Don't Be THAT Tourist - How to Blend in in Paris

let's start with volume that's a maybe a counter-intuitive place to start but Americans myself included tend to project very well we have loud voices and we have loud times we like to have fun and express that fun by not being very quiet and it shows and it definitely stands out excuse me when people are worried about whether or not my camera is ever going to get stolen uh when I leave it on the side of it people don't even see it when I'm actively talking to it I don't understand how that works anyways if you're an American just tone it down a little bit like use your indoor voice if you can remember how to do that for a minute when you're outside like this it's not a huge deal but the shouting The Laughing the more bellicose you are the more you're going to stand out and the more you're probably going to be disrupting people around you but especially in like restaurants and cafes definitely museums like kind of treat them like libraries to start get a sense of what the volume level is that everyone else seems to be using and then you know go with that another one that I've said probably ad nauseam but Bears repeating is the magic word bonjour bonjour means hello in French and it is the word that gets you literally in any door when you walk into a bakery a shop anywhere when you encounter a French person who is working make sure that you say bonjour to them even if you don't know any other French words because it just shows respect the way that the French see it is you're walking into their home and they don't really owe you anything until so you've gone through the proper dance and ritual and bonjour basically gets you right in there pretty quickly if you don't know any other French words I understand you're probably traveling a lot you can't learn the whole language just before your vacation but the one other thing that I would really strongly recommend that you learn how to say just to be polite means do you speak French and it means it in a formal sense do you speak French I mean do you speak English I don't even speak French clearly and if they do speak English they will launch into their best rendition of it and if not they're going to do their best to help you but it just helps to build that bridge really quickly otherwise it feels a little bit rude it can feel very rude actually if you just assume they speak English and start speaking English to them immediately and again remember volume keep it down just because you see more loudly doesn't mean that people are going to better understand you definitely do come to Trocadero but recognize that it gets more crowded as the day wears on so this place gets kind of nuts sometimes and don't eat here like nothing around here is good there's some stuff that's coming in that has come in recently that's within a 10 15 minute walk from here I've got a handful of those places listed in my guide but I would make a plan like don't come here at Meal Time come get your shot of the Eiffel Tower watch it Sparkle and then go find something you know better for eats or drinks uh then I would don't do it here I mean is okay for the pastries but the weights tend to be pretty long in the morning it's not really worth it it's not worth it and do not don't have dinner here we're at any of these places they fill their food with sadness and disappointment when you're looking to get on the Metro make sure that you don't stand directly in front of the door when it comes to a stop and try to get on first whoever's on and wanting to get off has the right of way so you're going to want to stand off to the side and allow them to get off and then once everybody's gotten off the train you can get on and you're not a total jerk for you know blocking everybody's way getting off the train speaking of getting out of people's way and I will push through you if you ever block my way coming off the Metro it's just the way we do things but if you're going to look for directions whether that's on your phone or a paper map don't stop in the middle of the stairs don't stop in the middle of traffic anywhere take a look around move over to the side and then you know figure out where you got to go from there so you're not driving people insane by blocking their way to work whatever remember people live here people are actually going about their daily lives except Cooper He's just he's just having a good time one more Metro note I was just thinking about don't Ram the doors open like if you missed the train just let it go don't shove yourself in there especially with these automatic doors they will cut you in half and if they don't get you and half the people whose train you're blocking might do exactly that just if you're traveling in a group make sure that everybody knows where you're going and how you're getting there on the Metro just have a plan like if you get separated get off to the next stop regroup there or get up at the end destination depends up to you just good to be thinking in advance you don't want to be that group that gets separated and is screaming crying and then loses a child now if you're drinking your coffee with oat milk or almond milk or some other non-milk milk a milk that got milked out of something that doesn't make milk you know what I mean you're not going to find that in your average French Bistro or Cafe you're going to have to go to like a specialty coffee shop like Nuance which you can't see anymore because it's being blocked by this car but you know five years ago it would have been really really challenging can you even see me to even make a list that was longer than like five maybe eight places where you could go get that kind of like you know tasty milk that you're looking for and your delicious coffee and now the list is longer than my arm to the point that like I can't even fit them all in one video but you know where you can find all those places my guide Paris my pocket.com go grab it tons and tons of coffee recommendations from all over the city of course I came to check out this nuanced location that just opened as invited by its owner and it's closed if this were to happen to you what would you do I know a spot around the corner and I'd share with you in my guide or my master for my patrons of course speaking of whom thanks to today's Patriot producer Virginia Cartwright who has access to my master who should be able to find an alternative to this location which I will add to my mapster right now because it's brand new as of today like filming today is supposed to be open see if we can get back here when it's actually properly open somehow I'm bleeding I don't even know how what I don't even know what happened while I was filming there searching for coffee is a dangerous work people ask me all the time how do I dress so that I can blend in so I don't stand out and it's a really difficult question to answer in some ways because people dress very differently here like diversely you'll see guys wearing suits you'll see guys in track suits and everything in between but what I can say and I always want to say right off the bat is just dress however you like just be yourself it's cool it's fun there may be some people that judge you when you're walking around but generally it's a big city nobody really cares what you look like and if you want some pointers I mean the French and parisians in particular are famous for wearing any color that they want so long as it's black so you can start there I mean if you want to dress kind of more somber simple you're going to get away with it but some things that used to be dead giveaways for tourists like New York Yankees hats and running shoes yeah the French are doing they're more Yankees hats here than in Manhattan and I don't think even most of them know what what it means just a another logo that they're wearing around so if you're going to dress the way you want to dress then you're going to be fine and then when you come here maybe you can pay attention to how people are dressing and if it interests you you can do a little bit of shopping and see if you can't mimic it of course there are other great recommendations out there for how to dress you're going to find better recommendations than me and of course ladies you're probably not going to take that advice from me but I guess I would just say like don't stress it just be yourself and if you want to avoid bright colors sports jerseys and maybe socks with sandals maybe don't wear socks with sandals if you go to Germany you'll fit in but yeah not so much here oh I will say no Berets like if you want to wear a beret while you're here that's great that's fine you can do that but it screams tourists so if you're looking to blend in do not wear a beret especially not a big red one because then everyone knows exactly who the tourist is but otherwise yeah if you want to give it a beret and get a photo with a baguette and I don't know a tiny little French dog then you've you know do it do whatever you want I mean it's fun we're all adults here make your own decisions now if that happens to be difficult for you like loving yourself accepting yourself just being yourself out in the wide world and enjoying whatever comes Cooper has no problem with it look at him he's absolutely Shameless today's sponsor might be perfect for you because whether you're suffering from a little bit of travel anxiety worrying about what you should wear if you're going to be able to get the best food if you're going to have a great time or even if just the wider world will accept you for who you are better help might be able to help with that they connect the users to a wide variety of mental health professionals ranging across a blinding number of Specialties and make it really easy through text to speech and even video conferencing calls whatever makes it feel better for you wherever it is you are to connect with your therapist I've been going to therapy for years now it's made a huge change in my life it's definitely been a positive impact so if it's before a trip and you're kind of anxious about traveling you're kind of anxious about whatever's going on in the world that you're about to step into or maybe you came back and you were a little bit overwhelmed so you've got a little bit of like also anxiety coming back or you're just feeling a little bit crushed that you have to go back to the real world when you had such a great time here check out betterhelp.com Jay Swanson make sure to use my link helps the channel out as you go and hopefully they'll be able to connect you to somebody that you really gel with really quickly and if you don't you can always find somebody else they're really good at reconnecting you to a new therapist for no reason no questions asked until you find the right one for you the prices are good the experience that I've had with it has been great and I just yeah I can't say enough good things about grabbing some therapy if you're worried about being that tourist just worried about being that guy well maybe therapy can help certainly believe that we all deserve it thanks again to better help for sponsoring this video and it's betterhelp.com Jay Swanson see if you like it and I hope I really hope that you find somebody that can really help with whatever it is you're dealing with travel anxiety or otherwise the cell phone thing in general is actually kind of a big element like if you're on your phone all the time if you're distracted you're more likely to just run into people to cause problems or hear a better Target for pickpockets as well generally a lot of this comes down to pulley tests right like if you can just keep your eyes up look around be aware be polite you're gonna go a long ways like it doesn't take much to differentiate you from that tourist really just want to be mindful and aware of your surroundings and recognize that hey you're in a foreign country you're a guest just acts like a guest and you'll be treated well the whole way through yeah if you're an American specifically do refrain from talking about World War II like you personally want it it's pretty cringe when you hear Americans launch into the well we saved you guys back then we're meeting a German being like well we walked you didn't we uh no you didn't you weren't born there's a really really low likelihood to anyone watching this video was alive during World War II let alone fought in it you didn't win it it's probably going to be the least popular thing that I say in this entire video definitely dive into the world war history definitely dive into whatever history interests you just don't talk about it like you were there that I I've done it we've all fallen into that trap just don't don't be that guy told you I get my coffee yeah it does not even branded you can't even tell where I got it the secrets of Paris not the secrets of Paris most people are thinking about anyways they also were kind enough to give me a little finger condom to stop the bleeding I don't know how that happened this brings us to food not that finger condom part the the coffee part and expectations for food I just think a lot of this video the whole idea behind this really is to try and help people set different or good better maybe expectations before coming here to Paris because a lot of bad trips happen when people's expectations don't align with reality which is unfortunate and something that I would like to help prevent or like to help alleviate to some degree and on the food side there are a lot of interesting comments and complaints that I hear about food and I understand so just to give you an idea like portion sizes here generally going to be smaller you might be aware of that but you also usually Can't customize your food very much if at all depending on what kind of restaurant you go to especially if it's like a traditional French restaurant they're not going to take your like can I have this without onions very well if at all that's changing a little bit the younger generation as they prepare food a little bit more open to this but the way that the French seafood is they've created a masterpiece that they want to share with you and that's how it comes and that's how you're going to enjoy it which is why there's often not even salt and pepper on the table that said you can ask for salt and pepper don't be ashamed to ask for ketchup unless it's for steak in which case we're going to have to have another conversation but generally speaking you can get away with some little things like that and in more Modern Bistro settings you might be able to get away with some customization to your food as well I just wouldn't expect it to be quite the norm you're not going to be able to fully customize whatever it is you're eating we could probably do an entire video Just Around food ordering what to expect and all that but that's one thing in particular that I thought I would bring up because personally I always want a little bit more salt the food here to me is really flavorful enough it's often very rich there's a lot of butter in it but it's very rarely got like a little Pizzazz and there's never any spice it's very very rare the French don't handle spice well so just be aware that it's going to be made for a different palette than yours especially if it's like a regional or ethnic food you're used to tasting one particular way where you're from it's going to taste pretty it very well may taste very different here so just kind of keep that in mind as you're going into it and hopefully with an open mind you can explore and experience some new things and it will end up introducing you to some stuff that you never knew you liked before like snails nobody actually likes the snails it's the garlic butter the garlic butter is the winning part of that I hope that's been helpful I actually just thought of one more thing if you are American especially you might recognize that you're eating like crave a little bit more sugar when you're here than usual it's because there's not sugar in everything and there are no free fills when it comes to your soda pop so take advantage of that and just eat a bunch of pastries because you're probably nullifying it with all the walking you'll be doing and the lack of sugar in your bread how about that if you did find this video helpful please be sure to subscribe like the video and leave a comment what is a way that you've seen people be that tourist that you hope nobody is ever that touristy again maybe if there are some good ones in there we can bundle this up into another video again in the future to help people be a little bit more uh you know alert and aware there's a lot actually we could get into there I don't want to take responsibility for that for human Humanity as a whole but if you enjoyed the video thank you so much for watching and thanks of course to all my patrons whose lovely uh names you're seeing scrolling on the side of the screen here and again I hope you have a wonderful time in Paris and if you want to know where I got that coffee just grab my gut I mean I did so much good coffee in my guide so much good coffee in my guide but nothing to do with puppy dogs

Channel: Jay Swanson

Views: 68,607

Keywords: don't be that tourist, how to blend in in paris, how not to look like a tourist, paris, jay swanson, tourism

Id: M94ZN6byea0

Length: 13min 44sec (824 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 26 2023