I am in Paris...I arrived yesterday. It is really hot here...full-on summer. Quite gorgeous - though I wish I'd brought more playing-in-the-sun clothes...
My tiny studio in Montmartre is perfectly lovely and functional...very basic, but it'll do just fine...and gets lots of light and has a mini-kitchen so that I can eat in sometimes, thank god. It is also somehow incredibly close to the Sacré-Coeur - like, a two-minute walk - and yet pretty quiet (except, as I learned last night when I tried to sleep with the window open, when it's 1:30 on a Saturday night and the invisible bars are letting out dozens of drunk, shouting patrons). Some things that make me happy about where I'm situated: all the stairs, which enchant me; the fact that the nearest tiny little corner greengrocer is one of the best I've ever seen in France; the fact that I'm on another side of the hill from the awful over-the-top tourist aspects of this area; the rues Lamarck and Caulaincourt, which have captured my heart, the latter for its trees.
My feet have swelled with the heat (and the travel, probably), and I have the most god-awful blisters. It did not help that I wore a pair of sandals for the first time since last summer, or have been wearing a very comfortable new pair of shoes that I thought would never hurt my feet - guess I was wrong. The blisters are so bad right now that walking is a painful chore...but I'm hoping some blister band-aids will clear that up first thing tomorrow...
I wish I could say that I was heading into the library tomorrow...but alas, I am not because it's a holiday (Pentecost). I didn't, of course, even think of this when I booked this trip. I should know better, having lived in France, than to book work trips without checking into holidays. Oh well - it gives me an extra day...not that I want an extra day, considering that this is a relatively short trip.
So, with the bonus day of tomorrow, I shall go on some excursion outside the city (IF I can get my blisters under control) - maybe to Versailles - er, no, the palace is closed. Well, maybe somewhere else...Fontainebleau? And then, come Tuesday, I shall get to work finally, including at the Locale of Disappointment, since the one appointment I could get there was for Tuesday afternoon. Fingers crossed that I will be able to secure a couple more!
4 comments:
Oh, your apartment and locale sound lovely. Enjoy your trip! Good luck with the research, and I hope the blisters clear up soon!
Oh, Hilaire! I'm so glad you're there - it sounds heavenly and I'm seriously picturing exactly where you are since you sent those pics and from our trip there last summer. I just had a vision of waving to you at your open window from down on the street. Don't worry - I'm not one of those drunken bar-flies!
My fingers are crossed for good research starting on Tuesday!!!
Go to Fontainebleau--it is beautiful! And there might be baby peacocks in the gardens by now.
Ooh, it sounds lovely to be in Paris when it is warming up. Have a wonderful time!
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