Paris, FRANCE. December, 1998. In the tradition of year-end summaries, here, following, are "just the facts" about our lives in Paris after nine months:
We buy a baguette--those long, skinny breads--every day. Before coming to Paris we managed to live full lives without ever buying baguettes. Now it seems we can't live without them.
We've never taken a cab, although once we put a friend in a cab.
We came to Paris without winter clothes. When we decided to stay through the winter we went to church rummage sales. For less than $100 total Paul bought a sweat shirt, a sweater, two pairs of shoes, five shirts, and a down jacket; Vicki bought a wool scarf, four sweaters, two hats, and a heavy wool coat; and together we bought three flannel sheets and a blanket.
We arrange to meet friends in cafes virtually every day. Espresso costs about $2, or about $120 a month for two. Espresso is our third biggest expense, after rent/utilities and food.
About a third of our friends/ acquaintances here are French, the others mainly from the U.S., Canada, and Britain, but also from Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Italy, Spain, Japan, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, and Chile. We meet most of these people at conversation groups, or were introduced by visiting friends. We've also meet people through Siddha Yoga, Stanford Business School Alumni groups, and through our landlord and neighbors.
We leave Paris about once a month to go to other parts of France or Europe (London, Amsterdam), usually for three days or so.
Our cost of living here--what we pay for everyday items like meat, vegetables, coffee, vitamins, electricity, books, newspapers, transportation, telephone calls, bourbon, postage stamps, even McDonald's hamburgers--is about double what we paid in Las Vegas. Cheaper here: wine, good restaurants, Internet access, medical care, prescription drugs, and cauliflower. (Why cauliflower? I don't know, but I love the stuff and eat it all the time.)
We've been to the suburbs only twice, both times to have dinner with friends.
We visit three or four of Paris's 120 museums every week; I've been to the Louvre perhaps twenty times. With our press passes we're admitted free to all museums.
On average we make only one or two long-distance calls a month.
Vicki and I speak English when we're with each other. When we're with others we wind up speaking French half the time, English the other half.
I've read five books so far in French. I'm now reading about two books a month in French, three or four in English.
We get our news mainly on the Internet, BBC, and Radio France Info (a 24 hour news station.)
For exercise we walk and climb stairs, especially at home (4 stories up) and at subway stations. We walk to our destinations about half the time; otherwise we take the bus or subway. We almost always return home on the subway. We average three bus or subway trips a day, all free with the purchase of a monthly transport pass ($45).
We're on the Internet about 10 hours a month from home, about 5 hours a month from the American University or American Library. We use the computer off-line, to write and read email and to read downloaded material, about 60 hours a month.
We eat in restaurants only once or twice a week. We invite friends to dinner at our home about once a week, even though we have only a two burner hotplate and toaster oven.