First Days

After saying our goodbyes to everyone likely to read this, a long and uncomfortable night and morning on Icelandair, and two hours on a shuttle bus in Paris traffic, we finally found ourselves at our apartment. Our landlord met us, showed us the apartment, and asked, “c’est pas trop petit?” (it’s not too small?) We said no, but we might have been a little generous. It is très, très petit. The bedroom is approximately 1.25 Jeff-lengths by 1.1 Jeff-lengths, or maybe 7x8 feet. The kitchen/bathroom area is about the same size, with a slanty ceiling to further reduce the useful space. However, after a couple days, everything seems fairly functional and efficient and we think it will be all right.

Formalities over, we wandered around the neighborhood a bit. You can see what it looks like if you check out Google Street Maps and locate the corner of Boulevard Voltaire and Rue Oberkampf. Our door is the blue one right next to the Bar Au Metre on Voltaire.

The city of Paris graciously offers free Wifi in many of the city parks and green spaces, but reception can be a little spotty so you have to look for the groups of people huddled over their electronic devices. We sent emails and facebook updates and made a Google phone call from the Square de la Roquette. Here is Jeff a couple days later, communicating with the world like a pro.

Originally we planned to go out for dinner, but we felt about ready to die, so instead we got pizza to take back to the apartment. Note the white splotch in the middle of the nearer pizza: it is an egg.

We started the next day by figuring out some more of our apartment’s little quirks. One of them is that you have to watch your head, especially if you are tall, but even if you are rather short, like Lia, seen here making coffee.

So far our days consist largely of finding a wifi hotspot to check in on things, wandering around the city and trying to get our bearings, and getting food. Here are a couple miscellaneous daily life in the apartment pictures, including our exciting first home-cooked dinner (escalope of veal and green beans, raw milk Saint-Marcellin cheese, really good bread) and a badass rabbit paté we had for lunch today.

On September 7th several hundred thousand people marched past our front door in protest. Something about not raising the retirement age and hating Sarkozy. From 1:00 to 8:00 there was constant chanting, drumming, disco and vuvuzelas.

It made it hard to get around the neighborhood but it was a nice introduction to the French political scene. By 8:00 the crowd had dispersed, the streets were hosed and we went shopping for dinner.

Upcoming excitement includes Lia starting work, a bank account, cell phones, laundry and maybe a toaster oven.

Our apartment's door latch adorned with MN magnet.