Life’s hard, and then you die, and troubles and tragedies will find you, no matter where you are, so it is always better to be where you feel at home in your heart. And in 2019, I wanted to go home.

I lived and worked in Paris from 2008 to 2014 (excluding an intermezzo). And it was a good life, and I made that iconic city my home. So my soul-big-city-home is still Paris, for better, for worse, until something new comes along to replace it.

There are so many books about Paris in English, and we all have our favorites. These five books are some of my favorites written about Paris. Hemingway may be a bit outdated, but in my world, no list is complete without him. Whether you are an armchair traveler or planning a trip, these books are excellent depictions.

Some say that Hemingway has many flaws. But when these people mention his flaws, they mention flaws in his private life, character, and convictions. But as a writer, his flaws are hard to find.

Some claim Denmark and France are gender-equal and law-abiding nations. I beg to differ, and I do so based on experiences and what I have learned over the years in several apartment buildings in Paris and Denmark.

Of all the places I have lived in my adult life, the best was the Marais. So I reserve the right to remember and idolize the place, covering up the bad days with the candy floss veil of time. Despite the price level, the lack of greenery, and the almost stale air in the summer, it is a people magnet…

Montmartre, also known as La Butte (The Hill), is most often associated with the artists who lived and worked here from the 18th century until the 1920s. But this unique and colorful neighborhood has much more to offer than days gone by.

In the '00s, the French state desperately needed to kick their linguistically behind nation into the 21st century. Hence, the jobs in the Parisian language schools were plenty, and they would hire just about anyone, including me.

What is a court ruling worth in France? Nothing, it seems. In France, a court can order you to pay a fine, but nothing happens if you don’t pay. At least, that’s the reality of the French legal system as I have come to know it.

On Wednesday, August 3rd, 2022, after two years and eight months, I got the rest of my deposit back from my Parisian landlord of 2019. The fine the judge ordered the landlord to pay has not been paid yet, more than 4000 €, and the French huissier de justice I hired to deal with this has not returned my latest inquiries.  

I thought renting an apartment via a huge and long-established rental agency would be the financially safest when I went to Paris in 2019. I was wrong. It is now two years and seven months since I moved out of an apartment in Paris, and I still don’t have the money the court declared in January 2022 that I was owed.

I was delighted when I got the French court's Aye that my former landlord should pay me the rest of my deposit with two years of interest. After two years of paperwork, courts, and significant expenses, it was a happy ending to a awful apartment situation in Paris. Or so I thought.

In life, you lose nonstop – youth, looks, money, friends, illusions. But sometimes, you win in court. And so, after two years of paperwork and courtrooms, on January 28, 2022, a French court ordered my former 2019 Paris landlord to return my full security deposit, plus two years’ interest.

The schedules in these schools left you with lots of free time on your hands between classes to explore every corner of the city. You quickly got to know it by heart, every street and alley, and you could survive on the salary and just live, if you lived prudently.