Nous sommes arrivés à Paris!

Arrived in Paris on Wednesday night.  Spent most of yesterday recovering from jetlag and now amongst the living.  We love our neighborhood.  It is a quartier piéton (pedestrian neighborhood) so most cars and motorcycles are prohibited.  There are bread, fruit, meat, and wine shops at the end of the street so it easy to find our daily rations.

Our landlady is wonderful.  French belgian, living in Italy the last 30 years with several properties dispersed.  Very kind and intent on pleasing us.

Our arrival in Paris was challenging.  5 pieces of luggage including a bike case meant we had to take a tax or shuttle.  We couldn't find a shuttle on short notice so we went by taxi.   The experience was just too classic french.  The driver breaks out into an argument with the taxi starter.  Then he spies our 5 pieces and throws up his hands in disbelief.  At last he mangles them (and us) into his taxi and we were on our way.  By the end of the ride we were best friends and he was giving us a description of each building we pass.  Very fun.

Bringing the bike

Those of you who know me understand there was no way I was going without my bike. This was a new challenge. However, I think it will work out. I bought a used hard bike case for $100. I should have no problem selling it for the same price when I get back to the states. Aer Lingus only charges $50 for each piece of luggage and this is just one piece. Taking apart the bike is actually pretty easy. At first I was thinking I would need to remove the headset but that isn't necessary. A couple of bolts hold the handle bars to the headset. I also bought baggage insurance through American Express (no, you don't need to have an Amex card): $12 per person for max. of $2,000 insurance. Won't cover the total cost of the bike if it is stolen but it's getting a little old anyway. Now I'm dreaming of riding out to Versailles or Barbizon via the Seine.

Shipping to Europe has become insanely expensive!

When i was a young lad I thought nothing of shipping my ski boots home from Austria. The price was very reasonable for the "arrive in a month or so" plan. I just checked out the price to ship a 2' cubed (60 cm) box to France for the same low expectations delivery: $200. Yipes, $400 round trip!

This is crazy. What happened?!?!?

It seems like the best way to ship overseas is to bring it on the flight. Aer Lingus charges $50 per bag and allows up to 9 bags.

New tenant arrives

Last night we met Juergen, the father of the german family that is renting our house for the year. He and his wife and 3 girls will be masters of our house. He was so great! I can't imagine a better tenant. All of Jane's anxieties disappeared.

Aix it is!

We're going to Aix-en-Provence for 6 months after Paris. Cool apartment on rue cardinale, a few blocks from cours mirabeau. Aix is a "college town", with a bit of the atmosphere of my (Jim) hometown: Madison. Filled with art and music. 40 minutes to the mediteranean. 2 hours to skiing in the alps. Here is the view from our front door:

J'ai hâte d'y aller! The date is so soon! I'm really getting excited but I'm also daunted by the to-do's that remain. Hard to do my job and focus on preparing as well.

We're in the throes of a decision: in what village should we spend our winter and spring? Top candidates: Nice and Aix en provence. We were leaning toward Nice (close to sea, close to Italy, close to Alps) but are now gravitating toward Aix (university town, very french, the heart of provence that we love dearly). We hope to decide before next week.

Signed up for 3Jam last week. Soon (Thursday...why do the english think the days of the week merit capitalization?!?!?) our home phone number of 25 years will become virtual. Looking into what it takes to unlock my iPhone so I can use it with orange.fr or some such provider. Just cancelled Netflix (they won't ship overseas and they restrict on-demand to US ip addresses).

Starting to feel real. We have rented our house for the year to a wonderful german couple with kids. Fantastic!
Just committed to our first accomodations in France: 2 months in Paris on Rue Mandar (2nd arrondisement).
Just bought ONE-WAY tickets to europe. We're going to fly to Dublin and spend some time (~ 10 days) in the U.K. (Ireland, Scotland, London) before wandering down to Paris.