I have arrived...well, sort of

I'm still waiting for my carte de sejour (work visa) but I do have an apartment!!! Let me tell you getting (not finding) an apartment in Paris is a huge feat. In order to get an apartment you first need at least 2 months rent to put down as your deposit - easy enough if you have a bank account in France, which of course I still don't have. Why? Oh, because in order to get a bank account you need your carte de sejour -however, in order to get my carte de sejour I need a lease with my name on it... Then you need two "guarant" which are two people who are living in France who will pay your rent for you if ever you don't pay it. On top of that you need a ton of other paper work. So, I was lucky enough to find Pierre who trusted me enough to wire him money as my deposit and bypass having guarants.

I am on the 6th and top floor (no elevator and yes my thighs are hurting) of a really nice building. I have two neighbors. One of them is a girl I haven't met and the other is this lovely man named Richard. Richard is the Senior Editor for The Africa Report a pretty intense magazine on obviously, Africa. His wife Casey is super nice. She was a shoe designer at one point and sang back up vocals for Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side."

Anyway, I'm all moved in now and am ready for visitors!!! Here are some pics of my first apartment in Paris:

The Kitchen

The front room/sitting area/kitchen

The sitting area - which has never been used...

I planted a little herb garden

The bathroom - I have a semi french

shower. The shower head is at about

waste height so you still need to hold

it with one hand in order to wash your

hair.

Bedroom

Bedroom shot #2

And now the best part of my

apartment..... THE CLOSET!!! Who

knew I'd get so much closet space in

Paris of all places! It's the entire

length of the wall!!