My Apartment Building

I’d like to welcome you in a more concrete way to my every day existence.  This is my street, Rue Cler.  It’s adorable.

There are 3 amazing cafes that are always bustling day and night, and I just stare at them and think, "This is France. Oh how magical you are." Here I tried to sneak a photo of one of them & I turned out almost sideways bc I didn't want to look like Super Tourist, but eventually I'll take some real pictures. Not trying to be artsy.  Just sneaky.

This is the adorable blue door to my building, sandwiched conveniently in between one of the best Italian gelato shops in Europe and a Chinese place.

In case you don’t know, Asian is my favorite type of food, and in my normal Dallas life, I ate some type of Asian food almost daily.  Here it’s a solid twice a week, but only because I’m still distracted by 9 foot baguettes every day.
 

Once I walk through the door, there are mailboxes and then a glass door that I have to unlock with a key.  I then walk past a set of stairs (which I accidentally went up while moving in, hauling my 4,000 lb suitcase filled with bricks up the stairs and thinking “I never want to do this again. I will have to live here forever.”…only to realize I had gone up the wrong set of stairs, and did, indeed, have to do it all over again in the correct stairwell). 

I walk through courtyard #1, which I love:

Everyone sigh together. I know I just did.

I walk across these big uneven cobblestones, wondering how old they are, who has walked across them, how long have they been here?

Looking back, that door on the end is the door to the Chinese restaurant’s kitchen.  It smells delightful and I always hear the clanking in the kitchen and have a momentary daydream about the day when I’ll walk through the back door, pop my head in the kitchen, and be like “Hey guys!!”, and then they give me free dumplings and other stuff because we’re cool with each other and they love me.  I do some dishes, fry up something on the wok, and walk out again with something awesome.  Long ways away from that, in case you’re wondering.  There’s only one guy who even recognizes me enough to say “Bonjour” when I’m walking by.  But usually I’m just another random customer as far as anyone is concerned.

Then more ancient stone walkways…and up the stairs to my apartment. 

I’m on the 3^rd floor, just the right amount of stairs.  Enough to give you a slight workout & momentary hamstring burn but without making you want to die.  There’s this cool green door in the stairwell, not sure what that’s for. 

I think these are cool, too.

The view up...glad I stop on 3rd!

 And then ta-da!! My apartment!!  (door on the right)

The rest of the apartment will come later…for now, I'm off to work, and then dinner on Isle St. Louis, an island in the middle of the Seine river, for dinner with Maygan & Kyle!  Happy Saturday!