Life in Paris...........It is a challenge

Where to begin.

The good things that happened today are that we took Samuel to the jardin de luxembourg for some time on the grass and some sun which we hope will get him back on a normal schedule. While walking to the jardin we passed an Italian gelato shop. Of course, we had to stop and taste their wares. Excellent.

The rest of the day has not been so good. The good news about the rest of the day(in hindsight) is that we were unable to sign the lease for the long term temporary property which we were hoping to live in until December. Approximately 2PM we received a phone call from our consultant telling us that the owner of our number 1 choice was having second thoughts and was considering moving into the apartment herself and therefore the lease signing scheduled for 6 was cancelled. We were speechless. Our first question, after we recovered our senses, was whether we still had the option of bidding on our 2nd or 3rd choices. We had left our second choice unresolved as were unsure of the actual rent and charges. During our 1st visit we were told a certain high amount with charges included. Our 2nd visit were we told the same high amount but charges (utilities) were not included. The agent for the owner told our agent that she would present us to the owner with the original price as that it what we were first told. In some respects our 2nd choice is better than the 1st in that it is much closer to a metro station and if you walk out the front door and turn right you head into a residential district with wide, tree lined sidewalks(that in 2 long blocks take you directly to the entrance of teh bois bologne where the zoo is located, if we get this place Samuel and I may be living there), if you turn left you are on the main street(avenue Charles de Gaulle) with brasseries, boulangeries and cafes. Our 2nd choice does not have the views and the exquisite architecture of our 1st choice. Again, for those of you who wish to google map, the address is 6 Avenue de madrid, 92200, Neuily-sur-Seine.

At this point we are waiting to hear from either. We told our agent to continue to pursue our 1st choice but to also put in a bid on our 2nd choice and that we would accept whichever bid was accepted first. As I stated before I will never understand the Paris apartment market. Very, very frustrating.

We are currently on hold as we are in a temp apartment that has an inadequate kitchen but we cannot make any firm plans to move into another temp location as we do not know how long we will need the temp location. Our 1st choice is not available until December, our 2nd choice 15 August and our 3rd choice 15 September.

-Dave