Bienvenue chez les Savoye

After a surprisingly smooth trip on Air France and United, les Savoye reconnected at Charles de Gaulle airport early on Thursday morning. All bags were accounted for and Le Husband was waiting for us with a fragrant bag of warm Viennoiseries (croissants, pains au chocolat), the perfect welcome gift to Paris, and France. Our Parisian home was not available until later on that afternoon, so we drove to my parents' place, in the Northeastern suburbs of Paris, and regrouped there for a few hours. Alec immediately pulled out some of his old toys and settled back into his Parisian routine... playing on the floor of the tiny bedroom my dad has converted into a den. By the time we left, around 3:00pm, we had been up for almost 24 hours. Junior passed out in the car as soon as we left the 'burbs and he was fast asleep when we parked in the 11th arrondissement, in front of la maison, 77 avenue Parmentier. In the cold and wet weather, the apartment building did not look that special. Moving in was a bit tricky as we had to double park so we could unload all our bags, (I smiled as I remembered I a.l.w.a.y.s. recommend my students to stay away from driving while in Paris). Alec was fast asleep in the back, so Fred stayed with him, while it took me all of three trips and over 25 minutes, to drag our bags through two heavy front doors (both secured with digicodes), two long hallways, one courtyard, and up two floors, in the tiniest, most cramped elevator I have been on in recent memory. "Welcome to France", I said to myself, "where everything is slower, and smaller than in the US!". 

Our long day was not over as I still had to unpack (lots of closet space fortunately, a privilege Parisians never take for granted), then go back out to stock up on groceries. 

Le Husband (a.k.a. Le Photographe) did not waste any time taking pics of la Maison while I was out... First things first!

Parmentier - le salon (living room)

Le salon (living room)
Being tucked away at the end of a courtyard, on the second floor of a building that was built in 1906, the apartment is dark, but the British owners have provided plenty of lighting...

La cuisine, well equipped, and functional, comes with a washer and dryer, a common sight in Parisian apartments, where there is often no separate laundry room.

La chambre (master bedroom), comes with a comfortable
king-size  bed, and a beautiful 19th century fireplace.
I love the old 'creaking' hardwood floors!

Junior in the second bedroom. He did not remember walking from the car to the building when he woke up from his two-hour power nap!