So the announcement finally came, Macron said the borders will open to vaccinated Americans on June 9th. I was ecstatic when I heard this news. Literally. I had tears of joy in my eyes. I’ve been dreaming about getting back to Paris for the past year.

I have full intentions of renting a long term apartment in Paris. When I say long term, I mean three years. In France, if you want to rent an unfurnished apartment, the lease is for three years. I could rent a furnished apartment for 1 year, but I plan to make Paris my home base and split my time between the boat and Paris.

And since it will be my home base, I want to make the apartment my own. I don’t want an IKEA apartment as so many furnished apartments are. I want to take my time to make it feel very Parisian. Plus, if we’re going to be paying rent in Paris, we will need to vacate our storage unit, also known as ‘my closet’ in Fort Lauderdale. That means we’d be shipping over some things, namely artwork and books, in addition to my wardrobe.

During this past year, I have been on several French websites apartment hunting… Seloger, bien ici, Coin. I have had the apps downloaded on my phone. I get daily email notifications for available apartments within my parameters…1 bedroom, a minimum of 35 square meters (I know, it’s tiny, but it’s Paris and I do live on a sailboat after all), parquet floors (wood floors) large windows that allow for nice natural light, preferably with a cuisine américaine (that means the kitchen comes equipped with a 4 burner stove, oven, and a refrigerator…maybe even a dishwasher, but I don’t necessarily need that.

I have my flight booked for June 25th and my Airbnb reserved for three weeks. Then I need to fly back stateside for family commitments, but will return to Paris on August 1 for six weeks…maybe more. Ssshh…don’t tell John.

“So what’s complicated?” you may ask. Well, there’s Covid and the fear that France will once again close their borders. Macron was very clear that if there’s a spike in cases again, that they will need to implement restrictions again and I’m sure the first of those is to close the border. Maybe I’m being too pessimistic or too cautious, but I’d hate to be paying for an apartment in Paris that I won’t be able to access.

Anyway, I think for now I will just enjoy my time and not worry about the long term rental. Hopefully we will all have a better idea of the circumstances after the summer. I think at the point, more French people will have been vaccinated and the infection numbers will go down…hopefully to the point of returning to some normalcy.