We bought an apartment

Frenchman and I are officially homeowners!

After months of apartment hunting, filing paperwork, and waiting for French bankers to come back from vacation, it’s finally official.

We’re key-carrying owners of our very own place.

We bought a place in France!

We just barely made it by the skin of our teeth, thanks to the banks losing our paperwork and not mentioning it to us until 3 days before the signing. After running like crazy to get them new papers in the mail, and a few angry emails and phone calls from Frenchman and our notary, we made it just in time, with the expedited wire transfer arriving in the account about an hour before our appointment. Phew.

After all that stress and living in various states of temporary, I’m very much looking forward to having a permanent home with my own stuff and no deadline of having to move out.

Return of l’Américaine

Where do I even begin?

I’m back in Paris. I quit my job. I’m married.

So much has happened in the last 2 weeks, let alone the last 3 months, that I’ve been virtually nonexistent here. At the time, it made sense to wait on posting. What did I have to say about France when I was sitting in Boston living my normal, boring life? Not to mention it felt a bit too cocky writing about how to get a visa or how to navigate the Mairie to get married when it all wasn’t a sure thing for myself yet. I could just see it being confidently posted and then mere hours later finding out there was a new monkey wrench in my now-wrinkled plan.

And now, all those things have worked out but there are SO many more things to write about! I not only got the paperwork riddles solved, but I actually got married! My parents came to France – my mother for the first time in over 40 years, my father for the first time EVER – and I had the pleasure of showing them all around this amazing city. And just in the last few days I’ve had some lovely adventures seeing new things around Paris with the spectacular weather we had over the weekend. Where to start?