Listen to that voice!<\/p>\n I heard it for the first time a few years ago, and a spark of excitement filled my head. I wanted to go somewhere that was totally new, where all of my remaining days would be filled with the sights and sounds of a totally different world, someplace that has fascinated millions of travelers for thousands of years.\n[awesome-gallery id=1350] Norman, Arleen and Bogie. Photo: Shabel Family<\/p><\/p>\n \u201cParis!\u201d my head screamed within itself. Paris, the city of a million sights and smells and romances that have somehow floated away from my life, and my lifelong loving partner of so many years together.<\/p>\n Preparing for our cataclysmic departure to our own version of the \u201cPromised Land\u201d excited and consumed our everyday life. Suddenly, the days of preparation became exhilarating, no\u2014not just exhilarating\u2014electrifying. Every minute of every day in preparing for our exodus from monotony filled our heads and bodies.<\/p>\n We were young again! Like we were when we first joined bodies and souls in the early years of our marriage. Call me a romantic if you must, but suddenly my days, my thoughts, my actions titillated my head and body. My wife of 40 years suddenly morphed into the young girl that overwhelmed my mind and body so many years ago.<\/p>\n [awesome-gallery id=1359] (Top Left) Caf\u00e9 Restaurant. Paris Tourist Office\/Am\u00e9lie Dupont (Top Right) Mus\u00e9e du Louvre. Paris Tourist Office\/Daniel Thierry\n(Bottom Left) Mus\u00e9e d’Orsay. Paris Tourist Office\/Sarah Sergent (Bottom Right) Parisian shopping. Paris Tourist Office\/St\u00e9phanie Rivoal<\/p><\/p>\n We discussed how we were to go about this life-changing adventure. My wife, Arleen, the mistress of our life\u2019s everyday details, scoured the Internet to find French realtors, charming hotels and researched the districts we wanted to live and enjoy during our Parisian exodus.<\/p>\n No longer did we linger on the minutia of our everyday existence and diary of things to do. We now decided where we wanted to spend the rest of our days in a new, adventurous world of the French Odyssey.<\/p>\n Of course, we were neophytes in traveling and rejoicing in the Parisian world. Arleen had lived and studied in Paris and other parts of France as a young, adventurous woman. I, the devoted husband, had only experienced Paris in the early years of our marriage, with my young wife leading me into the nooks and crannies of French\u00a0life. But Paris was always the bedrock of our cultural cavern.<\/p>\n After garnering all the financial and real estate information that we needed, we flew to Paris, and immediately, my wife had us exploring the avenues we had decided we wanted to inhabit on a permanent basis. Fortunately, we had the help of a true friend, who also happened to be an English-speaking lawyer\u2014a person you must have if you decide to spend your American dollars\/euros in Paris as permanent inhabitants.<\/p>\n By joining intellectual forces, my wife and I discovered that if we utilized our respective talents\u2014legal and financial for me, knowledge of Parisian culture and real estate for Arleen\u2014our total foray into the new world would result in finding the right habitat for the right price. And so it did.<\/p>\n We settled into a two-bedroom, fifth-floor apartment just off the Victor Hugo Circle, a walking mile from the Champs-\u00c9lys\u00e9es and the Arc de Triomphe.<\/p>\n [awesome-gallery id=1364] (Top Left) Rue des Thermopyles.Paris Tourist Office\/Marc Bertrand (Top Right) Open days, Belleville. Paris Tourist Office\/ Am\u00e9lie Dupont (Bottom Left) Rue des Thermopyles. Paris Tourist Office\/Marc Bertrand (Bottom Right) Jardin des Tuileries public garden. Paris Tourist Office\/Am\u00e9lie Dupont<\/p> And yet in spite of the challenges, I enjoyed every day of the nine years we spent splitting time between the United States and Paris.<\/p>\n As semi-permanent residents of Paris, we enjoyed the inner Paris that American travelers rarely enjoy. For example, getting great seats at the ballet or the opera at Paris Opera House, museums with the best temporary exhibits that normal travelers would miss or have to spend hours in line to be admitted, restaurants that catered mostly to Parisians and were rarely mentioned in the guide books and just exploring the ancient streets of an historic city.<\/p>\n Most of all, answering that voice in my head to get out and do something new and exciting led us to discover a Paris we never knew or could possibly have known as two-week visitors. Under Paris Rooftops<\/em><\/a>, our joint love book, encapsulates all the joys and tribulations we experienced during those wonderful years of living in Paris. Even now as I remember the wonderful times we had, I\u2019m hearing a voice calling me to, \u201cGo Back!\u201d I just might have to listen to it\u2014again.<\/p>\n
\nH<\/span>ave you reached a point in your life where you take a step back and say to yourself, \u201cI am tired and bored with my everyday existence. I am financially secure, my marriage to my lovely wife is stable and we have loveable friends and family. But . . . there\u2019s something missing from our daily calendar.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nIt seemed the elevator in the apartment building was installed for \u201clittle people.\u201d The view consisted of looking into our neighbors\u2019 bedrooms across the building\u2019s courtyard, the upstairs neighbor had several small children who apparently played soccer in the apartment on non-school days and my reconstructed bathroom was clearly designed for the same people who would be comfortable in the elevator. Certainly, being the cloddish mechanic that I was, my adventure in using the phone, the fax machine and the television proved to be fitting for a Neil Simon comedy.<\/p>\n