Ah, the French. Famously portrayed as the most romantic of all the cultures. Who doesn’t want to be wooed in Paris, with a view of the Eiffel Tower, and isn’t that how it always happens? Well, I’ve been dating my Frenchman for a few years now, and we recently got married, so I’m about to give you the real scoop. Am I promoting clichés? Maybe. But it’s all in the name of fun.
Exercising your right to vote is incredibly important, and as long as you are an American citizen of voting age, you can vote no matter where you are in the world. Voting abroad is easy, I promise!
With well over 100 museums in Paris, it can be hard to decide which ones to see and where to start. Here are my top 3 favorite museums in Paris. I consider all three to be small enough to navigate, even if you don’t know art very well. Additionally, they all have on-site cafés and offer free admission on certain days.
Within the first three months following arrival to France on a long-stay visa, you must register with the government in order to make your stay legal. There are a couple of steps to validating a long-stay visa, and the procedure you follow depends on the type of visa that you’ve been granted.
Ah, Paris, the City of Light! What comes to mind? Let me guess: sparkly Eiffel Tower, flashy Moulin Rouge, wide boulevards, designer shopping, iconic churches, and beneath it all… the underground resting place of millions. That is what you were thinking, right? All at once macabre, somber and astonishing, the Paris Catacombs are a labyrinth of tunnels worth exploring.
This is Paris, and it’s going to rain. No matter what the season, it is very likely that you will deal with gray skies and the threat of rain at least once during your stay in Paris. No need to worry! I have plenty of suggestions.
We often hear that traveling and living abroad opens our eyes to other cultures, but, just as importantly, it forces us to take a look at our own culture. When you’re abroad and you start interacting with people and watching the news, you get a good glimpse of how your country is portrayed and viewed from the outside looking in.
Naturally, I try to expose Jonathan to the great American culture whenever possible, which usually means presenting him with various preservative-filled and artificially colored food items. My main goal is generally to gross him out and/or shock him, but this seldom works.
Sure, Paris can get a bit crowded during the holidays. And let’s face it, the sidewalks are even more congested this holiday season with the current indefinite strike. Adding to this charm is the fact that Paris gets “cold” (it’s all relative when you’re from New England) and more gray than usual by the time December rolls around. But if you can look past all that, there are plenty of things to keep your spirits up during the holidays in Paris.
A true procrastinator at heart, I’ll admit that I had done little to no planning before securing our wedding date. Given how long it takes for paperwork to be processed in France, I figured I would have a while before our dossier de mariage was approved. And then we got our date, and our wedding was suddenly a little over a month away.