We Find an Apartment, but Can We Have It?

Les Champs-Elysees


Liz says:It is amazing how you can jones for english. At night we find ourselves searching the TV for anything in English. At points, we will watch anything from the Atom Ant cartoon to Star Trek Enterprise with Scott Bakula. Whoa, they just mentioned Madison,Wisconsin on this episode. Uh anyway, I never watched this show when it was originally on, but now, I’m watching my third in a row. Its got this sad heavy hair metal song for the intro, “I’ve got faith in the ha-ar-art.”
So, today it sleeted. It was sucky weather for the first time. It was Sunday, so all we did was eat a long leisurely lunch and come back to the apartment.
We had trouble getting on the internet, so I’m typing this to upload later.
Saturday was hectic, I had to buy a coat, it was too cold for the one I bought with me.
You have to remember it was 80 degrees the day we left Madison, a freak warm spell in November!. I also bought some gloves. I have have had t with being cold! Lastly, I broke down and bought a variation on the sloppy engineer boots I’ve seen everywhere. Mine are not suede and they are shorter, they have little metal wings on the strap on the top of the arch. So cute.
Okay, no more shopping.
We accidentally came across an apartment that would be just perfect. It is just being finished. It is being rehabbed by an architect. He owns the building and he has one of the apartments. Then he’s renting out the others. Downstairs is a boulangerie. The other shop has not been rented out yet.
The apartment is on the second story US (the 1st floor here is the ground floor, then the 1st floor is our Second). In the front there are 2 of those small filigreed balconies and in the middle there is a small but private courtyard (terrace, because its not really as low as the ground) but it feels like a courtyard. It has a large kitchen for Paris, that opens onto the courtyard as does the door that goes to the bedroom. You can get to the bedroom through the front door down a hallway, or through the terrace door. When you first walk in there is the living room with those cool, all too Parisian balconies, I think if you turn a corner there is the bathroom,which is also bizarrely big for Paris. It has a tub! and a separate shower! Stunning! 2 people could actually get in it and walk around. Bathrooms and kitchens here are so small. I think it is actually illegal to have a bathroom this small in the US. There has to be at least 13” between the toilet and any other fixture at home. Not here. But enough of that.
The kitchen comes with just a sink and one cabinet, if you get an unfurnished apartment. This would be unfurnished. But, that way, no cooties! Everything is new, so not carpets, no smoking, no dust! The owner agreed to take the birds. I am so dying for this place. It is one half block from the Mouffetard Market and fountain. The first photos I took here are of the Market and Fountain.
Now, for the other side. You have to buy the appliances for the kitchen and washer/dryer (which you can get as one unit here) and outfit the kitchen which you then are supposed to take with you when you move. You can also try to sell them to the next occupant, but that is all on you.
Then there is the archaic, baroque contract and money setup. Since we are foreigners, the landlord wants a 3 year contract with proof that we can pay the the years rent in advance.
So, you have to put on your Sunday best and go to the bank and ask to open an account. You have to go to a bank in your neighborhood. Everything is done in your neighborhood. You go to the phone, cable, bank, whatever company in your neighborhood. There are banks on nearly every corner of every street and cell phone,internet,TV provider stores every other step. So, there are choices.
So, you get the bank account. Then you have to have a bi-lingual lawyer and notaire (notary, but with real power and real fee!) to read and agree on the terms of the contract.
Okay, we get to one bank at 9 a.m. and wait outside the entrance chamber while the employees file in and double cheek kiss each other good morning, the bank opens at 9:15. We go in and the receptionist, yes, receptionist. There are no tellers, just a desk and some ATM's. She asks if we have a rendezvous. You have to make an appointment to open an account. She can set one up for tomorrow or the day after. Uh, yeah.
Banking crisis? What banking crisis?
So, we go to the next bank. We’d actually gone there before but didn’t have our passports, so we couldn’t do anything.
She sat us down and we communicated minimally, but we seemed to have the right amount of id which she turned into about 20 sheets of paper, which she multi-stamped and filled in. We should be getting our Carte soon. They don’t do checks. You can get a checkbook, but it takes for-e-ver. This is the land of smart cards. Its an official debit card, no credit.
Enough of the mundane blah blah.
We went to see the Christmas lights down the Champs de Elleyes. I took some pictures, but they don’t do it justice. They put up a white lighted 
Ferris Wheel that actually works, just for the occasion. There are huge chandeliers hung in the middle of the streets, the trees are draped with white lights that have effects that look like shooting stars. Some buildings are bathed in colors while others have curtains of tiny white lights hanging from every window sill. Its almost as if they decided to make snow effects of lights since they don’t have tons of the real stuff. Its gorgeous and sweet. Charming, glowing, every window has something made of white feathers and a fan. Villeroy and Boch has Polar bear in the window, silently clawing out with the powder blue bathed window.
Its all utterly enchanted until we decide we are getting too cold and want to go home.
You have to get a taxi at a taxi stand, you can’t just hail them and when you call your get voice mail! When you go to the taxi stand, the cabs can be empty or just not there. And you just know the colder you are, the less taxis there are ;-}. Getting a taxi on the right bank to go to the left when everyone wants to see the christmas lights, turns out to be an impossible feat. And, it gets awfully windy, at night down by the river.
We finally absolutely lucked out, after crossing over the bridge and walking past 150 taxi stands. A taxi pulls up and someone just gets out!
Monsiuer, Sil vous pait! Baby, baby, please! Yes! He asked if we were “Fatigay” meaning tired. Oh, oui,oui. He laughed at our accents and promptly dropped us off.
Tomorrow, we may or may not hear some kind of response about the apartment, after the croissants, cafe cremas and double kisses. Then, there’s the lawyers.