Property Managers - Can't Live with 'Em, Can't Live without 'Em - Tuesday, 9 June

Notre Dame through the trees

With temps in the mid-60s and clear high blue skies, it’s a gorgeous day for a drive into Paris or for hoofin’ around the ’hood or doing pretty much anything outside.  The city is looking great, there are crowds and traffic is heavy (it’s going to get worse over the next week or so), but they’re tolerable when you’re on vacation!

My Uber driver’s route took us along the Quai de la Tournelle, so of course I had to snap a shot of the little local parish church!

And we drove past a hip clothing shop called “Acne Studios” – there isn’t an acute accent over the e, so Acne must be a proper noun – but it still cracks me up every time I see it (my friend Liz Sobieski noticed the name when we drove past here on a bus a year ago).

I like to rent apartments from Vacation in Paris because they’re well-managed and they usually send you the keys in advance so that you can just let yourself in and get settled without having to schedule a meet-up with a property manager.  I did get the keys in advance, but along with them came the info that the apartment was on the 5th floor (which I knew) and I would have to walk up to the apartment to grab a special fob on the table inside that would let me use the elevator.  Nope, I don’t think so!  (I didn’t know this little tidbit when I booked.)  So I had to arrange to meet the property manager so that he could run upstairs and get the elevator fob for me.

It's hard to believe how
TINY
this elevator is!

I texted him the Uber info, with ETA (see my previous post) as soon as I left the airport.  He obviously didn’t look at it, because he called me about 1 minute before I arrived at the apartment to ask me when I was coming and to berate me for not having called him 90 minutes in advance.  I said I was almost there, and he said, with more than a hint of irritation, that he’d try to be back at the apartment in 30-45 minutes.  But I climbed out of the Uber, and there he was.  “He just happened to be at the apartment.”  He didn’t know this 1 minute earlier?  Apparently he just needed to express his frustration with me (although I reminded him that I had sent him a text rather than make a phone call).  Pretty funny and pretty French!  The good news is that he took my bags up the TINY TINY TINY elevator for me (capacity 1 person, but they’d better not be any plumper than me - I have to sidle in sideways and stay that way - no shifting possible!).  And we had a few minutes to chat and make sure I knew where everything was and how things work, and to mend our relationship.  I would have really liked to just get horizontal, but c’est la vie!

(If you'd like to see photos of the apartment, just click here: 1 BR Near Saint-Sulpice  )