F Train to Paris

In which a Jewish family from Brooklyn moves to Paris, France for two years of work, school, and adventures.

 

The movers have packed virtually everything except the computer--and they actually packed that, too, but I made them unpack it. This is my last post from my soon-to-be former home on rue Maspero, Paris 16eme. On Sunday we set off for our road trip (which I outlined in the July 15th post). I'll post while on the road if I can; otherwise, I'll check in when we get back Paris, briefly, around August 18th.

Yesterday I had coffee with a fellow blogger, Laura of Cucina Testa Rossa fame. It was fun to meet her, and I hope now that she's quit her stressful job she'll have time to blog again. While in Champagne, I hope to met up with blogger Vivi of Dispatches from France. When I launched my blog last year, I had no idea I was becoming part of a delighful group of expat anglophone bloggers who have made Paris their home, whether permanently or, like me, temporarily. Following their adventures and meeting them, through our comment boxes, our emails, or in person, has been an unexpected pleasure.

Goodbye to all my Paris friends. You've made my two years here so rich. I'll miss the coffees at Kleber and Lubeck (okay, I won't miss the coffee at Lubeck), the museum tours with Kelly, the wine-soaked book club meetings, the intellectual stimulation of the literary salons with Toby and company, even the ISP PTA meetings and working in the Eurecole library on Tuesday afternoons. And if I didn't write all those articles I meant to write about Jewish life in Paris, or work hard enough on my novel-- well, I was too busy living this exciting expat life.

posted by: pariskleinmans at 08:46 | link | comments (6) |

My computer and its desk are a little island within a sea of boxes. The first floor of our apartment is completely packed (the movers have spared the computer for now), and the bedrooms upstairs are being packed today. We're really leaving.

Our Paris apartment is quite impressive. It is located in an "hotel particulier,"  a small mansion built in the 1920's that has been divided into three apartments. The owner, an Italian businessman who breezes through for a couple of days a few times a year, has a duplex on the top two floors. There's a third apartment below his, which has been empty since November 2003. And the rest of the building has been ours for the past two years. As you can imagine, with three boys it has been nice not to have to worry about disturbing the neighbors--we don't have any!

The entrance to our space is through a pair of glass doors in the building's lobby. We have a little space on the ground floor for coats, shoes, bikes and scooters, and then we walk up the curving staircase into our apartment. On the first floor (which Americans would call the second floor), where the living room, dining room, and kitchen are located, the ceilings are very high, there are decorative moldings and fireplaces, and the rooms have huge french windows and parquet floors. The kitchen is small but functional. Upstairs, where the bedrooms are located, the rooms are simpler but quite comfortable. We brought all of our furniture from Brooklyn, which has made the place feel more like home.

The apartment is, in a word, gorgeous. The location, too, is amazing: in the 16th arrondissement on a tiny, quiet  street near the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperatoin adn Development), in a neighborhood bounded by the Jardins de Ranelagh and the boulevards Suchet,  Henri Martin, and Emile Augier. The metro and four different bus lines are just a few blocks away, and great shopping is nearby as well. We buy most of our food at the Marche de Passy, a covered market, and on rue de l'Annociation, a small market street just next to the Marche. We're right near a great park, the Jardins de Ranelagh, and quite close to the Bois de Boulogne as well. The older boys were able to walk to school.

It could have been paradise, and it many ways it was. Unfortunately, the owner of this little jewel of a house has not kept it up very well. The electricity is not up to code and especially during our first year, the main cutoff switch frequently tripped, leaving us in total darkness (and requiring us to constantly reset all of our alarm clocks). The kitchen applicances are old and break down frequently. And you already know about the kitchen door that fell on E. (If you don't, read about it here.) At times, the apartment's charms have not seemed worth putting up with its drawbacks. We heard a rumor that the owner is planning to sell it, which doesn't surprise us.

For the most part, though, we feel lucky to have had the chance not only to live in Paris, but to live in this particular corner of the city, in this particular apartment. In June, when the huge jasmine bush on our corner bursts into bloom and perfumes the air for blocks, we have sometimes felt that life can't get much better than this.

Alas, our second Paris adventure is just about over. But don't feel too sorry for us. We are moving back home to the other city we love best in the world, New York, to our own brownstone in Brooklyn. It may not be as elegant as our temporary Paris home, but it is also a jewel.

posted by: pariskleinmans at 11:45 | link | comments |

Lighting Shabbat candles in our Paris apartment for the very last time was poignant.  As I circled the candles with my arms and gathered the light toward me, E. standing at my side and doing the same, I thought about the dozens of Shabbatot we spent here. Although they lacked the richness that our wonderful community in Brooklyn provides, we developed a Shabbat rhythm of our own--sleeping late instead of going to shul, most of the time; Ralph's long Saturday morning baths in the deep bathtub; taking long walks in the afternoon; playing ping pong in the Jardins de Ranelagh. We're excited about moving back home, but we will all miss the life we built for ourselves here in just two years.

posted by: pariskleinmans at 07:50 | link | comments |

I have about 20 minutes before Shabbat to write this post, and I'm determined to use this time to give you a sense of what our last couple of weeks in Paris have felt like. The weeks have flown past, but the days are long.

The older boys are long gone, as you know, and Ralph has been working in NY for the past two weeks; he got home just today. E. and I have had this lovely rhythm--quiet mornings working purposefully to organize the apartment (mostly me), followed by afternoon outings and playdates. I accomplished a lot, and I am almost ready to welcome the movers, who arrive on Monday to begin packing us up. (However, if you walked into our apartment right now, you'd never be able to guess that we're moving out in a few days.)

I also spent way too much time in front of the computer planning the road trip we will take once our belongings have been shipped off to NY. We will leave Paris on July 24th and head east, spending a couple of weeks traveling around Champagne, Alsace, the Black Forest, the Jura, and the Rhone-Alpes. Then we'll zip across the country to spend a couple of nights in the Dordogne, and wind up our trip with a visit to our friends Boris and Emanuelle in the Charente. I booked us into an assortment of hotels, chambre d'hotes (French b&b's), and campgrounds along the way. I will try to find an Internet connection here and there so I can post about the trip.

But back to Paris. This wonderful city is so full of things to do that you can spend two years here, determinedly exploring, and feel like you've barely scratched the surface. In the past two weeks, E. and I have discovered several new attractions and revisited old favorites. In fact, if you have a week to spend in Paris with a six-year-old (or thereabouts) this summer, you could do worse than follow in our footsteps. Here are some highlights, organized thematically:

Parks/playgrounds:
--Our local fave, Jardins de Ranelagh in the 16th (metro La Muette). One of Paris' great, underrated parks, with plenty of grass for picnics and soccer (no guard will ever throw you off the grass here!), two playgrounds, a fantastic manually-operated carrousel with rings to collect on your baton, a great puppet theater, and even ping pong tables.
--The Poussin Vert playground at Jardins de Luxembourg. It costs 4 euros for a kid and parent to enter, but it's worth it. Lots of great climbing structures for all ages. Crowded, however, and full of tourists--I heard more English in one Sunday afternoon here than in two years of regular visits to Ranelagh.
--Parc Andre Citroen (15th). On a really hot day, put on your bathing suits, parents and kids, and come here to play in the fountains.
--Jardin des Tuileries. There's a great playground here, on the north side of the park about halfway between Concorde and the Carrousel arch, with climbing toys you've never seen anywhere else. Great for older kids, too. Also, all summer long there's a carnival along the northern side of the Tuileries. It's really trashy (except for the ferris wheel with great views of Paris), but the kids love it.

Museums:
--You must go to the Shadows exhibit in the children's space at the Centre Pompidou. Just go.
--E. learned about Henri Matisse at school this year, so we went to the Musee de Luxembourg to see the Matisse expo. It's all about his later works, including the Jazz series. E. and his friends set up their own sketching workshop on the floor and did some wonderful drawings.

Restaurants:
Some kid friendly places, mostly in our own 'hood...
--Dino's (chaussee de la muette, 16th): good, somewhat upscale Italian food, opens for dinner early and is quite kid friendly. Great pizza, pasta, and desserts.
--Matsuri (rue de Passy, 16th): sushi on a conveyor belt! The food is actually pretty good, and it's fun to pick your food as it rolls by. Go early--by 8pm it's quite crowded. That's true of Dino's too.
--Micky's Deli (rue des Rosiers, 4th): great kosher burgers in the Marais.

I hope to have a chance to post once more before the computer is packed up. If not, a bientot! And Shabbat Shalom.

posted by: pariskleinmans at 19:42 | link | comments (2) |