Insider Tips and Tricks for Living and Thriving in Paris

I didn’t realize there were certain things that people just didn’t know about Paris, living here or visiting. And it’ll always come out like randomly, very casually with friends, like we’ll be talking about life. I’ve been here for seven years and like a friend of mine, she just moved to about a year ago and she was telling me about like administrative issues that at that and I was like, then you know about this and she was like, wait, what? She applied my advice and this is the text I got Thursday. It’s Saturday, Bing, boom.

Now listen, this was just free game. I would spit in like online banks. But here, let’s just go through a list together. Okay, so getting a French bank account takes way too long. They want way too much paperwork. They want to see your contract, where you live.

If you just wanna be able to spend your money and like get your paycheck and do all these things online, bank is gonna be the fastest way. And 26 is one, revolute is one. I think Quanto is just for business. And then Lydia, as an American, you can’t have it, Lydia, they will not let you have an account. I’m so sorry.

I know. But basically, because there’s this like, I think it’s called Fr, the financial treaty between the France and the US too much double reporting, too much paperwork. They’re like, we’re not even gonna deal with it. You’re American, you’re denied. First time I’ve been denied is something as an American by the way.

But yeah, no Lydia accounts. Lydia is basically what they use here for like Venmo or cash up, you know, friendship paying between each other.

They’ll use Lydia, but as an American, you can’t have that. So sorry. Also, I just made a transfer last night. There’s different types of wire transfer. So there’s ACH, there’s Swift, and there’s something else I forgot.

But essentially in Europe, you have iban and big bic. Iban will always start with two letters. So in France, it’ll be Fr and then you’ll have a long basically routing number and then BIC. In America, you have your routing number and account number.

So it just depends on the type of transfer you wanna do. I’ve used transfer wise all these years. They did shut me down once and I was like, because they get a bit weird around 5K, like once you start transferring back and forth certain amount of money, they’re like weird about it. But transfer wise is great. I just sent my little sister birthday money through that.

So shout out to them. This is not sponsored. The baguette types, way easier of a topic. Listen, all I’ll say is that people like burnt baguette like Bianci or like well done baguette.

I don’t even know you could do, it’s kind of like a steak. You can do like regular or . Personally, I just think regular is fine. I like beget O’gran Opano Grand, which is just I cut out. Okay, grainy bread cuz I feel like I’m better than everyone else when I eat it.

Like I just feel like so healthy. Like, but it doesn’t last as long as store bought bread. So keep that in mind. Also, if you get a full bag yet, you can always get it cut into.

That way you can kind of tuck it away and it doesn’t go bad as fast. Basic slay of our eating schedule. If you come to France or Paris, I can’t say about all France, Paris, and you wanna eat lunch, you better make sure your ass is in that restaurant between 12 and get there before 2:30.

If you get there at 2:30, they might say, listen, the kitchen is closing soon. Order right now and then we’ll talk. You need to know the kitchen’s clothes. So early here, there’s not an all day. Some places have all their service that’s like a blazley, I can’t say it, whatever, but like nine times out of 10 if you’re going to a restaurant, it’ll be closed during the like late afternoon. You can go to like get a cafe maybe or a glass of wine maybe, but you should out of luck if you’re hungry.

So make sure you get there between, let’s say, local hours of 12 and 2:33 for dinner. I have a dinner reservation for 1030s. Let’s see if I make it. Basics, language. I don’t know.

There’s so many different like things that you’re just like me. Quah, quah. Okay, basic one that you should definitely know is we a way so we is like we in way is like, yeah, but everyone says like what no. Oh, is it recording? Okay, good. Won’t be there on. I don’t know why people come to me for legal advice.

I’ve pretty much always laid it down that I came on a student visa. You can work for 20 hours. After that, you have one year on an APS visa to either find a job or become an entrepreneur. That’s it. You have one year. I’m not an expert on it.

I’ve been denied me since I’ve gone through the trenches. So I say just Google prefecture. The police like it, honge, which is like Paris police station, foreigner, and you’ll find your information right there. Okay, markets to go to for food. I personally like Marche de bestie, also Marshi de Ali, Gray, Alec Jesepa.

Listen, chicken sausage, you will not find this in Paris. You know, in the grocery store in the US, you have chicken sausage, you have like sweet chicken sausage, spicy chicken sausage, basil chicken sauce. Marsha, the best tea, honey. They have one place that does chicken sausage. So good floors.

Ground floor is zero. It’s ready to see in America. Ground floor is No. 1. So it’s just like if somebody’s like all live on the third floor, you have to start at zero and then go up, then it’s one and then it’s two. I mean, it’s three. So it’s really a lot.

And on this mall, I was having coffee the other day, I met these two Americans. Anytime I’m anywhere and I hear in American, I’m like, hi, but they’re like, where are we? Which are on dismal and is this okay? Then I say like that they’re like, which I forgot how they said around this moment, but I was like, look at the street name. Wherever you are, look at the, get to the corner of the street, look at the street name.

It’s gonna be a little boxed with a circle on it. On the top. It’s gonna have a number. That’s where you are. That’s the around decimal that you’re in. Okay, I hope that helps. I hope you knew of this already.