First impressions

After arriving in Paris on Monday, Tuesday was spent attempting to adjust to a new time zone, procuring groceries and doing schoolwork. Dave had several meetings and we got situated with where we are in the city. At dinner, we asked the boys their first impressions of Paris. Here's what we got:
Andrew: lots of cigarette smoke, the park had public ping pong tables, the lemonade was tart (Mom accidentally bought a bottle of lemon juice...not lemonade), there were yellow jackets hanging around the fruit stalls in the street
Thomas: lots of cigarette smoke, more tall buildings than home, there were lots of people (especially babies) at the park
Sam: there are apartments above all the stores, there was "boules" being played at the park (aka bocce ball or lawn bowling), the plugs are different, there are cute cafes everywhere, the van we rode in had seats facing each other!
Adam: the fruit and vegetable stall closed early (at 5pm), there is a small elevator in our building just like in Babar's Guide to Paris, there was a handheld sprayer in the bath tub
Dave: people are walking everywhere (kids on scooters, six flights of stairs to the apartment, etc), there is a lot of ornate iron and cement work on the buildings, grocery items are more expensive, at the park there were people of all ages (young, old)
Christine: the light switch covers are big squares, there's a WC (tiny toilet separate from the bathroom), people really like to sit on the benches at the park or walk on the paths

In addition, Christine is finding she can converse easily in French, though sometimes the odd word or two in Spanish will slip out. It gets easier with each passing hour to formulate sentences and conjugate verbs. And it's a good thing, because whether or not they can hear her accent, no shop owner has yet to speak to us in English!

Dave Update: 9/8/2019 10:52 PM - Paris
While Adam was riding on my shoulders, he was chatting me up on a few more different things he noticed.
Paris has a lot more motorcycles, cafes, and street vendors than San Diego.
The streets have two different crosswalk signs - one to cross to the middle and one to cross to other side. They don't both go green at the same time, so it can be very dangerous if you look at the wrong one - because cars can drive very fast.
The only gas stations we have seen are oddly two unattended pumps on the side of major roads.