The Travelers

What are the world travelers up to today?  This is the seventh day of our France/Italy wandering. That can mean only one thing.... it's laundry day.  We've learned from our last three years of being nomads that it is important to take a day off every now and then.  It's cold and rainy today in Paris.  That makes it the perfect day to kick back and do life chores.

The new AirBnB we moved to yesterday is a comfortable 6th floor apartment.  Here is a lesson we learned yesterday, the 6th floor is really on the 7th floor.  Parisians count the ground floor as a zero (0), therefore a 6th floor apartment is really up seven flights of stairs.  Where is the elevator, you might ask?  Most buildings in Europe were built long before elevators were invented.

So it's simple, just climb 104 steps and you have arrived.  Remember we each have a backpack and small suitcase.   Somewhere between steps 90 and 104 a small suitcase doubles in weight.  Truth.

Looking down seven floors of spiral staircase.

Now as you may know I have one metal knee replacement.  This makes me an expert on step construction.  Many steps are built with bad engineering and are difficult to climb.  I have to say that the engineering on these 104 spiral steps are amazingly easy to climb.  They remind me of the steps we have climbed in American lighthouses.

Here's my review on the AirBnB's we have stayed in so far.  Each is an individually owned home or apartment so they vary in design, taste and what you get for your money.  You get a private bedroom and you get to share the kitchen, living and dining rooms with your host.  Each host we have met has been welcoming and fun to talk with.  Our current host is a medical student from Spain who is studying in Paris.  The last host lady was a ballet dancer.  They are each interesting people to talk with.  We are enjoying this form of accommodations.  I definitely like it better than a hotel.

Terri reading in the living room of the apartment.

Our comfortable bedroom.

The neighborhood view from our seventh floor bedroom.

Tomorrow morning we hop a high speed (200+ MPH) bullet train from Paris to Genoa (Genova) Italy.  We'll spend the next 5 weeks seeing the sites and eating good Italian food.

Life is good as we wander.