SO EASY
I have been here in Paris for almost two weeks and except for going on several walks in the Montmartre area and in different parts of the city and going to a puppet show, I haven’t done much. Susie comes day after tomorrow and after a day to recover from jet lag we will start to do more things. But I am in my 85th year and wear out much more easily than I did ten years ago or twenty years ago. But more than that I really enjoy going at the pace that I have been going.
The first thing that makes this trip different from any other visit to Paris, when I did try to cram in as much as I could do in three days or a week, is that I have a whole month and don’t have a long to do list. Yesterday and the day before were pleasant sunny days and good for walking. Today there is a light rain all day and I am staying here. I can spread things out. But more than that, my pace here in Paris is very much the same as my pace in Asheville. Partly because of the pandemic but, I bet, continuing after the pandemic, I don’t feel like going out that much. I go out with family and friends and otherwise am content to stay at home. And that is what I am doing here. In Asheville I have seen the Biltmore House, gone for rides up the Blue Ridge Parkway, visited the Okonoluftee Village at the entrance to the Smoky Mountain National Park a number of times, usually with visitors, but when there are no visitors, I don’t visit anything. And I’m willing to bet that that is true of Parisians as well. When they have visitors from other countries or other places in France they go with them to see the sights. Otherwise they follow the same routine in their neighborhoods as I am following here. If I want to feel what it is like to live in Paris I have to let go and enjoy the routine things of life combined, in a leisurely way, with seeing parts of Paris that I haven’t seen before. I don’t need to see the Eiffel Tower again and probably get just as much pleasure in seeing the paintings of the Louvre on my large, clear iPad screen as walking through the museum, which will quickly tire me out. It is the small things of Paris that touch me as seen in the photographs I take. It is the small things that I came to see and experience. And if I leave things undone, I can come back again in a year or two for another month.
This also makes the trip less expensive. If I don’t have someone to go out and eat with, I don’t go out to eat. Eating is fun in the company of others, either in Asheville or Paris. I buy three dollar meals at Carrefour and heat them in the toaster oven in my room.
I have brought with me two iPads, one to write on and one to walk through the Louvre or listen to Beethoven’s Ninth as I did this afternoon, or watch basketball games in the USA at 3 in the morning. I have a thousand books on my iPad.
I am really amazed by how simple (except for my Amazon delivery experience) life in Paris is and how easy it is for an 85 year old to step on the plane in Asheville, step off at Charles de Gaulle airport, be whisked by subway to Montmartre and to settle into a quiet, simple life here.
There is an expense of travel (this $480 ticket, except for $30, paid by American Express Travel Rewards points). But eating and daily life cost the same here or less than in Asheville. The big expense is the Airbnb and the cost of this one, $60 a day for a month, is twice what I would like to pay but I wanted a nice place since Susie is coming for three weeks. It also is in a very nice location. And because it has all the amenities I save some money on food and clothes washing.
So this is a report to my octogenarian friends. A month in Paris is a piece of cake. And to my none octogenarian friends, this is so simple, come and join me as Susie is doing this time. In London I’ll be joined by my brother for a week. Join me, I’ll go at my pace and you can go at yours.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 