An Abundance of Free Time

Before we moved to France, whenever we told someone that we would be moving to Paris for Rory's work, I was inevitably asked the question, “So what are you going to do there?” I would usually smile sheepishly and say, “I have no idea!” and then elaborate on what I might do with all my free time (since I can't legally work until I have my residence permit, which may be several months). Anyone who knows me probably knows that free time was a foreign concept to me. Rory had to persuade me not to teach cello lessons on the weekends or after 7 pm, and any time that wasn't spent teaching was usually spent on Baha'i activities like serving on the Local Spiritual Assembly and participating in neighborhood community building. It's not that I didn't want free time, it's just that there were too many good causes to support.


To be honest, having nothing but free time in a new city and country is a somewhat terrifying prospect. To not have the consistency of getting out of the apartment every day, and to not have specific projects for which I am held accountable, means that there are some days when I stand on our balcony and gaze out at the bustling street below, and then decide to spend the rest of the day at home. As I wrote three and a half weeks ago when Rory first started his job,


“Being unfamiliar with my surroundings, the timid, small town girl in me would have been completely content to stay at the apartment doing laundry and watching episodes of “Jane the Virgin” until Rory returned. Paris is an amazing city, don't get me wrong, but the throngs of people all saying things I can't understand, the irrepressible fear that someone will steal my purse...these things make it scary to tackle the city on my own.”


On that day three and a half weeks ago, I'm proud to say that I was writing those thoughts not in our apartment but in a gluten-free cafe called My Free Kitchen. I steeled my resolve and trekked to this cute cafe where I deliberately ate very slowly, not just to make the delicious blueberry almond cake last longer, but also to give my nerves a chance to calm down. It was a relatively easy walk, only 30 minutes and almost a straight shot from our place, but I was nervous nonetheless. No one messed with me, no one even talked to me, it was all fine, but I couldn't shake the nervousness.

GF blueberry cake from My Free Kitchen on my first solo outing

Fortunately, that successful first solo outing gave me the courage to explore other new places in the city by myself. I have visited several of the surprisingly numerous gluten-free cafes, I've gone to the bank and the post office and the town hall to conduct important business (speaking in French, I might add!), I even went for an early morning run to see new parts of my neighborhood.

Hôtel de Ville, Paris' City Hall

A large part of the rest of my time has been spent working on learning French, cooking and baking in our tiny kitchen, reading and writing (Harry Potter in French is a fun way to learn new words), meeting friends-of-friends, and finding groups to join on Meetup. This week I went to a meeting of the Trailing Spouses group at a coffee shop next to the river Seine and found a bunch of lovely American, British, and Australian women to chat with. Just before that, I registered for a French conversation group at the Cercle International de l'ARC (I had an interview in French! It was terrifying!).

Harry Potter at the Wizard School

Hogwarts is called Collège Poudlard. *Giggle*

All this is to say that I am finding fun and productive ways to use my free time. Without the extreme demands on my time and energy, I am finding that I can be more creative and more open to new experiences. I am standing at a crossroads, with paths branching off in all different directions, and I get to choose which paths to follow. It's an exciting prospect.