,
Even the best
of us trip up on the odd occasion, and it seems that no matter where my
pink-sneakered footsteps take me, a
trail of chaos and adventure inevitably follows, as if haphazardly weaving its
way into the story-line, whether I like it or not. Eager to share tales of mischance and
adversity, these episodes of calamity offer quite the unique take on my
escapades abroad. After all, rare is the
sojourn that goes off without a hitch, a picture perfect fairy tale of
unrealistic expectations. No - in my
world, passports are lost, planes leave without me, trains break down and hotels
are oftentimes flea infested accommodations of the bug producing kind. I therefore alternate between either renting
apartments or staying in hotels when traipsing on foreign territory, and as
desirable as it is to be pampered in a hotel, putting your feet up in the coziness of one’s own pad is oftentimes just the route to go. Or, so I mistakenly thought….
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| Envisioning a picture window view |
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| Envisioning my future Paris apartment |
And that is how I stumbled upon le chic Paris apartment, quite the
affordable gem of a find in a bustling French neighbourhood, my new temporary
digs away from home. A quaint studio
walk-up situated in the 2nd arrondissement along rue Montorgueil, the apartment was located in an area of town that I had not stayed in, my
previous rental apartments occupying real estate in the 3rd
arrondissement in Le Marais. The price
was right, it was available for rent on my requested dates and most
importantly, the pictures on the website showcased a large floor to ceiling
picture window, a cozy kitchen nook and best of all, it was literally steps
away from shops and bistros. No matter
then that it was barely roomy enough to accommodate both the Kid and I, a mere
260 square feet of Parisian quaintness, it would nonetheless suffice for our
five day stay. What could go wrong? Plenty, that is, if you tend to get freaked
out about being sequestered in miniscule enclosed spaces, or, if you’re over
the top claustrophobic, like you know
who!
Little did I
realize when I paid the deposit for our cute
as a button apartment, that I would literally spend the majority of my time
trying to figure out how to avoid returning to those cramped quarters at the
end of the day, begging and pleading with the Kid to meander the darkened rues
and avenues until our sore and blistered tootsies literally bled onto the
pavement, leaving us no choice but to step foot into le dreaded confining cell of an apartment.
As le French taxi
sped along the avenues, en route to le
charming Parisian apartement, the Kid and I were beside ourselves with
glee, eager to kick up our heels (Keds, to be exact), fling open our picture
window and literally hang from the rafters as we celebrated la joie de vivre in our favourite
city. And then reality hit hard as our
taxi screeched to an abrupt halt, and mercilessly catapulted us across the
curb, dab smack in front of an edifice that was undergoing quite the renovation,
a barricade of steel girders cautioning us to stay far, far away. The imposing scaffolding effectively hid the
entrance passage way from view, as if imploring would-be tenants to tread with
trepidation and enter at their own risk.
In hindsight, my pink-sneakered feet should have just turned around and
high-tailed themselves to the nearest hotel, but how was I to know what
labyrinth of a maze lay ahead?
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| Le taxi en route to le quaint Parisian apartment....perhaps we should have gone to the Ritz instead! |
Punching in a five digit code, the proprietor
led us through the first of two sets of automated doors, each of which required
a swipe of an electronic card in order to open (like, seriously, are we in a
vault or top-secret spy hideout? And
heaven forbid, what if there is a power failure and the doors refuse to click
open and the Kid and I are trapped in the now black as night foyer?). The mere
possibility of the likelihood of such an occurrence sent shivers of dread along
my spine, memories of being trapped in the Middle Ages in the Historium still too raw to shake.
My sense of unease was increasing with each
step, as we snaked our way along the lengthiest and narrowest of hallways,
burrowing deeper into the annals of one of the strangest of apartment
complexes. Navigating the now confining
maze of corridors, turning left and then right and then left again, up the
stairs, then round a corner, only to traverse yet another constricting
corridor, I was seriously considering turning around and bolting for the exit,
which, unfortunately for me, was nowhere in sight, for this labyrinth had me
trapped like a fox in its snare.
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| Le dejected sigh....wishing this was my apartment hallway...Le grand sigh..... |
After what seemed like an eternity, we rounded
yet another corner and were finally deposited at our questionable dwelling at
the top of the stairs. Well, at least it’s not in the basement, is near the
attic and thus close to possible streams of daylight, so it might not be that
dismal after all, I reasoned, all the while chiding my over-active imagination
for once again leading me down that well worn path of delusional and
irrational thought.
Could it get
any worse? Well, dear reader, it did, as
the bolt stubbornly refused to budge yet even a millimetre, forcing le cool
as a cucumber Parisian landlord to laboriously huff and puff as he finagled
with the latch, all the while chuckling that getting into the apartment was clearly not
as difficult as getting out of the
apartment. Say what? Apparently, the previous tenant had
accidentally locked himself inside, with the temperamental bolt having jammed
the door shut, thus sequestering the distraught foreigner inside, freaking him
out sufficiently enough to warrant a late night rescue phone call to Monsieur. Are you kidding me?
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| Should have moved into the Palace of Versailles instead.... |
Welcome
home!!
Come traverse
a labyrinth of mazes as you snake your way to your steal of a deal Paris
apartment, all the while encountering a few roadblocks as you stumble along the
way…
Next week
- Yikes!! What next? Do we stay or do we go? Stay tuned for more on our Parisian
adventures!!
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