F Train to Paris

In which a Jewish family from Brooklyn moves to Paris, France for two years of work, school, and adventures.

 

My computer and its desk are a little island within a sea of boxes. The first floor of our apartment is completely packed (the movers have spared the computer for now), and the bedrooms upstairs are being packed today. We're really leaving.

Our Paris apartment is quite impressive. It is located in an "hotel particulier,"  a small mansion built in the 1920's that has been divided into three apartments. The owner, an Italian businessman who breezes through for a couple of days a few times a year, has a duplex on the top two floors. There's a third apartment below his, which has been empty since November 2003. And the rest of the building has been ours for the past two years. As you can imagine, with three boys it has been nice not to have to worry about disturbing the neighbors--we don't have any!

The entrance to our space is through a pair of glass doors in the building's lobby. We have a little space on the ground floor for coats, shoes, bikes and scooters, and then we walk up the curving staircase into our apartment. On the first floor (which Americans would call the second floor), where the living room, dining room, and kitchen are located, the ceilings are very high, there are decorative moldings and fireplaces, and the rooms have huge french windows and parquet floors. The kitchen is small but functional. Upstairs, where the bedrooms are located, the rooms are simpler but quite comfortable. We brought all of our furniture from Brooklyn, which has made the place feel more like home.

The apartment is, in a word, gorgeous. The location, too, is amazing: in the 16th arrondissement on a tiny, quiet  street near the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperatoin adn Development), in a neighborhood bounded by the Jardins de Ranelagh and the boulevards Suchet,  Henri Martin, and Emile Augier. The metro and four different bus lines are just a few blocks away, and great shopping is nearby as well. We buy most of our food at the Marche de Passy, a covered market, and on rue de l'Annociation, a small market street just next to the Marche. We're right near a great park, the Jardins de Ranelagh, and quite close to the Bois de Boulogne as well. The older boys were able to walk to school.

It could have been paradise, and it many ways it was. Unfortunately, the owner of this little jewel of a house has not kept it up very well. The electricity is not up to code and especially during our first year, the main cutoff switch frequently tripped, leaving us in total darkness (and requiring us to constantly reset all of our alarm clocks). The kitchen applicances are old and break down frequently. And you already know about the kitchen door that fell on E. (If you don't, read about it here.) At times, the apartment's charms have not seemed worth putting up with its drawbacks. We heard a rumor that the owner is planning to sell it, which doesn't surprise us.

For the most part, though, we feel lucky to have had the chance not only to live in Paris, but to live in this particular corner of the city, in this particular apartment. In June, when the huge jasmine bush on our corner bursts into bloom and perfumes the air for blocks, we have sometimes felt that life can't get much better than this.

Alas, our second Paris adventure is just about over. But don't feel too sorry for us. We are moving back home to the other city we love best in the world, New York, to our own brownstone in Brooklyn. It may not be as elegant as our temporary Paris home, but it is also a jewel.

posted by: pariskleinmans at 11:45 | link | comments |