A critical difference between French people (especially Parisians) and Americans is really something of privacy. Parisians tend to be so private. The kind of self-exhibitionism that is rampant in the states is not cool in Paris. For example, one never looks at other people in the metro. I wear my aviator sunglasses to watch at people without giving away my extreme Americanism. It is tiring to always have to avert one’s eyes and to not be able to laugh and smile so much in public.

Gauche Things To Do As An American In Paris
(Though I’ve Observed French People Doing Each One):

1. When dining in a French bistro: bringing food from somewhere else and eating it (in France, that is just about the worst thing a person can do).

2. Brushing your hair (or someone else’s) in the middle of a restaurant (I think that is indecorous in any city).

3. Going to Starbucks, or “Mac-Do.”

I came down with a terrible case of food poisoning (une intoxication alimentaire) from some seemingly harmless chicken and was bed-ridden for sixteen hours. It is especially disorienting and uncomfortable to be sick and wretching when in a foreign country and staying as a house guest. I awoke, starving and disoriented, to find an elegant late-night dinner of caviar, salad, and chèvre waiting for me downstairs. It proved quite good for restoring my energy.

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