I knew as soon as I saw the apartment that we should buy it.

Not because of how it looked. It was nice enough, but needed a total redo of the space.

What really sold me was what I saw out the window. Across the way, a woman was doing calisthenics–on her balcony. I loved the idea that I could see my neighbors at their daily lives, without them or me leaving home.

Balconies in Paris are where you eat breakfast, or work on your computer, or store your stuff. They’re like a back yard, except you don’t have to mow the grass.

Balconies also are emblematic of a French contradiction: People love their privacy, arguably more than in the U.S. When you go to a French dinner party, you are never invited to tour the apartment, and guests never talk about their professions or their kids.

And yet they don’t mind exhibiting themselves and their homes from afar. When you look up from a French sidewalk, you can see people’s lives.

And their hobbies, on the roof in this case.

Photo: Caroline Janin

Even in winter.

Photo: Lorie Teeter Lichtlen

It’s intriguing even when, as in the photo below, you don’t quite understand what you see.

Our house in Virginia is on a big hill. We can sit on the front porch and look down on the people walking by. If they look up, they can see us, which we mind not at all. We were perplexed when our real-estate agent said we could plant trees in front of the porch to guard our privacy. That was the last thing we wanted. To us, the porch is the equivalent of a sidewalk café in Paris, though the foot traffic is thinner.

And the porch is kind of like a balcony.

It’s not just people who enjoy balconies.

Photo: Mary Fleming

Unfortunately, our apartment doesn’t have a balcony. During the COVID lockdowns I was reduced to trying to sit on the windowsill and read, which was not very successful. However, my neighbors and I make the most of the walkways around the interior courtyard.

Balconies are the exception. Much of Paris is hidden behind high gates and stone walls. Many government ministries have huge gardens, with statuary and fountains, that most people never get to see.

Government buildings, even the parliament, the presidential palace and the ornate City Hall, are largely forbidden to the public. Only once a year, on a designated September weekend, can people queue for hours to see what their taxpayer dollars are paying for.

Sadly, government bureaucrats don’t put anything on their office balconies.