Picnic in Paris
 

English is not my language and for sure this is the reason that I do not understand you, when you ask about a picnic.

Can you please help me to improve my English? I use 'picnic" in Rumanian and Hebrew and the meaning is 'a meal eaten outdoors', more precise "eaten on green grass", in a park or so on.
However, I see that you use this word for eating in train, etc.
Is this use of the word 'picnic' correct?

Now, another question about picnic. I see that many Americans are interested in picnic in Paris: on a bridge, in a park, even in a cemetery. I never thought about this and I never wanted to do this. We went to picnic in Romania or we go in Israel to picnic in a holiday, in a weekend, in a park outside the town or in a wood. I never made a picnic in a town. Do you think that Parisian people (except maybe very young people do this?
I am very curious about this and I'll appreciate all your answers.

Absolutely. A picnic is "any meal not eaten at home or in a restaurant."

Parisians and visitors alike will buy some bread, cheese, and wine from a store, or crepes or panini from a street vendor, and eat them in a park, on a bridge or (my favorite) on a bench along the river, like this: http://meg.hourihan.com/photos/2003/.../Thumbs/27.jpg. Some restaurants sell picnic baskets with their cuisine in them.

Google <b>paris picnic</b> and select &quot;Images&quot; and you can see for yourself.

By the way, your English is very good for a non-native speaker - much better than my Rumanian!

To me, a picnic is any meal you put together yourself that's not in a traditional meal setting - like a cafe restaurant, or someone's home. It can be on a train, on a park bench, at the beach, in the parking lot of a football stadium, or anywhere.

I don't know that it's Americans in particular who like to picnic. I see people of all nationalities and ages all over Europe enjoying picnics.

Yes, you should try and have a picnic in lovely spots in cities and towns. It is an easy and fun thing to do.

In France (at least for a french person), apicnic is taken on a lawn or in a forrest (or on a beach).
The 'picnics' mentionned on this board seem typical to american tourists (Parisians - while they may eat a sandwich on a public bench, without calling this a picnic - would at least go for the large wooded parks at the outskirts of the city (bois de Vincenne, bois de Boulogne) to have a picinc)

Interesting question. When people use the word &quot;picnic&quot; to be eaten on a train, they refer to the style of the meal. Packed ahead of time... some sandwiches, or bread and cold meat, fruits, and something to drink.

This is a common useage of the word, but technically not correct, because a picnic (according to the dictionary) is a meal to be eaten outdoors.

Go the Parc des Buttes Chaumont and you will see many Parisians picnicking on the grass.