A Walking Tour of Paris

Pete is here, and to celebrate his first full day in Paris we thought we take him apartment hunting!
We looked at four places today, and it was quite an adventure.

It started with a metro ride to the Corvisart station in the 13e. The first two places we looked at were in the same building in the Butte aux Cailles area. The neighbourhood seemed quite sympa, and it's location on the RER line is perfect for Erik. The building had two studios, one of which we thought would be good (a real bed!). Only two downsides. First, and minor, is that it is the ground floor. This is good in the sense that there is a bit of a 'patio' right out the front door, but bad in that there is zero privacy (and no stairs to counteract my nutella crepe addiction!). The biggest problem is that it isn't available until April 1. Best case scenario is that we would be able to stay where we are for another month. Worst case is that we live in the hotel in Lozere. The worst case really isn't an option.

After that building we picked up Pete (who had made himself comfortable at a local cafe) and headed to the next building, in the 5e, close enough to the Jardin Luxembourg for me to be able to say that. There was some confusion as the landlord was late, and Erik and I, and another girl and her mother basically tried to figure out where the available studio was, with the help of a friendly tennant. The landlord eventually showed up, and although the building was beautiful and had a great view, the place was too small, had a sofa bed and no laundry. However, the other people looking at the place apparently had a 2 room apartment available in the heart of the Latin Quarter (right next to the Pantheon), so we went to look at that one too.

The last one had the best location. It was the closest to the RER, and the Pantheon, and the Jardin Luxembourg. Nice neighbourhood, and beautiful building. Also the priciest. Unfortunately the price didn't get us any luxury aside from a separate bedroom/study and living room. It also had a single bed and no oven, or laundry. And they wanted us to move in as soon as possible, and definetly no later than February 15. Not really an option.

We go tomorrow to look at the newly decorated (in yellow) apartment that we first looked at over the holidays. This place also has no oven or laundry. We're running out of options, and hopefully we'll be able to work something out with our current landlord. Although our money saving 'moving out of here as soon as possible' plan seems to keep getting postponed...

We finished the day by walking all the way home (stopping at a few cafes along the way of course). By the time we saw Sacre Coeur at the top of the hill, guiding us home, we were starved, and headed straight to the fondue restaurant. It was full, so we went right next door to an Indian restaurant. The food was delicious, although the service was less than memorable. A bit of a dissapointing end to an exciting day.