The Paris lifestyle

My husband, Dick, and I stayed in an apartment in Paris on rue de Lévis in the 17th Arrondissement in June ’09 — a fantastic experience. No tourists there but us!

The street has one of the best markets in Paris and so many wonderful places to eat that we didn’t have to do anything more complicated than walk a block or two for a fantastic meal. If one wanted to, they could pick up exquisite food from the vendors for every meal: chickens, beef, pastas, fancy dishes, quiche — you name it.

The object of that portion of our trip was to soak in the Paris lifestyle. We felt obligated to see some specific attraction each day, but that was after reading and enjoying our cappuccino in the apartment for a while and then having an outdoor café breakfast.

After we took the Métro (what a great system) to the attraction, we spent the rest of the day wandering various neighborhoods, enjoying the architecture of apartments, homes, houseboats and churches plus parks, people, stores, styles, etc.

Even the Métro gave us a view of Paris’ everyday life, with everyone looking so sharp and serious. The men prancing off to work in their form-fitting suits, very well-polished shoes and the perfect briefcase. Never any mess to them at all! The women were also sharp and tottered around on high heels everywhere during the workweek. On weekends everyone relaxed in jeans.

And such good manners — aggressive but never pushing or shoving! Their workweek is short, but the workers we saw were working hard.

We then traveled to Lyon for business, but we had time to wander there as well. Our hotel was on the river, so we walked the scenic path, looked at the houseboats and the Old Town and found a wonderful park with a zoo right in town. Can you believe it? It was a good one too, with all the big animals and some small ones as well. Plus it was FREE!

BETH DeATLEY

Piedmont, CA