Guest Post: Seven Great Things to Do in Paris for Free

Greetings Readers!

I am, still today, madly typing away at my NaNoWriMo novel. (You can see my progress here.)  I’m also still keeping an eye on the wee ones of Ms MJ, An American Mom in Paris, but only for a couple more days as their departure back to Seattle is imminent, aka next Wednesday. I can’t think too much about that, though, as now that I have gotten to know her kiddos so much better, I’m aching with the idea that I may not ever see them again. MJ has already promised to come back to visit, so I’m not worried about never seeing her again (hee hee).  While this is a very bittersweet time for her, I just wanted to say here how I have enjoyed her presence here in Paris and in the Paris Bloghood. Life will not be ever quite the same without her updates on Paris. She’d better write about re-entry into Seattle, though, or I am going to have to go over there and kick some a**.  Three cheers for the American Mom in Paris! Can I get a holla?!

Onward.

Some of you may remember at the end of this past September, I wrote about how I had a guest post that appeared on the Anytrip.com Blog (UPDATE 25 January 2012: now it’s the HostelBookers.com Blog!). It was the lovely Leah Prendergast who worked with me, asking me to contribute.

I have not used their services, but I have to say that if the interactions I have had with Leah are any indication, HostelBookers.com is a top-notch site from which to book trips and get advice about budget-conscious travel. Hopefully, there will be one day soon when I will be able to avail myself of their services and see some more of Europe using their travel tips and booking services. As a part of that, just so you know, I have in no way been paid or given any other promotional consideration in writing such. That’s just me, from the heart, based on the messages I had going back and forth with Leah and from reading their information on their blog. One of these days I will put up an official “Disclaimers” page that says as much for all my posts. But there you have it: I only put stuff on here where I have somehow had a personal connection with someone, and they seem like they are nice and have something cool to share. That’s it. I get no money from writing here, and I have never been paid to write about how X,Y or Z product or service is a good one.

That said, Leah has been kind enough to write a guest post on “Seven Great Things to Do in Paris for Free.” I’m really thankful to have something to put on the site this month as I am furiously still trying to write about 5,296 more words of my novel, resulting in a decent rough draft from which to create something truly spectacular over the coming months. *cross fingers*

Without further ado, please continue reading about some terrific FREE (ghetto Paris Karin loves FREE) and interesting things to do in Paris. Thank you, Leah!

The End of May, Part Two

The Tour Eiffel – June 7, 2010

With the best of intentions, I hoped to post this at the beginning of last week, but it turns out that it is happening now, just as we are about a week and a half from the end of  June. On the good side of that, I have been busy this past week, and have even more about which to write, and that means this blog is working to the ends for which I started it: to find a deeper, broader life for myself here in Paris. What it also means is that I have less and less time to write and post. Thus is the never-ending blogger’s dilemma: when you have time to write, there is not much to write about, but when you have a lot about which to write, there is less time to do so. It’s a pickle, ain’t it. 🙂

At any rate, without further ado, here is Part Two of The End of May.

I realized, of course, as I was writing this post that it should really be called The Beginning of June (and is now, with situational irony, being posted at the end of June). Ah well, May ended on a Monday and then the rest of the week was June. It all blends and blurs, doesn’t it. To catch you up, if you don’t have time to read the previous post, I wrote about the various adventures I’d had with some of my friends here in Paris. I wrote about my friends with much gratitude. I am sincerely grateful for the friends I have made here so far. I realized as I was writing about the things I had done in those final days of May (and the beginning of June, too) that friendship has really been the best thing about living in a city like Paris. I realize this is pretty much true of all cities and places where we live and breathe and have our being. It is often (and so it should be) the people who are with us and share our lives that have more meaning than any famous museum, pastry, or monument.

Did any of you ever see the movie or read the book Into the Wild? I saw and loved the movie. I remember the ending of the film, for which I will just give the barest details here in case you have not seen it and don’t want the ending spoiled. The protagonist, “Alexander Supertramp” aka Christopher McCandless, writes in a journal of sorts (in the margins of Dr. Zhivago, a little research turns out), “Happiness only real when shared.”

Photo found at mykdh’s tmblr page: Things I Love – January 15, 2010

It is the grand lesson he learns in the story — the moral, if you will.  I find that in my life this is absolutely true. I think one of the reasons I had so much trouble the first year I lived here in Paris was that I really did not have many people with whom I could experience Paris. It’s really not as much fun for me to visit museums and cafés and monuments by myself. It’s just a lot more fun when you have someone to hold your hand, really or metaphorically, while you see and do things. Sure, I have had to “man up” and find my own Paris cojones and get out there to see and do things on my own. I just like it a lot better when there is someone else to do things with.