Staying in the Marais

Greetings from Paris! I’m staying in the Marais while moving from San Francisco to London. I’m here for a week before officially starting life as an expat in the UK, and I’m excited to see what this part of Paris has in store for me.

Place des Vosges

It’s a cold morning in Paris. I’m sitting in the Place des Vosges taking advantage of the city’s free WiFi network and feeling rather embarrassed that the French got a city-wide WiFi network up and running before San Francisco!

That aside, I’m loving that I can sit in one of my favorite parks and be on the Internet at the same time.

Getting to Paris

My trip to Paris has been great so far. I arrived on Monday afternoon after a long journey from San Francisco (via London, funny enough).

After standing in line forever to buy a ticket on the RER, my two heavy suitcases (42.5 kg!) and I made the long journey to Gare du Nord to exchange my Eurostar youth voucher (can’t believe I’m still a ‘youth’ here!) for a ticket to London.

After forty minutes of waiting in line (don’t let the free WiFi deceive you; Paris is still a land of labyrinthine bureaucracy), I accomplished my mission and my luggage and I took the metro to where I’m staying in the Marais.

I needed help with my bags at pretty much every juncture, and the Parisians were very helpful.

Three people helped me get my bags off the RER, two helped me get them up the stairs in the metro stations, and countless others stopped to ask if I needed assistance. Never let it be said that Parisians are rude to Americans!

I arrived in the Marais in time to meet my friend as she was getting home, and she helped me schlep my suitcases up the six flights of stairs to her apartment. It was a great feeling to finally arrive three hours after my flight landed.

If I hadn’t been staying with my friend, I would have stayed at Hotel Jeanne d’Arc, my favorite place to stay in the area.

Paris Sightseeing

Even though I’m staying in the Marias, when we woke up yesterday we headed to the Latin Quarter. The day was sunny and clear, and we walked with her three-month-old puppy to Rue Mouffetard.

We ate gigantic crepes for lunch and then sat at a cafe to boire un verre and enjoy the sun before heading off to the Jardin de Luxembourg.

The garden was just as beautiful as I remembered it, and it made me miss my time living in Paris and working with my friend at the US embassy.

We walked around by Invalides and then I wandered through the Marais solo for a while. I loved all the little shops and restaurants on streets like Rue du Bourg Tibourg, Rue des Rosiers, and Rue des Francs Bourgeois.

In the evening, I met my friend again for dinner at Le Dome du Marais, her favorite restaurant in the neighborhood. A bottle of wine and a lot of good conversation later, we were ready for bed.