Summer Nights

I don’t think I realized that Paris would be this hot. The summer here is a real summer with temperatures that go into the 30s and lots of humidity. I’m still completely clueless about Celsius, but I have converted the weather in Celsius enough times that I know that 30 is in the high 80s. This is the summer we never get in San Francisco and the summer I escape from when I leave the East Coast. Although the weather transforms my commute into 40 minutes in a sauna (the metro and the RER are not air conditioned), it does lead to pleasant evenings promenading around the city. To top it off, the sun doesn’t even set here before 10, which makes evening jaunts all the more pleasant.


Every night this week, I’ve made it out of my foyer for at least a short stroll. Such is life without the burden of homework. At first it surprised me how many people are out at night. Even at 11, most of the restaurants are open and at least half full. Speaking of French restaurants, the government has just dropped the tax for restaurants from 19% to 5%. Hopefully, eating out will now be slightly more affordable. I think some of the restaurants are planning to drop prices.

On Monday and Tuesday, I was lucky enough to spend time with Aaron and Arthur, two friends from school whose families were vacationing in France. Even on Monday night when I went out to Montparnasse with Arthur’s family, this city was alive and buzzing. New York may be the city that never sleeps, but Paris runs a close second. It’s such a contrast to Princeton, which on a Monday night, or any night after 10 for that matter, is deader than Louis XVI ( I couldn’t resist).

The past two nights, I’ve gone out for walks with two of my friends from my foyer after dinner. We’ve taken to having the same type of endless dinners that I have at school where we just sit down to eat and various people come in and out. As I learned in my first two years of school, mealtime is one of the best times to meet new people.

This is me with my friends Anne-Constance and Emily. The photos in this entry are all courtesy of Emily. In the background is Notre Dame.

Wednesday night, my two friends and I walked all the way to the Tuileries as the sun set. We walked along the bank of the sun, which was completely packed. In addition to quite a few people who had chosen to picnic along the river, we came across musicians and a group of people dancing. There’s a small quintet that frequently plays on the Pont Saint Louis, the bridge that connects the Île Saint Louis where I live to the Île de la Cité. They perform old jazz classics and all the tourists going by stop to listen.

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On Sunday, I saw a car where the steering wheel was on the right, but the driver drove just as if it was on the left. Puzzled, I asked my British friend what her family does when they go to Europe. Apparently, they continue to drive their car, but on the other side of the road from how they would in England. This solution doesn’t seem particularly safe, but I guess it wouldn’t be possible or fair to stop every group of British tourists at the border and force them to give up their car.