Wow! We have been in Paris for only a week, settled in our little studio apartment (used to be the maid’s room) on the 6th floor of an apartment building built in about 1840 in the center of Paris. We have walked miles and miles exploring, loving every experience, feeling so blessed and thankful to be able to fulfill our desire of living more like the local and blessed to have an elevator to the fifth floor 😊 As an added bonus we are only a 10-15 minute walk from many of the attractions, including the Louvre.
We are glad to have a small stove and refrigerator which allows us to eat a simple breakfast in the flat and pack our picnic lunch (supplemented with freshly made bread which we buy at one the many local bakeries along the way.)
Paris is not a city you can visit for a few days. There is so much to see and do! It is great to take time, each day to sit on a park bench -there are many beautiful and vast parks with choice of shade, sun, facing the fountains, the vast lawns or flower beds, etc.- or along the Seine and reflect.
I am so impressed with Richard and his ability and love for research, study and the “boy scout” navigation skills, which is VERY helpful in quickly settling in no matter where we are in the world. Within a day we had our metro/bus pass (with photos) and, with some assistance from a generous Parisian friend, I got cellular and internet services for my iPhone ($20 Euro per month for 50GB, 4G, unlimited text and calls🤓 we have found and done our laundry, know the large and small supermarkets, 3-4 Starbucks, postoffice, and yesterday, we became official members of Louvre and received our yearly admission cards with lots of bonuses, including private after hour visits :):) Tonight we attended an unforgettable Organ concert at Notre-Dame Church.
http://www.notredamedeparis.fr/spip.php?rubrique82
We have a great travel guide and have done a lot of walking and sightseeing but knowing that we have plenty of time we are not in a big rush. We will try and see at least one thing each day.
Following is a couple of sweet and unusual experiences:
When I was about 10 or 11 (living in Shiraz, Iran) I chose to research and give a public talk on the life of Thomas Breakwell. I was so touched with the story of his -very short lived – life and had hoped that someday I visit his grave. To my surprise, just a few hours after we arrived in Paris, our very dear friend, who was born and raised here, not aware of my infatuation with Thomas Breakwell, asked if we were interested to visit his grave in one of the oldest cemeteries located north of Paris. This visit set just the rest gut tone from for our visit to the city of lights. We hope to go back and bring some fresh flowers for the two small planters on his grave. For those interested here are a couple of links about the life and personage of Thomas Breakwell and the historic cemetery:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Breakwell&GSfn=Thomas&GSiman=1&GScid=2151331&GRid=135241271&
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Breakwell
In the cemetary, walking over to Thomas Breakwell’s grave
A couple of nights ago we attended the local Baha’i 19 day Feast held at a home of a Persian&French couple a few miles away. We decided to take bus #69 which, according to Richard’s research, would give us a birds eye orientation to the city. To our surprise, the bus route ended at the Eiffel Tower 🤗We will be going back sometime in late October when the tickets, to tour the tower becomes available😳. We had great cheeseburgers along the way, rested in a peaceful park filled with multi-racial kids and made it to the Feast a few minutes ahead of time. About 20 people, all wonderful, were in attendance, some like us visitors from Spain, Canada and one family from Dubai who had just moved to Paris.
Getting home seemed a bit more complicated than we thought but a wonderful French couple, noticing that we were tourists walked us about a 1/4 mile over to the Metro and made sure we got on the right train. This was not the first time we have seen kindness and unsolicited help from the locals. We are so grateful!.
Paris is an exciting city. Bustling with young Parisian workers and lots of tourists. We feel safe even walking at night. We have a Metro pass but have been enjoying walking.
As Missy said we have met many very helpful people. Random people, shop keepers, and others. Only one rude person who was having a bad day. Contrary to Missy’s prospective, I have gotten us lost many times, but we quickly recover and get going the right way.
T-Mobile has really been a godsend. It works. It’s easy. It’s all in English. Slow yes but hey it works.
The flat we are in has everything we need. With a perfect location. Weather has been great with only a couple hours of drizzle.
With the recent troubles tourism is down which is good for us. The police presence is obvious but not militaristic. You know they are there but don’t feel like you are in an armed camp at all. Security often looks in your bag but they are friendly about it. We have to watch out for pickpockets but it’s not an issue. I’m not sure if the families sleeping on the streets are Syrian refugees or who. I need to find out. They are in tourist areas. They seem harmless.
The family that owns the flat we are staying in are so very nice we are blessed beyond words to have met them and we will be forever grateful for their permission to use the 6th floor apartment.
“The earth is but one country” 