Apartment hunting trip

Samuel is not cooperating. He is not falling asleep until 2:30-3:30 in the morning. Makes for a very long night when we have an early morning appointment like today. He was a champ in the car during all our stops as he mostly slept or charmed all the women driving by.

We have a dilemma. We found 2, actually 3, very nice apartments today. The 3rd one is actually our favorite but it is not available until December and with our current predicament with temp accommodations we do not want to spend another 4 months in temporary. So if we do not get either of our first choices we will put in a bid on our third choice.


It is currently 1830 hours in Paris and I am hoping that while writing this blog it will help clarify in mind the pros and cons of each of our top choices. To the P & G people reading this, Yes, Julia is doing a spreadsheet of pros and cons.


The first place is located in Neuilly, in the Bagatelle area. It is near a metro stop and very close to the bois bologne(Paris's equivalent to NY central park, only bigger). It is also closer to the pool than our other choice. It is located on the 4th floor of a classic building. Difficult to get a real feel for the interior as it was being worked on. The floor is especially difficult as it was covered in the remnants of pulled up carpet. The estate agent showing the place promised that it would be replaced by a very nice parquet floor.

As they say in the navy, belay my last.

My how times have changed. It is a very good thing that Julia and I communicate as well as we do.

We have decided to try for the best apartment that we saw on Tuesday, even though it is not available until December. If we are lucky enough to get it you will see when you visit why we decided to wait. I will only tease you now but it has a wraparound balcony and a wonderful view of le tour Eiffel. Enough said.

Tuesday evening as we were having discussion after discussion, writing out floor plans and reviewing video shot during the day we finally asked ourselves "which place that we saw today would we want to live if we could move in immediately." The question was answered absolutely the apartment at 2 rue Pauline Borghese(now you can google map it and see the wonderful location). So we started asking ourselves what do we need to do to make it happen. Julia, love her more every day, had the idea to do a search for apartment rentals in Paris that will accommodate cats. The agency that P & G has us working with does not seem to be the type that will go the extra effort for their clients so we had to do this search ourselves. As we found there are numerous rental apartments in Paris that accept cats. They are even less expensive than where we are currently staying. Above and beyond cost we can let a 4 bedroom apartment for less than we are spending for this small 2 bedroom with an tiny, tiny alcove of a kitchen.

As of Wednesday morning we have placed a bid for the Neuilly apartment. However, to cover our bases we revisited what has become our second choice to verify its size and acceptability. It has only 3 bedrooms but they are quite large even by American standards. Strangely this apartment is listing for more than the Pauline Borghese apartment. I don't think we will ever understand how the Paris apartment business operates. In the end we only have to endure it long enough to find the place we want.

The risk we are taking is that while awaiting an answer on Pauline Borghese we may lose either or both of the other 2 apartments that we also liked. we have asked our agents to push for an answer as quick as possible but since the apartment is not available until December the owner does not have to make a decision based on our timetable.

As of 1515 Paris time we are anxiously awaiting word. If we do not hear near close of business on Thursday we may withdraw our first bid and place a bid on our second choice so that we do not lost it to someone else, but even if we put in a bid there is absolutely no guarantee that we will get the apartment. As we learned during our first trip.

We are drinking heavily, just one bottle of wine during dinner actually. So we ask that you send us good thoughts, cross your fingers, and hope that are plans work out.

Will keep you posted as we learn more.
-Dave