While we’re traveling/en route back to the US, I’ve scheduled a couple posts summing up our year in Paris. Today: excerpts from my daily journal.

One of the ways I documented this year was through “one sentence per day” journaling. (Disclaimers: (1) The idea only occurred to me in September, so I don’t have sentences describing the whole year. (2) I’m flexible on the one-sentence policy. Sometimes I write two. And sometimes I use semicolons, dashes, and parentheses to get the most bang for my literary buck.)

Anyway, it was a super low-commitment way to document the last four months of our year, and I love rereading the sentences, which are sometimes totally mundane and sometimes amusing. I highly recommend sentence-per-day journaling if you, like me, are lazy but sentimental. Here is a small sampling of my favorites:

• Sept. 17: I went to a French conversation group and, surprisingly, had a really good time!
• Sept. 22: I had a whole order of escargots to myself at dinner, and it was wonderful.
• Sept. 24: There were three American Elizabeths at French class today.
• Oct. 14: The waiters recognized us at Au Bourguignon.
• Oct. 15: It’s 80 degrees again in Paris! Like second summer!
• Oct. 18: Whew, French class is getting harder—where did all the beginners go??
• Oct. 24: Ben was in Paris for an audition today, so we went back to Le Loir Dans La Théière for the second day in a row.
• Nov. 6: Welcome to Amsterdam! Don’t get run over by a bike.
• Nov. 10: We spent 1.5 hours in Cologne, Germany, today, culminating with a post-beer sprint back to the train station.
• Nov. 13: One of my favorite things is running along the Seine with Colin.
• Nov. 15: Beaujolais Nouveau—il est arrive!
• Nov. 27: The head waiter at Au Bourguignon still recognized us, even after three weeks away.
• Dec. 5: First day at French class in three weeks, and it was not great… but not as awful as sometimes?
• Dec. 12: A pigeon flew into my head today. It was only a matter of time.
• Dec. 18: I’m too short to reach the sugar cubes on the top shelf at the grocery store, even in my boots.
• Jan. 3: Well, we bought tickets back to the US in February—but also to Morocco!
• Jan. 10: Today I timed my run along the Seine so that I could watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle on the hour, but I left a little too late and had to run fast to catch it. Whew!
• Jan. 23: For some reason Laurine decided to focus on the subjunctive and conditional tenses today, which was awful because those are the two I’d decided to ignore.
• Jan. 28: Had to say goodbye to Netherlands Elizabeth and British Vicki at French class today. I’m really going to miss the group—they’re friends.
• Jan. 30: I can’t believe we just ate our last dinner at Au Bourguignon, our last escargots and boeuf bourguignon and  duck parmentier and crème brulée. It was so sad, but so delicious as always.
• Jan. 31: Alors, on part. (Well, here we go.)

So there you have it—c’est la vie parisienne, in a handful of sentences. Sometimes frustrating, sometimes hilarious, usually wonderful, and always full of food. Plus pigeons.