Moving to the New Apartment in the 15th Arrondissement

We were up early this morning and had finished breakfast, cleaned the apartment and packed our things for the move by 10 am.  We were feeling some pressure as heavy rain was predicted to start by 10 am. 

We took all the bags, including several bags with food that we’d accumulated over the past ten days, downstairs by the door to the street.  Jim then went two blocks away to the taxi stand and hired a car for our journey from the 5^th arrondissement to the 15^th.   Too many bags to schlep through the Metro System. 

The taxi was a beautiful black Mercedes Station Wagon; a lovely way to ride across town and by 10:30 am we’d arrived at the new apartment.  Our manager, Antonio arrived within minutes of my telephone call and is delightful.  This apartment is much larger, on the first floor   It has been totally remodeled recently and is very modern.  We do look out to the elevated Metro tracks but with the double paned window we don’t hear anything as long as the windows are closed! 

(second floor in America) and we have a small elevator for luggage.

It’s not a quaint area like we had in the fifth but Jim is really enjoying all the modern amenities; especially the television with hundreds of channels.  Who cares if they are in English or not!  We even have a small washing machine. 

After we settled in; and it began to pour sheets of heavy rain, we fixed lunch  before heading off  to explore the Metro system in our area.  We have three stations that are very close and each will take you in a different direction.  Our goal was to reach the Gare de Nord to check out the area where Bonnie and Jane are arriving by Chunnel from England late tomorrow afternoon.  Mary will arrive on the airplane tomorrow morning at Charles de Gaule.  We will be meeting all of them so it’ll be a busy day.  Then we are checking in to a hotel across the street for two nights as the apartment is designed for only four people.   Jim leaves for home on the 12^th.

We had an interesting experience on one of our stops in the Metro.  The Security guards were there in force checking everyone’s tickets to find people who were riding without tickets.  In all of the years we’ve been riding the Metro I’ve only seen this happen once before.  But, it is the fear of the check that keeps people honest in the system.

It was nearly 4 o’clock when we returned, picked up some bags and headed for the grocery store one more stop down the Metro.   With our Navigo Pass we can get on and off at will whenever we want.   And our favorite Metro stop is only a block from the apartment.  The Monoprix at the next stop is the very store where we shopped every day for three weeks in the spring of 2012 so it was like coming home to see an old friend. 

Below is a slideshow of all the photos of our new apartment...