Pt. 1: Paris 2023: How Eiffel for this city, so you can too.
Pt. 2: Pardon my French: the language and academia

I often find that things tend to drop in quality in life if they manage to reach a part 3 – the Hunger Games trilogy, the album ‘Divide’, my parent’s stringency with my youngest sister – the list goes on. I’m going to go out on a limb to say that this will not be the case here, especially for the impartial reader, as I’m moving on to address, in easy terms, the fun stuff about living in Paris.

From some of the best concerts and meals of my life, to once-in-a lifetime art exhibitions, to unforgettable (or not) nights out, to even meeting my girlfriend, I have cherished so many aspects of this city that I’ll hold dear as I grow up and begin to enter the stage of life often deemed as becoming a “real adult”. I’ve listed some key elements of the “Erasmus Parisian lifestyle” below that made my experience so enjoyable, hopefully, so you can enjoy too.

Music Scene

Music is a big part of my life. I’ve grown up surrounded by instruments; played the piano since I was 5 and had a stab at cello and guitar; been to a load of music festivals throughout Europe; had 90,000 minutes listened on Spotify last year (flex) – you get the idea. This love for music deepened throughout my year abroad for many reasons, two of which notably come to mind – cheap concerts and public pianos. 

Again, I can only speak from personal preference in terms of the range and quality of concerts, but for me it was probably the best year of live music of my life. You see, I’m a big fan of hip-hop and rap music, alongside other genres, to the point that it’s going to be a main area of research in my dissertation this year. Many of my favourite artists come from or are currently based in London – the likes of Bawo, Ayrtn, Knucks, Loyle Carner etc. What I found out pretty early was on was, despite often having a relatively small following (you heard it here first, I have realllyy underground music taste – not;), any time someone I loved would do a tour or few gigs, they’d still always seem to end up performing an easy metro journey from where I lived.

My theory is this: often these artists want a holiday in Paris (I don’t blame them) and thus and do a small, intimate concert which isn’t much hassle but sells enough tickets to pay for the holiday and gets a bit of social media content. As well as actually enjoying the sights of the city, of course. This works perfectly for anyone attending (i.e. you or me) because the venues are usually very small – meaning you can get right up to the front, which is always brilliant in terms of atmosphere, crowd engagement, and just a general win win all round. From getting a chain from Skepta, to being asked to rap a song I didn’t know the words to by Songer, to moshpitting with Ayrtn, this ability to be so close to the artists has resulted in some pretty unique and special experiences that I’ll seriously cherish for the rest of my life.

The same goes for different genres and bigger artists too. I’ve seen Bicep, Skin-on-Skin, Bon Iver, Nia Archives, Denis Sulta, and others, in a range of indoor and outdoor venues of varying atmosphere and capacity. It may sound like a no brainer but Paris is a secured location on any European tour and if you’re here when someone you like is touring, you’re most likely in luck to see them live. Even if you miss out on tickets for a show I’d recommend going down to the venue and trying to blag getting one anyway. I did this for Loyle Carner’s sold out show at the Olympia and it was probably one of the best nights I had whilst away.

Again, I’m completely aware this sounds like a long list flexing the artists I saw – and it kind of is – but the actual point is that I was lucky enough to do this in the first place because of the city I was in. There’s not many other cities in the world where you can find as many concerts of the same nature taking place as regularly, so take advantage of it’s popularity and get to as many as you can. Alone or with friends, you’ll have a good time regardless.

On a different note (pun very much intended), Paris is also a brilliant city for continuing to play an instrument. Funnily enough, I didn’t have access to a private piano in my apartment for a range of reasons – space, expense, carrying up the 6 flights of stairs – you get the idea. That wasn’t a problem, however, as there’s public pianos dotted all over the city, mainly in the train stations, airports, and larger Monoprix. I made an effort to play at least a couple of times a month as it meant I kept up some sort of level of playing, but arguably more importantly, people genuinely really appreciated the music and stopped to listen, which often sparks conversations and improves your linguistic ability as a result. The same applies for other instruments – bands, orchestras, even instrument shops – there’s more of an openness to hearing and participating in live music than I’ve experienced in the UK, regardless of your level, which is a great way to maintain your level whilst socialising. 

Nightlife

Switching from live music and lyrics to bass lines and beers, it’d be remiss to not mention the nightlife in Paris. This was something I was extremely excited about before coming here – the idea of different club nights, meeting loads of different French people and Erasmus students, having a few too many beers, the late walks back etc. were all great prospects, and lived up to their name – to a degree.

There’s no denying that the Parisian club scene is large and that if you want to go out, you’ll have no problem in doing so. There’s a range of house, techno, jungle, and everything else under the sun promoted on apps like Resident Advisor (R.A.) and DICE every day of the week. That said, it’s also expensive. You next to always need to buy a ticket in advance to get into any club events, and once you do so the drink prices are pretty extortionate depending on where you are. People also get to clubs way later than in the UK – usually around 2am. This meant that the next day was usually a complete right off due to lack of sleep and a raging hangover.

My main advice would be – to pick your proper club nights out wisely. We were often clubbing on average 3 times a week in our first month or two of arriving in the city, which resulted in a slightly vicious study-club-hangover cycle. Once you get past this, you realise that it’s actually not that enjoyable clubbing this much and discover that one night “out out” a week, if that, is more than sufficient. Don’t get me wrong, some of my favourite memories of Paris have been a night at the club but this was often due to a good bit of planning and knowing the artist beforehand. Again, I’m also saying this with the wonderful power of hindsight so by all means feel free to make the same mistakes I did, and hopefully enjoy it all along the way!

The Parisian culture is far more often than not simply going to a bar and having a few beers, talking some rubbish, and then being tucked into bed by 1am. This is a lot healthier, both for your personal and academic health and is something I would recommend opting for more often than not. It’s something that is deeply integrated within the Parisian culture, so much so that I wrote an essay on it which you can read here, if you can be bothered. 

The City of Love

I’m just going to touch on this briefly as don’t want to cringe myself or anyone reading this out, but I’d say quite a lot of students going on a Parisian year abroad have a certain thing in mind when moving to the “city of love” – that being, finding someone. Emily in Paris, Midnight in Paris, Amelie, Before Sunset, La Vie en Rose – the list goes on – there’s no hiding that some of the first direct attributions to the city are love, sex, red wine, and everything in between. Personally, I didn’t really have any romantic expectations going into the year, and in fact, it was probably one of the last things of my mind, behind all the stuff I’ve mentioned in this blog series so far.

That said, in January I met my now girlfriend, and I couldn’t be happier. I’ll not reveal how we met but having the latter half of the year to get to know and get close with someone I have ended up in a relationship with, in the city known for coming on a romantic getaway, is a ridiculous feeling and undoubtedly one of the things I’ve cherished most when looking back at the year as a whole. Cringe, I know – but completely true and poignant all the same. It goes to show that anything is possible in the city, arguably when you’re not trying too hard to seek it out in the first place. Enough of that – and onto the second love of my life, food.

Food

Just like music, food has a huge part in my life. I’ll not bore you with details of why this time, but rest assured I love to eat and I love to cook – to the point where my nickname as a young toddler was “Dusty Bin”. Given this heartfelt nickname, you can also imagine my excitement when coming to the city voted to have the 3rd best cuisine in the world by CNN in 2023 (take that as you will).

Similarly to its strong association with everything sexy, there’s no doubt that one of the other first things people think of in relation to Paris is its cuisine; more croissants, cheeses, baguettes, and steak frites than humanly imaginable. In fact, the French consume more cheese per capita than any other country worldwide – about 57 pounds per person per year. There you go, you’ve learned at least one thing reading this – if you’ve got this far that is.  

I’m going to heavily stress this time, I can only speak from personal preference, but I had a few problems with typical French cuisine when living there for a full year. Openly and honestly, I just don’t rate it. Far too much stodgy bread, not enough freshness, and lacking in fruit, veg, and clean proteins. 

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s brilliant to enjoy and embrace for a holiday but after a month or so I often found myself missing the beauty of things quick and fresh(ish) like a Tesco meal deal when not wanting to cook from scratch after university etc. Eventually, I came to realise that, believe it or not, you can have one too many croissants or baguettes in life. This especially applies when accompanying what you’re eating with a good few pints or red wine in the evening. Stodge, stodge, some more stodge, and a few fermented grapes isn’t exactly the recipe to a balanced diet. Go figure.

So, as one has to do in a crisis, I opted to find a solution i.e., increase freshness and decrease stodge in what I was eating. First port of call – the fruit and veg section of the local supermarket. This one step plan was great in practice, but upon arriving at said section, you may remember another hurdle I mentioned in part 1 of the blogs. The price-tag. I’m all for spending my money on food – which is lucky because I didn’t have much choice when I was away – but Paris really does take the biscuit (again, pun very much intended). One needs to remember that, in terms of the demographic shopping in all the supermarkets around me in the 5^th arrondissement, I was definitely in the lower bracket of income. It’s clear that, if people can afford the extortionate rent year in and year out, they can also probably afford to spend double what I’d expect to on a bag of onions or chicken breast. 

I understand that I’m sounding down on the food situation, just as I was with the university situation, but the same applies. This is just to get you up to speed with how it is in Paris so it’s not a shock when you get there. It’s definitely not a “no light at the end of the tunnel” situation either. There is always LIDL and ALDI, which are reasonable but were just far away from where I lived and not ideal after a long day at university. To be honest, myself and my flatmate often found eating out somewhere would cost the same as buying groceries for a meal and also minimises the time taken to physically cook and clean up , obviously. Moving on with this line of thinking, I’m going to list a few of our favourite restaurants which you should try to get to, even if you’re just visiting for a few days:

Bouillon – www.bouillonlesite.com. You have to go here. Simple as. It’s really delicious, easy, typically French food – notably, with a low price-tag. Bouillon Pigalle is great because it’s very close to Montmartre so you can have a nice meal then grab a bottle of wine and walk up Sacré Coeur to enjoy the views. This was exactly what I did with my mates from home and my girlfriend’s mates on my birthday and it was one of the other best nights of my time in Paris. You can also pay individually on your phone through a QR code and book tables so easily online too. They really have everything sussed. 

Sucrepice – www.arras.sucrepice.fr. My favourite restaurant in the whole of Paris. A beautifully traditional, tiny ramen restaurant which was a one-minute walk away from my front door. Order the traditional ramen (big, with soup), add spicy chicken, and get the crispy pork to share – or just have it for yourself. Words can’t really do this place justice so have a look at the pictures on their site or do the sensible thing and just go. I think I brought every single visitor last year at least once and it’ll be the first place I go whenever I return.

Le Relais de l’Entrecôte – www.relaisentrecote.fr/?page_id=205&lang=fr_FR. Again, a very well celebrated French restaurant for tourists. They serve one thing – walnut salad to start, then steak and chips with their special sauce. You get asked how you want your steak cooked upon sitting down, receive your salad, then your main – with constant chips being re offered if you’re courteous and quick enough. I only went a handful of times due to big queues (you can’t book) and a 26.50 EUR pp price tag but if you’re visiting for a few days it’s definitely a “must go”. Unfortunately I can’t find any pictures here but have a look on their website (attached) if you’re keen.

If you manage to go to these three restaurants on during your time away, whether it be for a romantic getaway or an Erasmus exchange, you’ll be doing very well. In terms of general lunchtime eating, you’d often find me in Pret a Manger (get the membership) with a coffee and sandwich from Monoprix or by the Seine with a cheap baguette sliced and stuff with any cheap meats, salads, and cheeses that I could get my hands on. 

En guise de conclusion:

Firstly, well done in getting this far if you’ve managed to. I’ve just reread everything above and am both concerned and slightly impressed at my ability to go off on a tangent – if you can even call it as such. The bottom line that I want to get at regarding this area of being abroad, i.e. the fun stuff., is that it is personal to you. I have written about hip-hop concerts, good restaurants and clubs, amongst other things, because these are things that I enjoy and feel strongly towards in life.

If these aren’t your kind of things, grow up. Jokes. Seriously, if they’re not, don’t worry that I haven’t mentioned what you might have been hoping for in relation to extracurricular enjoyment. The beauty of this city is that it’s popularity attracts such a range of people and personalities that, regardless of what you’re interested in, you’ll have the chance to ameliorate and deepen those interests in so many different ways throughout your time.

The key thing is getting involved and not being scared to do so. However that’s a story, or blog post, for next time. Stayed tuned for the fourth and final part of this mini series – getting out of your comfort zone!

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