If you like cars, here's a selection of a few that you won't find on North American roads. If you don't like cars, you can skip reading this post :)

SEAT Ibiza

Sure, there's Minis everywhere, but a pink covertible?

Bizarre Fiat minivan

Citroen C1

Citroen Xsara

Ford KA

Opel

Alfa Romeo

Citroen C4

I don't know who makes this car, but this is an all electric hourly rental car, like the Zipcar of Paris: AutoLib

Peugeot

An old Citroen

A Ford hardtop convertible! Why aren't these in the US?

Although in general I think the quality of life in Europe is really good, there are a few North American luxuries that I do miss. Namely abundant hot water and reliable apartment heating.

In the first apartment we stayed at in Paris, there was enough hot water for 1 1/2 showers (you would have to wait an hour for more water to heat up) and even with the heating at maximum the apartment could not be warmed up to a comfortable level during the coldest days of winter.  

In our 2nd Parisian apartment we were rationed hot water for the entire day, and although there was enough for 2 1/2 showers, once we used it up (with showers, washing dishes, etc) we wouldn't have any more until the next day. But at least the heating worked well.

In Poland we had plenty of hot water but the heating in our Krakow apartment was not that great, it took the full two days we were there to heat up the apartment to a comfortable temperature.

Finally in our last Parisian apartment we only had enough hot water for a quick shower (and then had to wait 30-45 mins for more) and the heating in the building was turned off once it got warm outside (which would have been fine if it didn't get cold again at night. I guess it had never crossed the building manager's mind that evenings in March could get pretty cold).

Granted, we weren't staying in luxury apartments, but they weren't dumps either. I think these are just luxuries that are overlooked when the wine, food and chocolates are so darn good!

 

While in Europe we had the opportunity to test out the budget airlines. There was a flight from Paris to Krakow for 10€, so why not? Ryanair was having a crazy sale so we jumped on it.

But here's what the sale price does not include:
- Transportation to the airport, which is an HOUR away from Paris, 15€ per person, each way.
- Checked bags, 15€ for the first bag, 25€ if you have a second one. We checked one bag.
- You are limited to one carry-on, no exceptions. So a purse, camera bag, anything, it all counts as a carry-on. It must also weigh less than 10kilo and fit small dimensions. Although the size limit seems to be more flexible than the online rumors indicated.
- Seat assignment, if you want an assigned seat it's extra, if you want to board first, you have to pay extra.
- Food or beverages, all extra.
- Spell your name incorrectly, extra fee to fix it.

I will say that even though the airport is so far away, it's actually less stressful than a regular airport. It's small and not very busy, so the lines were short and security was a breeze.

As long as you take in all the extra fees into account, show up on time, spell your name right, check-in online, prepay for everything, and don't expect stellar customer service, it's not that bad.

One of my favorite walks in Paris is along the Seine river. When it's sunny and warm, this is probably the best way to take in the sights while avoiding the crowds of the bustling streets. 

The river runs right through the middle of the entire city and takes about 90 minutes to walk from one end of the city to the other, but I suggest walking along the North (or "right") bank as there's more of a walkway close to the water.

We got to witness a French couple fight first hand on the weekend and it was straight out of the movies! After a half hour of yelling at each other, with the majority of the yelling coming from the woman, our neighbors opened their door and we started seeing his clothes being thrown out into the hallway!

Of course this happens right when we are planning to leave, so as soon as we saw a break in the flying clothes we made a dash for the stairwell and got the heck out of there :)

We took a walk up to see the Sacré-Coeur on Montmartre on a chilly day in February and discovered a pair of older ladies taking care of a group of 11 cats that live in the park next to the Basilica. The ladies seemed to love the cats very much, even though they claimed that "these cats will be the death of us" :)

In Paris we have no car... that means we have to walk to get our groceries. This might sound like a lot of work, carrying bags and bags of heavy groceries halfway across town.  Except that there is a grocery store every few blocks in Paris. Not huge supermarkets, just small local grocery stores that still seem to carry everything you need. So, since I don't want to carry bags full of food, I just end up popping down to the grocery store every few days to pickup anything else we need, or stopping on the way back home. We end up eating more fresh food (no more frozen stuff), getting more exercise and no longer dread epic grocery store trips. Maybe the tiny Parisian fridges help as well. 

If we are looking for specific Cheese, Meat or Bread, there's also a speciality shop for each of those every few blocks, and the baguettes from the local bakeries are just amazing. The best bread in the world for just 1 Euro :)

Some older apartments in Paris were designed to have a shared bathroom on each floor, not in each apartment. When modernized, the apartments needed to have their own bathrooms but the plumbing in the building wasn't designed for it, so a special kind of "electric" toilet was installed in those units. Our first apartment in Paris had one of these, and although the end result is the same as a regular toilet, you have to use a special kind of toilet paper that comes in individual sheets (around the size of 2 regular toilet paper squares), and you have to be careful not to throw anything into the toilet. 

We arrived in Paris just in time for the Great Cold "Le Grand Froid". Although it's only around -3 Celcius it feels a lot colder, maybe I'm just not used to the cold or maybe it's the humidity level, either way it's really cold and tough to enjoy walks through Paris for more than an hour. But I did end up getting a really nice French sweater (or "Pull" as it's called here) to keep me warm, and it was only 15 Euro!

Last weekend it even snowed a little bit and the Canal St. Martin partially froze, which was actually kinda cool to see. We can't wait for it to warm up a bit, especially since the electrical grid in France is being pushed to the limit so we end up turning down our electric heaters in the evening for a few hours to reduce the strain on the country. 

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After a great week in London, we boarded the Eurostar to Paris. Traveling on the train at 250 MPH was a great way to go and the trip only took 2.5 hours. Unfortunately there was no Wifi on the train and no checked luggage, so the luggage area is a bit of a mess and worrisome that someone could just grab your bag before you get to it. 

We arrived in the afternoon and walked about 10 minutes to our first apartment. As we booked online, we didn't want to commit to a place for the whole month without first seeing it, so we booked our first place for just one week. And a good thing too, the next day we heard a horror story from another traveller who prepaid for a few months and ended up at a terrible apartment she couldn't even stay in (and didn't get her money back).

The apartment is fairly large for Paris, it has a nice bedroom and living room, with 2 desks so we could both have our own workspaces. The kitchen and bathroom on the other hand are a different story, both are very tiny (typical) and not very clean (kinda typical). We may eat out a lot this week as the kitchen is so cramped. But other than that we felt very at home and the owners were very nice and helpful. 

Unfortunately this was going to be the coldest week in Paris, and the next day our pipes froze so we couldn't use the bathroom or any sinks until the plumber arrived in the evening. Everything was then fixed and now things are back to normal.. time to eat some delicious crepes!