friendly faces, and other Paris stories

<p>One of the first things I noticed after arriving in Paris was that when I smiled at people, they smiled back. Everyone said&nbsp;<em>pardon</em>&nbsp;when they walked past on the sidewalk (a welcome change from the US, where I think we&rsquo;ve all uttered an irritated&nbsp;<em>not even an &ldquo;excuse me&rdquo;?</em>&nbsp;under our breath after being shoved out of someone&rsquo;s way). And everywhere I went, there seemed to be a feeling of community.</p> <p>Maybe it&rsquo;s on account of that&nbsp;<em>libert&eacute;, &eacute;galit&eacute;, fraternit&eacute;&nbsp;</em>that&rsquo;s embedded into their identity as citizens of the French Republic; maybe I just happened to run into the right people; or maybe it&rsquo;s bare-minimum politeness that many of us Americans seem to have deemed unimportant somewhere along the way. Whatever the case, I saw a lot of smiling faces in Paris; and for the lonely traveler that&rsquo;s always a welcome thing.</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/@lucywickstrom/friendly-faces-and-other-paris-stories-a2cff09ba9ec"><strong>Read More</strong></a></p>