Living the Expat life in Paris

It has been about ten years since I last went to Paris on holiday!  Some people find it odd that I don't mind revisiting places that I've been to.  I don't find it odd at all!  Big cities have so many things to see and do that you can't see them all on one trip; places change and I and my interests change too.

Anyway, this time round it was very different as my mother and I were visiting my sister and her husband, who are currently working in Paris.  It was an opportunity to experience the life of the expat in Paris.

The Arc de La Defense, from Neuilly-sur-Seine

So first of all, we were not staying in the central Paris area; the Paris planned by Baron Haussman.  We were staying in the prosperous suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, in a small one bedroom apartment within 5 minutes' walk from my sister's apartment (rented off AirBnB).

It's also a straight metro ride to the centre of Paris, and to my sister's office in the La Defense area - Paris' business district.  We paid a visit to La Defense, sat beneath the arc, visited the local Decathlon and walked around the towering, modern office blocks in the area.  It's a totally different Paris! There's also residential blocks in this area, but we were glad that my sister had chosen to stay in the quieter, more traditional Neuilly area.

Trompe L'Oeil wall, Neuilly-sur-Seine

Here, the houses are the traditional 6 to 7 floors high.  What was once an old house has now been divided up into apartments (about two per floor) typically with a caretaker staying on the ground floor.  There are typically shops on the ground floor too - a florist, or baker, or butcher.  You enter through a large front door, big enough to drive a car through. As in the old days this would be a carriage, just beyond the entrance there is a smaller yard area where you can find another building which would be the stables.  My sister's apartment is on the sixth floor, with lovely views over the area.  Our apartment was over the stables, with a view of the yard.  But very quiet, with no traffic noises.

We spent our first day in Paris mostly walking around La Defense and here in Neuilly-sur-Seine.  Whilst there are quite a few restaurants in the vicinity, we typically had nice home cooked dinners most nights.  The local supermarkets are just nearby and there's also this frozen food paradise called Picard (the ultimate in quality and convenience).  We bought our bread from the bakery, our other breakfast items and fruit from the either the supermarket or the little shop at the corner, which was open all hours (run by migrants of course).

Eglise de St Pierre

There are also a number of churches in the area - St Peter's, St John the Baptist.  Handy to get to for Sunday mass.  But we didn't go to either!  Instead we went to the English language church in Paris, St Joseph's (apologies, I forgot to take photos here). It is a smaller, intimate and more modern little church with a very diverse and cosmopolitan congregation.  Including of course all the Singaporeans!  So it was that when we went over for Sunday mass, my mum met two people she knew from our parish back in Singapore.  They too had moved over to France...

For the rest of this trip, we would be visiting many, many more churches.  My mother had decided on a "DIY Pilgrimage" and so we had listed down all the major Catholic sites to see in Paris, plus a few others to visit on day trips.  I'll be slowly covering our visit in my next few posts.

In the meantime, check out this France album for all my shots this trip.