My husband and I just spent a week in Paris. ____36____So the first thing we did was rent a fantastically expensive sixth-floor apartment the size of a cupboard. It was so tiny that we had to leave our suitcases in the hallway.
The place wasn't entirely authentic,though. Unlike a normal Parisian apartment, the plumbing (水管) worked. ____37____Our building even had a tiny lift with a female voice that said, "Ouverture des portes," in perfect French. That is the only French phrase I mastered, and it's a shame I don't have much use for it.
Parisians are different from you and me. They never look lazy or untidy. As someone noted in this paper a couple of weeks ago, they eat great food and never gain weight. ____38____French strawberries do not taste like cardboard. Instead, they explode in your mouth like little flavor bombs.
____39____On our first morning in Paris, I went around the corner to the food market to pick up some groceries. I bought a handful of perfectly ripe small strawberries and a little sweet melon. My husband and I agreed they were the best fruit we had ever eaten. But they cost $18!
In France, quality of life is much more important than efficiency.
You can tell this by cafés life. French cafés are always crowded. ____40____When do these people work? The French take their 35-hour workweek seriously - so seriously that some labor unions recently struck a deal with a group of companies limiting the number of hours that independent contractors can be on call.
A. |
Not all the customers are tourists. |
B. |
The quality of life in France is equally excellent. |
C. |
There was a nice kitchen and a comfortable bed. |
D. |
The amazing food is mainly consumed by local farmers. |
E. |
That's not the only reason the French eat less than we do. |
F. |
Our aim was to see if we could live, in some way, like real Parisians. |
G. |
The food is so delicious that you don't need much of it to make you happy. |