Part 1: Do French Girls Shave their Armpits?

1.1 - Rue des Martyrs - The Last Street in Paris (Written April 25, 2025)

I arrived in France a couple days ago. It is my first time in Europe. I stayed in the far right bank of Paris in the 18th Arrondissment. The hotel was about 500 meters from Sacre Coeur which is a massive church that sits on a hill and overlooks Paris. The area can feel a bit run down and dirty. Street art (graffiti) is everywhere and is poorly done in France and detracts rather then adds to their cities. However, just a few blocks from my hotel the city really came alive. The area surrounding a street called “rue des Martyrs” was one of the coolest neighborhoods I have ever been in. Fromageries, wine shops, tiny clothing shops, strange antique stores, bistros and brasseries line the streets. The area is exactly how I imagined Paris would be. From sun up to sun down French girls in baggy jeans, sunglasses and oversized leather jackets sat on patios and smoked cigarettes. Almost every man was wearing a scarf and the pace of life felt very slow for such a big city. The area is also generally free of tourists. You almost never hear anyone speak anything but French and while it is lively it is not crowded. It is also the perfect level of dirty. Not so clean and devoid life that its worrying but not so dirty that it is gross. As well, I thought the people that worked in this area were friendly. A few even told me to “passe un bonne jour” when I left their shop. The lady working at one fromagerie showed me her favourite cheese and told me it was goat cheese season. The front desk employee at my hotel also chatted with me for nearly 10 minutes and told to me it was “drole” (funny) that French Canadians use the word “char” which literally means tank instead of the French word for car which is “voiture.” I explained to him that work tank is a very important word in Canada because it is what we used to cross Juno beach to save the French from the Nazis. The people also seemed very willing to speak French to me while I was there. My 9 years of French Immersion school made me semi functional in French and it was fun to get to use it. Also, nobody made fun of my bad French or my bewildering American English/Quebecois hybrid accent. In one restaurant I was struggling to find a word and apologized for my bad French to the waiter and he told that my French was actually good!