The apartment was located in the Marais district of Paris, technically the 3th arrondissement. This area, packed with history, was one of the last medieval areas in the city with narrow streets and grand homes that were entered through large wood doors from the street, big enough to allow a full carriage and horse to enter. Later in more modern times, these homes were separated into small apartments.
Marais was also home to a large Jewish population. During the Holocaust, these small apartments we mentioned above were utilized as hiding/refuge places for Jewish families to escape the Nazis. We learned from the Dufoixs that their apartment had actually served this very purpose during WWII.
Fortunately, we had planned to be in Paris over New Years! So we decided to head to the Eiffel Tower New Years Eve with a bottle of champagne, cheese and bread, and of course pastries. We found a spot on the grass at the bottom of the tower and rang in the new year - definitely a New Years to remember. the Eiffel Tower lit up with sparkling lights and fireworks went off in every direction! It was a bit of a scramble getting home as we pushed our way through the masses, and we tried to avoid the boisterous gangs of teenagers trying to instigate mosh pits, but we finally arrived safely home to our cozy apartment around 2 am.
During our time in Paris, we really enjoyed just walking the streets and spending most of our time amongst the Parisians . We stumbled through our limited french, er, our very limited french, but the Parisians were more than willing to help out. A typical day for us was waking up and heading to the Colombia Cafe where we enjoyed a large cup of cafe au lait and checked our email. Then we would either scope out a museum or two or just enjoy window shopping, taking photographs or finding a cafe to sit, read, and people watch. Below are some photographs we took while "people watchin'."
By the way, we read The Shack by Paul Young together during our time here – amazing book and highly recommend it! The book really deepened our conversations and brought into light fresh thoughts about love, tragedy and eternity.
Paris is a beautiful city no matter what season you visit it. We tried to resist the temptation to “see everything” but rather we chose to get into the rhythm of the neighborhood and become part of the culture. One thing we couldn't figure out though is the French diet. We need to read that book “How French Woman Stay Skinny” (or something along those lines) because literally all we could find to eat was bread, cheese or pastries! And all I (Kat) wanted to eat was pastries! Speaking of food, we recommend that you bone up on your french so you know what you are actually ordering – we ordered a few surprises such as: cafe, which in French equates to a teeny cup of espresso, and pomme compote, which was just a serving of applesauce – for dessert!
Despite our struggling french, surprise meals and overload of pastries, we fell in love with Paris.
We are actually headed to Italy tonight, but we will be posting soon about our time in Nimes, Marseille and the Cote D'Azur.
Love,
Kathryn and Ron
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