LSky

Thanks St Cirq that was informative, who doesn't love science? It always made sense to me that the way to dress in hot weather is to look at the way people who have lived in the desert for many generations dress.

PalenQ

I am a European-born (London, England) American citizen. I have lived in the US since 1969, and never in all my travels to Continental Europe has anyone ever approached me speaking English. Never. Not in 20 years.>

You must not have traveled much or you would have been approached by Gypsy women who indeed will address you in English, no matter what language you speak - I guarantee that.

sap

I was standing on a street with my son when I was asked for directions in French by a Frenchman the second day I was in Paris. (Obviously, he was not Parisian.) I was rather pleased until my husband met up with us a few moments later and refused to believe me. At least the kid was a witness.

AnthonyGA

StCirq, none of those citations explains why Arab men would wear white, while the women wear black. If one color were better than the other, both sexes would wear that color. But I suspect that the choice of color sometimes has little to do with science.

Anyway, most tourists do act like tourists, which is why they are easy to recognize. Some of them dress in unusual ways that mark them as tourists, too. Of course, there are exceptions, especially in a big city. I saw several young women a few days ago whom I instantly recognized as being from England, thanks to their attire (and I'm not at all fashion-aware). But many of the people standing around them were of unidentifiable nationality, although they still had the aura of tourists, somehow.

november_moon

My husband and I always enjoy when people try to guess where we are from - we are Americans, but people don't always guess that. I think that there are 2 things that throw people off. One is that we are both really short and Americans have the reputation for being tall. The other is that my husband is hispanic and since I have dark eyes and really curly hair, even though I have pale skin, I guess I could be from any number of places. People guess Spanish and Italian a lot, but we have had people guess Equadorian too - that was funny.

lapacenelmondo

Hi, I'm Italian and I go to Paris quite often. So, I think I can help you both on the sneakers and the shoulders-knees stuffs.

As many people have already told you, in France you're unlikely to be compelled to cover your shoulders and knees when entering a church. This is far easier in Italy even if it's not the rule, cause in Italy you'll find some places more tolerant than others... In France, I generally see much more tolerance but I wouldn't like to risk and I'd like not to find myself uncovered if necessary. So, I'd take a scarf with me in order to put it on my shoulders just when entering a church, when going out I can take it off and everything it's ok. Anyway, generally if the church asks the visitors to be covered you should find a notice at the entrance.
But the scarf stuff, as someone said before, is very common in France and in Italy as well. In Paris I suggest you should always take one with you, and not really for the church fact: Paris is very, very windy and you must expect that the wheather could change in any time. You go out and it's sunny and warm... and in half an hour it's raining cats and dogs! Then it's sunny again, and then it's rainy... And moreover you'll find incredibly hot temperatures and incredibly cold ones and very windy even in the subway, so you'll have to cover and uncover continuously. In fact every time I go to Paris I come home with a sore throat due to the wheather and the metro! So, consider the idea of always having a scarf with you: it'll be the most useful thing you have, even more than the umbrella or raincoat (they both are useless cause rain usually lasts only few minutes). You'll find a lot of scarves in shops, some also very nice and in very elegant fabrics.

We in Italy use scarves too. But I think it's more for a health reason: we tend to have quite high temperatures and so we do need something to protect our necks and throats when entering shops or malls where the air is refrigerated. We are accustomed to heat, not to cold.

When it comes to sneakers, don't worry: you can easily wear them. They are not a rare stuff in Paris (and in Italy either)! And some kinds are also very fashionable. But if you are looking for something different (and comfortable as well) you might want to buy some ballerinas. These shoes are very common both in France and in Italy, you'll find them at any price from the cheapest to the most expensive ones (but if you look for a very up-tp-date shop you could go to Repetto's in Rue de la Paix where you'll find some cool examples). And you can have a very elegant look without wearing heels.

Just another thing about looking like a tourist. In my humble experience, if you want to look like a Parisian it's not the way you dress (well, that helps...) but it's the way you WALK along the road. Only tourists walk slowly and look around: Parisians always walk as they were in a hurry and only look in front of them, urging to pass if you are occupying all the room in the metro or along the road. So, even if you are dressed up but you stroll very calm and quiet you'll be immediately detected as a tourist: that means that pickpockets surely detect you, so you never, ever should let your bag alone. Even if you put it on a chair at a café you must be sure that the chair is near to you and that the bag is not easy to grab (I personally saw a pickpocket stealing a bag in that way - just passing near a table at a café, picking the bag up from the chair while the lady was chatting and running away amidst a crowd). If you pay attention, you'll have no trouble.

I send you all my wishes! You'll enjoy the City of Lights, it's the most beautiful city in the world!