The Odessey Begins

MONDAY, AUGUST 18, 2008

The Odyssey of three months in Paris began yesterday when we arrived at the Gare du Nord in Paris from a week of singing in Canterbury, England. We were met at the apartment that we had rented by Joe and Adrian, the rental managers.

After an hour introduction to the apartment, we were left on our own to discover how we would set up the available space to take care of our needs. It is a spacious two roomer with a separate kitchen, bath, and toilet. It is located on the rue Abel which is a short block away from the Viaduct des Arts where an old viaduct has been transformed into shops under the arches and a lovely planted garden along the top. (More of this later) After several hours of unpacking and rearranging, we went to dinner in a small restaurant near the Bastille called Le Petit Bofinger where we had a very nice two course meal for 20 euros. Back at the apartment, we did some more unpacking and went to bed about eleven

Monday was spent orienting ourselves to the apartment and to the immediate "quartier". We are in a pleasant residential neighborhood in a seven story building. We are on the seven floor (sixth French style) fortunately with a brand new elevator. We overlook the Viaduct des Arts, more of which later. We spent the better part of the afternoon catch up with dirty laundry at a local laundromat. We had almost a week's worth of laundry to do not having done very much in England the week before. The apartment has a washer but it is typically a small one with no dryer, thus the laundromat. We had afternoon tea at a local cafe and later went to dinner at Le Machon d'Henri a block from St Sulpice church. We have been there many times and like it for its easy prices and simple but good food. There are only about a dozen tables. We call it the "hole in the wall" because it looks like a cave with its stone-lined walls with wooden beams overhead.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2008

Today we really settled into French life. We spent the morning shopping at the Place d'Aligre open air market. It is one of the largest and well-known markets in Paris and we live only two blocks away. Even though it was August, there were many people there shopping and many of the stalls and shops were open. We stocked up on fruit and vegetables for a few days and took it all back to the apartment in the typical French shopping cart.

After lunch, we went to the local MonoPrix where we did more shopping, this time for staples. Again, we had the market basket filled with Badoit (sparkling water), milk, paper products, and groceries. The store is a sort of a combination food supermarket and the old Woolworths. That evening, we cooked our first dinner, not very complicated, and later had coffee at one of our favorite cafes, Cafe Francais, that sits right on the place de la Bastille. Two cups were almost fifteen dollars, cafe sitting can be expensive but at least you can sit there for a good while and not be bothered.