Paris, paris!

Today, I went to the architectural school to enrol.
It's in the north of Paris, le 19e arrondissement.
When I went out from the metro, I was astonished by the dirt in the street. This is when I realised how Melbourne is clean!!! Nothing on the ground : no leeves, no cigarets, nothing!
The huge difference between Melbourne and Paris is also the origine of the people.
In Melbourne, most of the "foreign" people are from Asia. Here, they're all from Africa. I never realised there are so many african people in Paris! I was just used to it.
I also noticed something I didn't use to notice before : the poverty.
Yes, there is a lot of poverty in Paris. Of course, no advertisment for that. It's not famous for that.
But that's reality.
If you go on the wealthy part of Paris, which means the center and the west of Paris, you won't see many of homeless, one or two, not more.
But you'll see much more if you go in the north and the north east.
As a consequence, it's not the safer part of Paris. I wouldn't feel really comfortable if I'd go there in the middle of the night. Even if it's Paris.
That's very weird how foreign people have a different perception of Paris and how it is in reality. They are absolutly ignorant about the poverty and the "bad" side of Paris. Which is understandable, because who will remember this dark side when the city is SO beautiful on the other side?
But still, it exists.

Of course, Paris it's a very beautiful city. We have a history in there. In Australia, the history is 100 years old.
In France, it's more than 1000 years old.
That was very funny when Aussie were telling me that a building was "old". Because for them, "old" is 100 years old. For French (like me), that's SO recent! I mean, in Paris, we have building which are 800years old or even more (Notre Dame De Paris).
Countries have different history, and that was so interesting to see a country which just started from scratch 100 years ago, and how wonderful it is now!
Even if there is also a dark side, the Aborigens...
But the good part is that Australia recently accepted that they did something really bad, and now try to be forgiven. Even if that's a bit too late, I think late is better than ever, as we say in french "il vaut mieux tard que jamais".