We’re finally getting settled into our apartment and enjoying not living out of a suitcase anymore! The apartment is convenient and located right by one of the major train and subway stations, but luckily we don’t hear a thing. There is a supermarket, pharmacy and post office within half a block of our place. Pehr walks to work, about 20 minutes each way. The apartment is a small 2 bedroom, 1 bath flat on the 4th floor. Our windows look out into a little courtyard in the middle of the building. It’s fully furnished – entirely by IKEA! Everything from the furniture and bedding to the decorations and kitchenware. The French love IKEA too! There are hardwood floors, probably original to the building and they are squeak-y!!! Ryne loves to slide around on the hardwood though. He moves much quicker on slippery surfaces!
The appliances are all small and to scale with the size of the apartment. This means that they’ve combined some features in order to save space. For example, the washing machine and dryer is the SAME machine! We could not figure it out for the longest time…not to mention that the settings are all in French! Our first load of laundry was washed 3 times, but we couldn’t figure out the dryer setting. So, our clothes were VERY clean…but wet! The dishwasher is situated right under the oven, and you can only use one or the other. It took us at least 30 minutes to figure out how to turn the oven on. Well, it turns out there’s a secret button that switches between the oven and dishwasher. Silly us!
The bath and the shower are combined (no big surprise there) but the shower head is hand-held and isn’t attached to the wall which makes cleaning yourself somewhat cumbersome. So, we can take a military style shower, take a bath, or become “European” if you catch my drift (no offense please!) We also were informed that we only have a set amount of liters of hot water every day. If we run out, we won’t have more hot water until it recharges the next day. The best feature of all though, is that we receive weekly housekeeping and linen changes – like a hotel! WOO HOO!
We have a small TV, a DVD player and a radio/CD player. We only get a few English speaking TV channels (CNN International, BBC News and Sky News). However, we do get a French music video station that sometimes plays American videos...and yes, the French do rap! Otherwise everything else is in French. I don’t even turn on the TV during the day, but I found a radio station that plays American popular music as well as some French songs. I actually really like it.
The appliances are all small and to scale with the size of the apartment. This means that they’ve combined some features in order to save space. For example, the washing machine and dryer is the SAME machine! We could not figure it out for the longest time…not to mention that the settings are all in French! Our first load of laundry was washed 3 times, but we couldn’t figure out the dryer setting. So, our clothes were VERY clean…but wet! The dishwasher is situated right under the oven, and you can only use one or the other. It took us at least 30 minutes to figure out how to turn the oven on. Well, it turns out there’s a secret button that switches between the oven and dishwasher. Silly us!
The bath and the shower are combined (no big surprise there) but the shower head is hand-held and isn’t attached to the wall which makes cleaning yourself somewhat cumbersome. So, we can take a military style shower, take a bath, or become “European” if you catch my drift (no offense please!) We also were informed that we only have a set amount of liters of hot water every day. If we run out, we won’t have more hot water until it recharges the next day. The best feature of all though, is that we receive weekly housekeeping and linen changes – like a hotel! WOO HOO!
We have a small TV, a DVD player and a radio/CD player. We only get a few English speaking TV channels (CNN International, BBC News and Sky News). However, we do get a French music video station that sometimes plays American videos...and yes, the French do rap! Otherwise everything else is in French. I don’t even turn on the TV during the day, but I found a radio station that plays American popular music as well as some French songs. I actually really like it.
Maison Lawson is now open for business! We have a guest bed and a pull-out couch…so let us know if you’re ever in the neighborhood!
Living Room
Dining Room
Kitchen
Master Bedroom
2 comments:
Erin, your flat looks cozy and cute. :)
So cute!! You are so good at keeping up posts...it's fun seeing Paris through your eyes, lol!
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