Settling in.....

In another couple hours' time, it'll be exactly one week since we set foot on Paris. Strange, but it feels like we've been here much longer than just a week and I still haven't figured out why that is so. Perhaps it's because everything has been going wonderfully smooth, settling in has been tremendously easy and we've already established a regular routine in this short time like waking up to this

.....sometimes this......

and this......

found the lay of the land..........

cooked our first meal in the apartment

...found our favorite café for breakfast, tried several of the neighborhood bistros and restaurants and already narrowed down to three favorites - surprisingly, one of the restaurant was the place we had our most memorable dinner when we first visited Paris a decade ago. Coincidence? Peut-être.
Grocery-shopping here has been exhilarating and perplexing at the same time - there're certain places where you aren't allowed to touch the fresh foods whereas some places, mostly large chain stores like MonoPrix and Carrefour, allow customers to do so. If you're buying fruits, vegetables or dried foods by weight, after you've made your selection, you have to wait in line to have them weighed and labeled before you pay, unlike back home where the vegetables and fruits are weighed and priced by the cashiers only at the checkout counters. Things seem more compact here as well; the shopping carts are smaller to allow for easier maneuvering along the narrower aisles, I assume, and you have to insert a coin - one Euro - into the slot in order to use the cart. You will get your coin back as long as you return the shopping cart to its original location. I find this to be a better system than what we have at home where some annoying shoppers do not bother to return the carts and you tend to see one or two carts rolling off on to the streets in the parking lot - quite a safety hazard, really. I bought me one of this for my grocery shopping trips.

You'll see many Parisians using this It has three wheels and really convenient to drag up or down the stairs. My old Reisenthelt was flimsy and way too small for the many trips to the open market, G.Detou or Le Bon Marche that I intend to make!
I'm practicing my French everyday and can get by fairly well when it comes to ordering meals, asking for directions and asking questions when I grocery-shop. Despite the bad rep you may have heard or read, the French are quite friendly and helpful people, especially if you make the first effort to speak the language, show interest towards the culture and respect towards the people. Here's one of the friendliest person we've met.

......but I've got to try to stay away from her store

and her dangerous temptations.....

It's only been a week but Paris truly feels like home now.