http://parisbynumbers.com The Insiders guide to visiting, living and working in Paris Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:24:48 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Ernest Hemingway arrived in Paris in 1921, aged only 22 years old. Then a budding journalist and short-story writer, and recently married to older wife Hadley, Hemingway moved into a small flat at 74 Rue du Cardinal Lemoine, just north of the tiny Place de la Contrescarpe in the 5th ... http://parisbynumbers.com/2008/05/23/ernest-hemingway-in-paris/ It's certainly a wacky idea: each summer the 'Paris Plage' project brings the beach to the city by laying some 2000 tonnes of sand straight on top of Paris' busy riverside motorway. Eccentric, for sure - and yet it works, and it works a dream. Since it's launch in 2002, ... http://parisbynumbers.com/2008/05/13/paris-plage/ George Orwell moved to Paris in the spring of 1928, taking up a room in a small hostel in the Latin Quarter, at 6 Rue du Pot de Fer. Aged 24, The young Eric Blair (Orwell's real name) had moved across the channel to concentrate fully on his fledgling writing ... http://parisbynumbers.com/2008/05/13/george-orwell-in-paris/ Bastille Day is a big deal in Paris - each year on the 14th July the city grinds to a halt to celebrate France's National Holiday. Known in France as the 'Fete de la Bastille', or more colloquially as 'quatorze juillet' (the fourteenth of July), the event comemorates the destruction ... http://parisbynumbers.com/2008/05/12/celebrate-bastille-day-in-paris/ 'Nuit Blanche' is an all-night urban arts festival that takes place in Paris every year on the first Saturday of October. There's no true English translation for Nuit Blanche: literally 'White Night', it's the French phrase for staying up until the early hours - and the official Nuit Blanche festival sees ... http://parisbynumbers.com/2008/05/11/paris-nuit-blanche/ The carte de sejour is the official residency permit for all visitors to Paris who intend to stay in France for longer than ninety days, or who intend to take up paid work during their visit. No longer required by EU citizens, it is still an absolute obligation for Americans, ... http://parisbynumbers.com/2008/05/04/applying-for-a-carte-de-sejour/ Whether you're British, American, Canadian or Australian, you won't need a visa to visit Paris as a tourist. Your passport is perfectly sufficient to gain entry to France, allowing you to stay in the country for up to ninety days within a six month period. Brits, of course, can stay much ... http://parisbynumbers.com/2008/05/03/visas-and-residency-in-france/ Cycling is a great way to see more of Paris - and since July 2007 the ambitious 'Velib' scheme allows anyone to hire a bike straight off the city's street corners. The scheme has made some 20,000 bicycles available for general hire from more than a thousand road-side bike stations, which ... http://parisbynumbers.com/2008/05/03/paris-velib-bike-hire/ The Paris Metro is cheap, fast and practical - all in all, it's by far the best way to get around the city. 14 metro lines connect more than 380 stations, scattered across Paris' twenty arrondissements. The stations are very densely packed throughout the city - some barely a few ... http://parisbynumbers.com/2008/05/01/paris-metro-system-overview/ A one way ticket on the metro now costs €1.50, allowing for one journey to any point on the network (and including any necessary connections). A better option is to buy in bulk - ask for a carnet (pronounced 'car-nay') and you'll receive ten tickets at a discounted rate of ... http://parisbynumbers.com/2008/04/30/paris-metro-tickets-and-fares/