have the monsoon
there's the jardin de luxembourg the
city in general lacks big open green
spaces there are a couple there's the
void vonsen and the blood
but they're kind of like at the exterior
the periphery of the city and so while
they're not super far away it is a trip
and so basically what that means is that
unless you make a conscious effort to
get out to be in nature and whatnot
paris can become this oppressive city
this is why so many parisians leave like
on weekends or when the weather's nice
it's crazy how much outdoor space is
prized in the city to where we would
walk into nathaniel's courtyard and go
oh wow this is beautiful
green yeah it's slightly moldy concrete
there's a plastic oh come on
it's kind of funny it makes people
obsessed with little green patches
they're kind of like you know you see
one potted plant and you're like nature
parisians are inaccessible man here's
the thing basically all of my friends
here after years of living here are
either foreigners that have moved here
or french people that have lived abroad
and look i'm not somebody that struggles
to assimilate to different places i mean
i love
camouflaging myself you know i'm fully
fluent in french i have no problems with
that and still i found that it's really
hard to connect with parisians
themselves and it's funny i have
actually found that parisians and french
people in general are actually quite
nice okay i'm not saying that they're
mean that's not the criticism i'm making
here i'm more so saying that parisians
are not open it's that they're closed
off to foreigners and other cultures and
whatnot
in many ways like an american that
doesn't have a passport and has never
traveled abroad and i have tried man you
cannot blame me for not having tried a
lot of french people that i've met here
that i you know wanted to become friends
with i would follow up with i'd send
them messages and sometimes weeks would
go by weeks on end where they don't even
respond they kind of already have their
friends you know from high school or
college they've got their bubbles and
maybe this is the defense mechanism
against the amount of foreigners and
tourists and whatnot that come through
the city it's funny because of the
french friends that i do have pretty
much none of them are parisians they're
all like french people that came from
other parts of the country and have
moved here parisians themselves are kind
of like unicorns these mystical
creatures that you can never really pin
down and i mean look at the other day
this is definitely a city that's full of
many incredible people that are very
open and welcoming all i'm saying is
that i think the city owes a lot to the
foreigners that live here okay but
that's sort of like complimenting myself
here and the parisians are not going to
like that
bad service at bars and restaurants okay
look this is a stereotype okay but this
doesn't apply to operations it's
specifically less
so like everybody's an [ __ ] but there
definitely are [ __ ] here and you
know pretty quick it's like you sit down
at the restaurant there's no menu right
and like 10 minutes go by and then you
ask like hey can i have a sh
they're like
and they like respond to you with that
kind of aggressive energy it's like whoa
i'm here to sort of support your
business we're doing an exchange here of
services right there is no need to talk
to each other like this and to be honest
with you the solution i have found is
just get up and leave like do not put up
with that not everybody is like that but
just don't don't eat that [ __ ] and then
of course like let's say you have found
a good spot and you've had your food or
drink or whatever and then you want to
get out of there and you want to sort of
make eye contact and you're trying to
get the addition the check and you're
just kind of like for like 45 minutes
that goes on for like 45 minutes you're
just like
i don't know what happens there's
something weird that happens between
like they place the check on your table
and then they forget that you exist and
again the only solution there is you got
to get up and go and pay
all right my concluding thoughts here
are once again i don't hate this place
okay
that's a lot of renting for me and i
don't want that to be like a major part
of my brand it's nice to kind of let it
out sometimes but i again really do love
this place what makes paris doubly
frustrating is it does so many things so
well so when it does things poorly
you're like really
really i document and share
many of my experiences living here and
my travels in different cultures and
different countries around the world and
if that is something that interests you
consider subscribing and giving this
video a like it really does help i could
definitely do another video where i talk
about the things that i really really
love about paris if that interests you
let me know in the comments i also did a
guide on
paris with a bright trip
that is available as part of their
subscription offering you can kind of
subscribe get access to a variety of
different courses on there and that's
one of them so if that interests you
consider checking that out i also have a
couple of other classes on there as well
while i'm talking about it on language
learning and storytelling both of which
i've done with johnny harris and they
came out amazingly so could be something
worth taking a look at if you've lived
in paris or visited i'd love to hear
your thoughts on all of this all right
thank you for watching
and i will see you
soon
we're gonna get kicked off
[Music]
you