As you could probably guess, finding a place to live in a different country can be pretty difficult. I spent my last month home looking for somewhere to live in France. But after no luck, I decided to put it off until I was actually in the country (that, and thankfully have friends here who could take me in for the time being). So today was the big day that I ventured from Rennes to Paris to do some serious apartment hunting.
I woke up at 6 a.m., got dropped of at the train station by Émilien's mom at 6:45 a.m and got to Paris about 9:15 a.m. From there I hopped on the 94 bus for a half an hour toward the eighth arrondissement to see what would be my home for the next five months.
My landlords are Madame and Monsieur de Savignac, a sixty-something-year-old couple with a spare bedroom. They have four children, all of which are grown and have moved out of the house, leaving them with three bedrooms to lease. I didn't get a chance to meet either of the other two girls renting rooms from Madame de Savignac, but I did get to spend a good amount of time getting to know her.
First of all, she's exactly how you might imagine her. She's a proud mother and grandmother with a bit of a mustache and severe coffee breath – but in a good way. She showed me pictures of her family, and I followed by showing her pictures of mine. Because she seemed to love babies so much, I also showed her a video of my friend Taylor's (almost) five-month-old daughter, Vanessa, "playing" the piano. Boy, did she get a kick out of that.
She went on to tell me about two of the pictures hanging in the living room – portraits of her ancestors who died in prison during the French Revolution. The man died of some illness, the woman met her fate against the guillotine. How crazy is that? Talk about your family history actually being history ...
Enough about her for now though. I'm sure you're probably more interested in the apartment. I have full access to the kitchen and dining room, which my bedroom is attached to. I will be sharing the WC and a bathroom with the other two tenants, and I have a wonderful view from the window in front of my antique desk. The bed is a little frumpy and the paint on the ceiling may be chipping, but hey, everything has its faults, right? I wish I took more pictures of the apartment, but I will be moving in there some time this week, I think Friday or Saturday, so expect more then.
I woke up at 6 a.m., got dropped of at the train station by Émilien's mom at 6:45 a.m and got to Paris about 9:15 a.m. From there I hopped on the 94 bus for a half an hour toward the eighth arrondissement to see what would be my home for the next five months.
My landlords are Madame and Monsieur de Savignac, a sixty-something-year-old couple with a spare bedroom. They have four children, all of which are grown and have moved out of the house, leaving them with three bedrooms to lease. I didn't get a chance to meet either of the other two girls renting rooms from Madame de Savignac, but I did get to spend a good amount of time getting to know her.
First of all, she's exactly how you might imagine her. She's a proud mother and grandmother with a bit of a mustache and severe coffee breath – but in a good way. She showed me pictures of her family, and I followed by showing her pictures of mine. Because she seemed to love babies so much, I also showed her a video of my friend Taylor's (almost) five-month-old daughter, Vanessa, "playing" the piano. Boy, did she get a kick out of that.
She went on to tell me about two of the pictures hanging in the living room – portraits of her ancestors who died in prison during the French Revolution. The man died of some illness, the woman met her fate against the guillotine. How crazy is that? Talk about your family history actually being history ...
Enough about her for now though. I'm sure you're probably more interested in the apartment. I have full access to the kitchen and dining room, which my bedroom is attached to. I will be sharing the WC and a bathroom with the other two tenants, and I have a wonderful view from the window in front of my antique desk. The bed is a little frumpy and the paint on the ceiling may be chipping, but hey, everything has its faults, right? I wish I took more pictures of the apartment, but I will be moving in there some time this week, I think Friday or Saturday, so expect more then.