Hi guys -
I'm up early-ish on a rainy Sunday here in Paris, and I was thinking about all of you and though I would write a letter to give you a little update on my life here over the last 6 weeks. I've had these ambitions of starting a blog to keep in touch with people, and I sort of got one up and running - but I realized it takes actual skill to do things like embed pictures and format shit, and I haven't figured all that out yet, so in the interim I must rely on the medium I know and understand - email ;) Please don't be disappointed -
So here we are in Paris. It is surprisingly just like living in New York AND totally different at same time. We live in thethe Northwest part of the city, on the border of the 17th & 18th arrondissements. This doesn't really have an equivalent in New York, though I've been trying hard to come up with one...In a lot of ways, I guess, it's like where we lived before, Upper-upper west side, between 100th and 125th street. Because theParis is arranged in a circle, and is just generally smaller in area than New York, EVERYTHING is much closer together, so neighborhood distinctions are both sort of more precise and more meaningless than in New York -
We are sort of right where the 8th, 9th, 17th, and 18th all converge. the 8th and 9th are more part of downtown Paris, and the 17th and 18th are more residential. The 18th is Montmartre, where Sacre Coeur is (and also Le Moulin Rouge), a hilly, very beautiful but also traditional cheap/artsy/seedy area, and the 16th, on the other side of us, is the Parisian Upper East Side, so we're sort of in the middle - half yuppie, half boho, with a fair amount of Maghrebine/working class folks as well. Maghrebine is this French term which means "Arabs from French Colonies", so from Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria, and there are LOTS of them in Paris. There;s a much stronger Arab/Muslim presence in Paris than you do in New York - they're definitely dominant ethnic group, and in a way it gave me a little perspective on why thethe French government was freaking out about the head scarf issue, because you really see head scarves everywhere- not that I think they should have freaked out, but it's just a different vibe.
So we live on a little Cour, which is like an alley or a dead end street, right off a busy street, Avenue de Clichy. It's kind of great because we have a lot of services very close to us, but our little street is pretty secluded and quiet. We are also half a block from the Metro, which we were at first very excited about, until we discovered that our line, the 13, is the MOST CROWDED SUBWAY LINE in Paris. Several French people, upon hearing what line we were on, exclaimed "Mais le treize, c'est le pire!" (but the 13th, it's the worst!) - terrific. It's like the 6 train kind of - they built it and the area it served expanded, and now they need another line in addition but haven't built one.
Sooo - what we have been doing instead, while the weather is still decent enough, is riding our bikes everywhere - or rather, Matt has been riding his bike and I've been using the Velibs, which is the Parisian public bike system, and to me is the best expression of how socialism can work. Velib is short for "Velo Libre", or "Free Bike". Each metro station has at least one rack of bikes within 100 meters, and you can rent them for 1 Euro a day - you unlock them, ride them to another part of the city, and then relock them at another Velib station. And, there's even a Velib van that goes around the city making sure the bikes are evenly distributed in neighborhoods - since we live on a hill, I am especially appreciative of this. Some mornings its like the Velib elves came in the night and restocked the nearby rack...
Anyway, this is especially fun for me as a New Yorker because 1) you can ride almost anywhere in Paris in under an hour and 2) You do not have to carry a gigantic chain lock or worry about your bike being stolen. The main issue is that a lot of the bikes are beat to shit - they're designed to be heavy duty and unbreakable, but you've still got to be pretty on top of it when you're checking out a bike, to make sure it doesn't have a flat/broken seat/misaligned wheel, etc. But usually it all works and it's AWESOME.
Matt is loving his job at the Pasteur Institute - he started about a month ago, and his lab is very high-powered, which is ironic since he moved from New York (traditionally workaholic) to (traditionally laid back) and is now working longer hours than ever. He is learning to slice live mouse brains and also inject them with a protein that can be controlled by light. I could go into more detail, but that would be a whole nother email. He's getting along really well with Paristhe other folks in the lab, and is able to speak English with most of them. What I am enjoying about Pasteur Institute is its cafeteria, which is also just like an American cafeteria and also very French at thethe same time - Trays and steam tables and all that, but also French food - Matt can often choose between braised rabbit and sole in butter sauce for lunch, and they have a cheese plate and bowls of chopped fresh herbs at the salad bar. Sometimes I'll go and meet him for lunch just for the food...
I'm working on some projects in the US as well as taking French and starting to look for a job. Its slow going, but I'm trying to be patient with myself and with the whole experience. Our furniture just came this week, FINALLY (after 2 months!) and that is making us feel MUCH more at home, though our apartment here is smaller than in the US and so we're trying to figure out where to put all the clothes, books, and papers.
Some other things that I'm enjoying: Going to movies at 10AM - and the general wealth of movie theaters here; not being able to do any errand running on Sundays - at first I thought this would be annoying, but it's actually great because it FORCES you to take time off; super cheap fast internet; kick-ass Moroccan food; chocolate/almond croissants; the boulangerie that does a second bake in the afternoon so you can get warm bread at 5PM; being able to travel anywhere in Europe in under 2 hours; butchers who ask you how you plan to cook the meat you're buying, and give tips; crazy workers strikes (I'm actually enjoying the social activism of it, believe it or not); little kids speaking French (adorable)
Things that they don't have here: chicken broth in a can or box (only bouillon cubes, no idea why), melatonin, chipotles, cheddar cheese, incandescent bulbs over 40 watts, dinner before 8PM, ice cubes/ice cube trays, magnetic stripe credit cards, good IPAs or hoppy beer of ANY kind, shoes in my size (11 womens)- I'm making an ongoing list of things that I may have to stuff in my suitcase and bring back when we're in the US over Xmas.
I'm going to sign off here for now so this doesn't get too long, but I"d love to hear from people just to catch up, so if you've got the time, drop me an email back!
xo CTL
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