bonjour!

i guess there's no better way to start off but to just say that paris is really great. 

the seine river at night - a huge benefit of going during the off-season is that the tourist level is extremely low. we never had to wait in line to get in anywhere, and there were many places where we were the only tourists. to borrow a line from the terrific rick steves, we could easily become "temporary citizens."  

rather than trying to describe everything that we did, i thought i'd just highlight interesting things and post pictures, because that's certainly what i'm most looking for in blogs! 

airbnb

when i first looked up hotel prices in europe, i was a little sticker-shocked. hotels in europe are really expensive. on that note, i decided to look into airbnb. i'd never done it before but read great things about it. basically, regular folks rent out rooms/apartments/houses. for example, j and i could rent out our apartment here and list it on airbnb, which acts as the third party connecting folks and handling the actual money transfer so that no money is transferred between the lessee and the lessor. as a lessee, you can make the process safer by renting from folks who have lots of positive reviews, and when you sign up as either party there's also a multi-step process to verify your identify (facebook, phone number). airbnb has gotten really popular in recent years and stands to become the world's largest hotelier (surpassing both Intercontinental Hotels and Hilton) next year.   

in paris we stayed in le marais ("the marsh"), which is in the 3rd arrondissement. it was home to victor hugo of "the hunchback of notre dame" fame and more recently, fashion designer john galliano. paris has 20 arrondissements, or administrative districts. the louvre is in the 1st arr.; the arrs spiral out like a snail's shell. 

 

the flat we stayed in was really nice and the building it was in was more than a hundred years old. our paris greeter, the free tour guide supported by the local government and who took us through the montmarte neighborhood, told us that many of the buildings in paris are heavily protected for historical purposes and will be re-worked for modern living; we saw very badly burned buildings that couldn't be torn down because they are protected and will instead be gutted and remodeled.  

view of our street in le marais - when we first arrived via metro we wandered around sad and lost, bumping our luggage along the stone streets until a nice guy helped us out via googlemaps 

from the street you'd open these giant wooden doors which ushered you into a courtyard that was the center of one large building. we entered through another door from the courtyard into a great staircase, a small hallway, and finally our flat: