Living in Paris

Khrysta's mother, Marjorie, passed away unexpectedly in late January, 2021. For some time before, Khrysta and Marjorie had been planning a surprise trip to Orlando for the whole family to enjoy. Then COVID hit and the trip was put on hold. After she passed, Khrysta shared with Vince the big secret and they talked about it.

The last big trip Marjorie and Khrysta took together was to Paris in 2015. It was a dream come true for Marjorie. They had the time of their lives in Paris and Marjorie often talked about the experience with great fondness.

Over the years, Marjorie also often talked of when she was growing up, she had cousins with a father who was a professor and they would take these amazing extended trips all over the world during his sabbatical years. She expressed how great it was for her cousins to grow up with a broad worldview. Khrysta also felt that was a great gift your could give your children.

So - as much as Khrysta loved Orlando, she remembered how much Marjorie loved Paris and how much she wanted her grandkids to have global opportunities. She thought, what a great tribute to my mother it would be to go to Paris instead of Orlando. As Khrysta started looking at options in Paris, she quickly saw that it wouldn't cost much more to stay in Paris for a much longer time than the 2 weeks her and Marjorie had originally planned for Orlando.

So now, almost 1 1/2 years later and a great deal of planning - we are spending our summer in Paris. For Marjorie and many more reasons.

I found a lovely house in the 15th arrondissement through VRBO.

I wanted a 4 bedroom in a residential (non-tourist area) neighborhood, a good kitchen, and in Paris proper. I also wanted a home office space in case Vince had to bring work with him. Ideally, I wanted to rent a home and not a glorified hotel. But I also didn't want to rent a space that was overloaded with the personal belongings of the owner. This was a tall order and it took a while to find that but my persistence paid off. As an added bonus, what I found was a house instead of an apartment, so we also have some outdoor space and nobody above or below us. Also, we have a pretty nice workout room, which Vince and the kids are excited about.

Fears of being scammed and ending up in Paris with no place to stay also led me to pay the extra cost of booking through VRBO. I still have small nagging fears that this amazing home we have been looking so forward to living in will turn out to be a fantasy, but at least I have guarantees from VRBO that we won't be stranded and left to fend for ourselves.

-Khrysta