Three Years Old

A pre-dawn flight that had us waking at an hour that I had previously refused to believe exists and several delayed flights later we were in Paris, almost exactly three years to the day after the start of our Parisian adventure.  This time we arrived knowing that it would be the last trip of this particular adventure.

We've been realizing that we've accomplished our original goal, i.e. learning what it would be like to actually live in Paris rather than just visit.  We still love it, but we've passed the stage when every glimpse of the Eiffel Tower or each walk past the Louvre makes us stop and marvel.  We know how lucky we are and Paris is just part of it.

Adding up the months, we realize that two of the last three years have been spent entirely in Paris, in increments from nine months to three.  We realize too that we miss our home in Berkeley and that a couple of months in summer and three or four months in winter don't let us get back into that California life in the comfortable way we'd like.

And so at the end of November we'll be giving up the apartment and spending six or nine or twelve months in a row in Berkeley, where we'll finally be able to unpack all the things we put away when we first began renting out the house, and spending more time with the family and old friends.

Speaking of family and friends, we'll be visited this fall by our nieces and grandnephew, by friends F & M, who will join us on our planned trip to Turkey in October and then stay down the street here in Paris for a week, and by B, one of my dearest friends, who impulsively signed up for a visit when she realized we wouldn't be back here for a bit and who will stay with our mutual friends E and D, who coincidently have just sold their Paris apartment and plan to travel more.  Change is in the air.

We will doubtless be back to Paris, and maybe even live here again, but the plan for 2013 holds several trips to the East Coast of the US and a long trip to Asia. 

 Meanwhile, we plan to take advantage of our last hurrah.