We have witnessed more acts of human kindness over this past week in Paris than we can remember ever seeing in any city before. Desi spent a day in New York City in May 2008 where she was the recipient of several acts of kindness but otherwise nothing comes close to what we've witnessed over this past week. Parisians are kind people.
Outdoor seating options are plentiful and so well designed that they are full even during freezing temperatures.
Pay phones are every where and used often.
Fur is still considered an option and appears to be quite popular.
We have been confused for Spaniards a couple times and perhaps English once but no one has identified us as Americans yet.
Everyone has been very forgiving with our attempts at speaking French.
Although there appear to be successful supermarkets throughout Paris, we have at least four within a few blocks from our flat, there are also many separate and independent boulangeries, pâtisseries, boucheries, and fromageries which leads us to believe that, barring legal obstacles, either the people reject the supermarket as being everything to everyone and/or the supermarkets refuse to crush the little shops by offering competing items for less.
Most people we've encountered are at least bilingual. Even the rough sleeper at the Gare du Nord was able to switch to perfect English when we couldn't understand him in French. We are now more convinced than ever that we need to become fluent in another language. It's embarrassing at this point.
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