10 Things I Hate About Paris

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10 Things I Hate About You: Paris

I love living in Paris. It's beautiful and full of history. And I love how beautiful the city is at night. No wonder why they call it the city of light. But there are some things that I just hate about it. And I'm allowed to dislike some things, right? It's only natural. So let me vent to you about all the crap (some literal) that I don't like, and probably hate, about Paris.

10. The cigarette smoke: even though there are laws now, people still smoke everywhere, including outside the brasserie that I love above. So on a hot summer's night when I want fresh air, I open my windows and I am greeted with the stench of the smokers. Yay thanks!

9. The tiny apartments: most of the apartments in my price range included no oven, dishwasher, or washing machine. And right now I'm missing that oven! Or they had everything in the same room, so you could take a shower, use the toilet, and cook at the same time. That's not safe or sanitary. Thank goodness that's not my case, but everything is just too small here. Even when my apartment is cleaned and everything is put away it looks like a mess!

8. How not handicap accessible it is: sometimes I'm exhausted and I don't want to walk up all the flights of stairs and just take the escalator. I know it's bad of me, but after a long day of dealing with children, I debate crawling up the two flights of stairs to my apartment. Paris is not handicap accessible. Some areas you can get around, but it's not easy one bit.

7. Overpriced rent: I know that I live in the capital and that housing is limited here, but that doesn't mean that I have to like paying 840 Euros a month for 17 square meters. It sucks!

6. Public bathrooms: oh God, thinking about them makes me cringe. Avoid toilets in Paris at all costs. They are not well maintained, they smell bad, and who knows what you accidentally touched. I read a quote from Winston Churchill about the British and French armies working together and they said that the French were in charge of the toilettes and the British were in charge of the food and that it should have been the other way around. Those poor men, I cannot imagine what they went through!

5. The smell of the metro: eventually the metro becomes the public bathrooms because people in Paris will pee anywhere. So it smells so nasty! Sometimes is smells like milk that has been spoiled for at least a month. Sometimes it reeks of alcohol because someone broke their bottle in the metro. And a lot of the time is has a nice strong stench of pee. Now I know why everyone wears scarves. It's your own personal gas mask.

4. No garbage disposals: you don't know what you had until its gone. How do they not have garbage disposals here? It seems like every month people have to take apart their sink in order to get the gunk out to get it running properly again. And I try so hard to keep everything out of my sink except for soap and water, but lately I've seen it slow down. I'm too scared for what is to follow.

3. No vents: no wonder why the city smells moldy all the time. Bathrooms are small cramped spaces with no vents so the hot air stays in and just molds. And it seems like mold is a common problem here. So why not install vents, it's probably cheaper!

2. Dog poop in the streets: why can't people clean up after their dogs, especially when they go right on the sidewalk? I really love stepping in poop, it just makes my day, said no one ever! I know you're lazy dog owners, but even you don't like stepping in it. It's so bad that they have special scooters that ride around with vacuum cleaners to try and help the crap problem!

1. French bureaucracy: I've been here three months and I still don't have health care, social security, and financial aid. It takes months to get anything done here. What do they even do in those offices. And why are there so many hoops? I have a hate hate relationship with French bureaucracy.