Andrus Foe Paws

Le Appartement: Part 2

Paris apartments are famous for having small, inefficient kitchens with crummy appliances, small fridges and no cabinet space.  Look at this!  We have new appliances, a built in dishwasher, a built in washer/dryer combo (more about that later) and a tall fridge with a modest sized freezer.  The eat in kitchen also houses our water heater and the boiler for our radiators.  Bathrooms usually have little showers with no tub. The toilets are usually separate from the rest of the bathroom and they do not generally have sinks associated with them.    We are lucky.  We have two full baths and a teeny powder room with toilet AND sink!  You can see why we were so excited to find this place on our house hunting trip!

Le Appartement

Le Grand Salon...Our living room

Boston to Paris

It was hard, but Abi and I managed to pack up in five large checked bags and four carry on bags/packpacks.  We weren’t sure how long it would be before our shipped items arrived in Paris…they were still in the Hull waiting to be crated at the end of October, we needed clothes, meds, toiletries, and PROJECTS to keep us sane.  Brad took us to the airport and we were on our way!

Our first French faux pas occurred while making airline reservations to fly between Boston and Paris.  We paid extra to sit in an exit row so we would have more leg room.  BIG MISTAKE!  Note to self…check the map carefully, it isn’t worth the extra dough to sit in a two person row without overhead bins or underseat storage.  Nor is it comfortable unless you are VERY thin to sit in the seats with all of the gear in the arm rests…

Faux pas number two:  it IS a good idea to pay $60 in advance for an extra suitcase to be checked.  That saves money.  HOWEVER!  do not take the weight limit seriously for each suitcase.  We added a fifth suitcase between us because we tried to keep within the weight limits for each checked piece.  The fifth suitcase cost MUCH more than it would have cost to pay a little extra for the checked pieces that were overweight.

Faux pas number three:  only hire a taxi with a GPS when coming to visit us….or take the train.  The driver will think he knows where he is going when you say 91 rue Saint-Honore…because that is where all the rich people live and where many of the designer stores like Gucci are….BUT when you get to the end of the rue where we live, the road narrows and the road changes one way direction…AND there is a huge construction project going on at les Halles so there are barricades here and there to avoid.  We could SEE where we wanted to go, but we couldn’t get there from here. With 9 pieces of luggage you can’t really get out and walk two blocks.  lol   I bet we spent an extra 15 minutes driving around in circles til we pulled up in front!

Joe stayed home from work to let us in to the apartment…he left the windows in the livingroom open so he could hear the gate to the courtyard open…The elevator in the building is VERY small…it says it holds three…and it does if you stand with arms overhead like sardines standing sideways.  I guarded the suitcases in the courthard, Abi put them in the elevator and pushed the 4th floor button (French 4th floor means 5th).  Joe emptied the elevator and sent it back down to Abi on 0.  Three trips and we were up…ready to crash.  We slept…Joe went to work…it was Friday morning…

The tedious boring part…but boy was it busy!

September 22: Daley and Wanzer arrived to take our stuff to storage.

We tried to get it all done on their first visit but we hadn’t finished going through all the stuff in the house and were afraid we might forget something we really wanted. We figured that another week wouldn’t matter much…we planned on six weeks for shipping and it looked like Abi and I wouldn’t be leaving for another month at least. We packed books, projects to keep Holly busy, family pictures to make our apartment feel like home, winter clothes and shoes, kitchen knives, and other utinsels we didn’t want to live without, vitamins, deordorant and other toiletries, etc. 24 boxes in all…not bad. The movers thought they might like to deliver the boxes themselves until they heard our apartment was on the French 4th floor…meaning the 5th…
October 1 and 2:

Time out for Conference. 🙂 I will miss being able to watch it in real time on TV from my living room. Joe still hadn’t heard about his visa but he was hoping that it would come before we had our yard sale…HE HATES YARD SALES

October 6: Pick up Visas

Joe didn’t get his wish. The visas didn’t come in time to totally miss the yard sale. He agreed to provide food for the crew…and to pop in now and then. In the mean time he started packing for an October 8 afternoon flight.

October 8: Yard Sale and Joe takes off for Paris

We had been hauling stuff out to the garage that we thought we could sell since mid August. The hard part was the pricing. Luckily I had some friends who agreed to help price and/or to be there the day of the sale. Thank you SOOOOO much Carol, Esther, Heather L, Heather K, Val and Jan. In addition to the yard sale we posted a few items on Craig’s List that would need a broader audience…the electric guitars and the amplifiers, for example. We also included stuff from our friend Olive’s estate… All in all it was a big SUCCESS…. mostly because Heather K and Carol are GREAT sales people! (and Heather L came to shop lol) The sale lasted for four hours. We took the stuff that hadn’t sold that was worth something back into the garage to donate to Interfaith Social Services…and Dave told the Craig’s list scavengers to “come and get it.” By 3 the stuff was gone. If I were ever to do a yard sale again I’d do it just the same way…I hope never to have collected that much stuff that I didn’t want again…lol

October 9: Holly is FINALLY released from being RS President (bitter sweet)

October 14: Holly leaves for Idaho

I needed to be in Idaho to help my brother Kelly with some things that could use my special expertise. I also wanted to spend some time with my folks before I took off for far away. As always is was great being with family. The night before I left to come back to Boston, Kelly told me that we was going to propose to Dana the next day. E X C I T E D! for him.

October 15: Abi holds down the fort while 4 munchkins and their mom and dad move into ” la maison.”

Home for Holly now becomes upstairs at the barn…after the U Chicago crew team exits the premises on Oct. 23…they always stay in our barn and at the neighbor’s for the Head of the Charles.

October 22: Holly heads for Providence for one more overnight with Val…boy am I going to miss her.

October 27: Holly and Abi Leave for Paris, France and our new adventure

Apartment Hunting

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.

Permanent Residency Applicaitons

In order to work in France, Joe had to apply for a permanent residency Visa at the French Consulate in Boston. Since I was going with him, I needed a Visa as well. There is no way to get information about this over the phone. The only access is online. On the website we were told that we had to apply for an appointment at the consulate and bring passports, photos and documentation for Joe’s employment (Job offer letter, salary information, dates of employment contracts, etc). We also had to provide a copy of our marriage certificate to prove that we really are married. There is no way to expedite the process or discuss your needs with anyone.

We made our first contact with the consulate on line the second week in August. The earliest interview appointment we could get was on September 18. Everyone goes on vacation in France during the month of August…I guess that applies to consulate workers in Boston as well. We were told (on the website) that it takes a minimum of three weeks to process the visas. An October 1st start date did not look promising. But at least we wouldn’t have to give up our US passports before we had a chance to go apartment hunting.

On the day of our interview we were there when a couple from New Hampshire came down to see the consulate in person because the website wasn’t working for them. The guard wouldn’t even let them in the office, but the consulate personnel agreed to send them a link to the right website so that they could follow official protocols from home. When our visas were ready (around the 6th of October) we got an email. We went immediately downtown and discovered that interviews are held in the mornings only and we couln’t pick up the visas until between 2-5. We had to go back. This time we didn’t pay $25 to park. I drove and Joe went in to get both Visas. They couldn’t give Joe my visa…luckily I had my iphone and I could pull over and email Joe my permission to pick up the Visa…which he could show to the Consulate employee and we were on our way!

A Voice of Experience

When we first began to consider the possibility of moving to Paris I contacted a friend from a former life who had taken her two daughters to Paris for a study abroad year when they were in elementary school. Beth’s daughter Ellen was a friend of Abi’s whom we actually visited whilie they were in Paris when Baker &McKenzie’s annual meeting was there. They had a wonderful apartment near the Eiffle Tower.

Thank goodness for modern communication methods…I found Ellen on Facebook and messaged her to ask her to have her mom get in touch with me…(dad had retired and mom and dad had moved). Beth promptly emailed me and graciously volunteered to guide me through the process. She told me which books to buy on Amazon that would provide me with basic information about relocating to France and told me what to look for in apartments. She dug out old files and found names of Real Estate agents and forwarded an online newletter called http://www.bonjourparis.com/story/ to me twice a week.

She told me to look for a furnished apartment near several transportation lines (bus and metro). She told me to get an apartment with a washer AND a dryer because it takes forever to dry laundry. She told me to notice whether or not shopping was convenient because I would be doing it several times a week. I discovered that unfurnished apartments are REALLY unfurnished…no sinks, cabinets or appliances in the kitchen, no light fixtures, etc. She told me to have Joe look for FUSAC which is an English language monthly newsletter with classifieds and articles for the English speaking expat community… and she told me that I needed to take French lessons. She also told me to get started on my application for permanent residency and to open a bank account or I wouldn’t be able to do anything.

The week before we actually moved to Paris, Beth gave me the following warning. “You should plan on accomplishing no more than two things a day. The rest of the time will be spent just doing the day to day errands required to live.” No truer words have ever been spoken.

The Dogs

And our friend Shadow has four delightful children who hug him and feed him. He doesn’t miss sharing the dog door with Pippin…he has his favorite human who is just his size who likes the escape route just as much as Shadow does. Shadow loves the attention and we hear he is putting on a little weight with all of the extra “attention” he gets. If he could see the food on the floor after it drops I’m sure he would be obese!

What to do with the House

We have lived in Hingham since 1999 in a wondeful old house (circa 1872)that we renovated to suit our needs. We didn’t really want to try to sell it because w e think we will be happy moving back to Boston after this adventure and we designed the house to be great for grandchildren and children to come visit (guest room over the garage) with a main floor master bedroom so that Joe and I don’t have to do stairs in our old age. We admit to feeling like we were rattling around in the house when it was just the two of us but we have had children moving in and out over the past few years as they looked for jobs, decided where to go to school, etc. After thinking about it for a while we decided to ask our friends Brad and Missy if they would be willing to take on the house maintenance tasks while we were gone. After all, their four children are kind of like our grandchildren…we love them dearly…and they have a daughter named Abi after our Abi. We knew that they could use the extra space, that Brad was handy and that our Abi would feel comfortable living with them if she needed to…fingers crossed…we thought they might be willing to put up with sweet Shadow if we could find a place for Pippin.After some thought, they agreed to rent their house and move in to ours if we agreed to put anything valuable or breakable that we cared about in storage. We set a date of mid October and the race was on…sort and pack, sort and pack, sort and pack…oh….and take MANY trips to the dump and Goodwill. We cancelled our trip to Ireland with Julie and she came home for a few days around Labor Day (we were all disappointed but sometimes life throws curve balls…I had thought a trip to New Zealand and Australia should be in the works if I accompanied Joe to give his PWC speech in Singapore and that wasn’t going to happen either).

Our kids were troopers. They had to make room for the “niece and nephews” to take over Jessica and Julie’s rooms which meant a total cleanout. We had to make room for at least part of the extensive library that was moving in to the house. And we needed to create play space for four kids ages 2-8. At least we didn’t have to paint walls and refinish floors. 🙂

One thing we wouldn’t miss? SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To Do List

I mentioned in my first post there was a “whirlwind” of activity once Joe was offered a job at the OECD and we decided that we were going to move to Paris. First, we had to tell our families and the Bishop. I had been serving as the Relief Society President in our ward for the past two years and Joe had just been called to serve as 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric. My parents in Idaho have health difficulties (mom has chronic pain/arthritis and dad has Alzheimers) which was a worry.

Then we had to figure out what to do with our house. Daughter Abi (who had just graduated from the University of Vermont) still needed a place to land. Julie, who was interning in London for the summer was expecting us to meet her at the end of her internship in August for a brief time in Ireland. Then she was headed to DC for internship number two. We had all of the furniture from Julie’s and Abi’s apartments in storage at our house and also the stuff that didn’t fit in Jessica’s apartment in Medford.

We also had two dogs that needed to be cared for or adopted while we were gone. Shadow had become blind and probably wouldn’t do well in an unfamiliar environment since he uses the “keep going until you run into something braille method of getting around.” We had recently cut the brush away from the side of the house where the dog run is located and he had gotten lost and ended up on Main Street because he couldn’t feel his way to the dog run gate. Pippin had begun to attack Shadow regularly to assert dominance which was a bad scene all around. They needed to be separated. Pippin was afraid of other dogs, young children, and stangers so we weren’t sure what to do with him.

We needed to find a place to live in Paris and do the necessary paperwork to get permanent residency permits. Joe had some ideas about where to look for apartments since he had been renting short term apartments for the past two years as he consulted part time with the OECD but I hadn’t been with him in Paris much because I was being the RS President and building a neurofeedback practice and it was hard to leave. We also needed to open a French bank account so that we could rent an apartment and sign up for utilities.