So it is official! After nearly two years of debating and searching, Thomas and I are finally buying an apartment of our own here in the Paris metro area! :-) As long as we make it through all of the French bureaucracy (the process here is very different than in the US) and red tape over the next 2 and a half months (a small forest has already given its life for the first round of paperwork), we should be able to move into our new home by October 15! And what an apartment we found!
We found a beautiful 3 piece apartment (in Paris, apartments are sized by pieces, ie rooms) which has a big living area (pictured) and two bedrooms. The apartment is on the 7th (and top) floor of a 1930's art deco style building (with elevator) and in addition to being full of light, has a long balcony with an unobstructed view of the Eiffel Tower and Paris. How lucky can a girl be? That large window you see in the picture leads to the balcony which goes the full length of the wall. I can already envision watching the New Year's and Bastille Day fireworks with friends.
The bedroom pictured here is the larger of the two. Both bedrooms are quite long in length- only a third of the bedroom is actually pictured. In the main bedroom, there is a large closet (YAY!), while the smaller bedroom has light wood paneling, which reminds me of my childhood home (no western PA house built in the 1960s-70s is complete without wood paneling- although our guest bedroom's is a much lighter shade). We'll probably use the smaller bedroom for now as a guest bedroom and office.
The kitchen is small, but it has enough room for a dishwasher, a washing machine, an oven, a fridge, and everything else I could need. I really like how it is open into the main salon area, and love the big window. Ah.... :-) I'm so excited.The apartment also has a cute little bathroom which has a decent bathtub and shower. No photo of that yet, but we'll post one after we move in. Keep in mind that all the furniture and decoration you see pictured belongs to the current owner. I have so many ideas for decorating already!
But where is this fabulous apartment, you ask? For those of you familiar with Paris, the apartment itself is actually in the city of Issy Les Moulineaux, right by Porte de Versailles (and a five minute walk to the Metro 12, T-2, and T-3). If you cross the street, you are in Paris's 15th arrondisement. The building is pictured here. The VERY top balcony and window you can kind of see in the photo will be ours. Woo! There is a cute cafe downstairs, and the quarter is brimming with life- lots of restaurants, markets, bakeries, etc. The more we visit the quarter, the more I like it. It is also a 10 minute walk to my favorite gym and an 8 minute tram ride to the HP office. The metro gets us to St. Lazare (where we live now) in about 25 minutes, and stops at a lot of great places. Issy Les Moulineaux is also cool because it is one of the main business districts of Paris.Most of the media companies have their offices here, as do many tech companies because the price is lower than in Paris proper and because there are not the building restrictions. (There are a lot of larger office buildings in Issy, in fact there are about 85,000 jobs in the city and 60,000 inhabitants). So, it mixes the modern urban feel with classic Parisian.We're very happy with the apartment. Now onto the paperwork. Our offer was accepted and today we signed a contract which is a permission to buy the apartment (after going through the full diagnostic of the apartment and hammering out additional contract details). Next, we send the permission to buy to the bank to secure our loan. Then we work out with the lawyer the final contract and finally sign it (and transfer the money) to the buyer. So, it won't be ours officially until October, but we're off to a good start!
And now, I'm exhausted after going through an evening of contracts and formalities in French. Time for bed!
A bientot,
Liz Anne
