Flat hunting in Paris

Since my last blog post, I've mainly started working (yep, it suddenly hit me that I'll also have to work in Paris - so goodbye first "WAAAAAAAAAAA Paris is great, it feels like a holidayyy!! feeling" :). Anyway, I do really like what I'm doing and I'm already feeling the advantages of working in a smaller office: you actually get the feeling that you can get to know everybody pretty well, you get involved into all kinds of projects which you usually wouldn't even know about (very interesting given that I work as a 'chef de projets' or project manager and love to learn new things all the time)!

I've been intrigued by the French lunch habits. First of all, they hate eating a sandwich while sitting at their desk as much as I do, so that was a good start! Secondly, I'm amazed by what they eat for lunch! Most of my colleagues start with a small salad, followed by a sandwich (NO, not a triangle white sandwich - but a nice baguette with salad, tomato, mayonnaise (yes!) and tuna or chicken or ... whatever you like). The sandwich can also be replaced by for example a pizza-bread or a plate of pasta. And then, after the main course, they all have a dessert!! And trust me, those desserts look DELICIOUS! I managed to have just a sandwich for 1,5 weeks until I cracked last Friday and bought a 'frangipanne' - mmmmmmmmm, delicious! Btw, I still think the sandwiches are huge and need to do my best to finish them (that is without a pre-salad and post-dessert). Only ate my dessert around 4pm! I love the fact that lunch is really an opportunity to relax and chat with your colleagues!

Apart from working, I started looking for a flat in Paris as well. Even when there's an agency that would help me out, I thought I'd have a look at seloger.com, thé site for flathunting in France apparently. After a few hours, I had found a lot of potentially interesting flats, but one PERFECT one! The pictures looked great, the location was perfect, the price was within our budget (luckily we were already used to London prices, so not too shocked about the Paris prices for a small 1 bedroom flat!) AND it was furnished - which isn't very common in Paris. So, I decided to send all the links to the interesting flats to that agency, but called the perfect one myself! I ended up visiting the flat on Wednesday morning and really liked it, so after consulting my fiancé, we decided to take it! And if you think that would be it, think again...

Renting a flat in Paris is just, let's say..., something different! You mainly need to collect lots and lots of pieces of official papers to proove that you're a potential good tenant. And then, very often you need a 'garant', someone who can pay the rent in case you're not able to. So again, lots and lots of documents... French administration suddenly means something to me, when beforehand I always thought "why keep people saying France is a bureaucracy?". I think I slowly see why!

The other thing is that flats move quickly, VERY quickly! In London, we were able to negotiate the start date whereas in Paris it was more or less: you like it, you take it or someone else will take it first... Anyway, I was quick and took it and am very very happy about it! Our new flat will be in the 12th arrondissement, it's at walking distance from my work (about 15mins), 5 mins from bois de vincennes (good for going running in the weekend!), furnished with nice and new furniture + very recently redone so it all looks great! Obviously it will take a bit more time to finalise all the papers (or what did you think), but I'm already very excited about it!!

And finally, I just realised that I haven't even mentioned the fact that we are getting married this year! Yes!!!! Preparations are underway, but what we've done so far already is
- booked the venue and DJ
- church and priest have been informed of the date of our wedding
- found my wedding dress (!!!!!!) and Maarten's wedding suit and the wedding bands!
- created a draft list of attendees

It's so much fun to think about our big day and to prepare for it. And even when so many people say that it's sooo much work, it doesn't really feel like that. And NO, I'm not managing this as a project (this is, strangely, the first question my colleagues asked me when I told them I got engaged - yep...)

And finally, on Tuesday my fiancé joins me in Paris, so I can't wait to really start discovering Paris together!

So long, fare well, mes amis! Oh and let me know if you know people in Paris too!

Louise