Paris Excitement

Paris, a wonderful city full of culture and style. It makes me laugh though, how in every city, people still tend to fall for the usual street scams. For some reason or other, whether it be the romance, the culture, the amazing style or the luxurious Apartment in Paris, people tend to forget that Paris is just like any other city. My usual walk to work tends to be quite stressful! I’m usually late, which means I’m rushing and getting very disgruntled by the hundreds of shuffling tourists looking up in to the sky (because that’s where the monuments are), and am constantly getting stuck in-between two people with an unfolded map, the actual size of Paris. You’ve all been there, whether it be London, Madrid or Paris, there’s been a time when you need to get somewhere and nobody else seems to be moving any faster than a legless tortoise.

After arriving late and suffering five long hours of juggling the witty conversation with the drunken O.A.P at the end of the bar and cleaning up the third broken glass from the group of over enthusiastic stags, you can imagine how thrilled I usually am to go on my break only to find more tourists getting in my way. However, around 11pm when I usually get my break, I tend to go sit on one of the benches by the main square. This time of night is prime time for street scams; just when people are confused about whether they really ate snails or not, they’re easily sucked in. I find it quite amusing to see the same kind of person getting done over each time; either very pale or very red, with a big beer belly, Jesus sandals and with either no shirt on, or one that has England written all over it. Not to mention the thick British accent. I’m pretty convinced that most people are probably followed from their hotels in Paris, as it’s not like you can miss them.

Don’t get me wrong, I do feel sorry for some people, but after a while, the street scams in Paris are a great form of entertainment. Often, you’ll get street vendors running up to you and very convincingly persuading you to try on their jewellery. This so called jewellery (usually coloured string) gets very conveniently put on your wrist too tight so that you can’t get it off. You’re then forced to by the bracelet and voila! You’d be amazed at how many people walk around Paris with unwanted bits of string on their wrists!

To avoid looking like a typical tourist, don’t leave your Paris accommodation looking anything like my description above. While I do love laughing at tourists, I do actually like them and feel sorry when they’re hoodwinked by the scammers. I do hope however that the scams don’t completely disappear as the unsuspecting tourists give me a little reminder of home every day. So thanks guys!