Life

[SecretAsianMan]

I'm something of a big hypocrite when I tell you not to go to McDonalds because I actually prefer KFC in China to the KFC in the states.  But in my defense, I've been to China a lot and eaten Chinese food almost every day of my life for decades.

 

I think you're fine with going there once, if nothing else just to see what's it's like.  But when my friends and I were in Europe, they insisted on going there a lot.  And not just in France.  We went through several countries in about 10 days (it was part of a school tour thing) and for almost every non-arranged meal they had to hunt down the closest American thing. 

[shammack]

Eat wherever the fuck you want and apologize to no one.

[JonCole]

Eat wherever the fuck you want and apologize to no one.

 

[syntheticgerbil]

 Or try to outrun shady folks near Montmartre who'll try to rope you into buying a piece of string.

I had that happen, they were like jamming them into my hand and demanding I give them money. Hmph.

[Hermie]

Grr, I just returned from a similar trip to Paris, Rome and Amsterdam with my girlfriends family, so now I'm reading this thread and ruing that we didn't get to go to any of the cool places listed above. The family is Brazilian and has never been to Europe, so the days we had in Paris was very focused on seeing all the obvious landmarks, but this was the third time for me going to the tower etc.

 

We also ended up with fast food once or twice, because Paris is quite expensive to eat in, and the parents refused to go anywhere the meals were above 10 euro. So we walked a lot searching for restaurants while we were already tired, and then settled. I recommend either researching food in advance or lowering your price standard. We used Tripadvisor/Foursquare/Google Maps a lot, but it's hard to see price levels from them sometimes. I've also used Spotted By Locals before, but didn't on this trip: http://www.spottedbylocals.com/paris/

 

Oh, we walked by this place on our way to the tower, but of course we couldn't go in: http://www.mcjp.fr/english/exhibitions/evangelion-and-japanese-swords-1022/evangelion-and-japanese-swords

 

 

Edit: Watch out for kids with petitions they want you to sign. This is either a scam where you agree to give them money, or a distraction so they can pickpocket you. Say no firmly. I even said saw one kid warn a street seller that the cops were coming.

[Roderick]

I had that happen, they were like jamming them into my hand and demanding I give them money. Hmph.

 

Yes, I was not exaggerating, there is this one spot (near the cable line going up on the hill, with a great view of the city) that's crawling with dubious peddlers. Keep any and all appendages tucked close to your body and do not let them catch a wandering wrist.

 

The talk of food here is making me very uncomfortable. When I go abroad, one of my main sources of anxiety is eating. It's always a huge relief when I find a place where I can get foodstuffs that I am comfortable with and that I can eat without the fear of it not agreeing with me. Most of the time I'm happiest eating simple bread meals from the local bakery or simple foods from a supermarket, since I know those and know they're safe. Eating abroad is a source of concern that I have to somehow nullify. Going on a gastronomical adventure on a carrousel of restaurants and local dishes is a nightmare to me. Not everyone is a foodie, and the thought of being kicked out of the group because I'm not is worrying.

[JonCole]

Honestly, I'm probably just going to buy a ton of cured meat (pitiful in the US), unpasteurized cheese (practically non-existent in the US) and bread at a grocery store and make that like 80% of my meals. My wife tells me that dining standards are fairly different in Paris than in the United States, and I'd rather avoid those situations as much as possible. So it'll be DIY food or street vendors for the most part this trip.

 

I'm a planner, but spreadsheets of places to eat at specific times on specific days is far too much for me. My dad usually does stuff like that, and we end up going to really popular cheap places that everyone and their mother knows about so we have to wait forever or service suffers because of the wildly disproportionate number of tourists around.

[Hermie]

Yeah, I agree with you, it's much better to be a little flexible, especially when it comes to meals, just be mentally prepared to go through "quality, price, location, pick two". My in-laws weren't, so they were constantly bitching about either the price or the food, even though we warned them when planning the trip.

[SecretAsianMan]

Honestly, I'm probably just going to buy a ton of cured meat (pitiful in the US), unpasteurized cheese (practically non-existent in the US) and bread at a grocery store and make that like 80% of my meals. My wife tells me that dining standards are fairly different in Paris than in the United States, and I'd rather avoid those situations as much as possible. So it'll be DIY food or street vendors for the most part this trip.

 

I'm a planner, but spreadsheets of places to eat at specific times on specific days is far too much for me. My dad usually does stuff like that, and we end up going to really popular cheap places that everyone and their mother knows about so we have to wait forever or service suffers because of the wildly disproportionate number of tourists around.

 

I've been kind of hassling you to not eat fast food, but it's mostly jokingly.  Shammack is right, eat whatever you want.  I do encourage you to try new things you haven't had before but absolutely do what makes you comfortable.

[dibs]

You won't go too badly wrong buying some bread, cheese and meat in France though! Picnic to the max. Also, find a good bakery and have some delicious cakes and delicacies.

[Justin Leego]

If you do take the bakery option, you can usually pick up a filled baguette sandwich for around €4 ($5.50), and with a canned drink and a pastry for €6ish ($8) as part of a set menu or "formule". You can certainly eat on a budget this way, depending on where you shop. Obviously, places right next to major tourist attractions will be pricier.

 

Street vendors aren't really that big a thing, though food trucks are, and incidentally your best bet of getting a US-style burger cooked US-style. Apart from the Frogburger chain which has the air of being aimed squarely at North American visitors.

 

My wife tells me that dining standards are fairly different in Paris than in the United States

 

How interesting, could you expand on this a little further?

[JonCole]

The thing that stands out most in my mind is how waiters treat you. I'm deeply introverted, so adapting to US etiquette seems to have taken my whole lifetime to get adjusted to. Here, waiters generally want to do everything for you. They refill your water if your glass is a third-empty, they check if your food tastes good two minutes after it is served, and they check every five minutes or so thereafter if you need anything. When 75% of your party is done eating their entrees, they're prepared to bring the check to the table and may ask if you want dessert before presenting it.

 

So, I'm conditioned to expect these things and any disruption of this is sure to cause me stress. My wife tells me that generally, you have to ask for things from waiters rather than expect them to anticipate your needs or ask you incessantly if you need anything. While this might be a minor disruption to my ingrained social behavior if it was just me and my wife, having my family around makes this situation about ten times more stressful. Without delving into the history of my family, my dad is offensively assertive and my mom and sister are both want to have specific needs while eating that go unvoiced and subsequently complain when the food isn't to their liking. I hate these things, but I can only imagine hating them more with the added stress of different dining etiquette. Hell, I even hated it when my family went to Canada, where the etiquette is generally the same but in my limited experience I noticed that Canadians were slightly more lax in what would otherwise be a science of customer pestering that I've become comfortable with.

 

This is ultimately a small issue, but I spend my life trying to avoid situations like this because I'd rather go it alone and internalize issues I have out of the view of anyone else. If I can encourage my party to go to non-seated establishments, I'll generally be a happier dude.

[Professor Video Games]

Family vacations truly are magical.

[Bjorn]

If by magical, you mean like spending a long weekend hanging out with the Elder Ones from the stygian abyss while they complain about how the darkness, the food and barely visible monstrosities in this new abyss aren't as nice as the abyss they came from.

 

I love each of my wife's family members individually, but once you put them all together on a trip I'm ready to pull my hair out.

[dibs]

Well, deffo stick to the picnic style then!

We went on a lot of camping holidays to France when i was a kid. I'm sure it was down to budget for my parents (we got the ferry ride for free due to family working there), but i always loved that everywhere we went we had picnics. Roast chicken, or jambon and some bread* or crackers and Orangina from those dinky bottles. For a treat, we would go to the ubiquitous campsite takeaway and bring back a saucepan full of pomme frites to have with the tea. Nowadays, one of my favorite things to do, especially when I'm in mainland Europe, is to wander around a supermarket and see all the nice things I could buy. I'll happily spend a half hour just drooling at the deli counter:)

 

*I hate bread

[Hermie]

Oof, I feel you Jon. I'm the same way, and sounds like my in-laws (mother, father, sister + husband) were similar to your family. Like I aluded to above, they were also were complainy about a lot of little things, especially when eating or waiting in lines. Luckily for me they speak only (loud) Portuguese, so I got to stare blankly every time there was an argument as I couldn't understand. It put a lot of stress on my girlfriend though, but she grew up fighting back against this.

 

Example: There was a crêpe place that was highly recommended by a friend of the sister (Au P'tit Grec). Everywhere it said the same; the food is delicious, but the line will be long. We had to walk a while to get there, and when we got there, sure enough, the line stretched several car-lengths down the street. Her parents quickly gave up and went to the kebab place next door to have a place to sit. That's okay, they're old (he's 70) and we walked a lot that day. But when they got food, her dad ordered a kebab, not knowing what that actually was. When he got the food, he took one look at it then refused to eat it. :s We ended up carrying the whole thing back to the apartment to eat later.

 

PS: The crêpes were indeed worth the wait.

[Justin Leego]

I can certainly appreciate those sorts of familial cocktails. Jon, it sounds like you've got a culinary plan to deal with any eventualities that might arise, and from experience, it's a good one - I spent a fortnight eating French "supermarket style" as you describe. Fine beers and wines were incredibly (unbelievably) inexpensive, though mainly kept myself on a diet of baguette, cheese and ham with the occasional jar of pickled gherkin as garnish. The food of royalty. Poor royalty, but nonetheless...

[Badfinger]

*I hate bread

 

WHAT.

[SecretAsianMan]

I just mowed my own lawn with my own mower all of which I paid for myself.  First time I've ever done that.  Feels pretty good.

[Nachimir]

WHAT.

 

It's true. I saw dibs wearing this hat.

[JonCole]

I just mowed my own lawn with my own mower all of which I paid for myself.  First time I've ever done that.  Feels pretty good.

 

That felt good the first three times or so I did it. But I also live in Florida, where lawn mowing seems like purgatory.

[SecretAsianMan]

That felt good the first three times or so I did it. But I also live in Florida, where lawn mowing seems like purgatory.

 

I have no doubt I'll grow to hate it, but for now it's still mostly the fact that these things belong to me and not my parents or someone else.

[undermind9]

My cars turbo is shot. Est 3k to fix unless I find the parts on the cheap. Probably will spend Monday work morning scouring the Internet or calling junk yards

Pretty sure just sealed my fate to drive it until total failure

[miffy495]

Calgary is in the middle of its second consecutive weekend without snow of the year! I celebrated by getting my bike out and getting lost for the morning/early afternoon following whims. I am tired, have a giant sweat butterfly on my back, and murdered myself going up the hill to the children's hospital (which is like, the other end of the city from where I live, so I have no idea how I ended up there), but I feel great!

[Nachimir]

I got to do bike stuff in the sunshine today:

 

 

Which was a really nice way to take my mind of money stress. Sometimes freelancing sucks, as the income can be so erratic.