Seventh Year in Heaven

How does life flow by? I don't understand at what point it was the seventh year in heaven. Yes, Today is the seventh year since I left Istanbul and moved to Paris. Exactly seven years ago today, I packed my bags, jumped on a plane to Paris in the morning, and didn't say a word. Fransızca Without knowing it, I had started a new life in Paris. I wasn't actually planning to write a post for this anniversary, but this morning my mom sent me a photo of a mimosa that meant a lot to me and said, "Do you remember seven years ago today?When I wrote an emotional message that started with "", I decided to sit down and write and publish this article both to evaluate the general situation and to give you an idea about what it is like to live in Paris.

Seven years ago today, before getting into the car that arrived at the door of my house in Istanbul in the morning, my father hugged me tightly and didn't want to let me go for a long time, but since I had to go, in that darkness, I couldn't help but feel the headlights hitting us from the car. cinematic I got in the car in tears and set off towards the airport. When we arrived at the airport, I noticed the mimosas stuck on my feet at the last minute while opening the door. My father made a huge note as a farewell memory. mimoza He secretly left the bundle in the car... I have not forgotten any of those memories. One day I will write it all in full detail.

Before writing this article A Year in Heaven, Second Year in Heaven, Third Year in Heaven, Fourth Year in Heaven, Fifth Year in Heaven ve Sixth Year in Heaven I read all your articles from the beginning. I recommend you read it to understand the Paris part of my life journey. Actually, this year's article title is Seventh Year to Heaven or is it Seventh Year in Paris I thought a lot about whether it would happen. Because in the previous six years, everything was in a sense rosy iken Seventh year in heaven has been a bit rocky. Since I have honestly shared all my life experiences with you so far, I would like to convey my experiences with the same sincerity as I was about my happiness in my previous articles, by touching on these shocks and explaining the breaks and changes in my life line in this year's article.

As I look back at the seven years I spent in Paris, I can say the same things today, just as I spoke with praise and joy about Paris and what it gave me in my previous articles. In Paris, I can experience art, aesthetics, peace and freedom to the fullest and this is very good for me.. I felt very good the first day in Paris, and I feel the same today. So what changed or went wrong? Let me tell:

About me As you can see in full detail in my article, I, I work as a blogger in Paris ve My aim is to create a guide resource for people with Pariste.Net, which offers comprehensive content introducing Paris and its surroundings.. Despite much insistence, I personally do not provide tour guiding services, instead I devote all my energy to Pariste.Net, which is a guide in itself. It was already quite tiring to work on the blog for 2014-6 hours a day for Pariste.Net, which I started in January 8, but at some point things got so busy that I started working on the computer 12 hours a day. No matter what I did, I couldn't keep up. I was working like crazy from morning to night and still couldn't do everything I wanted to do. Moreover, no one expected better from me, everyone was happy with what they read and saw, but I could have done better, because I could imagine better, but of course I had a capacity too :) Then, I think it was towards the end of 2018, the foreign currency in Turkey suddenly skyrocketed, and the Euro rose to unnecessary levels. . As someone who lives in Paris, isn't it a good thing for me that the Euro is rising? No sir, not…

Earning euros in France and spending euros in Turkey is a wonderful thing, but since the money I earn from my blog generally depends on people coming from Turkey, earning TL and spending Euros; With the sudden rise of the Euro, there was a serious decrease in the number of people coming to Paris for holidays. Then, even though the arrivals gradually increased, the expenditures decreased at the same rate as the budgets were restricted, and my income, which was dependent on people coming from Turkey, also dropped noticeably. As such, while I was getting more or less reward for my efforts until now, by the end of 2018 the needle turned the other way and there was no longer any point in spending 12 hours a day in front of the computer dealing with Pariste.Net. However, I was constantly producing content, regularly updating old articles, and trying to answer the countless questions I received every day, one by one. Not to mention the time I spend on social media…

I saw that the situation was not improving, and as of the beginning of 2019, I decided to slow down my work, or rather reduce it from 10-12 hours a day to 4-5 hours a day. In this way, I will be able to spare more time for myself, rest a little, spare time for friends and family, and most importantly, I will be able to write something that I have been thinking about writing for a long time. Book of Paris I would find time to work for . I devoted January 2019 entirely to updating the 500 articles published so far on Pariste.Net. Thus, all articles have been reviewed and updated as of 2019. By February 2019, I managed to create an environment to spare time for myself, but what is that? Then I realized that I had spent so much time working, especially in the last two years, that there was no one left around me :) Well, of course, if you neglect people, people will move away from you too :)

Not to mention loneliness, my French circle (and also my international circle), which I had built so hard for so long, somehow started to disappear. Yes, they are still there, we see each other from time to time, we are in contact in one way or another, but how should I put it, something happened without me realizing it, I lost something. Of course, it won't stay like this forever, but this is the feeling I have right now. Therefore, I will focus on this issue in the coming period and find a solution somehow, otherwise it will not continue like this :) In fact, “my french circleWhen I say "I exclude my Turkish circle in Paris from this; Because interestingly, my Turkish circle in Paris has expanded incredibly. I will talk about that subject in the later parts of the article, but when I look at today, I see that my way of life, which was based on my circle of friends based on international cultures, which made living in Paris beautiful and privileged for me, has been disrupted in a sense; I was a little surprised to realize this. Now this is the issue that I need to work hard to overcome, I'm trying to underline it.

Otherwise, it is impossible for me to feel alone in Paris. There are so many beautiful people living here. Just look for it and it will appear. For example, what changed my life and made it even more beautiful is, Turkish classical music in Paris who Chorale de Paris My paths crossed with. Thanks to this amazing team that I joined in October 2018, I have achieved my goal of singing Turkish classical music, which I have dreamed of for years. I joined the choir, I couldn't keep up the pace and said that I wanted to sing a piece as a solo. It was accepted and we all prepared for the concert with great excitement. As a result, we played a concert in Paris in February 2019. I couldn't believe what I did, what I experienced. You can watch a small collage from our concert on February 10, 2019 in the video below:

I can't explain the excitement I felt on the day of the concert. My solo track “Under the stars“It was… Let alone being able to sing my solo song properly, if I could get back to my place in the choir without fainting, it would be a success for me :) Fortunately, I read my piece without fainting, so I consider myself successful 😀 The biggest surprise of the concert for me was that among the audience, I was living in Istanbul, coming to Paris on holiday. From Pariste.Net readers who came to watch my concert Tuğba Demirsoy & Emre Demirsoy It was to see the couple. I didn't expect it at all, I was so touched. I would like to thank them once again from here.

As I said, Chorale de Paris It felt very good to me. I joined such a great team, especially our teacher Zuhal Karadağ, that I cannot tell you. We sing, laugh and have fun for two hours every Thursday evening. Afterwards, we go to a cafe and spend at least another hour of fun and chatting; You don't know how good it feels. So much so that when we couldn't keep up the pace and the time in the hall allocated to us for rehearsals was not enough in preparation for the next concert, we met outside. music mixed with picnic We even did some work. The photo above is in such an atmosphere in Paris in February. Chorale de Paris For example, a nice memory of the picnic we had with some of the team...

As I was constantly interested in a Turkish blog and started to get involved with a Turkish environment, even though such a life was very easy, I actually started to feel strange inside. I live in Paris, but I barely speak any French. However, during the first 3-4 years, intensively Fransızca My life was passing by. The focus on Turkish, which started with the blog, has started to gain more importance recently. Although I have been able to read French books without a dictionary for a long time, it started to seem a little strange to me to realize that I created a mostly Turkish environment in Paris. Although at first my life in Paris someone who came here temporarily expat's enjoying Paris Even though I lived like this, when I got French citizenship last year, I started to get confused :)

Yes officially now franco-turc'um. You can't imagine how painful an adventure it was to obtain a French passport. Although we completed this process without any professional support, believe me, there are such strange stages in the process of obtaining citizenship that I think people who provide professional support in this regard are getting their money's worth. It is absolutely impossible for me to support anyone regarding the process because I do not want to see the face of those laws again, if possible. What I know about this How to Settle Abroad? You know, I tried to share it in my article. Fortunately, I am now free from that pressure, and I no longer have to worry about extending my residence permit. With the advantage of the French passport, I enjoy the peace and tranquility of gaining freedom of movement. My dream about ten years ago has come true, let me enjoy it a bit.

A few years ago, I waited for the day I would get a French passport to go to see my cousin who moved to London. Because I didn't want to deal with visa procedures again. The first country I went to after getting my passport was England. Gare du Nordone from Eurostar What a joy it was for me to not even have to deal with the passport police at passport control while boarding the train; It is a great convenience to experience the comfort of crossing the border with an automatic application called "parafe". And being reunited with my beloved cousin at the end of the road was another dream come true.

Of course, there was a lot of traveling over the past year. London, Athens, Amsterdam, Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh ve Roma Their holiday was unforgettable. Having the opportunity to meet Ferzan Özpetek in Rome It was also a pleasure... As a tradition of the last few years, I celebrated my birthday on December 10th in a warm country, this time in the Caribbean. GuadeloupeI had the chance to spend it in . In previous years Martinique, Rio de Janeiro ve Havana Like the holiday, the Guadeloupe holiday was also incredibly good. I felt relieved, refreshed and relaxed in the middle of winter. Of course, I appreciated the value of turning another year older, especially in a land like this.

The video you see above is from the Caribbean. GuadeloupeI shot it in December 2018. My goal is from the sea the cafe in this link I wanted to take a photo of it, but everything was so beautiful that I suddenly felt Pariste.Net's Instagram account over Instalive live broadcast I found it while I was doing it and recorded it so that it would not be deleted and would remain a memory. I hope you will join me in my happiness at that moment while watching. Yes, this live broadcast took off. Though Pariste.Net Tv Youtube Channel It didn't grow as fast as I expected because Youtube needs more budget and technical team support; So it seems like it won't be possible for me to handle it on my own - at least for now - but my live broadcasts on Instagram have gained a serious following. I also love being with you in live broadcasts that can sometimes take up to an hour, a few days a week, especially on the streets of Paris.. Of course, don't smile and say "send the ticket money so I can go" to those who say, "Mr. Ahmet, should you go to the Eiffel Tower and broadcast live?" your brazenness I can show it. Because of all the museums and palaces published on Pariste.Net so far; How should I put it, I paid the entrance fees for all places that can be visited with money out of my own pocket. I wonder how much money I have spent in total just for these ticket prices since January 2014, when I started blogging? 😀 Not that, but the bridge I've been trying to build between Türkiye and France for years. French Culture It would be nice if there was support etc... Actually, this is mine. networking I have to run after things but as a character self-marketable I'm not one 😉

Another development, or rather "lack of development", that bothers me. My project to launch the English version of Pariste.Net was interrupted. happened. Despite all the good intentions of the friend who undertook the project, when he sent me the English file after four months of work, I had my native English-speaking friends read the texts, but unfortunately they did not like the translation :) Since I could not catch up with the Turkish content yet, I would not have time to compile the English content. Pariste.Net in English I had to suspend my project. Even the text I sent for translation had to be updated regularly every month, because the articles on Pariste.Net do not stay the same, so I constantly review and update them. If I try to do this in English, my circuits may burn :) At least for now, it doesn't seem possible on my own...

Anyway, let's talk about the good things: In the past year, you know, exercise and weight loss There was an issue, so I solved it 😉 When I last saw 2018 kilos in September 75, I started a strict nutrition program saying "stop this trend" and broke a record in my own way by managing to drop to 5 kilos in a total of 6-63 months :) 63-65 kilo range It is the weight of my university years and I am very happy to have returned to this weight after many years. I lost the first five kilos with my own efforts, but I could not drop below 70, no matter what I did, it was not working. And one day, biochemistry expert Dr. Ayşegül ÇoruhluI came across 's videos and thus - in a sense - my life changed. Healthy eating and weight loss especially about I recommend you to watch these three videos and apply them if possible: What Should I Eat?, Source of Life: Mitochondria ve The Importance of Chewing...

As someone who could not chew the food I ate even three times in my life and swallowed it immediately, after this age, I realized the importance of chewing and started to lose weight, and as I said, I managed to lose 12 kilos in total by losing XNUMX kilos. Please chew your food well.… Of course, it's not just about healthy eating. at home regularly pilates by myself By doing this, I managed to recover my body in a sense, so this is all, sorry 🙂 Jokes aside, I no longer need special nutrition programs, gyms or additional support. In this sense, the results of my new lifestyle make me happy in every sense; I recommend it to you too. And I've had a constant headache for as long as I can remember (and vermidonWhen you are someone who travels with I realized the importance of deep breathing and started to apply it in my life.. Let me tell you this: I haven't had a headache for months. When I feel like I'm going to have a headache, I breathe deeply and I don't have any problems. This is how I got rid of my chronic headaches, I recommend you to try it too...

Of course, there is no need to stress ourselves so much about living a healthy life, losing weight, staying in shape, etc.; the fact that we will die one day I never forget it in a corner of my mind. Life has given me many reminders over the past year to keep the reality of death in my mind. In September 2018, Millennial When a friend of mine lost his wife unexpectedly and as a result of a sudden illness, I urgently went to Istanbul for the funeral. At the coffin, I made new decisions about my life and now I am implementing them. In addition, in the past year, I received the news of the death of many acquaintances, young and old, or rather, relatives of their acquaintances; Most of them were young people... I mean, there is such a thing as death, friends, but as I always say, The reality of death tells me "that life is empty" not "We have little time and we need to be quick to do what we want to do.” he reminds. 

Since life is beautiful with the people and friends we love, I went to visit many friends during the past year, and many of them came to visit me in Paris. As you know, it is important to preserve the friendships that have been built stone by stone for years, to build new stones on them, and to carefully decorate the friendship we have built inside and out. I have adopted this as my motto throughout my life, and thank God, I have always been rewarded for my efforts in this sense. “Friendship” and ”dostlukAs someone who knows the difference between the concepts of " and carefully underlines this difference, I have never felt alone.

Sometimes we laughed, sometimes we cried, sometimes we thought about serious issues, and sometimes we got into the fun of things, but in this past year, I had the chance to spend very special periods of time with many special people in my life. Although there is close communication thanks to social media, my priority was also to be able to spend time face to face, side by side, heart to heart. Fortunately, they never left me alone, and I did my best not to leave them alone. In fact, for two of our friends' birthdays in June 2018 NormandyIsn't there that unforgettable week we spent in the castle we rented in…

We all rent a cute castle and spend a week together. Normandy'in Deauville & Trouville, Rouen, Honfleur, Etretat, Giverny We have visited every place you can think of. We celebrated the birthdays of two special people in our lives, and we also had the opportunity to remember how important we are to each other and why we are so important. In fact, from now on, we decided to do our best to meet with our distant friends at every opportunity, not once a month or a year. Now I'm at the stage where I'm putting that plan into action...

For example, our friends Derya and Fatih, who live in Canada and whom you see in the photo above, were also in the team during our Normandy holiday... Then they came to visit us in Paris once; With any luck, this time we will go to Montréal to see them at the end of August 2019... The more we meet, the more profitable it will be... Moreover, they have this importance for me: The sweetest of the worlds Sea He is a former banker, but for years he has made a completely different and wonderful career for himself as a meze master. Fatih is one of the reasons why I live in Paris now. 🙂 Why? Let me explain: About 8 years ago, when the opportunity to live in both Canada and France became available, I was undecided and asked Fatih for his opinion, but he never said "come and live in Canada"; If he had said that, I would have gone :) He told us the pros and cons of both options and left the decision up to us. But if we were going to live in Canada, he suggested that we settle in Montréal like them, whereas I As someone who didn't speak a word of French at the time, so I wanted to live in Toronto. "If two worlds came together, I would not live in a place where French was spoken." I said to Fatih... As a result, I am now in Paris, writing the article Seventh Year in Heaven. 😀 Life is what happens to us while we're making plans, right?

What else happened in this year? I've been to Istanbul a few times. Istanbul as we know it. Of course, this time we spent more time on Bağdat Street and explored Istanbul. rosy I preferred to feel like a place. And now I have to make my visits to Istanbul secretly, otherwise everyone, whether familiar or unknown, wants to meet me. While there is no time left for my family, cousins, nephews, wife or friends, people who know me on the internet want to "meet for a coffee chat", of course, with good intentions and as a sign of courtesy. I have such a hard time saying that I cannot accept their invitation. However, I really can't find the time. Moreover, even though I come so secretly, I always get caught by someone who knows me thanks to Pariste.Net 😉

There are many people who want to meet in Paris. However, everyone tends to meet once, satisfy their curiosity, and then go their own way. “How did you settle in Paris?”, “How did you get your residence permit?”, “What do you do for a living?”. I'm so tired of always giving the same answers to these questions. However, I wrote them all in detail on the blog as much as possible... I would also like to meet everyone individually, but such a time is seriously out of the question; I wish I had… Of course, interesting things haven't been happening to me recently: Champs-ElyseesWhile I was walking in , someone ran up to me and said: "I follow you on the internet, can we take a photo?" When he asked politely, I happily accepted. Then he took the photo, thanked me and ran away 😀 To be honest, I felt like I was stuck in the middle at that moment 🙂

And also, which started towards the end of last year. Yellow Vests – Gillets Jaunes (jile jon) of course there are actions that affect daily life in Paris. Although the demonstrations are held only on Saturdays in certain regions, as a result of the exaggerated portrayal of the media, people think that Paris is burning and devastated every day; However, there is no such thing. The shows only happen on Saturdays and that day is the one I always tell you about. The Other Side of Paris it's coming out. People are rebelling against the injustice in income distribution, and they are absolutely right, but unfortunately, some Saturday protests can lead to excesses. Let's see how long the protests will continue and in what direction they will develop, only time will tell.

Life in Paris outside the Yellow Vest protests brilliant continues. In Paris, as everywhere in the world, Open it full, he doesn't understand your situation… There is such wealth in Paris that it will blow your mind. Like in Turkey or Middle Eastern countries in your face This is not wealth, it is wealth that is much more refined but has much more capital. The rich and the poor are separated from each other by an invisible barrier, everyone has their own struggle for life gives. People in the middle-income group are also struggling to avoid being thrown among the poor. Let's see where our place will be in this cruel world order.

The subway work that has been going on in front of our house for about a year and a half, and which seems to continue for another three and a half years, has an impact on my slightly depressed state of the last few months. In the past, every morning when I left the house, I would wink and thank life as far as I could see the sky through the leaves of the trees; Now the trees in front of our house are standing, but they cut down all the trees in the large area in the middle and set up a metro excavation area.; I can't explain what an unpleasant sight it is when you walk out the door... Fortunately, the value of the house suddenly increased, we are thankful for it and thank life for it this time 😉 Life is a "pros-cons” issue…

As my husband and friend lost their spouses and friends and deaths became more frequent, I did something that I wanted to do but thought was pointless (and unnecessary) to do before my last birthday: I sold my veteran and modest car and bought a new car that was slightly equivalent to the car of my dreams, and it was red! Name the new car "pomme d'amour" I put "candy apple"... To be honest, Driving in a place like Paris It's nonsense, but a car lover like me had to make his dreams come true. Anyway sir, I did that crazy thing too, but don't worry, the car is just sitting in the garage; paris metro What should one do with the car while it is stationary? We will go on holidays now, what should we do? I also have a dream. Adalet Ağaoğluof Thin Rose of My Idea As in the novel "In Alamancı mode” Driving to Turkey. I want to realize this plan within five years at the latest and write a book about my experiences along the way. And this to our to do list So let's add…

Firstly Fifth Year in Heaven I feel a little bit like myself in my writing. expatriate I mentioned that I felt like this. I never felt like I was abroad, but when I look at it today, I see that I am slowly being from Istanbul the feeling goes away; Not now, but I see, or rather feel, that in a few years I will have moved on a long way. Well Parisian Will I be able to? For someone looking at it from Turkey, maybe yes, but from a French perspective, I don't think I could ever be there.. It's as if one falls somewhere in between. Maybe that's why Paris is a expat My choice to try to live like? Let's see... Life...

Eighth Year in Heaven I don't know if there will be a text but this coming eighth year A book about Paris I took time to write. Writing a book is such a difficult task: I have tons of stories I want to tell, but since I am not in the mood to write an encyclopedia, I need to gather what I want to tell well. I don't want to just write a guide either. What can anyone do when Pariste.Net is another guide source? I want to tell a story, or perhaps stories, that took place in Paris, as a guide. I'm working on the story arc right now, the characters are slowly falling into place. I aim to finish this within a year. Now We will see together which publishing house publishes the book and when it will be published.. Let me do my part and complete the book within a year...

I will continue to regularly update all information on Pariste.Net and actively use social media while keeping it at a reasonable level for the next year, but it is a real sponsor support I don't want to sit down and deal with the blog for 10-12 hours a day anymore. That's why I decided not to publish new articles for this year unless there are very important things. As I said I'll focus on the Paris book I'm working on. When a real sponsor supports me and I get fully rewarded for all my hard work, then I will start writing new articles. There are already 100 more article topics waiting to be written on my waiting list. If you consider that there are currently 500 regularly updated articles on the blog, it's not like I'm going to be done :) You should first read and finish the articles I've written so far :)

This is how it is, sir. As you can see, it is not a coincidence that the title of the article is Seventh Year in Heaven rather than Seventh Year in Paris. Because Paris is still a paradise for me, but there are just some problems in my life that I need to overcome. This is not Paris's fault, it is my problem :) Don't worry, I will handle all of them somehow and will continue to do my best to live my paradise in Paris and appreciate what I have. In summary: That's fine...

Thank you for reading the article until the end, but most importantly I would like to thank each and every one of you for always being by my side and supporting me wholeheartedly in my Paris adventure.. Believe me, if it weren't for your nice comments and the sincere and sincere messages you sent me, I would have given up long ago, because what I do is not very smart. But now I am sure that there is no other blog in Turkish like Pariste.Net, prepared for any city in the world, whose content is constantly reviewed and updated.. I achieved this thanks to you. Thank you all, long live...

May life bring beauty to all of us, may the best of everything be yours.

With love…

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
• Eighth Year in Paris
• Ninth Year in Paris