5 recurrent Parisian pick-up lines from a Swedish girl’s point of view

Ok, so I made a little list for you guys, the 5 most common things I hear the minutes after I tell a guy that I'm from Sweden. When I'm out and the situation has a flirtatious connotation. Bien sûr.

1. "Ah so you’re Swedish?! IKEEEEAAAAAAA!!!"

-Eh?

2. "But your french is really great!?!"
-My personal response: that's just how skilled I am baby, why so surprised?

3. "Is that your real hair color?"

4. ”Yeah, so I really love Bergman. Ingmar that is. Have you seen The Seventh Seal?”

- Dude, have you seen Breathless?

5. ”Oh but you look like this swedish actress, what’s her name? Victoria? Anita? Ingrid?! 
-.... 

Does anyone have similar experiences? 

La Perle, the most flirt-friendly bar in Paris (or how to get some in this city)

The further into the night you get, the more people you will see standing on the sidewalk. 

If you’re an expat living in Paris, have a flair for the bohemian and artistic world and like the trendy nightlife this city has to offer you’ve probably heard about this bar on the crossing of Rue de la Perle/Rue Vieille du Temple in the 3d arrondissement called La Perle. Every week trendy young parisians (in Paris you’re young until you say you’re not) gather here for a glass of whine straight from the pichet and EVERYBODY is keeping their eyes wide open for their next victim de la soirée. And by victim I mean somebody to hook up with, what else? This is the place where you can be assured to get some... 

From the same group of guys who go there every week and every time you see them they’re there with a new girl (don’t know how they do it), to the nice and gentile poet in the back of the bar, sipping his drink slowly and taking notes. The swedish girls who’ve heard and read about this bar on numerous blogs and city-guides and are not afraid to talk with the straight-forward men. The always so happy group of italian guys, the graphic designer, the fashion people, the lawyers, the actors (famous and not famous) the lonely-guys and girls who will go there alone on a Sunday-evening, the beautiful waitresses who I think could be the most popular and appreciated in the neighborhood. But most of all this bar is full of men, and the best part is; they’re all yours’ ladies!

I think this is the best advice I could give my female readers if they ever want (and are in desperate need) to hook up with a guy in Paris. Go there, alone or with your girlfriends, order their 8€ delicious Spritz, make eyes to the ones you find attractive and then just wait, the guys will come crawling to you.

Otherwise, for those of you not open to a one-night-stand or looking for someone, this is also the perfect place to just hang out with your friends and start conversations with very nice, open and interesting men and women! Enjoy!  

/Isabel 

5 questions to a professional Don Juan

Sélim Niederhoffer is your perfect french seducer. He runs the website Artdeseduire.com and knows a great amount about flirting, le jeu de la seduction and parisian men. I asked him if he wanted to answer a few questions regarding my last posts about parisian men and he replied that he'd be happy to.  

1. Do you agree with the statement that parisian men like to talk a lot? 

No, not really, I know a lot of Parisian men who would be happy to shorten the dating process and to talk less !  

2. How would you say parisian men/women reflect upon infidelity in general? 

You can find two main sides about infidelity : the ones who know it is necessary and is not a problem as long as it remains a rare thing, and the ones who strongly condemn it. And then, the worst people, the ones who can not choose side : they say they are against infidelity but tolerate it when they commit it ! The divorce ratio in France is 1/3 (one mariage out of three finishes with a divorce), when it is 1/2 for Paris...  

3. If you were to give advice on how to best pick up a frenchie in Paris, but instead of giving it to men, it’s for women, what would that be?

Smile girl ! Love yourself, be selfconfident, be willing to try new things, and be ready to date men who will not commit !  

4. What does a feminist stand for in your opinion ?
Feminism for me is good  when it is used for fighting good battles : violences against women, excision, education, salary gap. I want my mother, my sister and my girlfriend to enjoy the same rights at work as their male counterparts... but I am fed up with everyone spending their time complaining. Things are changing, slowly, so let's be patient and let's all work together. PS : I read about an article about Sweden forcing little guys to pee sitting like girls, it made me laugh. This is a typical case of feminism going too far ! 

5. Last word, is there something you’d like to add to the conversation?  
I must confess I really liked your articles about dating a Parisian guy (which I am not, I was born in Strasbourg !), and I will be glad to continue this conversation with you on my personal blog, selimniederhoffer.com ! 

Sélim is sharing dating tips for men on www.artdeseduire.com on a daily basis.

 Do you agree with Sélim? Disagree? Leave your comment below!

5 reasons not to date a parisian guy

La suite to my previous post about why you should date a parisian guy, here are 5 reasons why you might need to think twice...

1. They sure know how to talk your ears off, if you're playing the nice-girl-card, be prepared to do a lot of listening cause these guys are generally not the type who will ask questions.

2. If they're under 25 it is likely that they still live with their mommy and daddy...

3. As a swedish girl with a lot to say in this matter I've often found that it can be difficult to talk about gender equality with these guys, we're not really at the same place...

4. If you've been living here for a while and found your "entourage" and favorite bars and so on, you can be sure to date or hook up with one or two of your exes friends. Or just finding out that one of your friends recently hooked up with one of yours... Paris is very small.

5. You can never know if they're really single (no matter what they say) or not until you've paid a little visit to see their bachelor pad. And even then...

5 reasons to date a parisian guy

Ok so here's the thing: i got some new strange addiction to making lists so I gave myself a theme and here's the result: conclusions of why you should/should not date a parisian guy. I will have to remind you that these are my own personal experiences.

1. They know the city extremely well, and if you're lucky they might have a vespa that you can ride to discover it with...

2. They do not often dare to speak english because they're too proud a man-kind to be bad at something and putting themselves out there (even if a lot of them have very good language-skills). It gives you the opportunity to shine with (and practice) your french.

3. They will never fail to compliment you on your looks, if it's for a good and true reason I guess you can never know, you'll just have to wait and see.

4. You will discover what the french kiss really is about (for better or for worse).

5. They will act like a classic gentleman; open doors, pay for dinner and drinks, walk you home etc.


The follow up tomorrow: 5 reasons NOT to date a parisian guy...;)