PARIS - DAY ONE, MONDAY, MARCH 5- PART 1

After a good's night sleep, we were up and ready to see our apartment.  Though we'd seen pictures and trusted Karina's search and opinions, this was the first time we'd chosen a home sight unseen.  So, there was a touch of "I hope this is as good as we expect" feeling.

A light breakfast at the hotel and we were off, walking the block (or so) to the apartment.  Adrian was waiting for us and we visited til  Julie, the owner's realtor, opened the door to the building letting us in.

Welcome to our new Paris home!

The building is old (which we love) and the front door nice (not all are).  When you step in, you're in a long, fairly dim courtyard with plants running down both sides - really lovely.  They're doing some sort of work on the wall opposite the door to our building inside that is going to be very nice when completed (whenever that is!!!).

It's almost like you've entered another world!

There's David ready to go out the door to the street.  I took this picture from the door to our entry because the light was better.  So you come in off the street from the door behind David and walk down this little courtyard to where you enter our actual apartment building (if David were to walk from where he is to where you enter our door, the door will be on his left).  Have I completely confused you??!!!!!  I knew I should have taken this picture as if you were walking in from the street but it was just too dark and you couldn't see all the green plants (one is even blooming with pink flowers-I don't know how it's so dark).  So you come in the top picture from the street, walk down this little courtyard and are here....

Now the journey really begins!

at the door to our inner building entrance (sorry about the reflection of me taking this picture!!).  The little silver plate to the left of the door on the wall is where you can pull up the name of the resident you are visiting so they can buzz you in.  I wanted a picture of that with our name, but they haven't changed it from the previous tenant 😢 so I couldn't.  We have a special electronic fob on our key that gets us in both doors without using our key.  You all know how technical I am!!!!!😉

Once we get in this door, we were in the hallway of our specific apartment building.  It's such a lovely, well-maintained building.  The staircases are beautiful, the carpets in great shape and kept clean and every apartment door is in good shape with the same mat in front.

It's truly a great building

The doors to the right are the residence of the gardien (caretaker/manager of the apartments), a very nice woman who speaks French and Spanish!!!!!   We've only had one contact with her so far but she seems very nice.  We'll be able to practice our French with her!!!!
David and Adrian took those stairs to our apartment on the 3rd floor (4th floor U.S.) while I (and my bad knee and luggage) took the lift.  The lift is small, but not itsy-bitsy, and new not like some of the older creepy ones (think "Charade"!!!).

The lift from the outside

We got to our door and were greeted by Julie and Madame Sophie Archer (pronounced ah-shay).  She is a charming, French woman our age whose mother, now in a rest home, has owned this apartment since 1963!!  It was where she (Mme Acher) grew up and then when her mother moved after her father's death, she had her medical practice here (she's a GP concentrating on geriatric care).

Here's our front door!!!

We rang the bell (the little button on the far right of the doors) and then we saw our apartment for the first time.....