Marais

It was a busy day sort of - we met Eve Langlois at Place de Bastille in the morning to discuss
getting a flat. The column is all that is left in remembrance of the famous Bastille prison. We had coffee in one of the cafes around the plaza and discussed. Here is the deal - we need a letter from our company stating that we are "permanent" employees, how long we are expected to be in France, and how much our salary and per diem will be. Without that, no one will rend us anything. Then, once we find a place, we need 2 months rent as security deposit, one month rent up front, the realtor fees, and Eve's fee. For a "normal" 2 bedroom apartment, we expect monthly rent to be 2500 - 3000 Euros ($3,375 - $4,050). Our hotel room is costing about 3200 Euros/month also. So, the day we rent a flat, we need about $16,000. Quite a big amount I would say - usually people take loans for that amount. Anyway, Eve is to provide an example of the letter (which IFSNA will need to sign for us) and start to look for some places. She recommends the 3, 4, 15 and 17th arrondissements which she says will have some areas we will like, won't be outside our budgets, and will be pretty convenient for the #1 metro to Le Defense.

After our coffee and talk, she walked us over to Place des Vosges, the location of Victor Hugo's home. It is a pleasant park area surrounded by pink brick buildings so the entire park is enclosed. Jay and I decided to explore the are as it is one of the locations we will search for apartments. This is one of the oldest historic parts of Paris - the Marais. Small streets, lots of shops and markets. It has a lot of character. We took a short detour to see the Picasso Museum. It is a small intimate place. There are quite a few pieces, but only one that I really recognized (the harlequin boy in the picture). It was my first museum since coming.

After the museum, we stopped for lunch at a very popular cafe (Cafe' des Musees). I had noticed many people eating steaks, and it made me want one. We struggled a bit with the menu, but the man next to us, helped us out. I had read before that you can't get a steak well done in France, but Jay had a pepper steak last week that was well done. I asked for my steak medium-well and learned that means the outside is cooked, but it would qualify as rare in the US. If you ask for rare, I doubt it is even heated through. Well, I'm a medium-well guy. I did eat it, but it did sort of gross me out! I filled up on the fries instead. Next time, I'm going for quiche instead!

After lunch we headed for the river and took in Notre Dame again (picture shows it from behind). It was quite busy on the streets with tourists. Even Ile St. Louis was busy. Then back to Le Defense and the hotel.