House Hunting Internationally

Life goes on. Even as we continue to grieve the tragic death of my daughter's friend, we must continue to press forward with plans for our move. I wish we could stop time and delay the tasks at hand, but with just over a month remaining until our departure date, it just isn't possible.

This week's moving tasks have alternated between packing and apartment hunting. Since packing is really boring and tedious, I won't blog about that (at least not today). However, the apartment search has been really interesting. At times, my husband and I feel like we're on HGTV's "House Hunters International." Like the couples on the TV show, we really do take walks holding hands and saying, "What did you like about the first apartment?" or "Well, we should probably eliminate one." The only difference is we are having to do the apartment search virtually.

Thankfully, we have several sets of friends that are already firmly established in Lyon and seem willing to play House Hunters International along with us. We send web links of apartments we've found online, and they give us their feedback: "No, that one is in a sketchy part of town," or "Did you realize that it's on the 6th floor with no elevator?" The few that have passed their initial elimination tests have gone on to the "visitation" round. Our friends go in person to check it out, take measurements of the rooms, and snap pictures. Right now we have three contenders. One is in a district fairly far from the heart of the city, but is within walking distance of the girls' school. The other two are in a classy central district; one is just steps from a metro station and the other is near a nice shopping area.

Our favorite, the "metro" apartment, is in an old traditional building on the 1st floor (which is actually the 2nd floor in America, not the ground floor). I learned from one of our friends that the official first floor in these old buildings was the floor of nobility. In this building, there's actually a "half-floor" with very low ceilings between the ground floor and the 1st floor called the "entresol." It was lived in by household staff or just common people. So we would actually be living in "nobility" quarters! (That's unbelievable on our limited budget.) This apartment has two large bedrooms on opposite corners, a roomy kitchen, and a very spacious "salle de séjour," or living room. The kitchen has a mini-alcove with a separate door entrance that was used by the cook as her "bedroom." It is the size of a small closet  - just big enough for a cot! Incredible, and fascinating. Below the apartment is a "cave" which is actually not too different from what it sounds like. It has a dirt floor and can be used for storage, as long as everything was tightly wrapped in plastic. But it would make an excellent wine cellar!

 A picture from the inside looking down into the common courtyard. I'm not including any interior photos because there is someone still living in the apartment, and I don't want to violate her privacy.

 Another picture from the tiny balcony looking down onto the street below.

The "cave"

We're frantically working on getting our dossier put together for this apartment. It's tricky on many counts because we're Americans entering the country on a long-stay visa. We have to get a French national to act as our "garant;" basically a co-signer. Many owners prefer not to rent to foreigners, so they could always turn us away even if we are the first to submit our dossier. But we will just pray, and if this isn't the right solution for us, I'm sure one of the other two will work out -- or even something else that we might stumble across in the meantime!