June 2010.  Clair and I take the train from the Paris Gare de Lyon on June 9 to meet up with the Ile de France Walks hiking group for 4 days of hiking and sightseeing around Marseilles and the limestone bluffs and canyons known as the Calanques.
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Looking toward the Calanque de Port-Miou.  To view the complete Album #1 click here.
 
 
We arrived back in Sacramento December 5.  Our home seems so big!  So much stuff.  I'm thinking how well we did with 4 suitcases worth of belongings and a modestly furnished apartment during our year overseas. And here, we have roomful after roomful, closet after closet, of clothes, linens, files, books, office supplies, and odds and ends, clearly not essential to everyday life.  I began sorting and filling bags and boxes to donate to charity.
 
 
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Report #14 - We make the rounds and say good-bye to our favorite Paris haunts. Click here.
 
 
Renting an apartment from across the ocean, site unseen, takes a good dose of faith. Can we ever be sure that the website and photos paint the whole picture? What if the room sizes have been overstated? The outside traffic noise never lets up?  The entryway is dark and smelly?  We were so lucky with ours - but we've heard horror stories!

Then I thought: maybe there is a service here that someone like moi could perform.  I will check out Paris apartments. Corporations and universities have staff who do this for the people they send overseas, but what about vacationers, especially non French-speaking?  One can cancel hotel nights if you're not happy. For a vacation rental, once you've arrived, it's darn near impossible, without forfitting your entire prepaid rent.

The ideas germinated.  I gathered information, read reviews and compared website hosting sites, visited apartments, and, the most time consuming part: mulling things over.  What should the name be.  Paris Check Out or CheckOut? Settled on Paris CheckOut.  Got the basics up and published one day after signing up at Weebly.
 
 
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Report #14 - Let them eat Chocolate. Click here.
 
 
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Report #13 - End of summer. Click here.
 
 
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Report #12 - Manor homes, jazz, tourist train, Percheron Festival. Lots to see and do, yet Lower Normandy in August seemed almost deserted. Click here.
 
 
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Report #11 - Paris Air Show, Nuit de la Musique, north to Boulogne, Tour de France. Click here.
 
 
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Report #10 - We rent a farmhouse and a car, and explore Roussillon and the hilltop villages of Provence.  Click here.
 
 
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Report #9 - The Promenade Plantee, gardens at Versailles, Obama Art.  Click here.