F Train to Paris

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

This blog has apparently been visited 17 times since I first posted a few weeks ago, and since I haven't spread the word yet to friends and family (except my brother--hi Jordan!), most of you are probably wondering who we are. My name is Lisa, and I'm a freelance writer and editor from New York. My husband, Ralph, is a tax lawyer at a French pharmaceutical company. Thanks to his work, we have had the opportunity to live in Paris twice: from 1993 to 1996, and now once again. We arrived in Paris for our second expatriation at the end of August, 2003, and we are halfway through our projected two-year stay.

We have three sons, and I'll use just their initials so as not to embarrass them. J. is 15 and in 10th grade at the International School of Paris. R. is 12 and in 7th grade, also at I.S.P., and E. is 5 and in kindergarten at Eurecole, a French private school. The older kids remember very little about the first time we lived here, and they were not too excited about being uprooted from their comfortable lives in Brooklyn to live in a foreign country. E., who wasn't around yet when we lived here before, responded "Great!" when we told him about the move. All three of them have made a great adjustment. And no matter what anyone else claims, E.'s French is the best, especially his accent.

We live in the 16th arrondissment, which is on the western edge of Paris, south of the Arc de Triomphe. Our apartment is on a very quiet street, but just a couple of blocks from a bustling neighborhood with cafes, bakeries, and great shopping of all kinds, from produce and cheese to clothes and shoes. The older kids can walk to school in ten minutes, and E. and I take the bus or metro because his school is just a little further.

I'll let Ralph write about his work and his experiences when he gets a chance. As for me, my challenge here has been to balance the care and feeding of my family with a mix of freelance editing, writing, exercise, museums, coffee with friends, cooking classes, etc. My goal for this year is to do as much of this stuff as I can in French without actually taking any French language classes.

posted by: pariskleinmans at 19:49 | link | comments (1) |

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