I live in the Troisième Arrondissement, on the border of the Quatrième. Actually, once I began to walk around, I realized that the tour we took a week ago today was a zig-zag through this very neighborhood! I saw the Place de Vosges on my second walk around as well as the Picasso Museum, and other areas that we explored.
What was most fun for me during this second walk was spending a bit more time loitering around the L'As Du Fallafel stand that we lunched at during our tour. Admittedly, I grabbed another falafel sandwich. But that's not interesting - what was interesting for me was finding various Jewish artifacts/books/jewelry in the stores surrounding my now-favorite lunch spot.
Since it was also Passover this past weekend, I decided to go into a couple of these little boutiques and to search for Haggadahs. The reason I loved looking at these so much was because I understood the Hebrew sections, and instead of the translation being in English like the Haggadahs that I am accustomed to, the translation was in French (duh).
The process of translating from French into another language that I understand, besides English (Hebrew), made me feel so much more connected both to my new neighborhood and my personal culture. I spent the rest of the day wandering around and visiting different cafes, all the while flipping through my new Haggadah. I even went back to the store and picked up a few extra copies as souvenirs for my family members!
I was lucky enough to attend a Seder last night with my host family and their family friends, during which I had the same experience of hearing Hebrew turn into French, helping me with my vocabulary as well as my connection to this city. I have to say, I am loving living in a neighborhood that has a secondary culture to which I am accustomed. Even though this secondary culture is hiding beneath the surface of Parisian daily life (this being the primary culture, of course), it makes it so that I am able to feel at home in this foreign city.
Next time I am lunching on my own, I'm gonna take a quick jaunt on down to the falafel stand. By next time, I mean tomorrow, so text me if you're interested!
Reading these original posts of us "exploring our neighborhoods" is crazy. Almost 4 months ago. Before all of our crazy memories were made. We come from Chicago (duh), which is known to be one of the most diverse cities, so it was interesting to see how the culture in Paris blended with Paris. In my opinion, Chicago is segregated pretty strictly. For the most part, people can go anywhere, but people tend to live in groups of people culturally similar. I don't think that Paris cultural segregation was quite as obvious, but it definitely, as you pointed out, existed. The most interesting part of this, for me, is that Chicago, a "new" city, and Paris "an old city" both have this in common. It is interesting to see how this has remained the same, while racism and cultural oppression are not nearly as pertinent as before.
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