What Am I Allowed to Hope?

You come across the most interesting questions in public restrooms. No, not those questions.

The question above was etched onto the mirror in the toilettes of Les Philosophes, a popular café in the heart of the Marais. Given the name of the place, I suppose it's appropriate, but it struck me as particularly appropriate for us at this moment. What do we hope for from our time here? We're working on it, as the RATP, the Metro system, is working on their stations.

Do we expect our life here to be an endless series of lovely days in charming spots like the one below?

Of course not; we're not fools. We expect a series of ups and downs, of extremes even, just as Paris has extremes. Walking down the same street you can find this:

and this:

But it's great to be walking these streets. I put our name on the mail box and buzzers today. Now we're official.