Next Time Around

With our departure only four days away, it's high time we embarked on some retrospection. There's no disputing that we had an amazing year, that we learned a lot, and that we're satisfied with our experience. Still, if we ever have the opportunity to do it all over again, there are a few things we'd do differently.

1. Subscribe to a French newspaper or news journal.
2. Watch more French TV.
3. Go to the movies more often.
4. Plan more trips during the winter, fewer during the spring.
5. Take more day trips around France.
6. Write down the schedules of local food boutiques (for a long time we always thought to go to the fromagerie on days when it was closed), try to buy food from them whenever possible, and budget the added cost (because it can get quite expensive if you shop there regularly).
7. Get year-long passes to the Louvre (which cost only 30 euros if you're under 30 and which let you bring one guest for free per pass) and the Centre Pompidou (only 27 euros, which is more than paid for by three visits - and exhibitions change every few months).
8. See what it's like to live outside of Paris, maybe even outside the metropolitan area. 
9. Dedicate time to creating a children's book called "Panda à Paris" in which Panda has a series of adventures around the city. The plot line is still in the development stage, but we have a lot of faith in the premise.