It’s a funky situation

I didn’t know how hard it would be to just switch and go back and forth on two different western culture and cities.

This is in picture, what is happening to me:

Or in a more detailed version:

It makes me laugh but at some point since I’m back, I look like this. Everyday.

Anyway, I put my finger on what is making me crazy: there’s too much dynamic in Paris. Dynamic in the sense of the difference between things, like in music between the softest sound and the loudest. From top to bottom, moving all the time. Mildness doesn’t exist.

The good part is this amazing social diversity. Rich, less rich, young, old, every kind of body shape, every single color or ethnicity of the world interacting with each others in a little city, packed in the public transport is something I always love to look at in Paris. One time I remember these women, a 1meter 85 (6”1) black woman chatting with this 1m40 (4”9) blonde white one in the train like they are at a pajama party. “Interracial” couples are so common it’s not even a feature. Also adopted children with white parents are quite common. It’s hard to witness that level of social mix in LA. You can easily see it here.

So that is a great result of chaos and diversity in Paris. Everything else makes me want to throw things.

It starts with the sunlight going from bright enough I can’t see my monitor screen to darkness where I need to put the lights on. In 20 minutes. Same with temperature. Outside cold then metro a little warmer then cold in the street then this fucking hot door at the BHV, then super hot in the store and everything back. Whatever you wear at some point you need adjustment because you’re going to feel uncomfortable with a 20°c delta up and down in one hour.

It’s the same with people. From the children yelling and jumping to the elderly going downstairs in the metro creating a big traffic jam because they are slow as hell. From the old white lady who stinks perfume so hard to the black dude smelling like he didn’t take a shower since august, I feel like I’m always fighting some sort of annoyance.

As for services, it can be awfully harsh but sometimes, people are just perfectly doing their job and being nice. You can expect everything from the worse to the good with an emphasis on the worse though. Yeah, it’s boring not to know.

I feel like french people are thinking this way: “I don’t give a shit about what’s going on around me because I have the right to do and exist as I am”. Well yeah technically it’s ok but society-wise, it means chaos. And it is chaos. Just look at any damn sidewalk in Paris, how people behave. Amazingly random and chaotic. Oh, maybe it’s because of dog shit.

No wonder why french can’t agree overall. There’s always a voice, someone to fuck everything up. You know, like this stupid group of drunk people screaming like pigs in the streets and making bars to have serious problems with the police.

Social chaos creates status quo and stagnation which are totally unproductive, as France politics during the last 30 years can demonstrate that. Of course great people, great minds and great things are born from this amazing source of creation but they love to get the hell out of Paris whenever they can. Plus they usually get success outside of this town.

I loved LA for this overall stability. Stability of weather, people behaviors, what you can expect from a service etc It’s so much less stress in the everyday life that you can comfortably focus on your work, especially creative ones. That king of micro stress you don’t even know from where it comes and which makes you want to punch people in the throat after years of having to deal with it like these awful RER strikes, each year. Well I don’t want it anymore.

Interestingly enough if I look at my dad’s generation –50s- virtually no one got out of France. My cousin in its 40s, a little more like a couple of his friends. Me? I can already count a dozen of them going from Germany, Spain, China, Morroco, US/UK, Swiss, Australia, Japan.. We are going to be very different from our parents and older generations, we are going to be the french who moved around the world instead of staying in our little village, pissing and shitting on each other’s back while smiling like it’s no big deal.

So if we ever get back to our country, it’s going to change. In a good way, I hope.