Paris

Well so far we are slowly getting settled into life here in Paris.  It’s now been about two weeks since we moved here.  We’re currently in temporary housing near the Saint Lazare train station.  It’s not the most exciting neighborhood but it is relatively close to our offices so that part is nice.  About a week ago, Nate and I spent the day with our home search consultant looking at apartments.  And when I say the day, I mean the full day.  We started at 10am and after looking at 8 different places, finished at about 6pm.  It was one exhausting day.  But the good news is that we found a place we liked, in an area that we think we’ll enjoy and that many people recommended.  We’re hoping all continues to go well and that we will sign the contract next week and get everything squared away for a move-in date of August 1.  Yay!!  We could not be more thrilled or excited to get settled into a permanent place and finally get comfortable here.  Our temporary accommodations are overall fine however there are a few things that just make it frustrating.  It’s small, for one, with no storage space.  So we’re pretty much living out of a suitcase with just one closet.  The bathroom is literally a part of the bedroom which is not ideal when one wants to sleep and the other is taking a shower right there in the room with you.  It’s a bit bizarre I must say.  And it makes this temporary place just not conducive for guests.  Oh and then the Parisians must love space saving appliances as we have a stove/oven/dishwasher all in one (see picture).  This also is a bit bizarre.  So in any case, while this place is most definitely sufficient, we cannot wait to get settled into our permanent place.

Is it a stove? Is it an oven? Is it a dishwasher?

Waiting for fireworks

I’ve also started settling in at the office.  The great news is that nothing about my actual job and the role itself changed.  So with all of the other change happening in our lives, it’s nice to have one thing that stays the same.  Everyone in my office has been extremely nice and welcoming.  It’s funny how they ask if I speak French and when I tell them no, I get this very concerned and confused look.  As if how could I survive here in France without speaking French.  I usually quickly follow it up with the fact that I’m currently trying to learn and that I really do want to speak French and that seems to make it all better.  

Speaking of the language, it is much different than being in Zurich from an English perspective.  In Zurich, English was no problem at all.  95% of the people you encountered all spoke English, and quite decent English at that.  Here in Paris it’s much different.  In just two weeks, I have had multiple occurrences where the person on the other side of the counter didn’t speak any English at all.  We managed to get by, of course, but it’s definitely a bit more challenging.  But that’s totally fine with me....I don’t expect by any means that they should be able to speak English for me.  I actually look at this as a great opportunity to learn French more quickly....hopefully!  Like I said, Nate and I both are really eager to learn the language here and are practicing as much as we can.  

Overall Nate and I are truly loving being in Paris.  We are definitely grateful that things worked out the way they did allowing us to move to this amazing city.  I think we’re going to be very very happy here!  I do love me a big city and although it took a few days to get back into “city” mode, I’m loving every second of it.  And what a great city it is!!  Yesterday was Bastille Day and one of the things they do to celebrate here in Paris is a fireworks show at the Eiffel Tower.  Nate and I spent the afternoon exploring a new neighborhood, Le Marais, and then at about 9:30 headed towards Place de la Concorde to get a spot to watch the show.  We waited for probably an hour but we couldn’t be happier.  I sat there just staring at the Eiffel Tower, all lit up, and kept telling myself that this is my new city.  Pretty amazing!!  Like I said, I think we’re going to be pretty darn happy here.

Happy Bastille Day!

Une pierre qui roule n'amasse pas mousse

They say, well somebody did anyway, that a rolling stone gathers no moss. I can safely say that in my life I have now lived in two places where I don't care how much you move around, your gonna grow some moss. Having lived in Eugene, Oregon and now finishing my time Zurich, Switzerland, these two place have one (and only one) single thing in common - Rain. And lots of it. I guess this expression also has something to do with metaphors about not doing one thing for too long or not allowing yourself to get into a rut. Clearly the past year for us has been a mostly "moss free" zone.

So as we close the 1st chapter on this European adventure and head on to l'herbe plus verte, we can safely say that our time in Zurich has never been dull and nothing short of special.

Here we are on July 4, 2012 of all dates packing up the last of our stuff, had our last days in our respective Zurich offices, turning in the keys to the apartment, and finalizing affairs in Zurich. We now turn the page to chapter 2 in Paris.

We have now said about a million times that we would have been more than happy to stay in Zurich because if you have read this blog at all over the past year you would know just how nice, clean, efficient, and amazing we think Switzerland is. It really is amazing. But that said, the opportunity to move to Paris presented itself and through choice, chance, or otherwise, we are very excited to make the change and discover what France's version of P-town is all about.

The village of Rapperswil from the ferry

Before moving on, we would be remiss not to recap the final few cheese fueled adventures in Switzerland. Let us start with a few weeks back on one of the first truly "summer" weather weekends of the year. And by summer, I mean hot and muggy, shorts 24 hours a day type weather. Having a lazy weekend with time to kill we decided to take the ferry ride down the lake from Zurich at the north end of "Zurich See" to the south part of the lake where you will find a little village called Rapperswil. For some reason we thought this boat ride would take about an hour and be the perfect little jaunt to the town where we could walk around a bit, find a drink and take in the scenery. However this zig-zag across and down the lake took more like 2 and a half hours. We figured we must have been on the wrong boat. Our bad, but at least it was warm and pleasant out on the water. Once we finally got to Rapperswil we did check out the little town, walk up to some pretty lookout point, and did find that drink outside on a plaza. Next to a McDonald's. Though a very charming one nonetheless. We took the train back to Zurich, like Domino's pizza - 30 minutes or less to get there.

That's the cheese advertising car,
three huge chunks of cheese on the top

Sunday was a nice day and we decided to take the short train ride to the town of Zug where the Tour de Suisse would be coming through around lunch time. This is a bicycle race that is a warm up to the Tour de France and I thought would be cool to see. We were waiting on the side of the road for a bit, it's almost like a parade with cars going by that are part of the race but actually just advertising. Then the actual racers come by in about 20 seconds followed by 37 cars with bikes attached to the top. It was fun but they do go by quickly. After that, we found a place for lunch before heading home.

Riders coming through!

The next weekend being our final weekend in Zurich was a nice relaxing Friday having dinner at home on our balcony before our friend Louis arrived on Saturday evening. Louis was coming in from Paris where he had been for work, en route to Germany for more work the following week and found a Saturday night in his schedule to stop by Zurich. He arrived a bit late in the evening on Saturday but that didn't stop us from having a late dinner out and hitting a few of our favorite spots one last time. INTERPOL laws prohibit us from disclosing what time we made it home that night. If I recall, it did rain at one point.

A short one night stay and Louis was off on Sunday to Berlin and we had to begin sorting and packing our stuff up anyway. It rained on Sunday which made for good packing weather. Oh by the way at this point I still had not received my French visa, so unclear how much longer I would need to stay in Zurich. But we knew that Cleaver would be leaving the following weekend regardless and the movers would be shipping our stuff that coming Friday. Time once again to be transitory for a bit which is not fun but what can you do. Price you pay for for being an international couple of mystery.

With the shippers coming on Friday morning, the Thursday before what do you know but I get the call that my Visa is ready to go! Sounds good right? One anticipated problem however, this required a trip to Geneva where the French consulate is located to actually pick up my Visa. One unanticipated problem, I got this call at 2:30 on Thursday afternoon that my appointment in Geneva would be Friday morning at 8:30 am. So - shut down at work, head home, scramble to complete the packing and hop the next train to Geneva. Only about 2 and half hours on the train so not too bad, but between the timing, train, staying in a hotel, and the train ride back on Friday, that's a lot for 30 minutes actually spent at the consulate. At least in Geneva it wasn't raining.

So fast forward a few days and here we are. Cleaver has been in Paris for a few nights already, I'm on the train (première classe est bonne!) to Paris with Zurich now in the rear view mirror. Sorry to leave but excited for what's ahead!