In Paris...

Well, the agent said "come to Paris!" so we spent a million euros and did. Then he said "to be honest, I think the landlord is going to prefer the other couple who looked at it". And we said "oh". We didn't like to ask if he was going to make a donation to all the money we spent getting here, but we thought it.

So now we are sitting in our hotel room (because we have been walking around all day, which was very nice, but now we're tired and are having a break before going out to Chez Georges for drinks) and wondering how to handle this. My parents would say "We know! Forget Paris and move back to Dublin!", but we are not disheartened yet. What is bothering us now is how to time our move. If we don't get the fabulous (and it really was fabulous) Montparnasse apartment we saw today, should be abjure agents and their exorbitant fees altogether and do it on our own? We could. It would be a LOT cheaper, too - no agency fees, you see. But FUSAC, the expat magazine that has all the listings for apartments comes out on the 23rd of October and then the 7th of November. I would like to come here, take a short term place for a week or two and get the edition on the 23rd. John says we should get it on the 7th. A small quibble, and not really worth even discussing, but I feel disrupted and would like to be in here as quickly as possible and back to work, rather than dragging all our stuff to Ireland for a week and then dragging it all to a studio in Paris while we look for a real place. It would be mid-November before we were in somewhere and just the thought of it all exhausts me.

This was supposed to be a pretty post with pictures and macaroons, but all this is on my mind, so that's what you get to read about instead.

Consoling comments are much appreciated. Oh, and if you are an American lady who works on an oil rig and has an apartment in Paris she is trying to let, pick the Irish academic couple, please!