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Blog #18: Just Returned from Avignon!
Hello everyone. I just returned from 6 days in Avignon, which is in the Provence region of France. I’ll share more about that trip in the January issue of the Extraordinary Women Magazine, but what I found so interesting is how different the various regions of France are. It isn’t just the terroir, as the French call it, that is different. The foods are different, the accents are different, the greetings are different (three kisses versus two!), and the people even look different.
I’ve now spent a good amount of time in the Alsace region which is a mix of German and French. There you will eat choucroute and those delicious pizzas, they call flammekueche. (Trader Joe’s actually sells one!)
In Normandy, I’ve found you must love cream, cheeses, and cider with all those apples and cows. T-he champagne region is mostly vineyards and therefore beautiful family farms, many offering lovely lunches served with champagne of course.
Recently, I got a little taste of Provence, which also is a very agrarian culture with vineyards and olive trees, but also gorgeous villages built into the sides of mountains. Every vegetable and fruit you can imagine eating grows in Provence and don’t get me started on the Chateauneuf de Pape and Cote de Rhone wines. Yummy!
But back to Paris. So many women ask me how I purchased my apartment in Paris and what it is like to have a home base here, that I thought I needed to share a bit more about having an apartment in Paris.
First, a week ago I seriously questioned my decision. Mostly, it’s a language barrier. Because I have the equivalent of a French five-year old’s vocabulary, when something goes wrong, it’s a stress-filled day.
Over two days, my new washing machine stopped working, one of my bedroom windows suddenly doesn’t close properly, the lightbulbs in the ceiling above my bath tub burned out only to discover I actually need an electrician, and one of the many real estate taxes we pay in France as second home owners, hasn’t been withdrawn from my French bank account!
(This puts me into an exciting panic because I’m worried those very cute, truly handsome but highly armed gendarmeries are going to come and remove me from my apartment.)
Everything can be much more stressful when you live where it is not your native country. Sounds bizarre but I have never really worried about issues in my homes in the USA. You make the call; you pay the repair person, and your tax bill is clear and simple.
So why do I keep my Paris apartment? Because I love having a home base given how much time I spend in Paris. I have clothes in the closet, I sleep in my own bed with my own sheets, and I cook in a kitchen equipped with things I use. Airbnb’s are great for short periods of time and even 5-star hotels can feel monotonous after a couple of weeks.
So like everything in life we must remember, there is joy following the difficult. There is calmness after the storm.
I’ll end with a few views of a Paris apartment and Hôtel La Mirande in Avignon.
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