Paris Epiloque

I created this blog to share all the interesting, crazy, and mundane things about living abroad to keep our friends and family up-to-date, help any expats living in Paris who stumble across this, and just so I could look back on this in 30 years and remember this amazing experience. I'm really going to miss living in Europe, and while it wasn't all sunny baguettes and cheese (I definitely suffered from métro, boulot, dodo), it's something we'll treasure for the rest of our lives.

Here's some of the highlights of this amazing journey:

Travel

• Favorite Memory: Amelie Day (with photos)
• Countries Visited: 9 (France, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Monaco, Netherlands, Spain)
• Favorite City: Barcelona  
• Number of Photos Taken: Over 10,000 (and still way way behind in sorting them)
• Total Sets of Visitors: 7 
• Place Needed More Time: D-Day Beaches
• Best Castle: Fontainebleau
• Runner up castle: Chenonceau
• Favorite Paris Spot: Square René Viviani (cute, small, and great views of Notre Dame)
• Runner Up for Favorite Paris Spot: Place Saint Sulpice
• Best Paris Park: Luxembourg 
• Favorite Paris Building: Palais Garnier (Paris Opera House)
• Best View of Paris: Tour Montparnasse

Food

• Best Crepe Stand in Paris: Next to Saint Germain Church
• Best Bread in Paris: Du Pain et Des Idees (Bread and Ideas)
• Best BBQ in Paris: Blues BBQ
• Favorite Cheese: Beaufort
• Favorite Wine: I stupidly didn't write them down as I went along, but any Bordeaux Supérieur was delicious! 
• Biggest grocery store surprise: Sweet potatoes are under exotic vegetables
• Favorite Cafe: Cafe Cassette
• Food Missed the Most: Good tacos!  

Paris Life

• Things We Didn't Make It To Even After 6 Months: Army Museum, La Grande Arche and La Defense, Perfume Museum, St Denis, and a good number of cute shops (like a tea salon) and churches that are scattered all over Paris. Also didn't make it to the UK or Switzerland which were on the to-do list. But we still managed to hit all the major highlights and see a LOT!
• Things that were hard to find when we arrived but now we seem them everywhere: trash bags and ground cinnamon
• Times I was ever checked on RER train for a valid pass during 6 months of daily commuting: 3
• Creepiest Airport Tone Ever: CDG
• Most Surreal Moments: Chain smoking smurfette at Disneyland Paris, lugging a rolled up Ikea mattress home on the metro, and people trying to explain the magical Paris Christmas Log that you don't have to water.
• Biggest Fast Food Surprise: McDonalds is constantly packed with French people!
• Times Ate at McDonalds: 4 (sometimes you just want a normal American hamburger and fries...)
• Most Difficult Language Moments (which weren't really that bad): Calling a plumber and getting a haircut
• Favorite Law: No smoking inside
• Least Favorite Law: Priorité à droite while driving
• Favorite Song and Artist: Stromae - Papaoutai
• Favorite Web Service: Unotelly

Au revoir Paris

Today we flew out of Paris, bringing an end to our six month adventure. It's gone by incredibly quickly, but I always knew it would, so I can't say I'm too surprised.

Our flight was at 11AM, so we wanted to make sure we left plenty early to deal with any French traffic that came up (luckily we're going against traffic so we had that going for us). I got us one last crossaint from our 1 minute away boulangerie (oh how I'm going to miss fresh bread so close by!) we finished our packing and met our cab downstairs. That is one thing that really annoys me about cabs in Paris though, is the meter starts when they start driving to your flat. So even though we requested a cab for 7:15, that meter started running at 7:05.

After paying a ridiculous amount of baggage fees (even 1 extra bag on British Airways is ridiculous, and 2 extra.... wow!) we were checked in and through security. After a mostly uneventful flight except for Kara being kicked in the back by the kid behind her the entire time (and his parents doing nothing at all about it) we went through the mess at Heathrow, but with plenty of time to spare. The flight over to the US was uneventful (watched American Hustle, Dallas Buyers Club, and About  Time, which I'd all recommend) and went through the new immigration process where you scan your passport at an automated kiosk which takes your photo and gives you a printout to just hand to the immigration official. For some reason Kara's was marked though, so we had to go through the usual immigration process.

There has been a little bit of reverse culture shock, just in how incredibly spread apart everything is. Parking lots are gigantic, cars are gigantic, and food servers are SO FRIENDLY!!! No longer have to ask for re-fills, and getting them free, is kind of blowing my mind. And US money feels really weird, like it's fake. I've joked about how Euros seem like Monopoly money because it's so colorful, but US bills seem so bland and weird feeling that it's almost hard to believe it's a real currency. And our coins feel different...

Last Day in Paris

Today is our last full day in Paris.

After some more emails, we took one last walk through our "neighborhood park": Luxembourg gardens. It really is so much prettier during the Spring time. They planted new blooming flowers, and the trees now have bright green leaves on them. Unfortunately there was a really nice grove of trees that had to be taken out last week. Kara happened to be walking by when this was happening, and after asking (thank goodness for her speaking French!) it was because they had some sort of tree fungus disease. But the rest of the park is looking really really nice!

After that, we went to the Parthenon since Kara had never been yet. While she was there, I took a short trip to the nearby post office to get some stamps to mail back some postcards which were way way overdue and ship some packages. Thankfully they have automated kiosks now, with an English language option, so shipping packages from France was actually pretty easy.

We then walked to the Saint Michel RER station to catch the RER C to Versailles. We got lucky and there was a train just about to leave the station that was headed there when we reached the platform, so we could just hop right on.

After the 32 minute ride to Versailles from Saint Michel, we skipped the chateau since we'd already been before, and went straight to the Petite Train which is a tram-like service (for 7.50€) that takes you to the major sights in the gardens. Which are gigantic!

I wasn't terribly impressed with the two major sights (the Grand Trianon and the Petit Trianon) but Marie Antoinette's farm area was really cute. Plus since it's finally spring it was nice and green with lots of blooming flowers everywhere. Kara compared it to a life-sized playhouse village, since it was created just for her enjoyment. And there's a small farm right next to it, with sheep, cows, chickens, and even bunnies!

We had lunch at Salon Angelina, which worked out nicely since Kara had wanted to visit it one last time. And while it wasn't their main store in the 1st, it was nice to eat outside without smoking.

We got a bit lost after trying to get back to the Petite Train, but there was a really nice security guard who acted as a quasi-tour guide as she guided us back on the right path.

We then took the train to the Grand Canal and rented a rowboat to try our hand at floating around on it. It was pretty cool, and Kara did most of the rowing since she's had experience on the water before.

Then it was a long hike up back to the main chateau. Unfortunately the flower gardens around it aren't planed yet, so it still looks a bit barren, but I can imagine what it'll look like in a few weeks. They're also starting the musical fountains this coming weekend, so we were sad to miss out on that. We'll just have to come back to Paris during the high season sometime to hit all the things we had to miss this time.

Then it was back on the RER to get to the Jardin des Plantes, which we had been to last month. But since everything else is blooming we figured it would be good to stop by. And it was! Most of the trees were just starting to turn green, while some where in full purple bloom.

We took the bus back to our flat then (our last bus ride in Paris!) and after giving our food away to one of Kara's language school friends, we went to our local cafe where we'd had our first French cafe meal. It was delicious as usual, and had a really friendly waiter. I had fois gras and some steak and frites, and Kara had some vegetable soup and some fancy French toast. The Paris-Chealsy football match was going on (for the quarterfinals of the Champions league) so after every Paris score you could hear the yelling down the street.

After some more packing and ordering stuff on Amazon for when we get home (2 day shipping FTW), we headed backed back out to get one last crepe from our local crepe guy. He was sad to see us go (and not only because we gave him so much business) and got a photo with him inside the crepe stand! If you're ever in the Paris Saint Germain area, and want the best crepes in Paris, go visit him.

Then we went to see the Siene and Pont Alexander III since Kara hadn't been at night. We had a bit of trouble catching a taxi due to the game being over just an hour before, but were able to snag one in time to get the bridge before the lights turned off just before midnight. And from there we could see the Eiffel Tower twinkle one last time as midnight struck. It was a perfect end to a very busy day.

Then it was a cab ride home, and getting to see the 6th one last time, then a bit more packing, and then a few hours sleep until we had to get up for our flight.

Squeezing Things In

With only 2 more days in Paris it was getting time to try to squeeze in every last bit of Paris we could. After doing some emails and things from home, we had lunch at a cafe right near us that I'd been meaning to visit the entire 6 months we were here, but of course waited until the last minute. This seems to be a common theme with us, as even after 6 months, there were still quite a long list of sights and restaurants that we hadn't made it to.

It also marked the very first time we ate outside in Paris, since it was actually warm out! The last few days have been full of gorgeous weather, and for the first time since a day in October, I could go without wearing a coat. Also since it was a very small outdoor area it wasn't too smoky (only one person lit up briefly) so we could enjoy the meal mostly in peace. Smoking is far more common here, which completely ruins any meal outside, so it is the one bad aspect of outdoor dining in Paris and the biggest reason why we hadn't eaten outside until now. I never appreciated how in Austin how outdoor seating is still essentially considered non-smoking.

We also squeezed in a visit in the late afternoon to Marie Antoinette's jail cell during the French Revolution, which is in the Conciergerie which is near Notre Dame on Île de la Cité. I wouldn't put it in the "don't miss" category, but it was an interesting short visit.

Afterwards we took advantage of the now much longer daylight hours (it sets at almost 8:30 now!!! This compared to about 4:30 only 3 months ago) to make one last visit to some of Paris's many gardens. We went to the Palais-Royal which just 3 weeks ago had just a handful of blooming trees, to see that now all the trees are blooming, flowers are blooming, and it looks WAY prettier than before. It's making it really sad to leave just when things are looking so fresh!

Likewise during our visit to the Tuileries Gardens, it looks so radically different than it has during any other time during our 6 months here. Trees are blooming, grass is greener, and people just look happier! It also gave us one more walk by the Louvre, and what turned out to be our last metro ride to get back home.

We finished the day by taking the bus to get to Tour Montparnasse to try and catch one last view of Paris from up high during sunset. Unfortunately there was a gigantic tour group in front of us, so it took a while (40 minutes) to get tickets and up the elevator, but we actually did make it in time for sunset so I could get lots of photos both in the light and at night. If you had to compare the views from Tour Montparnasse to the Eiffel Tower, it really is far better than from the Eiffel Tower, and  if not for how famous it is, I'd recommend it over the Eiffel Tower if you could go just up one. I'd definitely recommend it for anyone visiting Paris for the 2nd time if you've already gone up the Eiffel Tower before. And I also still recommend saving the Eiffel Tower/Tour Montparnasse for near the end of your visit since it's much more interesting when you can see the places you've already visited, versus not really understanding what you're seeing from so far up.

After a quick bus ride back to our flat, we had a dinner of items from our boulangerie and baguettes, plus I ordered sushi delivery since that seems to be incredibly common in Paris and was mentioned in that Stuff Parisians Like book. It was tasty and relatively priced well! 

Last Day In The Office

I found out via our HR department and immigration lawyers that due to some paperwork from way back in August, my work visa actually expires today. I don't have to leave the country until April 8th (our flight is April 3rd) but my last day in the office had to be today.

This meant I also had to give up my work phone today as well. Thankfully T-Mobile has gotten even better since we've left, and actually now has unlimited international texting and data roaming (though at 2G speeds). Calls are the only thing that costs money, and even that is "only" 20 cents a minute, which is WAY less than the like $2 a minute is used to be. Oh, and that international texting even includes texting to international numbers, so I can still communicate with Kara's French phone.

The other kind of interesting part is that this also means my cell phone bill will be going drastically up, as it's ~$100 a month for both Kara and I for unlimited calling/texting and 3GB of data. In France you can get that for only $56 a month. It's one of the very few things actually cheaper here when compared to the US. Though as Kara does point out, our coverage range is much larger in the US since France is only about the size of Texas. But still....

After leaving work, I met Kara in the Marais district of Paris for dinner. We ate a a sit-down Mediterranean place with kebab's, since they're much better here and she loves kebab's. They often get a bad rap in Europe since they're considered lowly street food (it's like they were the McDonald's hamburgers of fast food, which is even more ironic since McDonalds is so incredibly popular here, seriously, always packed!). I do admit having inexpensive kebab's everywhere is something we'll miss quite a bit once we get back to the States.

Palais Garnier

Today we attended a classical music concert at the famous and incredibly beautiful Paris opera house: Palais Garnier. We had been there before on Christmas Eve, but this was our first time to get up close and personal with it.

The original plan was to get ballet tickets since Kara and I both love dance, but everything was sold out months in advance! Even buying the tickets 3 months early, this was one of the very few events that still had tickets available. Luckily they weren't too horribly expensive, and we managed to get really good seats close to the stage.

Interestingly all the seats are individually numbered, so it's not done by row like normal. They also don't fold up, so the aisles are a bit bigger than normal, but does make getting in and out difficult. The performance itself was well, bizarre. I had no idea what exactly they were going to play beforehand, it just said piano and percussion. But while the musicians I'm sure did a good job with what they were given, I really didn't get the music choice and we could see quite a lot of other people surprised at the seemingly chaotic sounds being produced on stage. Unfortunately neither of us liked it at all, but at least it was in a really pretty building!

Palais Garnier is actually my favorite building/monument in Paris, just because it is so over the top decadent. It gives Fontainebleau a run for its money in the most extravagant interior and has an interesting history closely tied to why Paris looks like it does today.

Afterwards we stopped to eat a random restaurant on Saint Germain on the way home. Unfortunately for Kara, her food was really really terrible. The pumpkin soup looked and tasted like mashed up baby food and was completely flavorless. And of course we were still charged for it (and it was not a cheap place!). My food though was really good, with the biggest escargot I've ever seen, and a delicious duck breast for the main course.

Paris in 6 hours

Today my best friend from college came to visit for a few hours during her long layover at CDG. Her flight got in at 5:50am, so even with the delay of leaving the airport and the hour long RER ride, she was at our apartment around 7:15 or so. The boulangerie near us is open that early even on Saturdays, so we could welcome her with some croissants and pain au chocolate.

We then headed to Notre Dame which she'd never been to. Afterwards Sainte Chapelle was opening (and right close by) so I visited that yet again, and then at that point the Notre Dame towers were open. I'd been wanting to go up the entire time we were here, so we got in the line that already formed and waited about 30 minutes to go up. The views at the top were really cool, with the best part of it being all the chimera and gargoyles (gargoyles are specifically used to drain away rain water) that you can see close up. It's not too many steps (at least compared to the Eiffel tower). Then we stopped by Pierre Hermé to pick up some macaroons, and then had lunch at Cafe Cassette where she had to leave to catch the train back to the airport. Not bad for a few hours worth of Paris!

I was utterly exhausted so took a nap for a while, before heading back out to walk around a bit and finally check out Le Bon Marché which was one of the first department stores in the world. It literally means "The Good Store/Buy" but can also be thought of as "Good Bargain". It wasn't particularly neat other than being famous for being an early department store, but it's one of those little things I was glad I was able to do by living in Paris.

Then we finished the night with more wine and cheese, since we only have a few days left of that!