You know, the funny thing was that C & I didn't really set out to buy an apartment.  Or at least not yet.  The truth was, we were still leaning towards doing a viager.  Actually buying an apartment just seemed so permanent, and who knew how long we'd stay in Paris?  

But we still decided to get a feel for the market, so like we did with our current apartment, we sat down and made a list of our desired features and neighborhoods, and then I set up a few SeLoger alerts to start to familiar with prices.

We got two hits almost immediately - one for a viager, and one to buy. We first visited the viager apartment, and it had the requisite view of the Eiffel Tower, but only from the balcony.  It was also missing the second bedroom we wanted, and it would need a ton of renovation were we to ever live in it.  The price was right and we wouldn't need a mortgage, but it was a bit outside of our search area.

The apartment for sale hit all of our criteria - more than 60m2, two bedrooms, great view, balcony, parking spot, good transport connections, limited reno needed, non-Haussmanian building, and it met our mortgage criteria.

So we decided to go check out.  We got lucky and were the first people to see it since the real estate agent was just coming back from her summer holiday. (Yes, that's how long ago this whole process started....).   C wanted to make an offer immediately after seeing it, I was a bit more hesitant.  After all, we weren't even really planning on buying an apartment, and certainly not in 2013!

But after thinking it over and realizing how rare it is to find a place to that checks all of the boxes (and I had all of the posts from "House Hunting in Paris" in mind), we crunched some numbers and decided to just go for it and put in an offer, which the seller accepted.

I'm mostly grateful that we have had so much luck both times around, especially given how much so many folks struggle to find a decent place to live in this city. Long-time readers may remember that we hadn't been planning on moving in together so soon either, but the perfect place came along right after I'd set up the search to get a feel for the market.  And now the same thing happens for this place.  Positive manifestation strikes again!

Ringing in the New Year

I can't believe it's the last day of 2013 - where did the year go??  It's been a busy but good year for us, and I am definitely looking forward to what 2014 will bring - my official "graduation" from my masters program, positive changes in my job that will hopefully mean less work, potentially a few trips to Asia, but mainly because.....

(no, there is no bun in the oven)

We bought an apartment!  We are super excited, and will sign the paperwork in two weeks, and then officially get the keys mid-February.  I've got a few posts in mind to explain how we went about buying it and some of the things to watch out for, but in the mean time, I am already picturing us celebrating NYE with this view next year!!

Back to the drawing board

I'm so frustrated right now. I went to look at an apartment for rent Tuesday night, which meant I had to cancel my date with Crystal. (Btw, I'm still really sorry about that dear!!). Unfortunately it was all for nothing too - there were at least 20 people in line in front of me and another 20 or so people in line behind me (with more arriving as a I left), meaning I, the little old foreigner, had little to no chance of getting the place. It wasn't perfect, but it was a decent apartment at a good price and the location was okay too - about 10 minutes walk from where I live now.

But even though I have a CDI (permanent job contract), am gone half the month for work (equals no partying) and make a lot more than your average French person, the competition is such that pretty much no one will take me because I don't have anyone in France to act as my guarantor. No one** wants to rent to some random foreigner when there are stacks of Frenchies with parents willing to sign their life away in order to get their (adult) child an apartment, no matter how much you make. It's just so frustrating - I explained my story to her, and offered her to give her the contact info for previous landlords as references, but she wasn't having any of it. All she cared about was renting to someone who had a stupid garant in France. I understand that law is on the tenant's side and that it's really hard to evict a non-paying locataire (especially during the winter months), but I think a lot of owners are taking it way too far. Sigh. Things are so much easier when you're in a relationship with a Frenchie and have French in-laws who can sign for you.

Which is why I decided to put this out there on the internets with the hope that someone out there may hear/know of something. It doesn't really matter to me if I live alone or in a colocation, but what is important is the location. I would much rather stay where I live now than live in the suburbs or on the outskirts of Paris. For my mental health, I need to be in a place that's active & transport-friendly, with easy & fast access to the city center (& the train stations). So if anybody hears of anything in the next few months, please pass it on my way.

I guess the good thing is that for the moment, I'm not desperate - worst case scenario I stay here and continuing being able to save tons of money on rent. But on the other hand, it'd be nice to have a place bigger than a size of a walk-in closet. One that has a real bathroom and a place for guests to stay and that I wouldn't be ashamed to show to my family. Y'all know what I'm saying.... though actually, if you've never lived in Paris, you probably don't! *S*

**I should clarify here that there are landlords out there willing to rent to foreigners - they just charge prices that are even higher than normal!! Or their apartments are in sketchy neighborhoods, lol.

I have had a very busy past few days, running around being neurotic and trying to prepare things for my new (temporary) living situation. More to come on that later.

For now, I will just say thanks to the old and new friends I met up - the few hours we spent together offered me a small respite from the insanity that was this past week. So thanks to Sarah, Lauren, Anna & Kendra, Kyliemac, Aimee and Loulou. I'd also like to say major thanks to Leesa & her husband Alex for helping me transport a clic-clac across Paris - on a Sunday morning!!! It was very kind of them and I really appreciated it!

In other news, Saturday night we all got together to celebrate the wedding of Lisa and Georges. It was a wonderful night, filled with good friends and excellent food (thanks Georges!) and I wish them all the best for the future. For those of you not on Facebook, here's a compilation of our party fun:
And now back to the moving insanity....

I couldn't make this up if I tried...

**Scam Update**

The other guy has basically given up since he thinks that, as a black man, that the police will pretty much tell him to go f**k off since we don't have any hard proof. He's also worried that she will turn around and porte plainte against him for defamation and he's had some past troubles so he wants to stay clean this time. So I asked him for the girl's number and decided to call her myself.

The first time, she was all defensive and acted like she had no idea what I was talking about (as if the dude hadn't ever called her) and that she had no way, under no circumstances, ever sublet her apartment to qui que ce soit. I told her I didn't want any histoires, I just wanted my money back and that was it. She said she would call me back later. She did, and then had this whole story set up about how she actually had sublet her apartment out to a guy during her vacances, and she thinks he's the one behind all of this. And how she's a victim too because he never paid her for the rent like he said he would, plus he turned around and scammed us. So the only solution is that all of us go porter plainte together at the police station. I asked why she hadn't said that the first time around, and she said it was because she was worried I was from the agence immobilière and she didn't want to get into more trouble since she already owes them so much money. I talked to the other guy about it afterwards, and he is still sure it's her and that she's just doing this so she appears innocent as well.

I keep going back and forth - there were times when I really believed that she had no clue what was going on. She really did seem upset at the idea that random people were walking around with keys to her apartment, and she kept asking me if her stuff was still there. And I mean, she was even ready to pay for me to come back to Paris this weekend so we could go to the cops together ASAP. And she's called me four or five times since to try to convince me to come back. But still, I keep coming back to the fact that she is in all this debt and yet still managed to go on vacation for two weeks. And that she wasn't honest with me right away about subletting her place. It just seems like every time one of us talks to her, she says she'll call us back, which makes it seem like she needs time to make up a story. So I don't know. She called again this morning and woke me up, but I told her I would call back later. Either way though, I'm stuck - I can't prove anything and if the other guy gives up, it's pretty much over....

Some day my life will be made in film...

Alright, so things just keep getting stranger and stranger.

Given that the guy knew the apartment, building & area so well, we figured it had to be someone she knew. I did some searching online and ended up finding the girl on Facebook. I looked at her profile & her pictures, and I think it's possible that her boyfriend is the guy I gave my money to - except he had black hair in the pictures instead of bright orange. William and the other guy are less sure though. I also found out that they are currently on vacation in Portugal (a beach in Mexico wasn't a bad guess after all).

Meanwhile, the other dude found proof that she was several months behind in her rent so she was being evicted September 30 and that she also owed EDF a lot of money. *Light bulb* anyone? It seems highly probably that they've done this in order to try to cover her debts. So I spent Wednesday sleuthing around online and found a ton of information about her boyfriend. I found out the his real name, his brother & sister's name, I have his landline and know that he lives in the 13ème and that he's a student at the Conservatoire Libre du Cinéma Français. I also found out his parents' name, address & phone number. Thank you Internets. The other dude found her mom's address (but unfortunately not her phone number).

Unfortunately though, I'm less convinced today than I was yesterday that we will get our money back. The other dude called her last night and said she freaked out and acted like she didn't know what was going on - but I reminded him "Look how calm the guy that stole our money was - there are some good actors out there. Maybe she was panicky because she knows she's been found out". Plus, she changed her facebook status to "F*** sirote des bons cocktails en étant recherchée par la police" (F*** is sipping tasty cocktails while being hunted for by the police). Does that sound like someone who's innocent to you? To me, it sounds like elle se fout de notre gueule!!

The problem is, if they were really in Portugal last Tuesday, we can't prove anything. vAnother hypothesis I have though is that it was the boyfriend that I had on the phone while I signed the lease and it was a friend of theirs actually at the apartment. That person had her keys & put them back in the mailbox before leaving, so it has to be someone they know. If it was a thief, they would've just kept the keys. But how to prove it?

Just call me Dick Tracy

Ok, I have a major update regarding the apartment scam, but I'm going to wait to post about it until I see how things play out this afternoon/evening.

Let me just say though that the gardienne is definitely NOT in on it - she's about 60 years old and is just the remplaçante for the regular one (who's on vacation). The building is absolutely huge and she's completely clueless about pretty much everything and everyone there.

Secondly, sublets are apparently illegal in France, which is why I have no legal rights and why I cannot file a report. However, the other guy and I have been playing detective and we now *think* we know who the guy is and how to contact him. Hence the "waiting to see how things play out this afternoon" bit.......Sorry to keep you in suspense, but I promise there will be a good post coming tomorrow!!

J'ai pas le moral, je suis fatigué(e)....

People have been asking about my new place. I don't know how to say this, so I'm just going to come right out with it - the apartment I thought I had was a scam and my 1500€ are gone. Long gone. As in probably buying some con-artist Frenchie drinks in Mexico. En gros, this guy pretended to be the renter of the apartment and rented it out (separately) to both myself and a Parisian, giving us both a full set of keys. I believed him because I signed a contract, got a receipt for the deposit & the first month's rent, a copy of his passport, a copy of his EDF bill and three different phone numbers for him. But I first became suspicious when I went over there last Friday and saw that none of his stuff had been moved out. I immediately called him (and the other two numbers provided) but all of the phones were off. I also emailed but didn't get any response. I became more and more worried as the weekend went on and decided not to move in Sunday as planned. I came back Monday and found someone else's stuff there, but no one home. And then I went back last night and knocked and it turns out the guy had also signed & received the exact same paperwork as I had and had just moved in Sunday. We went to the police to file a report, but they unfortunately laughed in our faces, saying it was our own fault for not going through an agency. Now we are going about it on our own, trying to find who the real owner/renter of the apartment is, and if they're aware that someone else is going around giving away keys to their place. I guess you can never be too careful.

So that's that. I've freaked out enough over this these past few days (which unfortunately involved several nights of heavy drinking and one shameful night at poor Princesse Ecossaise's house) and now I am sort of over it. Yes, it sucks, but I can't do anything about it and I need to dedicate the little energy I have left to finding a new apartment, and finding one urgently. The problem is, I'm leaving tomorrow on a business trip and won't get back til mid-September. So I'm missing two weeks of apartment hunting in the prime housing season in Paris, which leaves me feeling a little more than depressed, not to mention desperate. There's nothing I can do about it while I'm gone though, so I'm just going to try to put it aside for now and focus on my trip. But please, for the love of God, if you know of an available rental or even an apartment share, please send it my way!

The one bright spot in my week was scoring a free ticket to a private Tryo concert sponsored by FNAC, promoting their new album. They are one of my favorite French bands, and my knowledge of them goes way back to when I first met Fabrice. It was the only CD he brought to the US, so we listened to it pretty much constantly for two years. I knew the words without even knowing what I was saying. There are still certain songs that are difficult for me to listen to (ie. the ones that were "our" songs), but that wasn't enough to stop me from seeing them in concert as it's something I've always wanted to do. And it was a nice respite from all the stress of the past few days, if only for a short while. So here's a brief clip I took of them, before a big security guard came over and told me there was no filming allowed:

Drumroll please.....

If I'm posting this so late in the morning, it's only because I finally got a good night's sleep last night.....due to the fact that I now have a home! After over a month of hardcore looking and 21 (mostly shitty) apartment visits, I have a place to live. I am so relieved.

I'm sure you'll all wondering which place I took so..................I took the studio a little farther out. It's in a nice building, in a safe neighborhood and I really liked the apartment. It's the biggest one I've seen so far and is decently decorated. Of course, it doesn't have the views I get from my chambre de bonne, but it does have nice big windows that let lots of light in. I also realized that it's closer to chez Kendra than I previously thought - it's probably only a 15 minute walk. So I signed the lease and forked over my 1500€ and I now have the keys in my possession. And mille mercis to William for having accompanied me.

The guy I'm renting it from has some stuff in there still, but I can start moving in Friday after noon. After being let down so many times, there's a part of me that still thinks this is a scam and that they took my money and then changed the locks or something like that. So I won't be fully relaxed until Friday when I can get in there and see that it really is mine (at least until June 30, 2009)!

PS. To answer your comment on the other post Rochelle, 90% of particuliers won't accept a check for the deposit. They've all been screwed over so many times that now they want cold, hard cash. The guy I'm sub-letting from actually took a check from the original guy he'd found last week and it bounced, so this time he said "I learned my lesson, pay me in cash".

So I need some opinions here- I looked at an apartment share yesterday, and I'm trying to decide if I should take it or not.

Pros:
-It's still in my neighborhood (just behind the Cluny museum)
-It's a block from the RER, which will be nice when I need to travel
-It's a block from the Finnish Institute where I'll be talking classes in the fall
-It's on the 3rd floor, so the walk up the stairs isn't bad
-The area is really safe
-The apartment is already fully furnished & has a washing machine
-The room is a decent size and has a spot where I could set up a little office
-The price is in my budget, if on the high end

Cons:
-The other roommate is a 50yr old Indian man (though I'm not really sure if this is a con - he's a librarian at George Pompidou & he seems pretty laid-back. He has two daughters in their early 20's and he also has a girlfriend. His previous roommates have all been over 30 and foreigners).
-He smokes at the window in the kitchen, meaning the kitchen sort of smelled like stale smoke.
-The rooms are right next to each other.

Right now I'm leaning towards taking it - the smoking thing is sort of an issue for me, but I don't have any other options in sight and I won't have a lease to sign so it's not like I'm tied in for a year or anything. And the fact that it's just two blocks up from where I am now is HUGE for me. But vote away and let me know what you'd do if you were in my situation!

WTF?

I am dying laughing right now because I just went to look at an apartment that had NO LIGHTS. None whatsoever. I walked in and it was pitch-black and I couldn't see a damn thing. The owner didn't even bring a flashlight or anything, so I was left to try to see what I could by the light of my phone. The bathroom ceiling was so low that I couldn't even stand up straight in it and I hit my head upon entering (again, lights would've been useful).

Also, to make things even weirder, the owner was carrying two naked plastic baby dolls with him and gave no explanation whatsoever as to why he had them. And there were major travaux going on just on the other side of the wall that were supposed to last for at least six more months.Any bets on whether I took it or not? :)

Unfortunately I still have no good news to give re: my housing situation. I have seen places ranging from disgustingly appalling to barely decent & livable. Nothing has blown me out of the water yet though. Also, to the person who posted an ad for an 20 sq meter 8th floor walk up, no elevator, for 750€ a month - you should be ashamed of yourself! You've really got some balls to charge that kind of rent. But unfortunately he/she is not alone in having that kind of nerve.

Some of the more interesting places I have seen include a place with a hole in the ceiling, left-over from a pipe leak several months earlier. Or another place completely covered in cat hair and with a pipe that was about to burst but that the owner "didn't want to fix until it actually did". Gee, sign me up.

I also saw a fairly decent place owned by a 50 yr old English man who traveled a lot and who didn't want to leave his place empty....but it was on the 6th floor, no elevator, and I'm a lazy ass. Yesterday I visited a similar set-up: a huge apartment right on the place de la république, owned by a retired Italian who used to be an EU lawyer. The owner was really interesting and spoke at least five languages fluently, and the apartment itself was nice - each room had it's own full bathroom and it even had a dryer. I think I would've taken it had he not been retired or if I had a real office to go to. But the idea of working from home everyday with an old man puttering around the house was just not that appealing to me.

Out of desperation, I finally made my way over to the American church, but there wasn't much in the way for ads and there were herds of people writing down the ones that were there. An 50yr old Greek man also followed me home from the church, spending 30 minutes trying to convince me to go have a drink with him. I'm sorry Makias, but your landline (and cell and email address) went straight into the poubelle.

So September 1 is rapidly approaching, and I still have no solid leads in sight. The good news is that I technically don't have to be out of here by Sept 1, but the bad news is that if I stay longer, that means more watching of the childrens. On a positive note, at least all this apartment visiting is helping me discover more of Paris (and the long metro rides are giving me time to figure out how to work my new phone).

I have housing ads coming out of my ass. Will be back when the problem clears up.

Cry me a river

Tonight I felt lonely for the first time in a long while.

It was brought on by the fact that I lost out on an apartment, a sub-let. I'd been trying not to think of it as mine, but when the current renter asked me to meet her tonight with the deposit, a month's rent and proof of income, I assumed it was mine. Then she canceled at the last minute, I'm still not sure why. The problem is, I made the mistake of letting my guard down. I started imagining myself inside, and how I would rearrange the furniture, of where I would put the few positions that I have left. I was so happy to have found a place in my quartier, a place that would still allow me to keep walking every where. A place where I would be safe, and among friends.

But most importantly, it was to be a place of my own. A chez moi. I haven't had that since April. And while in my head I know it will turn out okay and that I will find something else, my heart is aching over everything I've lost. What should've been my beautiful new house in Bretagne. My belle-famille. Fabrice. My life. How did I end up in this situation? I am truly happier now and I really do believe that everything happens for a reason, but it doesn't make it any easier for me tonight. I'm a Cancer, I need roots, a home. And I'm tired of living without that.

Don't worry about me - tomorrow will be a new day, and I will be fine and get back up and start looking for housing again. But I just need to night to feel sorry for myself a little while longer.

I've been laying in bed for the past half hour trying to fall asleep. Funnily enough, that's also what I was doing at this time yesterday - but because I'd just gotten home, not because a client called me way too early.

I think I'll work these past 24hrs backwards. Last night, I went to see the perfect apartment - a little more than 40m2 (huge for Paris), furnished, on the top floor of the building with a balcony and vue sur Paris for only 600€ per month. I figured there had to be a catch, and there was - it's about a ten-minute walk from the metro and is in a sort of dodgy neighborhood filled with all sorts of back alleys. The apartment itself is lovely - nice furniture, good color scheme, lots of light - but the building is in bad condition and looks like an HLM (which it very well may be, given the price). I just did not feel safe enough there, despite the great price.

Lots of people have been asking about the hôtel de ville place - I sent them another email yesterday and they replied back saying the girl is now thinking about staying. Either I was too convincing when I told her how hard it was to find a new place or she was too convincing when telling me what a great place it was. Either way, it sucks and my housing search continues.

Yesterday afternoon, I finally met the lovely Princesse Ecossaise and her dear Frog Prince. They came into Paris and we had an over-price drink at a café, walked through the Luxembourg gardens and then went to a movie ("Le premier jour du reste de ta vie" - I recommend it). It was so nice to finally meet them and I look forward to hanging out again soon. I promise to not be semi-hungover next time though!

Now on to why I was getting home at 7:30am. So. Saturday night, Kendra and I met up with Laura (ex-assistant and blogger) and her friends on another péniche. The soirée started off a bit boring - there weren't as many people there as last week, the food wasn't great and the drinks were hella pricey. But the company was good, which made up for a lot. Some of the girls left to catch the metro and the organiser was ribbing Kendra and I for having stayed in the same seat all night and not mingling, so we got up and started walking around. We ended up talking to these three boys - one French, the other two half-French, half-English. They were all really cool and we hung out with them for the rest of the night, dancing until the boat/boite closed at 6am. After that, we all walked back along the Seine and watched the sun rise over Paris - is there anything more beautiful? Going from place de la Concorde to St Michel by foot took quite a while but we still took the time to grab a last drink at a café at place St Michel before parting ways.

It was a great night, and it reminded me a lot of being in the US and hanging out with the guys, talking and laughing, and not feeling pressured in any way. We didn't get their numbers at all - it was one of those one-time things I think. Though now I'm sort of regretting not asking for the number of the Frenchie, he was cute and really nice and I could do with seeing him again. ;) Either way though, as I lay in bed that morning with daylight streaming through the window, I thought "If only Fab and his friends could see little old coincée me now - they'd never believe it!" It's nice to realize that I'm not really secretly a 50 year old woman like they accused me of being - it was just the company I was keeping.

So I need some advice here - I went to see an apartment yesterday and I'm really hesitating about whether or not I should take it. Here's my list of pros and cons:

Pros:
1. Literally at the foot of l'Hôtel de Ville
2. Safe neighborhood
3. Excellent public transportation
4. Great view from the living room
5. It's sublet, so I wouldn't need to sign a lease

Cons:
1. A bit more expensive than I was looking for
2. There are two roommates, and I was only hoping for one (though one of them is gone for work 95% of the time)
3. I'd been hoping to live with a French person, and neither of them are native speakers
4. The kitchen is quite small and the oven doesn't work that well
5. The hallway needs repainting but the owner doesn't want to do it because it's a sublet

I just can't decide - the roommate who's never there is a fashion photographer from South Africa and he's always traveling for work (though they did have a shoot for men's Vogue in the apartment a few weeks ago and the girl I'd be replacing said the place was crawling with gorgeous male models - definite plus, lol). The other guy is half-German, half-French and is some kind of designer for a women's clothing line. He is there more often than the other guy, and sometimes his girlfriend stays over (and sometimes he stays at her place).

I'm really tempted by the location though - I absolutely love being able to walk home every night, and not having to worry about getting on the last metro. And you really can't get more in the heart of Paris than l'hôtel de ville. It's also furnished and there's a cleaning lady that comes twice a month to clean the common living areas, so I wouldn't have to worry about always cleaning up after two guys.

But on the other hand, I'm kind of liking living on my own - the thing is, with the budget I have and the location I want, I won't get anything bigger than what I have now. So it's either live with roommates or live farther out. The timing is perfect too and I really haven't found any other viable options for the moment. I did see a really good apartment this morning, but it was at metro Stalingrad and I just did not feel super comfortable there, even in broad daylight. But so what should I do? Should I hold out for something else? There isn't much on the market now, but I'm thinking things might pick up after August 15 when people start coming back from vacation. But considering I'd ideally like to move out for Sept 1, that doesn't leave me much time. Not to mention the herds of students that descend on Paris every September, all looking for housing. Help!