My wife and I are boomers with no kids. We moved to Paris for retirement and enjoy the food and cheap travel.

13.07.2024 - 01:51 / insider.com

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rick Jones. It has been edited for length and clarity.

My wife, Ellen Bryson, and I have always been adventurous people who've lived in Buenos Aires and different cities in the US, such as Norfolk, Virginia, and San Diego.

Ellen worked as a professional dancer in London when she was younger. I served as a Navy SEAL officer for 20 years and was stationed in the Persian Gulf at one point.

We met when we were 40. Our lives have been characterized by not having children, allowing us to move as often as we have without worrying about interrupting the school year.

Ellen was a member of Alliance Française, an organization centered on learning French and understanding the culture in France. In 2016, she came home from a meeting and said, "Why don't we move to Paris?"

I'd been enamored with the city since first visiting in 1979 as a college student. We went on a three-day retreat and talked it over. If we sold our house, we'd no longer have a mortgage. We did the numbers and decided that it made sense for our retirement.

It took a couple of years to get everything in order. Then, after Ellen found us an apartment on the Left Bank, we took the plunge in 2018.

It helped that we belong to the Association of American Residents Overseas, which has about 1,000 members in Paris. It's helped us integrate. The organization has social events, but it also represents our interests, such as voting rights and tax treaties.

We enjoy our lifestyle here, where the pros outweigh the cons. Here are three things I particularly love about Paris — and two that bug me a little.

On any given day except Monday, Paris hosts huge, open-air food markets where farmers arrive to sell their fresh produce.

There are more food choices than you would ever see anywhere in the US. The market in our neighborhood has about six different butchers on Sundays. One guy specializes in organ meat, where you buy anything from lamb brains to beef hearts.

The restaurants are great, but many people cook at home and share recipes. I'm the cook in the family and take the time and thought for food preparation three of four days a week.

We experiment with new dishes. With so many different foods available, you can't help but try them.

Paris is the most walkable city I've ever been in. The only other city that compares in terms of walkability is San Francisco, where I was stationed there for two years.

My goal is to walk 7,500 steps a day — about four and a half miles. It's easy to achieve in Paris. The most I've probably walked in a day is 16 miles. At one point, I decided to walk the length of every metro line.

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