Lori and I spent a mid-April week in Paris, the first time for both of us. As expected, it’s a gorgeous city steeped in history (and a reverence for it) and festooned with endless parks and extraordinary museums with much of the world’s great art on display. We enjoyed a variety of food, much of it good, some not to our liking (foie gras anyone?). Fabulous baked goods were readily available everywhere. Our 5+ miles of walking each day helped keep calorie balance in check. We used the metro system extensively and found no need to use any other transportation to reach any of our destinations.

There were a few things a bit surprising:

They don’t have or use air conditioning for the most part. It consumes huge amounts of energy, is noisy, and mars the visual facades of historical buildings. But I can’t imagine being in Paris mid-summer in the heat and crush of tourists.

Given the unorganized layouts and naming of streets ranging from wide boulevards to narrow little alleys, and the heavy congestion of drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians navigating their way, you would have to be nuts to attempt driving in Paris without extensive knowledge of what you’re doing. As it is, the chaos proceeds efficiently with very little honking, hostility, or impatience you would certainly encounter in NYC for example.

There’s a huge diversity of vehicles in Paris, ranging from motorized unicycles, bicycles of all types, gas or electric motorcycles, and a boggling mix of gas and electric cars of all types, many not seen in the US. We saw very few mid- or full-size SUVs and no pickup trucks of any size. Driving is challenging enough; parking is a nightmare.

We personally experienced no instances of the legendary Paris rudeness. We behaved politely and respectfully which seemed to insure we had pleasant experiences in all our interactions with the Parisians. They were wonderful.

The metro was almost always crowded (sometimes crushingly so), often standing-room only even though we tried to avoid rush-hour trips. And we visited in a less touristy time of year. Paris has the Olympics coming up this summer–we can’t imagine what it’s going to be like trying to get around the city at that time. Our guides very happily announced they’ll not be in Paris for that although other cities will be affected as well.

The various bistros and brasseries we ate in almost all had very crowded table seating, some of which would be essentially unusable by plump Americans. It was striking how universally slender almost all the natives were. It was relatively easy to pick out some of our American brethren visitors by their obesity and sometimes slovenly attire. Maybe all that walking and low-stress work the French do helps their health a lot. (Although they have a sadly-higher smoking rate than we Americans.)

Palm trees. Yes, Paris has palm trees scattered all over the city. This is at about 48.5° north latitude, similar to the border between North Dakota and Canada. They were easily a few weeks ahead of us in spring foliage even though we’re at about 42.5° north latitude. Everything was lush and flowers were in bloom everywhere. By contrast we came home to see trees just beginning to bud out.

In short, the pride Parisians have in their beautiful city is certainly warranted. Our visit, a rich and rewarding experience, was a privilege.