Advertisement
Dee toasting our arrival in Paris
...from the front stoop of our cottage apartment on rue Vincent Moris, in Malakoff. Today we arrived in Paris for the 11th time since our first visit twenty-two years ago. Yet for us, Paris has become a never-ending story, with each visit adding a fresh chapter to that narrative. Still, even after all these years and the number of visits, you could rightly say that our sentiments are aptly expressed in the immortal words of Humphrey Bogart to Ingrid Bergman, in the film
Casablanca, that "We'll always have Paris"; or those of Audrey Hepburn, in the movie
Sabrina, that “Paris is always a good idea.”
People have frequently asked us what is so special about Paris that makes us want to return, time and time again? Is it the centuries of history, art, culture or the French
joie de vivre? Or perhaps it's the baguettes, crème brûlée--and the rest of the fabulous French cuisine--that appeal to us? While all of this is certainly true, to some degree, the answer is more elusive. The spell that Paris has cast upon us over the years may best be explained by the French phrase,
Je ne sais quoi (literally "I know not what", i.e., a quality that cannot be described or named easily).
Our travel from
Sorrento to Napoli to Paris Orly went as smoothly as possible, but still very tiring for us. Francesco picked us up at 6:00 AM at our apartment, then delivered us to the airport in Napoli in record time (less than one hour). Since we arrived at the airport three hours ahead of our flight, check-in with easyJet was a breeze, and the assistance of an airport attendant with a wheelchair we had requested for Dee was excellent. The flight to Paris Orly was delayed by 25 minutes, but the 2-hour flight was a smooth one. When we landed at the Paris Orly airport, an attendant assisted us to baggage claim, where we retrieved our luggage. He then escorted us to the exit area where our old friend and chauffeur, Serge Molho, was waiting to drive us to our apartment in the tiny suburb of Malakoff, about 3 miles from the center of Paris.
We arrived at our apartment around 2:00 PM, and were warmly greeted by our hostess, Madame Dominique Cordesse, the widow who owns and lives in the property at 62, rue Vincent Moris. Our apartment, which could best be described as a cottage within a garden, is
situated in the back yard of the home in which she resides. One of the oddities, or quirks, of this arrangement is that guests must pass through a corridor inside her home to reach the rental cottage in the back.
Dominique seems to be a very kind, sweet woman who enjoys hosting guests in the rental cottage. She speaks some English, but as we speak no French, it will be interesting to see how well we communicate during our stay. The cottage itself is clean, comfortable and very well equipped; it even has my most-prized appliance of all...a Nespresso coffee maker! Dominique had stocked the kitchen in the cottage with fresh fruit (bananas, apples, tangerines and apricots), bread, butter, milk, orange juice, yogurt, jams, coffee, eggs, and coffee. As Dee was quick to point out, never in any of our rentals over the years have we been graced with this kind of welcome package!
Shortly after our hostess had completed our welcome tour, I grabbed a map and went out to find the local Monoprix store, which is comparable to our Walmart superstores back in the states. After losing my way briefly, I located the store, and then
managed (with some difficulty) to find the items on my short shopping list: gin and vodka (quite expensive over here), mixers, butter, cheese, sausage, salami, chips and a pre-cooked dish of lasagne for dinner tonight. After I carried this haul back to the cottage, the temperature here under clear, sunny skies had reached 78 degrees F., but it felt much warmer than that to me as I walked along the sunny sides of the streets. By early evening, both of us were tired, so shortly after eating the lasagne we called it a night.
It was a long and exhausting day, but it's great to be back in Paris...yet again!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.066s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 15; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0267s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Jeni
non-member comment
The garden cottage is so sweet and enchanting. So nice all the basics were stocked for you. Glad your travels to Paris were nice and smooth. Hopefully, you will be partaking in some crème brûlée today! 😀