L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

Another way to say “good luck” is to say “Merde!,” a custom that goes back to a time when the French took horse-drawn carriages to the theater. A sign that a show was a success was an abundance of horse merde piled up around the theater.

As much as Americans envy the French way of life—from a health care system that is one of the best in the world to the lengthy vacations—few actually think about everything else that comes with it, namely steep social charges (that pay for the health care), waiting for hours in disorganized lines to throw yourself at the mercy of les fonctionnaires

You are clearly right, but in the end, you would probably lose because you are the propriétaire, and owners always lose.”

Being pushy is something that took me a while to get used to, because it’s not in my nature. With service in France sometimes at a minimum, though, if you’re not getting the response or help you want, you’ve got to prod and push—sometimes hard—to get what you need. We also start off on a decidedly different foot: Americans go into situations expect

Summer was now in full swing in Paris, which meant that by mid-July, almost everybody would be closing up their apartments, offices, and shops for the annual exodus, when Parisians go on les vacances, which happens en masse, hence the use of the plural. (Or because there are so many of them.) Government workers get the longest vacations, and that w

Because real estate agents in France only represent sellers, and only their own listings, you have to go from agency to agency as part of your search. The properties lit up in the windows at agencies across Paris are only for places in that particular neighborhood, listed by that particular agency. The agency next door will have a completely differ

The buanderie is a utility room, not to be confused with a bavererie, which would be a place where people drool, a gaffe I made that left an architect wondering if Americans had rooms in their homes devoted to salivating.

The year that passed between when I initialed the first round of papers, and when I signed the final acte de vente and got the keys, proved to be one of the toughest years of my life.

The French don’t mind provoking others, which isn’t considered a fault, but part of the jeu (game) of everyday life.