The Paris Meet Market
A young lawyer who I met last year at the first Expatica Welcome to France Fair contacted me recently to “meet up” before the next fair rolled around. I didn’t take this to mean “a date” — he was too young and too married for an old-timer like myself, however, he was so personable, that I thought “why not?” in typical French fashion. (One of the first things I learned after moving to France is to see things more like the French in a “glass is half empty” fashion, so instead of saying “yes, I’d be happy to join you,” you should say “pourquoi pas?”(“why not?”). Sorry, I digress.)
Mr. Personable, as it turns out, is a key player in helping people — not just Americans, but anyone, although mostly Anglophones, “meet up” by providing an online tool — http://www.meetup.com. For no other reason than personal interest, he took the entire Meet Up for Paris on his shoulders as the prime moderator and now it boasts of about 70 Meet Up groups in Paris alone. Correction: 71. Yesterday I added my own Meet Up: http://realestate.meetup.com/358/?gj=sj5
Meeting up for all sorts of reasons and in all sorts of venues is a highlight of life in Paris. When you first arrive here, it’s a perfect way of meeting new people, making friends and finding fun things to do. “Birds of a feather tend to stick together,” so finding the right meet ups could B-line you to an active and healthy social life with people of like minds.
There are some venues that are more “meat market” rather than “meet market” than others — where boy meets girl, boy meets boy, or girl meets girl, all with the idea of some potential future romantic encounter. These are easy to spot because they aren’t centered around a theme or purpose. That doesn’t mean they aren’t worth attending…but just be aware of the ultimate purpose of most who attend…and you may well be one of them! So, enjoy!
The others, which do include some formative program, are usually run by an organization, or sometimes by an outside coordinator. Learning something is at the root, but meeting up becomes a benefit.
Sometimes the meet ups cost nothing. Other times there is a fee. No matter, as there is something for everyone and virtually for every minute of every day. I promise, you’ll never be bored if you take the time to schedule a meet up or two or three in this week’s agenda.
A great way to find out about meet ups, is of course at http://www.meetup.com, but another is our Parler Paris Previews…A Weekly Community Calendar for English-Speaking Paris. For the last 131 weeks, Parler Paris has been providing a listing of Anglophone-related events, in and around Paris and in some of our favorite U.S. cities. We started it way back when there was little on line to help people meet up. Those were the days my friend, but now, there is something new and we’ve hopped on the band wagon.
Thanks to http://www.paris-update.com, the Insider’s Weekly Guide to the City of Light, not only can you find all there is to do in Paris on the subjects of art, film, music, restaurants, hotels, nightlife, shopping, outings, hot topics and favorites…but now you’ll find the Parler Paris Weekly Community Calendar for English-Speaking Paris there, too!
Check it out today. Click to /parlerparis/calendar.html to see some of our favorite events…then scroll down to click on the calendar in its entirety housed at http://www.paris-update.c
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Now you’re ready to make your dates and meet up with your new found friends.
A la prochaine…
Adrian Leeds
Editor, Parler Paris
Email [email protected]
P.S. Meet me every second Tuesday of the month at Parler Paris Aprs Midi (free!), or three times a week at Parler Parlor French-English Conversation Group (membership) or at the Living and Investing in France Real Estate Seminar on December 29, 2006 (registration fee includes coffee, lunch, cocktails). Visit /parlerparis/calendar.html to learn more.
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