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