Beginning of the New Life in Paris

Having grown up in Lithuania, studied and worked for nine years in Kentucky, Ohio and Washington, DC, as well as traveled to a number of other places around the World, I became quite worldly exposed. A move to Paris to work at UNESCO provided me with another opportunity to enjoy international environment and life to the fullest or like French say – profiter de la vie. Many days present unexpected enjoyable experiences and you never know what yet undiscovered lovely sight you could find around the corner. It has been a privilege getting a chocolate croissant from a boulangarie every morning, tasting a variety of French cheeses, pates and fois gras regularly, sipping coffee in outdoor cafes, feasting on gourmet meals in sophisticated restaurants, and attending world class performances and famous exhibitions. Paris as a crossroads city is a convenient location to get to other places in Europe. The greatest advantage is that it takes less than a three hour flight to my home country Lithuania. The shortness of a flight and amazing deals on a cheap airline Flylal seem too good to be true after exhausting and expensive flights from the US.

Here is an account of my very first taste of Parisian life when I have just arrived to this beautiful city with more stories to follow. It was not the best idea to rent an apartment in Paris through e-mail communication and without actually seeing it, especially after hearing some crazy stories about locating an apartment in Paris. However, since I received an apartment ad through my future work place, I decided to take a risk. It turned out to be a wise choice probably due to pure luck. My rental apartment furnished and decorated in Provance style with a view to a courtyard garden turned out to be more than I could wish for. I was in love with Provance influenced by a vivid description of the region in Peter Mayle's books.


On the first evening in Paris, I already had friends visiting from London and Luxembourg so we went to Hotel Costes, recommended to us as the best bar in Paris, whose ambience made me even more hyped about living in the city. It had a marvelous design, trendy people but drinks were pricy as expected for such a chic place (see World's Best Bars for a description of a bar).