nesting in Paris.

I wrote a few months ago about the apartment we are renting during our stay in Paris. The day finally came, and we arrived on Friday morning after a 5:25 a.m. train departure from London on the Eurostar and were ready to do some serious relaxing.

One of the challenges of traveling is feeling like you have to make the most of your time, at all times. But we had just come off of from 4 cities in a little over a week and for the sake of our sanity and relationship, we needed the apartment to be on par with what we expected.

To our great happiness it far exceeds our expectations, and I am learning even just in the day we've been here how perfect it is. Located in the 11th arrondissement, it's a few blocks from 2 metro stops and the RER (rapid transit train) that got us to the Arc de Triomphe and Champs- Elysees in about 15 minutes.

View from our window...

On the other side of the house on the left is a schoolyard...french kids scream loud like their American counterparts...

lovely little studio...

with the most perfect kitchen...

It's in a more residential neighborhood, and to my joy it is a 10 minute walk from a market (marche d'aligre), creperie (creperie bretonne), and bakery (le grenier a pain) that I've read about on David Lebowitz's most entertaining blog. And I've been to all three in a day and a half. Not only that, but today on the way to the market, there was a brocantes fair all along the street with antiques and books lined up for blocks!

Now if I can just get over my Xenoglossophobia in certain situations, like when the guy at the market is yelling "choix, choix, choix!" at me at the top of his lungs, we'll be good to go.