Starbucks in France

I've previously written about the counter-intuitive success of MacDo in France. I recently read an interesting New York times article about Starbucks and their lack of success in Europe. Remember that I cited keen market insight as the resason for MacDo's success (not biased!) and that knowing deeply the French eating habits helped them tailor their offer to the French economy? Starbucks, on the other hand, tried to bring 'american coffee habits' to French people. Which is just absurd. The French may not be as crazy as the Italians when it comes to coffee, but they certainly have strong opinions on the subject (quel surprise!).

Cafe Culture is huge in Paris. It's what you dream about as a tourist, sitting in a cafe, people watching, sipping endless espressos and trying to look cool and calm reading a newspaper. Parisians excel at this sport and it requires a few things. 1) A place to sit 2) Cheap, but good espresso 3) things to read (even my 'quick' lunch places has free magazines). Starbucks has been in France for a decade and is seemingly just starting to understand this. Starbucks in the US makes most of it's money from to-go coffee and, in fact, until recently they all but discouraged the cafe hanging out culture. People just do not walk around with a coffee in Paris. Taking a coffee break is sacred business and no matter how rushed, stressed, or busy you are, you sit and you drink the coffee. PERIOD. Changing habits are hard and it's more effort than most companies have time and patience for.

So what is Starbucks doing? They are giving a lot of their outlets a facelift for a sleeker, cool neighborhood feel. They are expanding to have places to sit. They probably should consider re-formulating the 'char' taste (fine-line since Americans didn't like the taste of Starbucks to start either...but then again they were used to shit coffee). And they need to appeal emotionally to the French consumer to differentiate themselves from the bajillion cafes. The only thing differentiating Starbucks from every other cafe is the 'starbucks' experience seen in the movies and TV shows. Starbucks is hip and they need to exploit that. But they need to exploit it while fitting into cultural norms. Perhaps they should hire some ex-mcdonalds market researchers :)

Paris vs NY in Video

If you haven't noticed, I have an obsession with the Paris Vs New York website, which is now a book, which is now an animated video!!

It's a fun little thing -- take a look :) Link here.  Thanks to one of my favorite paris blogs Pret-A-Voyager for pointing it out.

Yep

I always heart NY, but especially today.

Big Pet Peeve in France

Over the weekend I decided what my biggest 'pet peeve' is of living in France. (Tangent: I had to explain what a pet peeve was the other day to a colleague. It took me like 10 minutes to figure out how to say it's a minor annoyance..another tangent, in the UK apparently they are called pet hates. Which I think is a bit harsh).

Anywho, I was walking to Gare De Lyon to visit Andrew (more on that later) a man was peeing against a building. Let me set the scene: It was around noon. This street was fairly busy. The man was normally dressed (read: not homeless). It was just out in the open (not in alcove or something) on a bright and sunny day.... and did I mention it was noon?  AND THEN when I got off the train in andrew's town I was driving to his house and when I pulled out of the parking lot there was another man just peeing as well. Are there no bathrooms in this country? And thus, you have now been introduced to y least favorite part of living in France: Men who think this beautiful country is their toilet.

This unfortunately is not an isolated incident. I see this all the time (granted, it's usually later at night, presumably, after people have been drinking). I just don't understand how and when it became OK to use a side of a building as a toilet. According to "Stuff Parisians Like," (the expert in all things Parisians, obviously),  peeing with friends on the street is a long time habit and  "the defining moment of a Parisian friendship." And apparently, if a policeman catches you on the street peeing (oh it IS illegal), they will just give you a warning. Because afterall, they are Parisian men who like to pee on the street too.

There you have it. Living in France isn't always baguettes and croissants :)

Bon Anniversaire PlayingParisian.com!!!!!

Today is the 1 year anniversary of the day I landed in France (As I'm sure you remember, given the avid loyalty my readers have to the blog, I was delayed due to Hurricane Irene).

So here are my thoughts as I'm reflecting upon my 1 year here:

• I still get that "I can't believe I live here" feeling a lot and it never gets old. I get a little breathless when I walk through the Louvre and tuileries garden, I'm giddy when I see the eiffel tower sparkle, and I'm still amazed at how good the produce tastes. I hope it lasts and I have a feeling it will, as I could say the same thing about the skyline of NYC (which I could see out of my bedroom when I lived there and I woke up every morning thinking "WOW").
• Working in France still feels 'different'. The cultural differences are never more evident then when I am working, which probably has to do with communication as the basis of success in most jobs -- and even in English I'm not the best at it. It's challenging and thrilling at the same time and I still wake up every day ready to go to work. (except in July..in July I just wanted to be on vacation :)
• I'm still wearing scarves a lot, but it's funny that the second I step off the plane in North america they are no where to be seen. Apparently they are part of my Paris Persona and I'm okay with that.
• I feel like I'm finding my groove. I know which restaurants are hip, I don't always need to use google maps to find a metro, I velib like a pro, and I have a few friends (ok, maybe more than just a few :) And although that's a bit disrupted now that Andrew is in Fonty, I know that we're good at adjusting our footing and I'm ready to add 'living in the country' to my French resume of life.

After a year, I could definitely use a few more lessons in French (I was asked if I was Quebecois once...such a compliment!) and I still don't look like a Parisian, but in general, La vie est Belle a Paris. And I couldn't be more grateful. 

Professional Photos!!!!

I joke that I've been virtually stalking the McLellans forever, but really it's not far from the truth (so I maybe have followed their blog for 7 years, follow both of them on instagram, and are friends with them on facebook...that's not weird for two people you've really never met, right?). Having always been a huge fan of photography, I spotted this amazingly gifted Husband & Wife photography talent right away and have been tracking their success, image by image, ever since. I was so honored to have them photograph our wedding and I think you'll see why in the preview images. Click here for the blog post. Thank you Sean & Mel!!!

Here is one of my favorites.... :)

(c)2012 McLellan Studio. All Rights Reserved.

Sophisticated Puns

So @NataliesNews sent me a sophisticated pun yesterday forwarded to her by her school's nurse (tangent: I should probably just ask Natalie to write my blog given how much she's featured here, no?)

"Those who jump off a bridge in Paris are in Seine"

It gave me a LOL moment and I thought I had to share it. (also love the southern nurse pronunciation of seine as sane).

(on a side side note, I weirdly have not taken any pictures of bridges in Paris. Too cliché? Too lazy? who knows, so I've left it to one of my favorite Parisian bloggers @littlepiecesoflight Merci! ).

Couldn't have said it better myself....

If you want to know what I've been doing for the past two weeks, please allow a far better writer and photographer than me (@natalie's news) tell you. Natalie's excellent recap of our wedding is here.

In short, it was incredible. Everything we could have wished for and more (even 77 degrees and no humidity wahooo!! I didn't pass out!) The people were amazing, the food incredible, and the venue stellar. We were surrounded by love and happiness and I'm sure I'll be on this high forever.

And now I'm back to my playing parisian reality. Which honestly seems like a vacation from my vacation, as it was a fun filled but tiring few weeks! And what is more, when I returned to Paris it felt like home. Perhaps this is what it feels like to move beyond 'playing' and to actually 'being'. Anyways, the blog names stays :)

my favorite pic...thanks natalie!!

Paris Plage

So I went to the beach last night. I biked there after work. Nope, I didn't do a long distance ride to an ocean or a lake -- the picture above is at the Seine! Paris does a great job all year round entertaining it's citizens culturally (whether it be through exhibits, free museum days, theater in the park, etc), but during the summer it goes the extra mile by creating a beach! There is a high way along the Seine which is closed ALL august long (BTW another Paris tip -- alll year long the same highway closes on Sunday btw for pedestrians and bikers). Paris then ships in tons and tons of sand and creates a beach along the river. It is equipped with bars, petanque courts, a pirate ship play ground, showers, music, etc. Super fun for those who are stuck in the city during August and a unique activity for the hoards of tourists as well. Other great activities - Outdoor movies throughout the city and the Olympics streaming 12 hours a day at hotel de ville!

 I've always heard that Paris in August is 'dead' due to vacation time. This may be true (it's only August 1st after all so I can't judge), but I must say July is also 'vacation time'. (and remember when I said May was dead? This country is crazy about their vacation). During the month of July I was literally one of 3 people in my section at the office (normally 20 or so). It was insane and really awful to be honest because it just reinforces the fact that you AREN"T on vacation.

Anyways, my time has come! Less than 9 hours left of work, 24 hours til I'm on my way to the airport, and then I'm off on the great North American Tour 2012! Which means I probably won't be blogging that much  (although Playing Parisian in August normally does include a trip to NY...I swear there are a ton of French people in NY in August). Anyways, bon vacances everyone!

Andrew being romantique along the Seine.

You know you're Playing Parisian when....

On Friday, I went to a lovely dinner with some friends. We drank a (few) bottles of wine and I was keeper of said wine. At one point, a friend of mine leaned over and said "Please sir may I have some more?" Someone asked "what movie is that from" and I immediately blurted out "Olivier...." clearly meaning "Oliver."

WOW. Really?

It took almost a year, but I think I'm playing parisian very well :)

Le tour de France!

and they're off!

Yesterday was the first beautiful day we've had in a while and I would call it the offical start of summer in Paris (only a month late! The parisian mother nature has a sick sense of humor). It also marked the final day of the Le Tour De France. I've never been a huge tour fan (except during the 'roids debacles...who could honestly ignore that train wreck?), but man oh man for the 5 seconds those cyclers go by I was hooked! In all honesty it was quite exhilerating at the time and with all the people around it's worth it -- but really, Le Tour is probably the worst Live spectator sport event in history and I wouldn't make a special trip to see it unless there was a wicked party attached. (Okay, hear me out, it's like watching a marathon, but worse...I mean they zoom by and then that's it. Luckily for us, they did 8 laps, but I can't imagine being in a small town in France and you see them for 2.4 seconds and then go on your merry way. Talk about anti-climatic! I think watching on TV would probably have more sports appeal...or if you're on a nice balcony somewhere with a Mimosa.)

Anywho, I especially like my pic of the winner (or as I like to call him "not Lance Armstrong"). Well done Wiggins! (I really do think that's his name)

That day in which I spend an hour within 10 feet at Gare Du Nord...

So, this weekend I lost the 4 most important cards in a person's wallet: ID, Subway Card, Credit Card and Debit Card. (UGH...no idea, long story, surprisingly, this happened sober AND in broad daylight. And I'm pretty sure it's my fault). Anywho, as you can imagine this has been and continues to be a french bureaucratic nightmare to get them all replaced. And in some cases I'm ignoring them completely, like the subway card (known hereafter as a navigo card), in the hopes that it just shows up (I can't help it, I'm an eternal optimist. Just like my mother ...right Andrew?).

Anywho, I'm on my way from Gare Du Nord to work this morning and I had two choices -- argue with a cab driver to use my AmEx or take the subway by procuring a ticket through the ridiculous amount of change I have in my wallet (no bank card = no cash. For at least 8 days. YAY FRANCE!). I opted for situation two, as I saw it had the advantage of not having to blabber in incomprehensible french and it would rid me of some weight in my wallet..WIN WIN! Clearly, I wouldn't be writing about this if it was a WIN WIN! type of situation.

I go to the machine to buy my ticket (of course there is a line, OF COURSE!) and I wait patiently. Luckily for me I'm reading Tina Fey's newish book Bossypants and the time flies by and has the added bonus of looking like a psycho laughing out loud whilst reading a kindle. It's Gare Du Nord, gotta fit in with all the crazies. Anywho, I start unloading the change to buy the ticket (RAMAN if you're reading this, I DID IT AGAIN!) and it all of sudden breaks down and says that I've put in too many coins in the machine and it sends them all flying back to me. UGH. Apparently you can't put in more than 20 coins into the slot (I thought I had counted it perfectly, but sadly that McGill math degree doesn't include a class on counting coins. It was a pre-req course I missed from 2nd grade. I blame it on moving to california). ANYWHO, I finally figure out the change, grab the ticket, run to put it through the  machine and BAM ticket not accepted. And I have no idea why. So I go to the ticket window to try to ask (another line OF COURSE) and BAM ticket window closed (it's 11h30. totally normal!). And I'm out of money and none of my cards work at the machine (damn America and no pin cards!). At this point, I am not a happy camper, and I see no other options than to go replace my Navigo card.


Prepared to be asked to give blood, promise my first-born child, or both, I reluctantly head to the Navigo desk. I immediately think they are closed as there is no line. A nice lady (with a smile!) says, no, in fact, they are open, and have a seat. She may have even said the words "how may I help you?", but I also remember her with a halo aound her head so this may just be a fantasy. I say in perfect French (hey! this is my fantasy!) that I lost my card and I would like to replace it. She asks for my passport and I swear no more than 5 seconds later I have the card in hand. I'm also pretty sure choir bells started ringing and a handsome man escorted me out of the office.


Skipping along and pretty pleased with myself I head back to enter the subway and the card doesn't work. UGH. Holding back tears and about to give up and just set up camp in Gare Du Nord (there is a lovely cafe on the 2nd floor, or so I hear), the man behind me says all the machines aren't working and I can walk right through. OIDFJPOIADJVKOV;ZLJKPOIA Turns out the ticket was fine from the start and the last hour of pain (sans the choir bells in the Navigo office) were for naught. Oh France, you win again! 


(But in truth, I wouldn't have it any other way - - If life was in France was easy, what would I have to write about? :)

I knew I liked a good curry...

Why, thank you!

Andrew has lately become an amazing Asian chef. I have bemoaned on the blog before about the lack of good Asian food in Paris (see here or here), and unfortunately, the situation has not gotten a whole lot better. Thus, we've had to take matters into our own hands. (The exception being Vietnamese food, not surprisingly, since they are a former colony of France. In fact, we've found so good of a place we saw a celebrity there -- William DeFoe!).


UPDATE: When I look at this post on November 21st I had 4 things that I was missing from NYC.

• Mexican Food: CHECK, Yay chipotle. Also, I found a great taco stand called candelaria.
• Sushi: still an issue.
• Indian Food: thanks to andrew!
• Thai Food: I'm going to give this a half cross out because we can make curries, but are still struggling with pad thai.
• Hamburger: we have recently found at least 2 places where we like the burger. And there are more to come!

Anywho, Andrew can now successfully cook an amazing Indian Tikka Masala and Thai Yellow Curry. And not just, good, but REALLY GOOD. Like I have no desire to ever eat those two dishes out again good. I call this 'ruining' dishes for me and it happens a lot (this is not a real complaint). In addition to the two curries, I no longer like to eat ribs, salmon, or scallops out because his are DELICIOUS and far better than any I've had in a restaurant.


I digress -- the real point of this post was that I took a BBC quiz to answer 'where are you on the global fat scale' and the answer was as above - you are most like someone from thailand. I thought the answer was funny and considering I eat a lot of Asian food, very appropriate. The other thing that is funny is that it gives you local results depending on which country you are from. When I did it as I was from the US, I was 30 percentage points above than when I was from France (meaning Americans are fatter at my age than Frenchies). This is not at all surprising, but funny none-the-less. Way to be stereotypical USA!

Ou est l'été?

I don't know if you've heard....but in Paris, summer hasn't arrived yet. Which is SO no fair as we also barely had spring...We had a week of spring in March, 1 week in May, and the rest has been moderately clarm ( a mix of cold and warm depending on the clouds) and gray.

I have mixed feelings about this lack of summer. If I were in NY right now, it would be over 100 degrees. NO THANKS (especially as we don't have AC in Paris). I know that I'm definitely more of a cold person than a hot one (hellooo I voluntarily went to the coldest place on earth for university. I don't have the canadian passport as an excuse ha). However, the really strange externality associated with this weird weather is I have absolutely no clue as to what month it is. I really, honestly, think it's May about half of the time. And the other half of the time where I think it's July I'm freezing because I forget to wear a jacket (who wears jackets in july?). So ultimately I am in complete denial that I go on vacation in 3 weeks and am getting married in 5. WAHOOOO! I feel so ready, but so unprepared at the same time.

(Similar to not knowing what month it is, I rarely know what time it is because the sun comes at a different angle [particulary in fringe seasons]. For instance, since when is it completely bright outside at 10:30 pm or dark in the winter at 9 am? WEIRD...probably the 2nd hardest thing to get used to after this bad weather oh and not being able to speak the language. NBD)

This one's for kimmie....

So one of my favorite blogger friends (err I guess we're real friends, right kimmie? pretty please?) has a thing for ginger boys. (For a good read, find out why here or to learn about her amazing ginger see here) Why am I telling you this? Stick with me...

I was riding my bike home (yep! I did!) and I almost crashed trying to stop and take a picture of this bill board (all in the name of cultural research...for kimmie of course):

After being honked at twice, I had the bright idea to continue riding and just look for it on the internets later. So it turns out 'carrotte' is the French translation of ginger and this billboard, which is purposefully vague, is an ad for a dating website called AdopteUnMec.com (or Adoptadude.com). Oh those Frenchies and their senses of humors. Here is what happens when you google the campaign:

"The red is a rare species endangered, too often stigmatized, the site helps them AdopteUnMec and offers girls to put their prejudices sides and do a good deed by adopting a "strawberry blonde"....

Turns out making fun of gingers transcends cultural boundaries and is even a thing in France! :)

Thank goodness

Thank you to the "The Paris Blog" for posting this european union venn diagram.



It will be a handy reference in the future...too many times when I'm travelling I ask myself if I need to go through customs or if they use euros. Now if only someone could explain to me the difference between the european economic vs customs union that would be handy. And the WTF is the council of europe?

Food trucks in Paris

Food Trucks -- a California & NYC phenomenon -- have taken Paris by storm and the NY Times told the tale on Monday.

To be honest, the NY Times is a little behind the 'times'. Food trucks were like "so last january's news" haha...I don't have much to say about these food trucks because the one time I went to the burger one the line was over an hour and a half long. There is only one burger I would wait 1.5 hours for and that burger is in NY, in a beautiful park (I MISS YOU SHAKE SHACK!!). Anyways, apparently it was a big pain in the ass to bring food trucks to Paris and the 'naysayers' said over and over again how it woudln't work in paris for so many reasons, but now it's doing really well. I think the food trucks are more proof that the food scene in NY and Paris are converging...so basically, my theory is that anything that works in NY is going to work in paris and vice-versa (Update: chipotle is getting rave reviews). So let's just stop saying 'things won't work in Paris', shall we?

Anywho, two other comments about this article. 1) Apparently all the kids these days are using the term 'Tres Brooklyn.' I don't know what it means, but I love it. (the article says it means creative food or something...I'll take it to mean cool. This term is totally going into my vocabulary and I'm sure Andrew is going to want to kill me by the end of the week yipeee). And 2) My friend is mentioned in the article!  He's Tres Brooklyn and the hip NY transplant chef, now working at one of my favorite restaurants L'office.

(As a tangent that is totally unrelated to Food trucks in Paris -- another one of my friends was in the NY Times this week, but in the wedding section. Congrats Debbie and Seth! As my dad said... "For all the years I've been reading the NY Times wedding announcements I've never known someone in them. I'm very impressed." Me too! Well done Debbie & Seth!)

Une Autre Lesson de Francais

Pret a voyager has another awesome french lesson on the blog today...Il m'a posé un lapin -- literally meaning he put down a rabit, but translated to "he stood me up." Quite random if you ask me and very hard to comprehend for us english speakers. So I went to google to find an explanation, and as per always, google did not disappoint. Rabbit's back in the day used to signify the refusal to pay, particularly whilst traveling. So to travel like a rabbit, was to travel without paying (why are rabbits so cheap in france? maybe because they are fast and sneak away? hmm) Apparently, the phrase started when a man wouldn't pay for a prostitute (he gave her a rabbit) and then eventually evolved to standing her up.

And now you know. (side note: the first explanation I found translated to this in google translate - Long, the term 'rabbit' is associated with free riding, to transactions made in soft or improper gratuity, by default...okay, maybe google isn't always reliable ha)

courtesy of pretavoyager.com

Freaky French Foods

One of the (many) paris blogs I read had this post today...top 5 Freaky French Foods we're afraid to try. Sounds right up my alley! Let's dig in.

I'm happy to report, I've tried all of them!

1. Boudin Noir. aka blood sausage. This isn't just in France, right? I think the first time I had this was in Ireland. No matter, I've had it..and I see it often. It's an option for lunch in our cafeteria often as part of a 'tagine' plate with couscous. The first time I didn't know what it was so I dug right in. Not for the faint of heart, I now have learned my lesson and pick around it.
2. Andouilette: aka. course sausage with intestine. My father ordered this bravely when he was in town and I tried a bite. I'm going to go ahead and say that french sausage as such are not my thing. GROSS. next.
3. Steak Tartare: raw steak. Basically a hamburger, but not cooked. YUM. It comes with onion, capers, mustard, worcestsire sauce and fries on the side. I like it a lot, although, I do agree the thought sort of creeps me out. Also, the amount tends to be more than I can handle so it's best left as an appetizer somewhere :)
4. Fromage De Tete: Head cheese. NOT - CULTURED ALERT: I ordered this once thinking it was cheese. It's not cheese, not even a little bit-- it's a terrine made out of parts of the pigs head. No matter, it's still good, salty, meaty, deliciousness. Just try not to think about the parts...(sort of like an oscar Mayer hot dog. BURN!)
5. Oursin: sea urchin. I've had sea urchiin before and really liked it, but only in France have I had served to me on ice still inside it's spiky shell. Risking puncture, it's quite the adventure in eating, but OH SO WORTH it. Get to the middle and you are rewarded with a salty, yet sweet goodness with a delicate and uniqure texture (ignore the almost neon orange color).

If you're in France, I highly recommend 3 of the 5 of these delicacies. It's worth it and you'll feel like a real bad ass...as you should aspire to after any good meal ha.

Homeless People's Food in Paris

There are many, many, many homeless people in paris, but that's not what this post is about. This post is about what they eat.

On my way to work this morning, a homeless guys I see quite often was sitting on the subway steps. I didn't think much of him munching on what looked like a sandwich or something, until my nose was accosted by the smell of stinky cheese. The homeless guy was eating a round of Camembert as if it were a sandwich. Hilarious. And good for him! I totally respect anyone who can down camberbert like a champ at 9 am. (reminds me of Anchorman..."You ate a whole block of cheese? I'm not even mad! I'm impressed!)

And as my 'Cheese teacher' would say (yes I took a cheese class) ....Cheese is almost the perfect food...so he's only missing Fiber and Vitamin C. Good bang for the buck I say. I shoud bring him some vitamin C metamucil on the way home and he'll be all set. Oh Paris, you never cease to amaze me.