Notre Maison

KitchenHere are some photos of our apartment, it was constructed in 2005 so it is very modern and quite comfortable:

 Living Room Dining Room/Study

Bedroom

Walk in closet

Deck

Will it all fit? 1/25/2015

Today we had a go at packing our bags, since we'll be gone for a year it has been a challenge to figure out how much we should be taking for a 4 season environment.   Since the cost of a pair of shoes in Paris is actually higher than the cost of taking an extra bag we have opted to take more luggage.  It's an interesting process, we're allowed two checked bags as well as a carry-on so we're trying to put clothing for each of us in each bag. In case one or more bags go missing we won't be forced to try and get by with very little to wear.  Honestly, it's almost obscene to travel with so much but then it is for an entire year.  

One of humorous things we've done is to nest Deb's shoes inside of mine and then fill hers with socks, saves a fair bit of space.

Maintenance - taking care of friends and business 1/21/2015

Wow there are so many loose details to attend to, we will be leaving in late February and even though we are retired we've had to resort to a calendar to keep track of events that must be done.  

Deb & I are in the midst of all the health checkups we feel we need to have done prior to leaving.  We don't want any surprises when we get there, even though we have a health insurance policy specifically for the trip.  Since there are no guarantees one can only hope that the next year will find our friends healthy and happy for our return.

Along with that we have friends that we want to see and do our best to communicate the details of our sojourn.  They fall into two camps; Why ever would you want to do something like this? and Wow what a wonderful adventure!    For the first, the response is that "this is fulfillment of a 30+ year dream"  and for the second, it's the same answer but with the additional comment of  " and we can't wait".

To quote Judith Thurman;

 

"Every dreamer knows that it entirely possible

to be homesick for a place you've never

been to, perhaps more homesick

than for familiar ground"

 

Now honestly that isn't us because of our prior trips to Paris and France, but there is a component that says how can you appreciate your own culture without the experience of others cultures.  And besides there are many parts of France to which we've never been, and those have to count.

 

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  



What will you do in Paris? Flaneurs 1-17-15

This is a question I've been asked more than once and the answer is easy, flaneury.   Which is the act of wandering around aimlessly and observing your environment.   While that's not exactly correct as relates to us it's close enough.   We have several sources (books & cards) with us that outline walking tours within Paris, along with some associated history.  So for the purposes of beginning we will become flaneurs.  I can use the masculine for both of us because it's a mixed group and of course France is masculine centric (at least in language)

Where to begin - Jan 14 2015

As many of you know, or not, we have been committed to travel for over 35 years.  While we've had many wonderful opportunities to go all over the world there has been an overriding desire to "spend a little time".  Three years ago we did get to spend a little time, a three month sojourn in Madrid.   Of course our goal in that was to spend six months with three months in Spain followed by three months in France.  We were just ignorant of a little treaty called the Schengen Agreement which limits on non-European citizen to 90 days within any consecutive 180 days.   Didn't each of the guide books say that you could spend up to 90 days in their country?   In our other blog www.wadsysspainandfrance.blogspot.com I detailed how this revelation came about 2 days before our departure.   But back the story, for over 30 years now it has been our dream to live abroad for a year.  We've been to Paris several times and loved it each time, our first visit was in 1977 and our last was October of 2014 (to look at an apartment).  Twice we have done house exchanges, once two blocks from the Arc de Triomph and once in Antony (a suburb).  As well we've both worked in Paris on short projects so we are familiar.   But as any born and bred Parisian will tell you, "if you weren't born here you're a Plouc"  A Plouc is a bumpkin from somewhere else, ne c'est pas?  Thus our title.

Deb spent over 3 months assembling the required documentation for obtaining a long-term visa to live in France.  This was not a trivial manner, for example we discovered that one must have official copies of finances sufficient to support your stay.  The official copies must be bank statements and not from any investments such as IRA's or 401-k's.  One provide copies for 3 recent consecutive months to bring to the interview at the consulate.  Once again this revelation came about with a 3 day window of opportunity.  So necessarily there was a scramble of electronic funds transfers as our interview was scheduled for the beginning of January 2015.  There were a few emails to the consulate with questions such as; "How much money would be considered adequate for spending a year?"  With a beautiful French bureaucratic reply of: "This information is confidential".  Nonetheless we ultimately prevailed and two days ago received our visas.   So we are about to live the dream.  Above is our apartment building, we will be on the 8th floor overlooking the Parc de la Villette