Arrival

I arrived on Thursday after a pleasant but sleepless flight (I highly recommend the 11:00 PM AirFrance out of Boston--non-stop and the seats less than a quarter filled). I made my way on the metro to my stop (easy to remember: Alexandre Dumas). At that point I needed to call the caretaker of the apartment in order to receive the key. However, it turns out my iPhone had no service with the American AT&T card. I crossed my fingers and hoped the jailbreak I performed on it before leaving would allow me to use a prepaid French Orange card. Happily, fifteen minutes and 30 Euros later I had a functioning French phone with 5 Euros of airtime, which works out to about five minutes. Yes, $1.60/minute for local calls.

The apartment is a very short walk from the metro station, up a short hill filled with restaurants, cafés, bakeries, butcheries, flower shops, bookstores, and just about anything else you could need for daily life. It is a terrific neighborhood, just outside of the centre ville, in an area that is clearly gentrifying yet still filled with a wide variety of families of all nationalities. The apartment is small but very comfortable, on the third floor so I get a wonderful breeze in the window. The view isn't spectacular; basically I see the roofs of the nearby buildings. However, if I look closely, I can peek through a few trees and catch sight of a few of the graves in the Père Lachaise cemetery (famous for being the final resting place of dozens of famous French literary figures, musicians, actors... and Jim Morrison).

I know they say it is critical to get outside and stay awake for the rest of the day when arriving in Europe, in order to get on track with local time. Once unpacked I resolved to do that, right after I set my head down on the table to rest for just a minute. Two hours later I awoke in a puddle of drool, shook myself awake, and stumbled down to a nearby Indian restaurant for dinner. In the end, I had no trouble going to bed despite my little nap, and was able to wake the next morning reasonably adjusted.