The Apartment - Wednesday, 24 Sept

The apartment I'm renting is cozy. The kitchen has a better stove, oven and fridge than I’ve seen in a long time, so I’ll have to be sure to do some cooking! And I love the small rail mounted on the edge of the countertop. The bed is up some open-stairs-without-a-railing in a small short loft, so I think I’ll be sleepin’ on the sofa bed. (The good news is that the steps provide a convenient place to pile my books and magazines!) There’s a computer in the apartment, but it has the French keyboard, so I’m glad that I brought my laptop. The apartment hadn’t been cleaned when I arrived early in the morning, but happily I was here when the cleaner came and she was able to give me the password for the wireless access (otherwise it would have taken a while to figure it out, looking for little stickers on the equipment or notes left behind by previous users of the apartment).

A roomy wooden elevator rides in an open black-iron-mesh-caged shaft – I could fit myself and my two suitcases in it comfortably! (If these old Parisian buildings have been retrofitted with elevators, most of them are TINY - barely big enough for a person plus one small suitcase. So this one is most welcome!)

The post office is right across the street, a bank across another street, a Monoprix around the corner (it’s the ubiquitous French discount store that has EVERYTHING including food and wine), several little cafes and restaurants within a couple blocks, a couple charming little leafy parks and squares, etc. Lots of opportunity for exploration close to home!

The weather is lovely –in the 60’s, with intermittent clouds against a bright blue sky. When the sun slips behind a cloud it gets a bit chilly and damp, but then it’s so warming when the sun returns! At a café down the street I saw blankets draped across a few of the chairs – for patrons’ use while they’re there – I haven’t seen that since my trip to Stockholm in 1999 – such a charming and gracious amenity!

And just to prove that I'm here, I took a picture of myself with my cellphone camera when I was taking an afternoon tea break at a cafe on my street, rue Dupetit-Thouars.