Returning to the studio in Paris, I was pleased to discover that the three-floor climb up the stairs had become easier and my stamina had increased. My US doctor would have been pleased. Hopefully, it will come in handy when we have to depart, since all the luggage that we had dragged up will have to be carted back down. G insists on showing the picture again, in case anyone has forgotten.
The bid on the Lille apartment dragged terribly until the end. Flo (Florimond) called us asking after the first week on how the lease agreement was going and we explained to him the difficulty.
The owner lives in Lille and was presently in town. The documents that the leasing agent had asked for had been sent and were in perfect order, we assumed, since the agent responded to neither emails nor voicemails. We were clueless as to where the process was in getting accepted, even though the agent had indicated before we returned to Paris, that the apartment was essentially ours. Just as a reminder, like the US, the agents here work for the landlord.
Had to admire Flo as he was not only holding our furniture until we gained occupancy but he insisted on checking on the progress for us since his shop was around the corner from the immobilier. He walked over and apparently told the agent to call or email that day because, “These are AMERICANS. They NEED to be kept updated.” It cracked us up. The agent did email us but only to say that he had no news so we were no further along than before.
Two weeks in, we had decided to return to Lille and sit at the agent’s desk until we got some answers or if not, look for more properties at other offices. The day we got up early to get to the train station, we got an email that the lease was ready to sign and asking when we could come. We stated in two days (to give him some time in case he wasn’t really ready) but per usual, received no reply. We went on that day anyway.
Walking into the office, there were two staffers, neither of whom spoke English or Spanish so we were only able to ascertain that he was not in the office and hadn’t been so far that day. Anything else they said was utterly lost on us. We called him on our mobiles, leaving a voice mail and we emailed as well as texted him to let him know we were at his office. Feeling defeated, we walked over to Flo’s shop and offered to pay him storage fees for the items he was holding for us. He declined the offer, offered us coffee, and after hearing about the lack of communication said, “This is not right. Maybe I can help.”
He walked back to the agent’s office, with us in tow, and engaged in a lively exchange with the two staffers there. At one point, one of them called the agent and got no answer as well. Returning to his store, he recounted the conversation they’d had. The story was that the two staffers were sales agents, not leasing agents; our agent was the ONLY one in the office that handled leases and he had no assistants. We remembered the huge influx of students at his desk and were really dismayed at the fact that he was handling all of it alone. Our problem was apparently often repeated by his other clients.
Their office closed at 7 pm but we could only wait until 5:30 pm as we had tickets at 6 pm to return to Paris. Flo told us that he closed at 6 pm and that after, he would return to their office again. On the train back to Paris, we got a phone call from Flo. He was standing at the agent’s desk, in front of him, and was translating the conversation to us. The lease was indeed ready to sign and we would have to return to do so. We made a 10 am appointment on the spot, to come the day after to sign and a promise from the agent to email a copy of the lease, which we had asked for several times, to have our attorney look over. Thank goodness for Flo.
When we arrived at 10 am, we found that the owner was also there for the signing. The process for leasing is as long and paper heavy as it is in the US for buying a piece of property. The owner was very jovial and spoke a good amount of English. He had an appointment after signing the lease but when we could return to Lille, he would show us how to operate the electrical, the gas boiler and heating pump. We walked over to the apartment with a young women who appeared from another office, who was assigned to document the condition of the unit at the time of the signing. When we arrived, there were two middle-aged people diligently hand scrubbing the unit clean. In introducing ourselves, we learned that Bruno and his wife, Karen were actually cleaning the unit as a favor to the owner. He was a painter by trade and showed us another unit he had painted while we were there. Knowing the owner trusted and preferred him, we asked for an estimate since we needed to have the place painted before occupying it.
In the following few days, we received the estimate, Bruno accepted the job with a timeline of two weeks and we met with him and Karen again, to discuss colors. Also, we now converse with the owner, instead of the agent, who instead is very prompt in replying. He even offered to conference call with us with the gas and electric company regarding the date of hook up, which turned out to be the first week of October. The relief was terrific in having good people in place and dates of completion before we were due to vacate the Paris studio.
This is the first time in our lives, in our many moves, that we have someone else who cleaned the place, someone else who will paint the place and someone else who will deliver the furniture. We have always schlepped our own furniture, shoving it into what ever pick up or van we have borrowed or rented and inevitably throwing out some muscle along the way. There comes a time in aging when, as a good friend observed, your budget shifts from buying things, to buying services. It feels very odd. I am sure I would have made a terrible job at being royalty – well on several levels, but in this instance to be sure.
Running more along our regular style, when we returned to the Paris apartment from Lille in the first week, we were greeted with a leaking water heater. That was messy for about three days until the landlord’s plumber came and replaced it. Nothing a bucket wouldn’t solve short term, even though the drip was from above the toilet and required one to hold it while doing your business. Yep, more along our usual kind of story.
I also did all of the laundry since we had access to a machine again. We visited our banker to get questions, regarding our move, taken care of. We picked up a few stationary needs, two more frames to mount my growing street poster collection and we both got haircuts.
We actually do other things besides “angst-ing” about our next abode. After all, we are in Paris. We dined again at our friend, Michele’s, another fabulous meal – a beef bourguignon that melted in our mouths and a delicious white fish that I’ve no chance of pronouncing, spelling or remembering the name of. We also met his wife, a small spritely woman who spoke English well and had heard about us from Michele.
There is only one marionette shop in Paris and it is around the corner from the studio. After the Toon Theatre in Brussels that we liked so much, we finally went in for a closer look. We have no practical use for them but admire the artistry of many of them and had always peeked at the window display as we passed it numerous times. Speaking to the proprietor, we found that there were many artists represented and most came from Europe. Like the good carved nutcrackers we admire from Germany, these marionettes have detail and style that are absolutely mesmerizing.
We met with our immigration attorney for lunch, just to visit since we were leaving Paris and our communication will most likely be reduced to email. It’s a treat to visit with him and discuss what he’s up to since he is also American, also teaches here in Paris, and intrigues us with interesting conversations. He reviewed our lease upon receipt and told us it was a standard French lease. What surprised us is that the tenant is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the plumbing and the electrical. It’s a daunting thought given that it’s a 17th century building and we have no idea what all the previous renters have done.
The Louvre. Knowing we would need to visit the Louvre several times, we decided to start at the bottom, work our way up, stopping when tired and on subsequent trips, picking up where we last left off. On our previous trips, we had concentrated on one subject and time period. This time we started at the foundation.
Literally. The first floor is ‘-0’ (read that minus-zero) and it is the original foundation of what was the palace, which eventually became the museum. The palace was begun in 1100. The walls changed over the centuries as windows were added and building mechanics improved. It was humbling.
We managed to move from -0 through ‘-1’, ‘0’ and finished ‘1’ but only with a fortifying coffee break. These were all floors of the French sculptures (other countries were gathered in separate buildings), ranging in size and material, from busts to full sized portraits. The busts were renditions of actual people and included scars, pockmarks and facial deformities. Incredibly lifelike, if they moved, we would not have been surprised. We just wished we’d taken some pictures. There were two which stood out in our discussions later; one of a seated cardinal, his folds and rumpled cloth, feathered cape, detailed buttons, fingernails, sheaths of papers – all so detailed that one could completely forget that this was carved out of marble. The other, at eye level, was a bust of Marie Antonette. So life like, facing a woman who brought fashion and croissants to France, who was totally disconnected from the population and who was guillotined. Eye to eye. To say it gave one pause, is an understatement. With floor ‘1’ finished, so were we. The rest for another, undetermined time.
On the 15th, we were walking to a farmers market, when we came across a faire on the Seine billed as “Le Meilleur Du Sud-Ouest Arrive Ā Paris”. It was a food and wine/beer festival featuring the southern regions of France. They handed out bags to all with the poster logo, which were for free fruit that was offered at the first large table we encountered.
A lively band played while we strolled past tented tables of cheeses, sausages, bottle of jams, fresh fruits, confit, wines, beers, breads and pastries. It was so much fun and lots to taste! Yes, we will miss Paris.
I caught my first cold here. 
France germs can find me just as easily as US germs (and as I once discovered, Portuguese) can. But instead of knocking me out for three weeks, fighting bronchitis, it was over in three days. The walking? The fresh food? I have no idea but I am grateful.
We live on the Ile St. Louis on Rue des Deux Ponts. When we go shopping off the island, we pass what we have always assumed was a church on the Right Bank across Pont Marie next to a lovely park open during daytime hours. We ventured on a Sunday to look inside and discovered it is a Library and Exhibition Gallery – The Forney Library, also known as the Townhouse of Sens. The Townhouse of the Archbishops of Sens was built from 1475 by Tristan of Salazar, councilor to the King of France, but by the time he died in 1519, the construction was hardly completed.
None of Archbishop Salazar’s successors ever lived in the Townhouse. In 1622, Paris became an archbishopric (previously a simple bishopric), and of course, needed something more stately. Consequently, the Townhouse of Sens was leased to some noblemen and then to different private individuals and manufacturers. Over the years it was used as a laundry, food can manufacturer, a rabbits’ hair cutter, an optician, a marmalade factory, and finally, a glass warehouse. Craftsmen also occupied the rest of the building with artists working together. In 1911, the City of Paris bought the ruined building, removed all the tenants by 1928 and began renovations by the 1930’s and completed in the mid-50’s. The Forney Library is a circulating library and moved into the Townhouse in 1961. It specializes in decorative arts, crafts, fine arts and fashion, design and graphics. It houses one of the largest collections of posters in France; wallpapers, postcards, labels and many other graphic documents (zines). It also retains old fabrics and other textile samples.
We went to a restaurant which we’d promised ourselves to try, located on our street named L’Auberge Des Deux Ponts. We were served truly one of the best meals I have ever had – a veal steak in a mushroom sauce – easily in the top five of my life. It was incredible, indescribable and enough to swoon over. We praised Clude (owner, chef and waiter), which pleased him so much that he brought out an open bottle 
of a 1989 Mouton Cadet and poured us it’s last glass -which was sublime. I kept the bottle. It was an outstanding evening.
We’re right down the street from la cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris and, although we’ve visited on our other vacations, and have passed it and the crowds many times since, we hadn’t ventured there on this move. September was a little bit more quiet in terms of tourists so we wandered over and took our time going through the cathédrale. Still so impressed with the sheer majesty of this facility. As an aside, there is a foundation that is raising funds to renovate the building so you see scaffolding on the Left Bank side. It’s an odd situation: the French government owns the building; the Church runs the operation, and neither can afford to pay for its capital upkeep. So they’re targeting rich Americans.
The magnificent flying buttresses holding this Gothic building and glass in place for over eight centuries starting in the 1160’s, is a wonder to behold. Apparently, this is the site of previous churches going back to the 4th century, and certainly to the 9th. Bishop Maurice de Sully initiated construction of the cathédrale and in 1182 the church took possession of the eastern portion of the cathedral that includes the sanctuary and Main Altar. By 1220, the western portion of the cathédrale is complete with the nave, a new architect and technical innovations that resulted in slenderness of the walls, changes in the height of buttresses, as well as completion of three portals and rose window. The major structural work of the cathédrale was complete by 1250 with the completion of the bell towers. Attention is now given to decorations of the facades and modifications of the interiors. And now, over 12 million people visit this building each year – no wonder its need for renovations!
This bottom photo shows a priest waiting to hear confessions.
The month comes to a close. We have an apartment, which is clean. We’re meeting on the 1st with the painter and have color swatches in hand, plus we’re meeting the owner for the technical walk through. We have a meeting on the 5th with the utility company to start service. The painter is done by the end of the second week and we will leave the studio by the third week. All the limbo will be over. And the French language classes will begin in earnest. No more, “Je ne parle pas le française.” Or so we hope. Maybe the next phrase we will memorize will be “We can speak some French but sound like idiots.”
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