From Montreuil first two days...

First two days in Paris. The flight here was lovely thanks to good movies and more importantly an excellent Bonjour Paris mix by Kate, I grooved the whole way here. Once I arrived to my lovely incredibly large three room apartment, I just kept repeating to myself I can't believe it, and then I realized that I should probably stop saying I can't believe it. The first day out on very few hours of sleep I go to meet Monteil. Having forgotten to exchange money at the airport I try to use an ATM which is of course broken and almost eats my card, but luckily doesn't. After that small scare I have a similar anxiety to that of the day of any event I've ever participated in planning, that butterfly heart racing very shakey feeling from lack of sleep and excitement that you hope everything will work out. But I arrive early to meet Monteil at St. Placide, and she is fantastic, and we get along instantly and go for tea and ice cream. We discuss many things, her work as a writer, my novel, life, dating and of course my project. She tells me many wonderful stories about her and Simone and Satre as I just sit there, literally in awe at my good fortune of finding this woman. She will be turning sixty this year and feels a sense of mortality and is so pleased to be able to transmit the wisdom she gained from older women. She says that it was older women who helped her and she is so thrilled that I am interested in her life and her stories and the stories of other French women. After that we go to her home and have dinner, which her partner makes for us. A beautiful meal of proscutto, tomatoes, artichoke hearts and basil ravioli. I go home to bed and wake up at 3:30 in the morning, decide to completely unpack and write some more till 7 in the morning, upon which I finally fall back asleep. Today I wondered around my neighborhood and ate at a local Bistro with live music and locals dancing and claping to the beat. A beyond quintessential Parisian experience, almost so much so that it borders on cliche, but no matter there is a reason that people come here to see the joie de vivre that is the way of life here where any one can do what they want as illustrated this evening. I'll be keeping in touch frequently as I feel I may become obsessed with this little blog of mine, and if at any point you say to yourself fuck Augustine living it up in France, check travelzoo, come visit or go do what you really want to do. I mean really why the fuck not? Life is short, but we make it longer when we are truly happy.
xoxo,
Augs