Skip to main content

Shutting down

There is a very interesting phenomenon that happens in Paris twice a year and I have experienced it both times. In the summer (last 2 weeks of August) and Christmas, the city shuts down almost entirely and it is very interesting to watch. I sometimes think that calling NYC the "city that never sleeps" is wrong. NYC sleeps every day, but if you want to be awake or get a coffee or buy a bagel, you can get it. I often think that title should be relinquished to Las Vegas (which also deserves "Sin City" ahead of NYC). But by comparison to Paris, NYC is as awake as an insomniac. Paris, on the other hand, sleeps nightly and on these two calendar events, goes into hibernation.

First is the prelude. You start seeing some notices about 2 weeks before the closures when stores will be closed. But sometimes you see nothing. The locals know it is about to happen and begin to prepare. You buy non-perishables, you get the wine in advance. You get a little extra cheese to hold you over. Then, one by one, the stores close. You head out to your favorite resto... closed. Go to get a part for the broken toilet? Gone for 2 weeks, try later. 

Very different in NYC. There, you get sales going on before the event, but many things are open throughout the holiday. I remember going out at about 10pm on Christmas eve, to go to the corner green grocer. True, there was a certain silence and many stores were closed. But there was the 24/7 green grocer, the 2 pharmacies, all open and planning to be open all night. 

I am not sure how I feel about this. I do love that people get time off collectively and get to have a holiday. I also love to get what I want when I want it. More and more in the US, the holiday is becoming meaningless and stores seem to want to be open 24/7. Take a look at the hubbub at Thanksgiving: stores are rushing to open and barely have a few hours before the madness of Christmas shopping begins. I would love to see more of a balance.

Helmut and I arrived back in Paris about 8PM on Christmas and we decided to have a little something to eat. Chinese maybe? Closed. How about the local wine shop? Closed. Something at the Tabac? Gone. We did find a convenience store just about to close and got some vegetables and cheese and went home to make some risotto. I was almost ready to have an apple and some cookies and be done with it.

The reboot of the city takes longer than you would think. Stores sleepily begin to get back to normal. Day after Christmas? Don't kid yourself, especially when it is a Friday. Saturday surely things will have to be starting to open. Yeah, right; still closed. Sunday brunch? Maybe in the tourist area, not in the neighborhood. OK, so Monday things get started, right? Nope. Monday is still the day things are closed, so.... Tuesday! Open? Well, not for lunch. Maybe dinner on Tuesday. Some restos begin to open between Christmas and New Years, but begrudgingly. Then, of course we have New Years, so this cycle begins again. Like dominoes, the stores close again.

By Wednesday after New Year's day, we begin to see things as fairly normal. Of course, when are they going to take down the decorations? I am hoping it is better than in NYC, where February rolls around and you can still see some tardy christmas posters or a string of lights or two. We will see.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cookies... the final act

So, I got a lot of interest in the cookie story (go to  Shaving the Yak  to read that post) and wanted to know how they turned out. So, here are some lessons I learned. The Oven Just because you can do mathematical calculations, doesn't mean you can change cooking instructions from fahrenheit to celsius easily. The recipe calls for a 375F oven. So, I pull out my trusty web browser and type "375 fahrenheit to celsius." Trusty Google tells me it is 190.556 celsius. Fair enough. But the oven goes in 25 degree increments. So, my first try is to set the oven to 200 and reduce the cooking time. This one cookie (I am smart enough to try them one at a time) is a charred briquet glued to the cookie sheet. OK, so, I try 175 degrees and keep the cooking time about the same. This time, a brown briquet glued to the cookie sheet. Hrmph. Obviously I need to keep reducing the temperature, but also I need to address the sticking problem. I tried greasing the sheet the way my mother did...
2 comments
Read more

Chronomically challenged

Parisians are ALWAYS late. I think New Yorkers run the gamut, but Parisians are late. They always have a good reason: traffic, the weather, kept at work, the Métro, the dog, the kids, garbage truck. But late. I am in a period of adjusting to this. My tendency is to be on-time. I call it the German in me. Helmut, who was born in Germany, is Parisian now and so I am alone in this bit of frustration. For the most part, people are 15 to 30 minutes late but for some it can be a bit extreme. For instance, meeting my friend Laure means scheduling a 1/2 hour (at least) for this arrival time. I want to emphasize, this is my issue, not Paris'. BUT There are extreme cases. One time Helmut and I were supposed to meet someone for dinner at (let's say) 8 (16h). She called and was going to be late. About an hour and a half after our original meeting time, we left for dinner. She knew where we would be, so she could meet us. At this point I had my doubts if she was going to come at all....
3 comments
Read more

Les Mots Anglais (those crazy English words)

Unlike many languages, French has a "learned body on matters pertaining to the French language," (from Wikipedia) called the Académie française or the French Academy. In the 60s and 70s, they were very strong and definitely was not letting those foreign words creep into their language. No sir. Well, something has happened. Maybe they are all dead (and no one checked), but French is becoming rampant with English words. I always get a laugh when I hear a new one.  One of the reasons French can be difficult is because one of the basic objectives of the language is to sound good. Unlike English and German, sounding good is all part of the show. There are things called liaisons that link the end of one word with the beginning of the next, to make it sound better. For instance, the word for "man" is homme (sounds like "home" without the h). Make it plural and it becomes les hommes  (pronounced "lay z 'ome"). The Z sound is there because it s...
Post a Comment
Read more