Chez Moi

The subway had 'technical difficulties' this morning and I decided to work from home. I don't normally get to enjoy the apartment in the morning light (and there hasn't been sunlight for a while), so it has inspired me to do a post on my apartment, which I adore.

Starting with: My view working from home. Not too shabby, eh?

We're on the second floor (3rd to you North americans) of a traditional Haussman building. Which means, we have a balcony! According to my intern, traditional haussman buildings have 5 floors. The ground floor is for retail. The one above that is traditionally for the people who own the shop. The second floor is the first of the 'tradiontally more well off' people flats, which is why there is a balcony. The 3rd floor used to house the servants quarters for the 2nd floor people, the 4th floor is the servants quarters for the 5th floor people and the 5th floor is the other well off family (hence a balcony again). Don't know how accurate this is, but it makese sense to me. Nowadays, clearly they all have been transformed into normal apartments.

Moving on (I feel like I'm in Cribs...remember trhat show?), is the living room.

So, I don't know much about the man who owns my apartment, but I do know he likes leather. We have 3 (!!) leather couches. From this detail (and a few others), Andrea and I have crafted a creative story about his life. We think he is a bachelor. We thought he may be gay (good decorating), but perhaps he's just perpetually single, career focused, and rich enough to hire a decorator. We thought he was german as he seems meticulous (turns out he's from Venice). He clearly didn't spend too much time in the apartment -- perhaps every other weekend -- whisking off to Asia and the middle east for very important meetings about bank mergers and IPOs....anywho, you get the point. We have too much time on our hands.

Next, the dining room (although I didn't take a pic of the table hmmm minor detail).

Two important things. I'm obsessed with my bookshelf! Thank you Ikea for giving us a place to display fun knick knacks. Second thing, not sure if you can tell but that is not a working fireplace. Notice how we don't even pretend-- that my friends is our wine storage. You can tell our priorities. And the fact that I've killed the orchird Charisse gave me. Sad face.

So if I were on cribs, I'd definitely have to do the mandatory 'what's in your fridge' segment. Welcome to that segment. Our fridge is basically a commercial for Activia. Can you tell I work for a yogurt company? Oh and we have wine and cheese. Once again, priorities.

Two other awesome things about our kitchen....Check out the rack for silverware in the dishwasher! So genius and clever, I've always thought it was awkwad getting silverware out of a dishwasher (another reason why we thought the owner was either german or perhaps swedish). The second is my favorite saying on a postcard that Andrea picked up. It's by voltaire, who happens to be the namesake of our metro stop. It says (en francais), "I decided to be happy because it's good for the health." True.

And here is the bedroom. If I were in cribs, I would say "This is where the magic happens." 

Lasly, the bathroom. We are incredibly fortunate to have huge bathroom, which I feel like is rare in europe. HOWEVER, to quote Cam Davison, 'Showering in Europe is Awkward,' and ours is no exception. Don't know if you can tell, but that piece of glass only goes about 3/4 of the way (WHY??). Which is normally fine, but on more than one occasion the shower nozzle has accidentally not been pointed the right direction and I've flooded the bathroom. I am not the only one, it's happened no less than 3 times. Whoops. And why no lip or something to block the water? Also, no bathtub....sad panda.

And that's it. Once again, to quote cribs "I don't care where you go, but you can't stay here. See ya" I've clearly seen one too many rappers give tours of their home. Thank you MTV.