C.1: My side of town...

Luckily for me, my host mother offered to show me around my neighborhood and explained what there is to do and what's nearby. She also took me to dinner then suggested showing me some places herself so as to work off and digest out rather large (and quite delicious) meal. During our walk she explained that we lived in a rather quiet area. It was mostly older people, but in recent years it's become "younger" but if I wanted to see any action I would fin that more towards the Montparnasse tower, which is a 10 minute walk away from my apartment. We passes by lots of specialty stores such as artisan bread shops, cheese shops, and an independent film cinema that also housed the restaurant we dined in and a bar that has live entertainment weekly. She showed me some stores to get gifts and a place to get my nails done. She also showed me the rather large and long bike path behind our apartment but didn't really recommend riding a bike unless I was a Parisian because it can be tricky to navigate where I can and can't ride if there isn't a specific bike path. A few days later, Katelyn came to my neck of the woods and we decided to make the walk to Montparnasse station where she would be meeting friends later. On the short walk over, we discovered a while new world from my sleepy area of town. There were tons of restaurants, a cool water feature in the middle of a traffic circle and while crossing the street, the Eiffel Tower just popped up out of no where. It was crazy to think that all this was in and around my area just in another direction. Even though my host lady told me that there was a much more exciting part of town just a short walk away, looking at a map it seems much further. I guess she was right all along and I should have put on my walking shoes and headed that way sooner.