Door Number 17

According to our French friends we some the luckiest people around. After only a week of apartment hunting we have found a place! Apparently that is some kind of record.

It's on the lower half of Montmartre, one of the few hills in Paris. For those familiar with the area, to get to our building you would start walking up the giant set of stairs that leads to Sacré Coeur cathedral and about half way up, turn left and nous voilà!

We are now the proud inhabitants of a 32 meter square apartment. In square feet thar translates to roughly 350 square feet or just under half the size of our Lucile Street house. The apartment has lovely dark wood floors, pretty built-in shelves, bright white walls and bare light bulbs. Our bedroom and living room overlook a quiet little street with a few locals passing by mixed with a hand full of lost tourists who should have continued strait up the stairs to Sacré Coeur and not turned left. In the back of our apartment you have our kitchen and bathroom. Our kitchen opens up to a wonderful garden view. The garden itself is full of cigarette butts and broken drying racks but we are far above those unsightly things. From our window all we can see is leafy fig tree and a dove's nest. As soon as we have a table and chair I think the kitchen is going to be my favorite room.

If any of you are thinking about moving to Paris...because you are already in love with a Frenchman or would like to increase your chances of doing so...then here are the numb

ers so you can start to save up.

Monthly Rent: 810€ includes building fees and garbage collection

Agency Fees: 745€

Deposit: 745€

Official inspection of our apartment: 110€

Other taxes and fees: 140€

Grand Total for moving in costs: 2,690€

If you're wondering how much that would be in dollars multiply the whole thing by 1.55. Personally I have stopped doing that equation because it's too upsetting.