Eighth Year in Paris – From Heaven to Earth

It's unbelievable, but today is the eighth anniversary of my moving to Paris. Therefore, today, as every year, we want to summarize the last year and make a general situation assessment. Eighth Year in Paris I wanted to publish a general situation assessment, make a note of my personal history, and share with you my experiences, thoughts and impressions as someone who lived in Paris for eight years. Of course, while reading this article, I wrote A Year in Heaven, Second Year in Heaven, Third Year in Heaven, Fourth Year in Heaven, Fifth Year in Heaven, Sixth Year in Heaven ve Seventh Year in Heaven It is necessary to read my articles so that you can better understand how I came to this day, my current mood, and the change/transformation in my world of thought...

While all my previous articles were "heaven" articles, why this time? Seventh Year in Paris – From Heaven to Earth I said, and I will explain it in the later parts of the article. And the extraordinary situation we are going through right now. Covid-19 – Coronavirus This article will be an evaluation of the last year, as independent as possible from the mood that these days have brought upon us, and within this framework, a summary of the eight years I spent in Paris. What happened to my paradise, what changed in Paris, what happened to me; I will try to explain them. Of course, I will also talk about current situations. If you want, let's start from there first:

It started in China and spread all over the world in a short time. Covid-19 Coronavirus The epidemic also took effect in France in the first half of March 2020, and as in all parts of the world, it caused great losses here, first by one or two, then by five or ten, and in a short time by reaching a hundred thousand deaths. Developments on this subject SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT About COVID-19 Coronavirus and Pariste.Net I tried to give it in detail in the article, so I don't want to repeat it here. In summary, we are all stuck in our homes and trying to continue our lives as normal. Since we are in more or less similar situations, I won't go into too much about my personal experiences on this subject. We can say that the same is true for you.

I can say that the reason why this article is titled Eighth Year in Paris, not Eighth Year in Heaven, is because many unpleasant situations happened in the last year, which started to give signals two years ago. Inevitably, one cannot enjoy Paris, which is such a heavenly place, and has to face the facts. Since I am always honest with you, I am not going to hide the mood I have been in in the last year. It is not a transition from heaven to hell, but confronting the facts, accepting the truth as it is, in a sense, "descent from heaven to earthI can describe it as ".

Eight years ago today, on March 26, 2012, on the first evening of my arrival in Paris, I fell asleep and woke up in a dream the next morning, and that dream lasted for years. Normally people lose this mood within the first few months, but mine lasted for years. I think it gave little signals as of 2018, 2019 was quite annoying and now Paris in the Time of CoronaIt caused me to wake up from my sweet sleep by experiencing . First, with the currency crisis, there was a decrease in the number of people coming to Paris from Turkey; Even if there were people coming, they could not move as freely as before because their budgets were limited. Later Yellow Vest Protests demonstrations and marches began to be held in Paris every Saturday, and this continued for more than a year. Just when they thought they were over, it started in France in December 2019. general strike It also negatively affected life in Paris and this lasted for about two months. And finally Covid-19 Coronavirus With the epidemic, life came to a complete halt.

In other words, in the last two years or so, these crisis periods have been following each other so many times that while I was saying "let this end and it will be alright", "let this end and this will be alright", one ended and the other started, and in this process, among all my work, I was working at the crisis management center, I found myself operating as an emergency support call center. While I was already complaining about working in an endless pace every day, including hours of blog updates, responding to questions, and social media posts, I also had to spend hours on the internet in an effort to help, guide, and find solutions to people affected by these crises. Although other crises, except the last one, did not directly affect me, I had to constantly follow the developments, answer questions and find solutions to problems so that no one would be victimized. You can find the developments regarding the general strike at this link., Updates on Coronavirus from this link You can get an idea about what I'm dealing with by following me.

People who read about me He knows very well that I am Since January 2014, my only job is in Paris.Net. I don't have any other source of income, and I don't have time to deal with another source of income anyway. While until a year ago he was a self-sufficient person who was content with what he earned and was happy, it was impossible for Pariste.Net not to be negatively affected, like every organization affected by the problems experienced by the tourism sector. Since I only survive on advertising revenues and do not have the support of any institution or organization, I was also very affected by all the negativities. We were somehow managing until now, but when the Coronavirus case broke out on top of the general strike, all sources of income were cut off and there was no point in working so hard and running around. Life has already stopped all over the world, no one has the opportunity to travel.

I don't know how long this will last, but during this unpleasant period, I decided to devote my time to writing my Paris book, which I haven't been able to start for a long time due to lack of time. On March 20, 2020, I finally started writing the book. The photo you see above was taken on the first day to keep the memory while writing the first lines. All the photos you see in this article are memories of the eighth year in Paris and each photo has a long story. Still, I will try to summarize. Yes, I have finally started the book I wrote about Paris. If it were up to me, I would be a novel I wanted to write, but my readers insisted on asking me to Paris Guide They wanted me to write. “There is something written on the internet; More than 500 articles I wrote and constantly updated on Pariste.Net When I asked, "Why is it not enough for you? :)" everyone said that they were tired of printing out the articles. As for me, the articles on the internet edit and Because I find making a book too simple and I don't like it, A book that tells you how to tour Paris step by step while reading a story set in Paris. I decided to write. Its difference from other novels and other guides, A Paris novel in the footsteps of Pariste.Net So it's going to happen. Let's see if I can finish it, will it be the way I want it to be, and most importantly, will you like it, will it be useful for you? Time will show that. For some reason I don't ask if it will be published; It seems to me that writing is more important than printing. We will see the results together. Let these photographs and my notes remain as memories; In the future, we will look back and remember these days together.

Apart from these, let's see how the past year has been: On April 15, 2019, Notre Dame Cathedral burned down! It's an incredible thing, but we all watched the 850-year-old cathedral burn. Afterwards, my impressions from the surroundings: in the Notre Dame video you see above. I shared it with you. The cathedral will be closed for restoration for about five years, imagine…

One of the memories that I cannot forget in May 2019 is the event we held in the garden of the French Consulate General - French Cultural Center in Istanbul. .Net meeting in Paris happened. I had been coming to Istanbul secretly lately, but somehow it turned out that I would come to Istanbul before that time, and upon popular demand, I agreed to organize a Pariste.Net meeting at the last minute. Frankly, I was very hesitant. Because I didn't have the time or energy to undertake an organization, I couldn't predict who would come and who wouldn't, but around fifty valuable people attended the meeting we held at the last minute. It was one of the most unforgettable, emotional moments of my life. Thanks to you, I realized how right I was doing, how I reached good people, and what kind of hearts I found. Thank you very much (You can find photos and comments of the meeting at these links: Pariste.Net Meeting May 2019-1, Pariste.Net Meeting May 2019-2, Pariste.Net Meeting May 2019-3).

Those who know me and follow my annual general situation assessment articles know very well that I do not miss Istanbul very much and the reasons for this. Because the Istanbul that I missed does not exist today, I keep saying that my visits to Istanbul make me sad, but I must admit that after eight years, for the first time in May 2019, Istanbul looked even more beautiful to me :) When I went to visit my parents, who were at their summer house in Saroz, they were more beautiful. I got hooked. Of course, I always loved them, thank God, I had a happy and beautiful childhood, but when a person grows up and starts to make his own way, he flies away from home little by little, and breaks away from his ties while building a new and completely different life for himself, you know, subtly; In my views that time, I became attached to my parents in a different way again; It's like I've never been to Paris, I've always been there... It was very difficult to leave them this time, That's why I had a hard time returning to Paris; first time...

From the second half of June 2019 to the second half of July 2019, I had to spend a full month at home because I had to have an eye surgery. During this period, I did not say anything to anyone; especially on social media so as not to worry my family. I'm going on a one-month digital detox I made an announcement and asked everyone for a month off. Fortunately, the surgery was successful; Moreover, a month's rest was very good for me. At that time, my doctor banned me from looking at the screen for a month. I couldn't even read a book, I only listened to music and talked on the phone with friends and family. At the end of a month, I returned to life very vigorously, but during this period, La Fête de la Musique – Festival of MusicI was sorry I missed it. My dream for years was to sing somewhere on this special evening, but what can we do? Chorale de Paris He took the stage instead of me.

Between us, the summer of 2019 was very good. The weather was summer-like in Paris this summer, and it even got quite hot for a while. I worked hard and produced lots of content. For example, the day the photo above was taken, Paris Beaches promotional video It was from the day I took it. In the past, we could not wear shorts for such a long time in Paris, fortunately, I had the opportunity to wear a lot of shorts in the summer of 2019. Shorts mean summer and nice weather for me. Paris Beaches I say, but I didn't have the opportunity to put my feet in the sea this summer, I couldn't create an environment for swimming. For that reason I must admit that I miss the sea very much..

I went to Istanbul again at the end of July. This time the city made me feel worse. I can't tell you how beautiful everything looked. I keep looking, it seems like something has changed, maybe it's me, I don't know. How well everything went, how beautiful every place I went was. I've never been stuck in traffic, I've never met a bad person. Maybe it was the "advertisements", but this time, for the first time in eight years, I did not want to return from Istanbul to Paris. However, as you know, until today, I used to run and fly while returning from Istanbul to Paris.

Especially on the day I shot the Bosphorus video, which you can watch in the video above, I must admit that I was beside myself during my regular city lines trip with scheduled flights. Istanbul hasn't looked this blue and this green for a long time. I had this dream for a long time and my first and only love in life I fell in love with Istanbul once again.

I caught myself thinking that something must happen, something must happen, and I shouldn't go back to Paris, or there must be a way to live both there and here. Of course, when the time came, we had to return to Paris. Normally, when I return from Istanbul holidays, after those beautiful days I spent with many of my beloved friends, family and loved ones in Istanbul, I would experience a feeling of loneliness the day after my return, and this would last for a day at most. This has always been the case for the past seven years, but for the first time, the feeling of loneliness I felt during this return from Istanbul lasted a whole month!

I couldn't get rid of that feeling for about a month; I was missing Istanbul, I was searching for ways to be in Istanbul... Even knowing that I wouldn't be one hundred percent happy when I returned... I went out to the streets of Paris and tried to love Paris again. I look, I look, it's not there. Something inside me doesn't move. I was looking around me and at myself in the mirror in amazement, but it just didn't work. This time I couldn't make posts saying "Oh, thank God I'm back" :) I didn't even have the courage to say "I miss Istanbul", I felt like I was stuck somewhere in the middle; gift of jewelry…

That is, until our trip to Montréal - Toronto at the end of August 2019 - the beginning of September 2019. A Year in Heaven Those who read my article know that I found myself in Paris in March 2012, just as I was about to settle in Toronto. Now, as I continue my eighth year in Paris, I especially wanted to go to Toronto and observe what I missed, what I gained, what could have happened but didn't happen or what didn't happen. After a wonderful ten days in Montréal and Toronto, something worse happened: This time I didn't want to return from Canada to Paris 😀

Again, I was forced to return to Paris and looked around again. Those beautiful buildings, roads, trees, birds, everything is the same, but something has happened to my look. What pushed me to live in Istanbul again was not just that Istanbul was so beautiful; When I was in Montréal I asked “How can I live in Montréal?”, and when I was in Toronto I asked “How can I live in Toronto?” I caught myself making plans. So, the issue is not whether Istanbul, Montréal or Toronto is more beautiful or not, but that I have disagreements with Paris or myself, after these eight years.

Of course, I returned to Paris around mid-September and set about my work, but my mind is still up in the air. Should I do this or that? Maybe it's a new route, a new excitement like leyla I'm wandering around. I decided to take a one-day trip to Brussels in November to clear my mind. What an enjoyable trip it was, though. Everything turned upside down until, as I was returning to Brussels Midi station in the evening, a purse snatcher on a bicycle stole my mobile phone. What I experienced that night is a very long story, but it's gone in the end. phone like mountains 🙂 My train ticket is on the phone, my train will leave in half an hour; While I was wondering whether I should go to the police or catch the train, I got on the train at the last minute and returned to Paris. Goods go away and new ones are purchased; This is the first time this has happened, but the worst part is that one feels obliged to constantly be careful from now on. This feeling of uneasiness is very disturbing. Now, as I write these lines, I realize that the feeling of "don't let them steal something from me" is no longer there anymore, but it accompanied me for a long time. This is also quite annoying.

Then December came, and when the general strike started in France, my work pace continued exponentially, so I just worked without thinking about anything. For two months, I followed the latest information on the internet day and night and did my best to ensure that no one was victimized. I can't explain what a tired period it was. Christmas Markets It was set up, but I wasn't in a position to see it much. Whenever I post a beautiful photo, the first question on social media is "Mr. Ahmet, what happened to the strikes?"...

As we entered 2020, I came to Istanbul secretly again. I say secretly because if it is seen on social media that I am coming, people will ask “can't we have a coffee chat?” they ask. While I can't even keep up with friends and family, having to say "no" to people even though I really want to does so makes me mentally tired; I have to come to Istanbul secretly. Although I was going to talk about it after a certain period, maybe I was going to have another.Net meeting in Paris, but my father had to have an angiogram, so I took care of him. After spending a long day like this, I had to postpone the idea of ​​meeting Paris.Net until another spring.

Even though I was wandering around Istanbul secretly, I was caught by so many Pariste.Net readers while walking on the street or sitting somewhere that I cannot explain. This is truly incredible. Nobody knows that I am in Istanbul, but they recognize me as soon as they see me on the road. I feel very happy and at the same time I have to say "please don't tell anyone" :) It's nice to see that it reaches such a wide audience, to love it, and to know that you are loved... I would like to thank each and every one of you.

January 2020 was very unpleasant in the shadow of the strikes. The fact that I had to work for a terrible period of time to respond to the incoming messages and that I was no longer receiving financial rewards for my efforts made me exhausted. On the other hand, the increasing interest and a literal outpouring of love confused me as to what I should do and how I should act. If only grandson of pasha I thought I would have no financial worries, but life is not like that, of course. Maybe French Cultural Center destek I thought it would happen, but we never had the opportunity to sit down and talk. So I didn't go and knock on anyone's door. I felt good because advertisers always came to me and said they wanted to work with me.

Don't go to anyone and say, "I'm doing something like this, can you support me?I have never had the character to say " However, the wheel of the world does not turn like that, I know. I know, but what's the use? Will he give up his temperamental habits? 🙂 In this sense, I compare myself to a (good but bad) painter. I can make paintings, but it is not my job to sell them. If it were up to me, I would give them all away for free; Only a gallery can sell them. On the other hand, of course, I have to survive in order to continue painting 😀

Anyway, since it is not possible for anyone to engage in touristic activities in the current period, I have no expectation of income or support. That's why I sat down and turned to my book. However, if I could not reach the audience I was addressing for various reasons, I was saying that I would make a Pariste.Net in English, but Covid-19 Coronavirus Since it has crossed all boundaries, an English blog will no longer attract anyone's attention for a long time. In this period when it is not clear what will happen to anyone, it is best to focus on my inner world and devote all my time to completing the book I am working on.

Fortunately, I have had nice trips and nice holidays in the past year. Apart from the trips I mentioned above, London and Amsterdam They had trips. I also had the opportunity to travel a lot in France. It was especially special to see the Carnac stones near Vannes. I had the opportunity to go to Strasbourg twice. On one visit, ten friends of mine toured the Alsace region for a week and had an unforgettable holiday. Deauville–TrouvilleI also had the chance to go to . Last time at the beginning of March Deauville–TrouvilleFortunately, I said. I took one last breath of sea air.

One of the things that makes me sad during the curfew/restriction period we are in is that we will do the same on March 29, 2020. Chorale de Paris of your concert to a later date It was postponed. However, we had been preparing for the concert for more than a year. From our first concert Then, this year's concert was going to be held in a much more exquisite hall, but that was fate. Let's see when we can do it? Still, I'm happy for this: It's one of the things I want most in life. Opera Garnier It was singing alone in a hall like this. Though Opera Garnier not, but I had the opportunity to rehearse the concert twice in a hall like its offspring, where you see the photo above, and In a sense, I realized this dream of mine.. My dream was not to give a concert but to sing, and I made that happen 😉 When these difficult days pass and things get back on track, we will of course give our concert, as long as we are in good health...

This is how it is... This is the summary of my situation... There is still a lot to write and tell, but I don't know if you would read it if I wrote it. If you have read this far, it means you really care about me 😉 In the light of all this information You too have seen that it is time to come down from heaven to earth.. As I said, this is not a transition from heaven to hell, it is a state of keeping one's feet on the ground. Am I unhappy? No. Am I happy now that my feet are on the ground? Again no…

As you know, I have been regularly updating all the articles on Pariste.Net until today, except for this anniversary, I will not touch my general situation evaluation articles; So I don't know how we will feel when we read this article a few months later, and whether I will need to update the information in this article. Because the world is heading towards a truly extraordinary situation. If this curfew extends beyond what is expected, there may even be chaos. Even if it ends early, people will start to say "we were worried for nothing, I told you so". I only hope that this danger will pass as soon as possible, and I bow with respect to everyone who works hard for this cause.

I tried to evaluate the general situation of the past year as much as I could, based on my own story, without being limited to the current time period we are in. I think I was able to explain the paths I traveled and the mood I was in. I say "I will not be interested in Pariste.Net for a while", but I want to keep up with all the current developments. Covid-19 Coronavirus I continue to share in the article; Pariste.Net Tv Youtube channel I keep uploading videos too. You can also follow the developments from there. Although I continue to use my personal accounts on social media, I am currently trying to minimize the use of Pariste.Net's social media accounts, because taking care of my book is very important to me. Unless there is an extraordinary development, this will happen, but the period we are going through is so extraordinary...

Now, I am writing these lines from my home, where I have been since March 15, 2020, to minimize the health risk, on Thursday, March 26, 2020, on the eighth anniversary of my settling in Paris. You see, when this house arrest is over and I go out on the streets of Paris again, Paris will seem like paradise to me again, and next year on March 26, I will write the article Ninth Year in Heaven? Or maybe life will continue in another city, who knows... You saw my mood and the situation I was in; Anything is possible 😉 But this book will be completed before this one year is up, I'm sure of it. Time will tell whether it will be on the shelves after that, and whether you will buy it and read it if it is on the shelves. Though The post I made the day I first started writing the bookYou wrote very nice comments on and this gave me great morale. Thank you, long live.

Really, thank you, long live and be always okay... Take good care of yourself; Take good care of yourselves and each other. May we have many good days ahead of us, let's get through these difficult days together.

Thank goodness you all exist.

stay well...

Related Articles:

• A Year in Heaven
• Second Year in Heaven
• Third Year in Heaven
• Fourth Year in Heaven
• Fifth Year in Heaven
• Sixth Year in Heaven
• Seventh Year in Heaven
• Ninth Year in Paris