The next day, we had to somehow catch a train from Paddington to Paris. If you’re thinking the task would be easy and cheap, well, it was neither. Our instructor had told us that it would be both – LIAR! Needless to say, even though we were YOUTHS, according to European standards (25 and under), we still paid a Pretty Pound to get to Paris. The train was so fast that it was pointless to stare out the window and get potentially violently ill with motion sickness so, I think I just watched Modern Family. After about 2hrs or so, we arrived in Gard Du Nord in Paris. FYI, we were bombarded by beggars and overwhelmed with French speaking travelers. We were also ripped off at the Monetary Exchange booth again. Woohoo! 489 Euro for 800 USD?!? Wow, that doesn't sound like I'm being robbed AT ALL!
Ok so, hailing a cab in Paris kind of, sort of, blew. We were waived away from the first cab because he didn’t know where we were going. Somehow we were directed back to the station to get in the TAXI line. The line seemed longer than the line outside of BEST BUY the night before Black Friday…and we had somewhere to be in less than 20 minutes. We got into the cab and thank Jesus for the GPS – we were dropped off in the general area.
We met with 1 of our 3 great instructors, whom I will introduce later, to meet with our landlord. The landlord was a sleazy looking man; he was sweaty and fast talking and wanted 1000 Euro more than agreed upon. Those slimy French people...Ugh – so we made that work. He showed us the small apartment. I found it hard to believe that this was a 2 person apartment – I doubt that it can even fit 1 person. I'm pretty sure my first car was larger than this place. ANYWAYS, it was quirky. It was a step up from a dorm but a notch under a typical 1 bdrm in the US. There was a small fridge (dorm sized) behind the front entry door. The lights in the place were mere lightbulbs hanging from exposed wires. The restroom was about the size of an airplane lavatory. The toilet and the cabinetry in said restroom were candy apple red plexiglass. The shower was the next door down. Is it a mop closet? NOPE! A shower closet. The kitchen had a small, 2 burner stove and, is that a dishwasher? NOPE! It’s a washer that appeared as though it would be overloaded if you put a hand towel in it. Welcome to the living room aka, my future bedroom. Very small – dusty couch, tv, tacky photographs, cabinets full of random items such as pots/pans, musty blankets, vacuum cleaner and a cup of random European coins. Enter the bedroom – roommates bedroom. It was reasonably sized. Has clothing storage, a mantle/vanity, a desk and a small twin bed (also musty and dusty). And that was it – that was our Abode, our flat, our place of residence for the next 2 months.
Apparently, in Paris, apartments on the mid-floors (levels 4 or 5) are the most desirable because it had the best view or something. The upper floors are less desirable. I forget the reason but if I had to guess, I'd say it was due to the lack of elevators in the old old buildings. So guess where our apartment was - the top floor. Also, the floor count starts at 0. This means technically we lived on the 7th floor, not the 6th.
The BEST part about this place was the location in relation to a fantastic Thai restaurant that I discovered about 2 weeks before leaving, the Creperie that sold an AMERICAN sized Cafe Creme for a decent price and the sunset was nice outside our window.
The WORST part about this place, aside from the lack of American television stations, was the location in relation to, well, anything fun to DO or SEE. We lived in a predominately residential area of Paris. To get anywhere, you could walk but it'd be a hike. The Metra was the best bet. The ONLY thing that we lived pretty close to was the Moulin Rouge which was cool for about a day.
IN conclusion, this place was not all that bad. It was a place to call home. It beats staying in a hostel ANY DAY.
No comments:
Post a Comment