Paris!

So, the original plan in 2013 was for me to quit my job in five years and go live in Paris for 6 months to write the great American novel.  OK, not a novel idea but, yeah, that was the plan.  Every time I've been to Paris, I've stayed 3 days or fewer.  So, I've seen the big tourist attractions but that hasn't been enough to feed my soul.  I want to live in Paris, go grocery shopping.  I've never lived in the big city; what is that like? I want to sit down in a cafe over hot chocolate and not feel as if I'm missing out on something because I only have 18 more hours before I have to leave.  I want to improve my foreign language skills.

Well, here it is 5 years later.  I can't quit my job yet (if we had universal healthcare I could, but that's another post).  But I'm a dreamer.  And to quote my husband, "we do things".

How can I make this happen?  Well, I am making this happen.  I work from home so for the next 5 weeks, my home is an AirBnB apartment in Paris. 

I got up a week ago Saturday morning for the grand adventure.  My ride to the Cleveland airport was scheduled for 3 pm so I took my time all morning to pack for 6 weeks.  Put this in, take that back out.  The apartment has a washer/dryer so I planned for about 10 days of things to wear, but I hate to do laundry so LOTS of underwear and socks!  I managed to get everything in one suitcase, one carry-on and my backpack.

The first week I took off from work as vacation and Rich and Olivia joined me.  They took a side trip to Germany to see Julia so they had already left Cleveland several days before me.

Everything went according to plan.  My ride arrived 10 minutes early.  Checked in and through security quickly with 90 minutes to kill before the plane left for Newark. 

<<Me at the airport -- still doing a bang up job with selfies >>

 Boarded a non-eventful journey to NJ.  Had a two hour layover then got on the flight to Paris. Yes, it was a long haul in Economy but I did manage a couple hours of fitful sleep.  Touched down at Charles De Gaulle airport on time.  I sent a message to the owner of the apartment and he arranged for me to meet Fatima to let me in.  A 50 Euro taxi ride later and I had arrived at my temporary home!

Fatima does not speak English but we did manage to communicate and figure everything out.  I did talk with Arno.

The apartment is wonderful.  Really spacious by Paris standards. It has one bedroom with a king size bed, a living area with a fold out sofa bed, dining table with 6 chairs and a nice sized kitchen.  What is really nice is that Arno thought of everything that a person could need.  First aid kit, sewing kit, full kitchen gear (plates, pans), salt and pepper, all the cleaning supplies you can think of.  There is even a printer, which we ended up using to print out boarding passes later in the week.

It's far away from the major tourist areas in the 16th - I chose that on purpose as I wanted it to be quiet during the day - but it is only 2 minutes from a metro stop.

I arrived in the apartment at about noon and as soon as Fatima left, I fell on the bed and slept! Yes, they tell you that you should stay awake the first day and go to bed early.  But I know myself.  Without my sleep, I am crabby and miserable and I cannot enjoy anything -- I need my shut eye.  After about 3 or 4 hours, I felt human again.  I took some time poking around all the nooks and crannies in the apartment, put all my things away in the dresser and stowed my suitcase.  I moved in! I took a short walk around the neighborhood and found a grocery store.  Bought a few supplies and the store closed while I was in it.  The proprietor got mad so I paid for my things and left quickly.

Eight o'clock on a Sunday night, I was still tired but Rich and Libby were due to arrive around midnight so I had to stay up.  I had a good book and that's how I spent the time waiting for them.  No problems, I brought them inside and we all went to bed.