Sorry I haven’t posted, this week has been SO busy preparing to leave! Which I will also blog about…later. So on Friday morning we went to Olivier’s house to look at some apartments online. He had already booked two appointments for us for today and a third was pending for Saturday. That afternoon Jeremy was having lunch with his boss’ boss and then we were to see the two apartments. Olivier found one on ground floor which meant Kisa had no steps to climb and the other was on the first floor. Once we got to the one on the first floor we saw it was a straight run so Kisa wouldn’t be able to handle it. The one on the ground floor was nice but it was right on the corner of two busy streets so I felt like I had no privacy.
Then we took Olivier by the apartment with the water damage we had seen yesterday and noticed that there was a realtor’s office in the same area. So we wandered in 15 minutes to closing and wouldn’t you know they had an apartment with an elevator that had just become available literally hours ago? Not to mention the realtor spoke English, which makes it just so much easier. I mean Olivier was doing a wonderful job at translating for us and asking all the right questions, but it’s nice to be able to be included in a conversation. The apartment was a few blocks away right by the river and a park. We walked in and immediately felt comfortable.
The apartment had a nice kitchen, newly renovated, that opened out into the living room which had a decent little balcony. The kitchen counter was also to be used as a table, with the barstools in the living room. The walls were stucco and the kitchen was yellow and the living room orange, which I loved. The one bedroom was orange and the other was purple which I’m not so crazy about but it’s doable. I enjoy the nice, bright colors in the living areas but in the sleeping areas I want soft colors. The bathroom was very large, so we can put our washing machine in there instead of the kitchen which is nice. I don’t want to have my undies dangling to dry in the kitchen when people come over! Did I mention it’s not common at all to have a dryer? Everyone air dries their clothes. I already do that which shirts and pants, but I always throw towels and undergarments into the dryer. It will be a huge transition for me to start air drying everything.
Another interesting thing in this apartment is that instead of windows, they have glass doors. Obviously the balcony would have doors but the bedrooms have them too! They open up and there is a little itty bitty fenced-in ledge, maybe 6”, not even enough to step out onto. It’s cute, and it gives me an opportunity to hang potted plants on the railings, but it’s just odd. They also have metal shutters to block out the sun. It’s very interesting.
Considering all the detail I’m going in to, it’s needless to say we were interested in this place. It’s a little on the smaller side, but the floor plan is well developed. It reminds me of the different between my apartment and my friend’s apartment in the US. My apartment was 860 ft² but was designed pretty poorly and had an awkward layout. Meanwhile, my friend’s apartment was only 650 ft² but it felt huge! This apartment is 63 m² which is about 678 ft² and the only room I feel is too small is the living room. If it were a little bigger and had more storage space, the place would be absolutely perfect. But that’s how it is in center city, it seems. When you want the convenience and status that comes with living in center city, you’re going to have to sacrifice something else. Whether it’s too small, or awkwardly shaped, or has a poor view, there’s going to be something that you won’t like or you have to compromise with and grow accustomed to.
As we were walking back to the rental office, Olivier asked if she knew anything about the possible water damage in the apartment building her office was next to. She said that yes, it was a current problem and no, it hasn’t been fixed yet. The problem was the main source of the water damage had happened years ago and the apartment complex hadn’t bothered to try and fix it until too many people started complaining recently as it was spreading. So now they are trying to figure out when exactly the water damage occurred and which tenant was living there at the time so they could go after that tenant’s renter’s insurance to pay for the damage. She said that this would take at least a year but most likely more to resolve. We were glad to finally here the truth, but sad as well since this means we don’t want to get involved. We had really liked that apartment.
Afterwards, we went to Olivier’s to have celebratory wine before going out to eat. We were going to attempt to eat at an actual restaurant for the first time. We were starving, but Valerie said you can’t go out to a restaurant until at least 7 and actually, most restaurants won’t even open until 6 pm. So we waited and drank more wine and Jeremy had some allegedly delicious dry sausage while I ate peanuts. I find it astounding that peanuts are an acceptable appetizer but peanut butter is despised by most French people.
Anyway, we headed out to the restaurant at around 7:30 with Olivier’s family. They were going to have appetizers with us and then we were to have dinner alone. The restaurant, called 1802, came critically acclaimed from Jeremy’s coworkers and it turns out that Olivier actually knows the owner. The owner’s brother actually owns a ranch and that is where the owner gets his meat from. Talk about “farm to table”! We sat down in the appetizer area, as the restaurant has two separate areas, one for small meals and one for dinner. The first appetizers were small pretzels balls, crispy bread puff things, and olives.
We were served a wine that I sadly can’t remember the name of. It was a regional white wine and very well thought of, just like their pride for their comté cheese, and allegedly went very well with cheeses even though it was a white wine. I took a sip and didn’t like it much at all. It had a very strong taste, with a bite of a dryness and bitterness. I kept my mouth shut because hey, this is their regional wine, and just took tiny sips. After a while, comté cheese and more pretzels were served. I had some comté and took a sip of my wine and holy cow! They were right, the cheese totally transformed the taste of the wine! The strength and bitterness was completely gone and replaced with a nutty apple taste. It was delicious.
When appetizers were decidedly done, Olivier had us look at the dinner menu to see if we had any questions. I noticed there weren’t any vegetarian options so Olivier got a meal planned out with the owner. They offered some parting advice: Olivier told Jeremy to try the veal, Valerie and their older daughter emphasized desserts, and the youngest told us, “Go to the bathroom, it’s awesome here!” and with that we were left to our own devices. Since Olivier had already arranged my dinner and Jeremy agreed to the veal, our meal was already ordered. We were pretty wined out and also intimidated at all the wine choices, so we just opted for water. Just a little fyi: If you want regular, free water, you have to ask for a carafe d’eau if you're in a restaurant or un verre d'eau if you're in a cafe or they will bring you the expensive bottled mineral water so once I ordered that we were pretty much set.
We had a basket of bread brought out to the table and chatted away waiting for our food. This is no Applebee’s where it’s ready in 5 minutes. Jeremy’s veal came with salad and fries which was odd to see at such a nice place, and my meal was a pile of creamy spinach rice surrounded by fresh peas, snow peas, carrots, and butternut squash. We tried to take our time eating as the French do. We did okay for people used to eating dinner within 10 minutes, but we could have done better.
The server came over and said some long phrase. I picked up the word “dessert” so I said “Oui, si-vous-plait” and two menus were brought to us. After probably 10 minutes of googling words we didn’t know, I wound up getting chocolate ice cream and Jeremy got some fruit thing. All the desserts besides the ice cream were basically just fruits. I love fruit, don’t get me wrong, but I love chocolate more, so the ice cream won even though I could get that in America any ol’ day. As predicted, my chocolate ice cream was nothing to write home about. However, I was surprised by the chocolate sauce. It was a bitter dark chocolate, more bitter than we are accustomed to here. Jeremy’s dessert looked amazing. There was passion fruit shaved ice in a thin, tiny chocolate bowl which was placed on top of a ball of sorbet on top of a graham cracker crust surrounded by fresh fruit. Once we finished and used the highly recommended bathrooms, we went back to the hotel and promptly fell asleep.
I have to apologize for all the things I didn’t know the names of. We were kicking ourselves the whole week for not bringing little notebooks to write things down in. Once I got home I ordered some adorable 2.5”x4” moleskine notebooks so we’ll be better prepared. I also want to take a moment to thank everyone who has used amazon through our affiliate program, you're awesome! And remind everyone else to please use it! There's no extra fee to you but it will help us tremendously! Thanks
Then we took Olivier by the apartment with the water damage we had seen yesterday and noticed that there was a realtor’s office in the same area. So we wandered in 15 minutes to closing and wouldn’t you know they had an apartment with an elevator that had just become available literally hours ago? Not to mention the realtor spoke English, which makes it just so much easier. I mean Olivier was doing a wonderful job at translating for us and asking all the right questions, but it’s nice to be able to be included in a conversation. The apartment was a few blocks away right by the river and a park. We walked in and immediately felt comfortable.
The apartment had a nice kitchen, newly renovated, that opened out into the living room which had a decent little balcony. The kitchen counter was also to be used as a table, with the barstools in the living room. The walls were stucco and the kitchen was yellow and the living room orange, which I loved. The one bedroom was orange and the other was purple which I’m not so crazy about but it’s doable. I enjoy the nice, bright colors in the living areas but in the sleeping areas I want soft colors. The bathroom was very large, so we can put our washing machine in there instead of the kitchen which is nice. I don’t want to have my undies dangling to dry in the kitchen when people come over! Did I mention it’s not common at all to have a dryer? Everyone air dries their clothes. I already do that which shirts and pants, but I always throw towels and undergarments into the dryer. It will be a huge transition for me to start air drying everything.
Another interesting thing in this apartment is that instead of windows, they have glass doors. Obviously the balcony would have doors but the bedrooms have them too! They open up and there is a little itty bitty fenced-in ledge, maybe 6”, not even enough to step out onto. It’s cute, and it gives me an opportunity to hang potted plants on the railings, but it’s just odd. They also have metal shutters to block out the sun. It’s very interesting.
Considering all the detail I’m going in to, it’s needless to say we were interested in this place. It’s a little on the smaller side, but the floor plan is well developed. It reminds me of the different between my apartment and my friend’s apartment in the US. My apartment was 860 ft² but was designed pretty poorly and had an awkward layout. Meanwhile, my friend’s apartment was only 650 ft² but it felt huge! This apartment is 63 m² which is about 678 ft² and the only room I feel is too small is the living room. If it were a little bigger and had more storage space, the place would be absolutely perfect. But that’s how it is in center city, it seems. When you want the convenience and status that comes with living in center city, you’re going to have to sacrifice something else. Whether it’s too small, or awkwardly shaped, or has a poor view, there’s going to be something that you won’t like or you have to compromise with and grow accustomed to.
As we were walking back to the rental office, Olivier asked if she knew anything about the possible water damage in the apartment building her office was next to. She said that yes, it was a current problem and no, it hasn’t been fixed yet. The problem was the main source of the water damage had happened years ago and the apartment complex hadn’t bothered to try and fix it until too many people started complaining recently as it was spreading. So now they are trying to figure out when exactly the water damage occurred and which tenant was living there at the time so they could go after that tenant’s renter’s insurance to pay for the damage. She said that this would take at least a year but most likely more to resolve. We were glad to finally here the truth, but sad as well since this means we don’t want to get involved. We had really liked that apartment.
Afterwards, we went to Olivier’s to have celebratory wine before going out to eat. We were going to attempt to eat at an actual restaurant for the first time. We were starving, but Valerie said you can’t go out to a restaurant until at least 7 and actually, most restaurants won’t even open until 6 pm. So we waited and drank more wine and Jeremy had some allegedly delicious dry sausage while I ate peanuts. I find it astounding that peanuts are an acceptable appetizer but peanut butter is despised by most French people.
Anyway, we headed out to the restaurant at around 7:30 with Olivier’s family. They were going to have appetizers with us and then we were to have dinner alone. The restaurant, called 1802, came critically acclaimed from Jeremy’s coworkers and it turns out that Olivier actually knows the owner. The owner’s brother actually owns a ranch and that is where the owner gets his meat from. Talk about “farm to table”! We sat down in the appetizer area, as the restaurant has two separate areas, one for small meals and one for dinner. The first appetizers were small pretzels balls, crispy bread puff things, and olives.
We were served a wine that I sadly can’t remember the name of. It was a regional white wine and very well thought of, just like their pride for their comté cheese, and allegedly went very well with cheeses even though it was a white wine. I took a sip and didn’t like it much at all. It had a very strong taste, with a bite of a dryness and bitterness. I kept my mouth shut because hey, this is their regional wine, and just took tiny sips. After a while, comté cheese and more pretzels were served. I had some comté and took a sip of my wine and holy cow! They were right, the cheese totally transformed the taste of the wine! The strength and bitterness was completely gone and replaced with a nutty apple taste. It was delicious.
When appetizers were decidedly done, Olivier had us look at the dinner menu to see if we had any questions. I noticed there weren’t any vegetarian options so Olivier got a meal planned out with the owner. They offered some parting advice: Olivier told Jeremy to try the veal, Valerie and their older daughter emphasized desserts, and the youngest told us, “Go to the bathroom, it’s awesome here!” and with that we were left to our own devices. Since Olivier had already arranged my dinner and Jeremy agreed to the veal, our meal was already ordered. We were pretty wined out and also intimidated at all the wine choices, so we just opted for water. Just a little fyi: If you want regular, free water, you have to ask for a carafe d’eau if you're in a restaurant or un verre d'eau if you're in a cafe or they will bring you the expensive bottled mineral water so once I ordered that we were pretty much set.
We had a basket of bread brought out to the table and chatted away waiting for our food. This is no Applebee’s where it’s ready in 5 minutes. Jeremy’s veal came with salad and fries which was odd to see at such a nice place, and my meal was a pile of creamy spinach rice surrounded by fresh peas, snow peas, carrots, and butternut squash. We tried to take our time eating as the French do. We did okay for people used to eating dinner within 10 minutes, but we could have done better.
The server came over and said some long phrase. I picked up the word “dessert” so I said “Oui, si-vous-plait” and two menus were brought to us. After probably 10 minutes of googling words we didn’t know, I wound up getting chocolate ice cream and Jeremy got some fruit thing. All the desserts besides the ice cream were basically just fruits. I love fruit, don’t get me wrong, but I love chocolate more, so the ice cream won even though I could get that in America any ol’ day. As predicted, my chocolate ice cream was nothing to write home about. However, I was surprised by the chocolate sauce. It was a bitter dark chocolate, more bitter than we are accustomed to here. Jeremy’s dessert looked amazing. There was passion fruit shaved ice in a thin, tiny chocolate bowl which was placed on top of a ball of sorbet on top of a graham cracker crust surrounded by fresh fruit. Once we finished and used the highly recommended bathrooms, we went back to the hotel and promptly fell asleep.
I have to apologize for all the things I didn’t know the names of. We were kicking ourselves the whole week for not bringing little notebooks to write things down in. Once I got home I ordered some adorable 2.5”x4” moleskine notebooks so we’ll be better prepared. I also want to take a moment to thank everyone who has used amazon through our affiliate program, you're awesome! And remind everyone else to please use it! There's no extra fee to you but it will help us tremendously! Thanks