On September 1st I celebrated living in Paris
for 1 year. My plan was to move here for two years – to travel in Europe and
Eastern Europe – then decide if I wanted to live in Europe forever, and where.
I picked Paris as my starting point because it is a good central hub that
allows me to easily travel anywhere else in Europe and Eastern Europe. I knew
my first 9 – 12 months would be spent assimilating to the European, and
specifically French, culture (easily accomplished) and learning the French
language (ha! Not even remotely accomplished). So, having been here a year I
wanted to look back to see what my year looked like – but since I was remiss in
completing my blog I’m now at 1 ½ years, so I’ll update you to the end of 2016:
Visitors: I
was lucky enough throughout the year to be able to meet up with friends, old
and new, from the States – Fred and Diana; Rosemary; MJ, Allen, Gail and
Robert; Ilyana; David and Tessa; Arnie and Suzie; David and Beth; Jeanne and
Jerry; Tony, Dominique and Andrew; Karen and Nancy; and Leonard, Terri and Art
– all made Paris either a stop on their journey or the journey itself. For many
of them Paris was a return visit, while for the others it was a first visit.
Whether new or a return, it is always delightful to see my home town (ha! Paris
is my home town – can you believe that???) through the eyes of other people.
New
Friends: For me it’s not very easy to meet new
people so this adventure of mine is certainly pushing my boundaries. I have
been extremely fortunate to become friends with some pretty wonderful people – Jacqui, whom I met through an ExPat
website, moved to Paris from the San Diego area and is married to a Frenchman.
She has expertly guided me, with the patience of a saint, through the many
‘differences’ between living in the USA and in France ….. things such as introducing
me to Castorama (like Home Depot) to accompanying me to my appointment at the
Tax Office. A huge plus, is that I get to babysit her cat when she is out of
town – woohoo (I sure do miss having a cat or two or three or four). She has since moved back to Encinitas, which
makes me very sad, but I’m hoping that she will soon return to Paris!
Bridgette, Lucien and Dominique, whom I met through friends from the States, they live
just outside of Auxerre (France) which is about a 2 ½ hour train ride – it is
in north-central France. I’ve been to their place a couple of times and they make
jaunts to Paris frequently – usually when Dominique is on school break – to do things
that the big city offers …. But they are also big rugby fans so they’ll come up
for a day to watch a game too. It’s always nice to see them.
Another friend is Elisbeta
who lives in a suburb of Paris but is from Poland. I met her in our language
class … what is interesting there is that she speaks Polish and French, I speak
English but somehow we figured out how to communicate with each other. Over the
Easter week-end I went to Krakow, Poland to visit her in her hometown and meet
her family. It was a lovely time.
I met one of my neighbors – Nathalie – when she happened to be walking by my apartment and saw
me struggling to talk to a delivery person …. She stopped and translated for us
…. She speaks perfect English and went to college in Atlanta. She and her
daughter, Victoria, live on the
floor above me and they both have helped me when I have “where do I …..”
questions. I’ve been invited to their
apartment a number of times and I love spending time with them. Nathalie told
me she doesn’t have the patience to help someone learn French, but she
introduced me to two of her friends – Monique
and Virginie – who both want to
improve their English, so I meet up with them and we trade off – one meeting in
English, the next in French (I bet you can guess whom is progressing better in
the pairings …. Ha!)
I met Christopher
when I was at the police department in the 5th arrondissement,
touring the Police Museum. He is a civil police officer (they have two types of
police officers here – civil for civil law, and criminal for criminal law) who
speaks English and has a gregarious personality …. He is so informed about the history
of Paris and knows all these off-the-beaten-path, really cool, places to visit.
He’s also helping me (more like forcing me) with my French as he often pretends
he has no idea what I’m saying if I speak or write in English – he always says
“I don’t understand. In French, Nicolle” …. So the poor guy then has to try to
figure out what I’m trying to convey – thank god he laughs easily, because with
me trying to speak French we often are reduced to laughing fits.
And Muxu I
met at a street market in a neighborhood close to me. It’s one of my favorite
street markets (Avenue de Saxe) and I like to take visitors there because the
vendors arrange their products so beautifully – it’s artistic. He is a vendor
who sells scarves – and he has had a lot of business from me, because I just
love scarves. I am addicted and it is hard for me to visit him without
purchasing another scarf that I “just have to have”. He too helps me with
learning French, as I also help him with English.
Travels: I
moved here to travel, yet this first year – as I suspected – I did little traveling.
I have gone a couple of times to a small village, Arcy-sur-Cure, which is located just outside of Auxerre – in the Bourgogne (Burgundy)
region of France. My friends Bridgette and Lucien own a “Bread and Breakfast” at
which I stay. Arcy-sur-Cure is a small commune in north-central France and the
caves in that commune hold the second oldest cave painting known. The
population is about 521.
Bridgette is a trained Chef, so I always have great food
there. My first time there I was introduced to food from the Bourgogne region –
the one that stands out the most is SNAILS. Oh Lordy, I really had no desire to
eat any but I didn’t want to offend them (this was during my first meeting
them) and their son, Dominique, was downing them like they were chocolate candy
– I didn’t want a 10 year old kid showing me up so I ate one – with the entire
table watching me, as well as my friend Fred videotaping the event – thank goodness
he’s never been able to figure out how to download the video from his cell
phone so that way I don’t feel obligated in sharing it with you ….. and I only
ate the ONE … it was basically tasteless (the snail itself) – I felt like I had
a small piece of rubber in my mouth that I was chewing on, all the flavors came
from the garlic-butter sauce that it is in …… I could maybe come to like them
if it was for the texture of the snail itself – again, like chewing rubber –
and just the thought that I am eating a snail …. But I survived. I went to
their place again for Thanksgiving where we had a traditional American
Thanksgiving meal …. Well, with 21 people invited …. About ¾ spoke English, so
I had people to talk to – the meal was excellent (of course – do Chefs ever
make bad meals?) …. And it was a quite enjoyable couple of days there.
As you blog readers are already aware – I went to Krakow, Poland – I spent 4 days there,
it is a beautiful city and the people were very warm and welcoming (see blog dated
April 21, 2016).
In October I went to Mont Saint-Michel, about a 4 hour bus ride each way, which is an
island commune in the Normandy area about a half mile off the north-west coast
of France. The population is 44 people.
Since the 8th century AD it has been the home of a monastery and
has always been a strategic fortification for France. What is so unique about
it is that when the tide recedes you can walk to the island (daytime) and then
in the evening when the tide comes back in the island is completely surrounded
by water. The tides can vary
greatly, at roughly 14 metres (46 ft) between high and low water marks.
I was in Malaga, Spain (Andalusia), which lies
on the “Costa del Sol” of the Mediterranean, at the end of October – thanks to
the Miranda clan. I was there for a week and we went all kinds of places – we actually
stayed about 30 minutes outside of Malaga, in Calahonda …. Because this area is the southern coast of Spain on
the Mediterranean Sea (I stuck my
feet into it) the weather was warm and beautiful. Actually, the entire area
reminded me of San Diego and sometimes of the drive to Yuma …. Other cities in
Spain that we visited were: Marbella
(posh resort), Ronda (bullfighting
and arched bridges), and Granada (La
Alhambra), along with some smaller towns. I am always fascinated by
architecture and the Andalusia area had beautiful buildings most with the
Moorish influence from the occupation centuries ago. A nice surprise for all of
us was that Gibraltar (as in – the rock
of) was about an hour away – so of course we went there too. It is a British
overseas territory located near the southwestern tip of Europe near the Iberian
Peninsula. At the top of the rock there is a nature reserve where the Barbary
Macaque (rock apes) live – they look like monkeys to me!
The last place, outside
of Paris, I visited was Chartres
(France) in December. It is about 60 miles southwest of Paris and is known for
its cathedral, the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, which is considered one of the
finest and best preserved Gothic cathedrals in France and in Europe. The stain
glass windows in the cathedral are unique in that it is not known how the
famous and unique blue, bleu de Chartres, of the glass was created, and
it has been impossible to replicate it. It’s a small village with about 39,000 people.
Paris
Sites: I’m often asked “What do you do?” ….. It’s kind of a
hard question to answer, but my basic answer would be that I just live life
everyday here ….. Some days I never leave my apartment – I have clean house, do
laundry (including ironing the bed linens …. And, you’ll never believe this but
I now iron my bath towels too ….. oh, just hit me in the head!) …. I grocery
shop ….. Other days I just walk/wander around looking at things – there is so
much to look at because there is nothing like Paris in the US ….. and other
times I visit tourist known, and unknown, landmarks. So, to try to figure out
what I’ve done this past year I’m listing the things I’ve “seen”:
The Eiffel Tower (I have to start with that one,
as I’ve made more visits there than anywhere else – because it’s literally 2
blocks from my apartment and 7 minutes walking to its base ….. and I will
admit, I’m still as in awe of it as the first time I saw it in 1998 …. It still
takes my breath away each time I see it);
Parks: Champ de Mars; Square Saint-Lambert; Parc du Bois; Le
Jardin d’Acclimatation; Jardin des Tuileries; Square René Viviani; Square du
Vert-Galant; Parc Georges Brassens; Jardin Tino Rossi; Square Cambronne; Parc
des Buttes-Chaumont; Jardin du Luxembourg
Suburbs of Paris: Boulogne-Billancourt; Saint Cloud; Saint-Ouen; La Défense;
Sevrés; Saint-Denis; Vincennes; Bourget
Misc. Places: Seine River; Rue Crémieux; Canal Saint-Martin; Cirque
Pinder; Garde Républicaine Quartier des Célestins
Parades: (may 8); Bastille
Day (July 14)
Landmarks: Trocadéro; Invalides; Catacombes; Place de la Concord;
Place de la République; Place de la Bastille; Notre Dame; Sainte Chapelle; Sacré-Cœur;
Arc de Triomphe; Le Garnier (Opera house); Centre Georges Pompidou; Ecole Militaire;
Archives Nationales; Abbey of Saint Germain des Près; Russian Ambassador House;
Hôtel de Ville de Paris; Saint-Denis Gate; Saint-Martin Gate; Passage des
Panoramas; National Library of France – François Mitterrand; Père-Lachaise
Cemetery; Moulin Rouge; Basilica of St.
Denis; Château de Vincennes; Panthéon; Saint Etienne-du-Mort; Saint Sulpice;
Saint-Eustache Parish
Districts: Montmartre; Le Marais;
Montparnasse; Pigalle; Les Halles (and actually almost all districts in Paris)
Churches (attended):
American Church of Paris; Calvary Chapel Paris; Hillsong
Music Scene/Sports: Le
Grande Rex (to see the band my cousin is in); L’Olympia (Black Viola and
2Cellos); Euro2016 (International soccer)
Street Markets: Rue Cler; Grenelle (my neighborhood); Avenue de Saxe; Marche
aux Puces
Shopping Centers: Beaugrenelle; Bizarre Hôtel de Ville; Les 4 Temps (La Défense);
Galeries Lafayette; Le Bon Marche; Champs-Elysées;
Museums: Musée des Collections Historiques de la Préfecture de
Police; Fondation Louis Vuitton; National Museum of Sevrés Céramiques; Musée de
Picasso; Musée de l’Orangerie; Institute Pasteur; Conservatoire National des
Arts & Métiers; Carnavalet Museum/Cernuschi Museum; Le Musée en Herbe; Musée
Galliera de la Mode de la Ville de Paris; Musée de Chocolat; L’Aquarium de
Paris; Le Bourget Musée Air et Espace; Musée Rodin; Grand Palais
Bridges: Pont Alexandre III; Pont d’Lena; Pont de Grenelle; Pont
de Bir-Hakeim; Pont Neuf;(almost every
bridge that crosses the Seine)
Places of the 13
November Terrorist Attacks: Le
Petit Cambodge; Carillon Paris; Café Bonne Biere; Casa Nostra; Bataclan; La
Belle Equipe; Le Comptoir Voltaire
Language: I
went to 10 weeks of French lessons (very expensive – oh la la) and received my
A1 certificate. I’m pretty proud of that, and I know I have to start somewhere,
but in reality – I don’t speak French. I can read it fairly well, I can do okay
writing it but the speaking part is still very painful for me and listening to
it is worse – I just have a really hard time understanding the spoken word. I
have a long way to go to get to the point where I can actually converse. But
hey, I did, once, put three sentences together at the same time!!!!
I’m sure I’ve missed things that I’ve experienced in my
first 16 months here … so that’s a picture of my life so far in Paris - I’ll
close for now. My next blog will have pictures and will be about some quirky
things in Paris !
Vivre la vie
