7 Random Facts About Life in Paris

And I do mean random facts about Paris. There’s all kinds of random stuff you only figure out after you’ve been here a minute. Get access to my guide to Paris at https://parisinmypocket.com/ and help me make better videos at http://patreon.com/jayswanson 🥳

Subscribe to my bi-monthly newsletter here: https://jayswanson.substack.com/
Get a copy of my book on how I got to Paris here: https://amzn.to/3LoYuDi
My gear list https://jayswanson.me/gear

Follow me here:
https://instagram.com/jayswanson
https://tiktok.com/@jay.swanson
Tweets by jayonaboat
https://bio.site/jayswanson

My name is Jay Swanson – I’m an American writer living in Paris on an artist visa. Paris (yes the one in France) has been my home for years now and I have every intention of staying here for as long as they’ll have me. I write science-fiction and fantasy, vlogged daily for 3+ years, and love pizza a little too much. Now I make videos about visiting Paris, traveling in Europe, and try to share what I’ve learned along the way. I hope you enjoyed what you found.

Links are affiliate links where they can be – meaning if you click through them and buy something, I’ll get some pennies. Thanks! (The FTC wants me to tell you that up front)

Patron Producer: Bob McCormick
Edited by: Laundry
Music by: @dcuttermusic

Daylight savings actually enacts in the States, like, a month before it does here. Enact… is inflicted upon us, whatever verb you’re looking for. And it leads to this really interesting moment where my family, instead of being 9 hours behind me, is 8 hours behind me. And also,

You kind of get that feeling like, oh, my gosh, the sunrise is finally here. Light is welcoming me in the morning. I’m gonna survive. And then it kicks you in the butt. That’s coming this weekend. It’s funny, though, because I thought it was happening when the US one

Was happening. So I’ve been living in grand anticipation of this moment for far too long. Anyway, welcome back to Paris. Another thing that I’ve noticed ever since I started running every morning was a question that I’ve always had, which is, when do they collect the garbage in

Paris? It’s a very, like, local, you live here kind of question, because I don’t put garbage out on the street like my building does. And I’ve never really noticed a pattern. It’s because they come every day. If your poubelle fills up, you put it out on the street, and they’re there every morning.

These guys are out every morning. I cross paths with them almost in the exact same place every morning. Can I say every morning again before, like, every morning? Anyway, leg day. I feel like I’m full of fun facts today. I do kind

Of feel like I owe you, like, a third fun fact all of a sudden. So let me think about it. I’m so close to being able to play this without… I made, like, you know, half a dozen at least, mistakes in there, clearly. But, like, it’s so satisfying to get so far on

Something new, humbling, and kind of embarrassing to get started. But I have this Prelude by Bach memorized and almost mastered! I’m really, really, really glad I finally picked up piano. Anyways, some delightful last minute developments. We’re gonna go meet Richard for coffee, and we’re gonna go meet Lindsey for

Lunch. And in the midst of that, we’re gonna come up with a third fun fact. Because I didn’t mean to start the day on fun facts about Paris. Random stuff I’ve learned, but here we go. Not that daylight savings is a

Fun fact about Paris, specifically. Living in Europe when your family’s in the US… You get me. Oh, hey, I know you. This one is going to be an actual fun fact about Paris, I guess French culture, in a way…

From Richard. – Oh, hello. Yeah, I think one of the things I learned and really only came to me because I had kids here, I might have learned it eventually, but when you have children here, it becomes pretty clear that they consider

Hello and goodbye as important for the manners as please and thank you. So kids are taught from a very young age. You’ll see their teachers at crêche and at maternelle and school be very, very definitive or very careful about saying hello and making sure they say hello back, or bonjour.

And also au revoir. At the end of the day, they learn that. And if you don’t want your kid to be the kid who’s been brought up badly, make sure that they get used to saying bonjour and au revoir to people they meet

Adults and everyone alike. – So what do they call an irish goodbye? – I don’t know. My children, like, their teachers, at the end of the day, like, au revoir…. au revoir, like you have to look them in the eye and say, au revoir? And then my

Kids can go. – There you go. All right. We’ll see if we get one more out of the day. Still going with the boy dog. Lindsey’s got a fun fact for us now, too. What’s your— – My fun fact?

– This one. I like this one. This is a good one. – Oh, because I already told you. You did? – She did tell me. I cheated. I know. – So what’s really interesting is that Amazon is not allowed to discount books

The way they do in the US or maybe even the UK, because the government sort of regulates the prices so that it doesn’t present an unfair monopoly, given the independent booksellers and stuff. So I want to say that the biggest discount they could offer is like, 5%, so it helps keep booksellers alive.

I like that one. The other one she was going to go with but didn’t, but I will because I think it is interesting. Your taxes come basically pre filled out. You just have to verify them. You don’t have to figure out all the magic

Of what do I owe? I know they know, but they won’t tell me. – Yeah, it’s personal tax. – They know. – It’s not like your business filing, for example, but like your impôts sur le revenue, it’s a little bit more efficient.

That doesn’t mean there can’t be errors. And you do still have to check. And there are probably things like, if you’ve donated to charity, maybe you have to fill that in. But the bulk of it is done. It has not applied to me for a very long time, so I completely

Forget about that every year. I love that. Anyways, thanks for lunch. I’m trying not to make a habit of editing on the metro…but Paul invited me to a show last minute. He was like, “you want to work on your French. I have a french comedy show being filmed tonight.”

It’s a friend of his. I have no idea what I’m getting myself into. Also, I’m sure Paul’s gonna have something, you know, he’ll have a fun fact up his sleeve. Here’s a fun fact that isn’t remotely trashy. Bob McCormick is today’s patron producer. Thanks, Bob, and all my patrons for everything. You guys

Are amazing. We’re going to dive deeper into Patreon and some of the changes we’re making here. A lot more polls, a lot more fun to come. If you enjoyed the road tripping, exploring France, you’re going to want to jump in on it

Because you’re going to be the ones influencing where I go and what I eat. Apparently my ticket is with a guy named Anthony in Theater. Antoine. Seems a little bit on the nose, but we’re going to find out when we go inside. Not going to cross the bike lane.

Oh, wait, that’s not what I want. Pretty sure I’m not here to see the Dead Poet Society. Is this. What? Oh, yeah. There she is. Tanya. We’re in the right spot. Mes billets sont avec Antony… Il m’a dit à gauche Anthony? – Bonsoir! – Salut – Ça va? Ouais, et toi? Excellent.

Est-ce que je peux te demander un question sur camera? Quelque chose surprenant sur Paris? Je ne sais pais, il y a quelque chose… …jamais savoir avant. Okay. I like that one. That’s most of us, I think. Yeah. Bon merci.. – Bonsoir! – Bonsoir

– Alors, vous êtes tout seule? – Ah, non, je suis avec Paul Taylor, si vous le connaissez. Another surprising thing that I always forget is that the ushers are prone to ask for tips in shows like this. So don’t forget to bring some change.

We are in an old, old theater talking about how old it smells. Do you have any other… to end the video, do you have any fun, random facts about Paris? – Right? So one random Wednesday at midday in our apartment when I heard, like, air raid sirens

And I was like, what the hell is going on here? – The Germans are coming. – The Germans. So this is a thing everywhere in, I think everywhere in France, but definitely in Paris, is that they test the air raid sirens every first Wednesday of the

Month at 12:00 p.m. So if you’re ever in Paris on a Wednesday and it’s the first Wednesday of the month and it’s 12:00 p.m. Don’t be scared that there’s an air raid siren and they just check it just to make sure it works. As if we would follow that. But here’s

The thing. If you’re a terrorist— [cut] – I think I’m going to cut that part because I don’t need to give terrorists any ideas. But yeah. – And the thing is now I haven’t heard it in a while. Because I’ve been

Far enough away from the town hall. I don’t know if it comes from— – It’s the Mairies. Yeah, the Mairies have them on …at least I know a few of them that come to mind that do, so I’d imagine all of them do. – Yeah. So there you go. – Good one.

– Since you were talking about bunkers recently in La Rochelle. – I was standing on one. – Yeah, it matches the world war situation. – There we go. Perfect tie in. Thanks for bringing me to a show, Paul. – Full circle, like the circle of

Life. Is this not what we call the circle? The circle? – This is a horseshoe. These are the stalls. And I think this is, like the circle. – This is the balcony. Yeah, but I think it’s actually called the Circle. – Is it really?

In theater? I don’t know. Theater people. Please leave Jay— and tag me in the comment because I think this is called the circle. The stalls are circle in the. Anyway, thanks for watching. – What a credits [laughs]