I usually get my own apartment when I’m traveling with my young daughter. Christmas and New Year’s in Paris is pretty packed. I was late to book a room, which is always the case. Very often I checkout of a hotel room without knowing where I’m going next (but not with my daughter).

I found a cheap place over the holidays - only €41 a night with tax and just a 10-minute express train ride to downtown Paris, in Argenteuil. New to Booking.com, it was a large 4-bedroom house with a well-equipped kitchen. Good deal!

Like many buildings in Paris, this was a large brick four bedroom home with a grand shared area. I had a very large bedroom downstairs, the only bedroom on the floor. It felt safe and isolated enough for me and my daughter.

We had the downstairs mostly to ourselves, and Paris at Christmas, so I didn’t worry about it being a shared place. There’s a hack to shared rooms: it’s easy to almost have an entire house to yourself on the cheap. People are generally shy, especially in close quarters. If you occupy common areas, even lightly, politely and minimally, others will stay in their rooms mostly. When you do see them, they want to socialize (if they aren’t heading to the fridge.) Of course this should be done with the utmost respect and we both would clean up fast when someone was coming to make sure they knew we wanted them to share the space.

This was especially important to us because a young girl can’t fit in a bedroom. We soon had papers and markers in the common areas, started throwing around paper airplanes and just had a fun time inside in the middle of winter.

We were warmly greeting by guests coming and going. I “Bon jour“‘ed all the other guests - essential in France and it immediately tells them I’m an American noob. This is good communication it’s kind to let others know your language level early. Grace had conversations with them in French. No one can guess that Grace learned French just the past year. I spent a lot of time getting to know a kind couple from Algeria who spoke English. A young French couple came later, visiting for the holidays. They were very nice but my contact was limited due to the language barrier. (As of this writing I have a 200 day DuoLingo streak and I can at least handle a store.) Still, it’s nice to practice and even without speaking - you can learn a lot about culture by listening and observing. If you’re Italian, you don’t even need words.

Grace is very polite and adults are consistently shocked at how they adore her very quickly. I always hear what is unsaid, “How did SHE come from YOU?” The answer is Grace. The secondary answer is that I’m an American and she’s Filipina. Americans are well-known as the biggest asses on Earth (The Chinese are catching up here too). Filipino are well-known as being among the nicest and most pleasant. This is not an accident. I wanted this mix - kind and polite with drive and vigor is a great combination for success.

Two days later, the door whips open and in marches a woman in her early 30s with 4 suitcases and pet carrier with her cat inside. She reeked of smoke, common in France. She was confident and talkative, like the French, but she was from …