The Greenseids' Great Adventure

Well, we made it to Paris. 

It all started 8 months ago when we came up with the idea to live in Israel for a year. As we looked at the calendar, our commitments, our bank account, and our work, we landed on 9 months beginning in August. Six weeks traveling, six months in Israel, then six weeks travel. Sounded great.

Then the real work began. You know all those projects you are putting off. We had them, too, and we had to complete (most of) them before we felt we could rent our house out. Since January we (with a little help from our handyman, Andrew Q.):

Additionally, we figured out what we wanted to do, planned a 6 week trip in Europe, rented out our house twice, dropped off our car for storage (thanks, Carol!), changed bank accounts (see you US Bank!), and lastly, as a result of enormous persistence from Lija, acquired 9 months of diabetes supplies to bring with us.

We had a terrific send-off from our neighbors who came out with signs wishing us well as we drove away and there was an enormous amount of relief when we finally boarded our first of two Iceland Air flights which would bring us to Paris Wednesday afternoon, August 10th. 

Adam slept for a few hours the first flight, Arija slept for a few on the second flight and they were both exhausted when we landed at Charles de Gaule airport. 


Ironically, it took us longer to get from the airport to our apartment than it did to fly from Reykjavik to Paris. We had an incident at baggage claim when Arija and Lija’s suitcase (yes, we have just two large suitcases for the 9 months plus a few backpacks) got stuck in the machine. Then we needed to get our transport cards, but first we needed photos for the kids. But first we needed cash. But first we needed 5 euro bills. So, 1 palmier later and we had correct change. Then the machine didn’t work. Luckily Andrew noticed it was unplugged. Waited for it to startup. Then figure out how to use it.

BTW, between the four of us, we can converse in: English, Spanish, Chinese, Hebrew, and Russian. I had two years of French in middle school, but that isn’t worth much beyond saying, “le chien nage dans la piscine” which means “the dog is swimming in the pool”. Just kidding. I used Google translate for that. I know baguette, croissant, escargot, frites, and most importantly, “malheureusement, je ne parles pas francais”.

So, directions on how to use the automatic photo machine, that was nearly beyond us. Sometime later, with Lija in one of Arija’s photos and Adam looking away in another (see below), we managed well enough to get our passes.

Our apartment is beautiful. Two bedrooms in the 10th Arrondissement near Gare l’Est and our hosts are wannabe cooks. Their kitchen is fully stocked with gadgets. They have 2 mandolins and a silicone madeleine pan. The kids are sleeping in a shared loft 7 feet up. Fun for them. 

Thursday was a slow start for us. We slept for 12 hours and the kids closer to 14. Andrew went to a local boulangerie and bought some treats. Then we grabbed our passes and went to straight to the Eiffel Tower. Did you know there are over 18,000 pieces joined by 2.5 million rivets and that each rivet hole was made with a tolerance of just 0.1mm? Totally cool. If I have one tip to share, it’s this: Get Eiffel Tower tickets in advance! We skipped an hour long line to get in and today was a slow day for them.

Lija was a brave trooper and after spending some time on the second floor, we all went to the 3rd floor, some 300m up. The view was amazing.

Dinner in our apartment, work for us, reading and movies for the kids and that’s the end of our first real day in Paris.

Thank you to all of you for your support of our crazy adventure. Without you, this wouldn’t have happened. Feel free to email us or comment below. We’ll be updating our blog and the kids will have some entries, too.

For now, Bon Nuit!