Andrus Foe Paws

By Labor day we had found new homes for the Eliptical trainer and the exercise bike. We had cleared Julie’s and Jessica’s rooms. We had gone through all of the bookcases and filled a number of the GotBooks collection containers in town. We had reorganized the basement and made room for our things that were staying in the house on the shelves. We had a dining room full of boxes of things that were going to storage and a livingroom stack of things that were to be packed to go to Paris by the movers. We had airline reservations to Paris and a short term one bedroom apartment leased near Montparnasse. We also had a real estate agent lined up and and had identified a number of apartments we wanted to see. SOOO off we went…fingers crossed.

The apartment we rented for the week was….interesting. No soap for the sink in the WC, no toilet paper for the toilet and no functioning light bulbs for that miniscule room either. It had wifi and the bed was comfortable… but the shower off the bedroom was small and had an interesting water heater associated with it. After the hot water was turned on, the water heater would shut off for a few moments as a “safety” feature. So…our best bet was to turn the water on long enough to rinse off…turn the water off while you soaped up…then turned the water back on to rinse. If you were fast enough you might have to cope with only one or two bouts of cold water. Note to self….carefully check out the bathrooms and hot water heaters in apartments.

We had heard that we needed to wait until after August to look for apartments because everyone is on vacation in August. We didn’t know that apartments are snapped up quickly in September because that is when the corporations move their employees with kids…corresponding to the beginning of school. We looked at three apartments on the first morning. The apartment we thought would be our first choice was rented the day before we arrived.

The first apartment we saw had a funky circular office/living room space on the corner of the building. Fourth floor at a very busy intersection that might be quite noisy in the summer when the windows are open. The second bedroom was up a very narrow dark stairway (used to be the maid’s room). The shower in the bathroom was fabulous, it had a combo washer dryer, and had been rented short term until November 15th. The next apartment was very spacious but you had to walk through a carpeted bathroom to get to the master bedroom and it smelled musty. Also…the kitchen wasn’t great. The third apartment was a few blocks from the Eifle Tower and was on the same street as the American Library…(more on that later). The third apartment was nicely furnished…had tons of storage space, a great laundry room with a separate washer and dryer, a large eat in kitchen and it was on the ground floor. Joe was a little concerned about the commute from that location so we thought we should look a little more.

Our next stop after lunch was to visit a four plus bedroom apartment in a busy commercial area. That was an intersting experience. The current tenants had graciously agreed that we could visit. Turns out that the tenants were from Saudi Arabia…one husband several wives and perhaps a mother and lots of kids. Beds everywhere! A little too commercial to feel like home but an interesting experience.

Next stop was a high rise apartment that had been newly refurbished. The building was on a main boulevard lined with high rise buildings. The architecture was 1970’s. The hallways smelled of curry. It had great views of the Bois de Boulogne…and according to the owner, I wouldn’t have to shop in the neighborhood at those small shops because there was a great supermarket at a nearby mall that delivers! Not exactly a traditional French experience…although the apartment was very bright.

Joe and I decided after that stop that we would apply to live in the apartment by the Eifle Tower. He would figure out a way to commute. We signed all the papers and and celebrated our decisiveness. The next morning we began exploring the neighborhood that would be our home for the next two years. There was a great street market and it was very near the Branley museum which is among our favorites. It has artifacts from former French Colonies displayed and has a wonderful restaurant. As we were eating our lunch at the Branley, Joe’s phone rang. It was our realtor saying that the apartment owner had decided to rent the apartment to someone else. They are Canadian and like to spend several months in Paris each summer. They didn’t want to lease for two years. We were devastated and back to square one.

PANIC TIME

We hadn’t really liked most of the apartments we had looked at previously. The first one was the best but there was some question as to whether or not the owner would be willing to rent for two years. Apartment owners get a premium for rentals during tourist season. We were supposed to be on a plane back to Paris in a few days!

We emailed my friend Beth who got us in touch with another realtor who agreed to show us a two bedroom apartment in the Marais the next morning. Turns out the apartment was across a narrow street from a “Club” which meant noise in the night time…the neighborhood was a little sketchy but getting better. However, one person could barely turn around in the kitchen.

We went home Saturday afternoon and I did what I always do when I’m under stress…took a nap. The phone rang and it was the realtor again. She wasn’t allowed to show apartments on the weekend but her principal could meet us in one hour to show us a newly available apartment in the 1st Arrondissement. The apartment owner was at her country home but her son was willing to show us the apartment. I went from deep sleep to the 1st in record time.

The owner had recently renovated the apartment was interested in renting it to a stable and reliable family for the long term. The son had actually lived in the apartment with his family until he was 12 and they moved to a bigger apartment. We agreed to rent the apartment on the spot and made arrangements to sign a lease the day before we headed back to Boston…after we set up our banking arrangements.

WHEW!

This is the entrance to the courtyard of our new apartment in Paris.