My Routine

To say I’m behind on blogging is a gross understatement. My apologies to those of you glued to your computer or phone waiting for new posts.

I figured it was about time I do a post about my day-to-day life in Paris since that is what consumes 80% of my life here (and thus, the main reason I don’t get around to blogging as often as I should). To be honest, the routine isn’t much different from when I was living in Houston with a few small exceptions. I wake up in the morning and get ready (albeit in a half-size tub with a handheld shower). I walk to the metro stop close to my apartment and sometimes I’ll pop into the boulangerie on the way for a chausson aux pommes (flaky pastry filled with apple compote) or a croissant. The metro is usually a 20 minute ride and I read my Kindle the whole time, as long as the car isn’t utterly packed with people. I walk 10 minutes to work from the metro station.

I work until noon and usually someone from my department stops by and picks me up to go to lunch at the cantine in the office building. (Per French law, a company with 50+ people must either supply a place for employees to eat or provide lunch vouchers for use in restaurants.) Lunch is usually only 30 minutes long--sorry to disappoint all the American workers thinking we take 2 hour lunches. Fridays I usually eat outside the office, just for a change of pace. If it’s nice outside, lunch is usually an hour just to soak in the rare moments of Parisian sunshine on the Seine.

I leave work between 18h and 19h each day (depending on what time I get into the office), walk back to the metro, and read on the ride home. Once a week my dinner solely consists of a baguette from the boulangerie down the street and a couple glasses of wine...I have no shame in this. If I don’t do that, I head straight home (and up 5 flights of stairs) to change clothes and watch an episode or two of Friends--in English!--before heading back out for dinner at a reasonable hour (19h30 at the earliest). I go back home and tidy up or read or watch Netflix or do any of those while doing laundry as well.

Weekends that I don’t travel mean I sleep in (if the rest of Paris is still sleeping, why should I be awake?!) and run basic errands that I don’t have time to do during the week. I try to visit a museum or exhibit or landmark of some sort, but if the weather is nice I walk two blocks to Place des Vosges and sit on the lawn to read and people-watch.

So really, nothing all that spectacularly different than Houston. I still spend my entire day at work on the computer so the last thing I want to do when I get home is try to focus on blogging or uploading photos...sorry.  I will try to get better, but I’m not making any promises.