“I’m pushing for a little attic in Paris with a skylight.” This was Gil’s (Midnight in Paris) idea of his dream apartment. I also had my ideal Paris apartment and although it wasn’t ‘à la bohème’, I did have certain requirements that I wanted. I envisioned a Haussmannian building from the late 19th century, located in the 10th arrondissement, close to the Canal Saint Martin. It had herringbone parquet flooring, south facing large windows, a cheminée with a gold-gilded mirror hanging above, and the one non-parisian concession…a cuisine américaine. It didn’t need to be large, but I was hoping for at least 45-50 square meters. To Americans, this cozy space of around 450 square feet, is considered a ‘tiny home’, but it’s all I needed.
I started my search with websites geared towards British and American expats. General sites like Green Acres had beautiful apartments listed, but they were above our price range. I needed to figure out how the French went about searching for apartment rentals. My Parisian friend recommended a website called Seloger. I subscribed to their page and even downloaded the app. I was able to select the criteria I wanted.
Non meuble √
Cheminèe √
Parquet √
Cuisine americaine √
There were even some new terms I had never heard of that I had to look-up; Rez-de-chaussée – meaning the ground floor. No thank you.
I saved favorites to my profile and filled out the contact page for the agency. I soon realized that this was not going to work as I rarely received a response. It could very well have been bad timing on my part…Paris was a ghost town. It was August and as is customary every year in August, there’s a mass exodus leaving the city for holidays to the south in the Coté d’Azur or to the northwest in Brittany or Normandy. Some went to Italy, others to Greece, basically anywhere but Paris.
I still continued to save listings, reaching out through the contact form, and even calling many of the agents. As the end of August neared, I began receiving some return emails and phone calls. I thought this may actually happen. I should have known better. Many had asked for our dossier (file of documents). Hmmm…we had not prepared a dossier, we weren’t even sure what one was.
We managed to get an appointment to see an apartment. We realized when we arrived that the agent sets up a time when they are available to show the apartment and then informs everyone who is interested. This is how bidding wars begin…shut down the city for a month and then have everyone come see the apartment at the same time so you can see there are a lot of others interested. The agent asked us about our circumstances. Enthusiastically I went into this long spiel, romanticizing my dream of living in Paris and my dream apartment. We explained we were Americans and love to come to Paris often, that I wanted a place to call home (a 2nd home that is) for when we came to Paris. She, very matter of factly, explained that it was impossible. Actually, she used the word ‘illegal’. She explained that as non-residents we could not rent an apartment in Paris or anywhere in France. She suggested that we either have a French friend rent it for us in their name (not sure this is legal either) or that we focus our search on furnished apartments meant for expats or corporate housing. I was a bit deflated as I really had a vision of creating my own Parisian apartment. I had created Pineterst boards with the furniture and decor I had hoped to find in local stores and flea markets. Unfortunately, this was not going to be possible. I would have to shift my focus to furnished apartments.
As we continued our search, we were very transparent about our circumstances. We rarely got a response, but did manage to see a few other apartments. We finally had a breakthrough…not with an apartment per se, but a very good tip from one of the agents. He suggested we get a guarantor, someone to guarantee us in the event that we defaulted on the payments. He recommended a company called Garantme. As I continued to despair at the lack of responses from my inquiries, John set out to secure our guarantor. He submitted copies of the last 3 months of all our financials, his CV, and our passports. After everything was submitted, we quickly received a certificate of guarantee for a specific monthly rental (based on financials). I felt like a had a winning lottery ticket in my hand. Well not quite…if I won the lottery, then I’d have the cash to just buy an apartment and not have to worry about qualifying for a mortgage or being accepted as a tenant. Anyway, I at least felt that I had more leverage now when looking for an apartment. My inquiries now included a statement saying, ‘We have been guaranteed by a company called Garantme’. Guess what? This didn’t improve the ratio of replies to inquiries.
By September 15th, my time in Paris came to an end and I wasn’t sure when I would be returning. I met up with John in Italy for a sailing charter which helped ease the heartache of leaving Paris and leaving without having found an apartment. And to make matters worse, after returning back stateside, I realized that I only had 15 days left on my Schengen visa until December 15th. But all is not lost, stand by for Part 2….
