Paris: Nov.14-20

Nathan was visiting a professor at the Université de Paris 13em for three days. We did not hesitate at all to make it into a one-week trip. I was excited to see La Tour Eiffel again (Wow, it has been 12 years!), and most importantly walk Chana in Paris!

We decided to stay in Montparnasse, where we found a small hotel called Hotel Acacia St. Germain which allowed (welcomed!) Chana. In Paris, dogs were allowed on the metro unlike Lyon, but as Chana got a little too excited on the moving sidewalk on the first day and left a nice souvenir, I decided that we should be outside as much as we can.

On Monday, Chana and I spent almost 6 hours staring at the Eiffel Tower, from a café, a park, underneath the tower, and another café waiting for Nathan. It was not enough tower gazing, so we went back again on Wednesday this time with Nathan, where we saw lucky Parisien dogs running off leash in the park in front of the tower. We saw a Great Dane or two from a distance. Small apartments in Paris and Great Danes do not go well together, so they must live in a mansion, they must.

Another favourite location for us was Le Jardin du Luxembourg. It is the largest public park in Paris, and to my surprise dogs are not allowed in the most of the area. We enjoyed the first walk without knowing the rule, the second walk involved some conversations with a guard, and the third time we behaved ourselves. Paris is contaminated with dog pollution, and I do not blame the most of the sights became dog-unfriendly. However, people still love dogs. Paradox.

During our stay, we were again in boulangerie heaven. The best one amongst I tried is Jean Noël Julien. We did not do much fancy dinings in Paris, but La Grande Epicerie Paris at Le Bon Marché provided us a nice take out meal one night. It was probably more expensive than sitting at a restaurant, but it was delicious. Nagoya, a Japanese restaurant, had a really good "Oyako Don (chicken and egg served on rice)," which was the first Japanese meal we have had so far in France.

Some dog-less visits were made to the Cathedral de Notre Dame and Le Louvre. We decided to do only one wing of the Louvre and we promised we will be back before too long.

Carte de Sejour

We were so anxious to receive our Carte de Sejour, which gives us not only a legal status to live in France but also to get a cell phone with some companies, as you already know ;).

1) August 17th: We applied for our Carte de Sejour. It feels like a long time ago now.

2) October 5th: Our Récépissés arrived. We were originally told that they would arrive in 10 days, but took 7 weeks.

3) October 14th: I received an invitation to the medical check up at OFII (Office Français de l'immigration et de l'intégration). Nathan's did not come, but we were in "Que sera, sera" mode, and did not worry so much.

4) October 28th: By this time, we were quite worried why Nathan has not received his medical invitation.

5) October 29th: I decided to call OFII and find out what was going on. The person on the phone says, "Oh, he is supposed to be here today." I turned blue, and I regretted that I had not called them earlier. The OFII person kindly arranged his appointment on the same day as mine, and had the letter sent to home address instead of his employer. We have not yet seen this letter which his employer "received" after we contacted them. (To clarify: Nathan works for a university at this moment, but his office is located somewhere else.)

6) October 30th: Nathan received his invitation to OFII at home. The contents of his and mine are quite different. Mine specified that I needed to show my French competency and a will to integrate into the French society, etc. Nathan's requested that he brought his X-ray. We suspected that there had been another letter that had been sent to Nathan beforehand, which is probably sitting at someone's desk.

7) November 8th - Morning: We showed up at OFII at 8:30, where I was escorted to one room and Nathan waited in the lobby. A French-English interpreter came in and offered assistance. I thought that would be a good idea, so I raised my hand. There were about ten people in the room, and I happen to be the only one who needed language assistance. After a social worker explained what we were doing that day, I was called to another room where I sat with an OFII officer and the interpreter. I agreed to attend two days of orientation sessions where I will be informed of French legal systems and so on. I also agreed to take the French test, and if judged insufficient, I would be provided with 200 hours of language classes. These three things are mandatory for me to renew my Carte de Sejour next August.

I thought Nathan was doing the same thing in another room, but he needed not to any of that. All he did was his X-ray, a check up by a nurse, and a check up by a doctor. After I got my medical check ups done, I was again called into a room to meet with an OFII officer. She gave me the document which stated my medical check up had been done, and another letter stating when I should go take my French test. She gave me a nice OFII folder with a pamphlet on French society which I will need for the orientation days.

8) ) November 8th - Afternoon: We headed to the Prefecture. There was no line up, but a lot of people had been waiting to do their business (half of them immigration reasons, and the other half vehicle registrations). First, we bought 340 Euros worth of stamps. Then we waited an hour and half for our number to be called. We presented our medical document, récépissés, and the stamps. Five minutes later, we had our Carte de Sejour. I was hoping it would be a size of a credit card, but it is twice the size. My permanent resident card in Canada is quite intricate so that it is hard to forge. I wonder if no one tries to forge Carte de Sejour...

The biggest mistake we made was that we did not bring our new home contract with us. Our Carte de Sejour had our old address. So on the next day, we were back at the Prefecture again and spent good two hours waiting for a five minute session. The officer printed out a sticky label and put it over the old address and stamped it. C'est tout.

Now we are two happy foreigners living in France :).

Hooray!

So many things have happened since the last entry, and here is a digest version.

1) We got our Carte de Sejour. It happened on November 8, which means it took less than three months all together. This means we can travel outside of France.

2) We moved into our new appartment. This also happened on November 8. We will report on our IKEA and Carrefour experience.

3) We just came back from visiting Paris for a week. Nathan was working with a prof at Paris 13th University for a few days, so Chana and I joined him and explored the city.

4) We now have Internet at home! Finally, our living standard is up to par. Oh, this feels good.

Ah, this feels good.

Lyon (Oct 30-Nov 1): Visits

The city centre of Lyon is on a peninsula, in between two rivers Saône and Rhône. Our hotel was conveniently located on the west of Rhone, it only took 10 minutes or so to get to the city centre. Despite the rainy weather, we walked everywhere on Sunday, as we found out dogs are not welcomed on the metro. The district Le Croix Rousse was on the top of a small hill. To get there, we took Montée de la Grande Côte, a long stairway. Unfortunately this was the last picture I took before the rain, before Chana turned into a wet mop.

Monday, la fête de la Toussaits, turned out to be a beautiful day. We crossed Rhône, passed the city centre, and crossed Saône to entre Vieux Lyon. The building in the far back, is Basilique Notre Dame de Fourvière. We were going to take a cable car to get there, but again dog was not welcomed. So our morning hike began!

I did not grow up with Asterix, so I cannot explain who the Gaul is and what the main plot is. Well, I guess I need to read the comic as well as review my world history textbook before I visit any other cities in Europe! Lyon was founded as a Roman colony in 43BC. Hence, our visits included "Amphythéâtre Romain" in Fourvière. In the summer time, this Amphythéâtre is used for music concerts. I wonder if anyone would come wearing a toga or not. On the day before in the city centre, we also found "Amphythéâtre des Trois-Gaules," where the first Christian Martyrs were executed. Hmmm. Bloody.

After half a day of walking up and down the stairways, walking through traboules, Chana was more than happy to have a little break at a boulangerie, where Nathan and I enjoyed a awfully pink praline brioche. It was delicious!