It's about time...

Well, it is about time. It seems like it has been a year since we've been planning this trip. In fact, it has been a year. We have been thinking and talking about Paris for so long that people have gotten tired of asking us, "When do you leave?", or "Are you back already?" Well, we are leaving tomorrow, March 9th. Halleluia.

We (Judy) started the search for an apartment in Paris last spring while we were in Sedona. Judy just googled "apartments for rent in Paris" and got tons of  hits. There are many individuals using things like VRBO or agencies who rent apartments for short and long term stays.

She probably sent off a couple dozen emails to individuals and agencies asking for more info. Most places had photos but it was not always easy to get a good idea of the size of the apartment. Things we were looking for were real stoves as opposed to hot plates, separate sleeping areas, near good markets, large screen tv, near a convenient metro, lots of activities nearby, etc. We made a spreadsheet with columns for these types of things and compared and contrasted a dozen or so that were in our price range. We finally Skype'd with the owner of one of candidates and got a good appreciation for what it would like to spend a lot of time there. This apartment had everything we were looking for except the one thing I wanted, a large screen tv. I wanted the large screen to be able to watch my Slingbox setup in Walpole over the internet. Oh well, I guess I can survive watching Sox games on my laptop for a couple of months.

The only drawback was that it is on the 4th and 5th floor with NO elevator. We will either get into some sort of shape from climbing the stairs or never venture out once we are there. We'll see.