Never trust a French appartement at first sight

Remember how we were going to move in two weeks....well that was put on hold. i went last monday to take another look at the apartment we had chosen and were about to sign a lease for and noticed something very alarming.....The Metro. Yes people after being in the apartment for a few minutes i noticed a slight vibration (on the fourth floor). Clearly i became very alarmed and immediatly went to knock on what was supposed to be my future neighbor. I stumbled upon an old couple who are apprenantly not bothered by their house vibrating every 5 minute. Needless to say we decided against signing the lease. 

If you are planning on renting an apartment in Paris or any old city for that matter learn from my almost mistake. Double check everything and spend sometime inside the apartment before signing anything. Coming from California where most buildings are less than 50 years old I immediatly get bewitched by the old Haussmanian Parisian splendeur and forget to actually make sure the place is livable. Another essential this place was missing was an oven. I mean seriously, who furnishes an entire kitchen with stove and cupboards but omits àn oven! 

We are now trying to get an apartment in the same building as ours so wish us luck!

Dark Blue Velvet Sofa

I want to talk about why I love this sofa. If you are thinking about it...just do it!

Living in Paris where the weather is less than shall we say, this dark cozy yet cool sofa is perfect. Its dark color hides stains my husband likes to make, yet looks really glamorous. The only downside is that if there is a lot of light in your house you can see dust on it during the day. So it must be cleaned very regularly.

There are plenty of ways to accent this piece. For the past two years I have used light blue silk curtains, and a lot of blue and white stripes. From an earlier post you can see my DIY black and white dining table. I also have a pair of antique reupholstered chairs with a similar black white fabric. For my new place however, I am thinking lighter! I want more light pastel colors. Maybe I should do yellow silk curtains. With this piece there are so many choices!

Accent Wall????

To accent or not to accent?

This is the question I am pondering today. Should I or shan't I paint an accent wall in my new bedroom? I am thinking grey because I have these great light grey silk curtains that I really want to use.

Here are some inspiration interiors...

Aqua Baby Room

I keep thinking about what color I should paint my babies new room.

At first I was thinking blue/grey. But it might be a bit depressing. It is summer now but I always have to remember that it is cold and ugly in Paris most of the time. Therefore, a more lively color like aqua or green/blue might be a bit more cheery.

I think my favorite is the light aqua with yellow. 

Here is my inspiration...

Moving to a Bigger Apartment

We are finally moving!

Although we are sad to say goodbye to our very nice apartment and neighbors (we live next to my husband's sister) we are moving to a bigger place in two weeks. I will be needing lots of decor advice and will chronicle my plans for the new space. First off I need to post some pictures so everyone has an idea of what the place looks like.

The first thing to decide is paint color. Because this is Paris everything including painting an apartment is insanely expensive. So after getting an estimate of 5,000 Euro I decided I would do it myself. The only two rooms that I think need to be painted is the baby's room and our bedroom.

Here are some pics...

The French Creche aka Free Goverment Daycare

(This picture is pretty funny. Where are the screaming babies???)

I am currently awaiting the answer of whether my child will be accepted into a state run creche, also known as creche municipale. I signed up when I was 7 months pregnant last August and ill not find out until mid May or June almost a year later! If you are a pregnant foreigner in France I recommend that you sign up at your local Marie right when you are six months pregnant. Most foreigners make the mistake of waiting to sign up for day care until after their baby is born. I would have made the same mistake had a friend not told me to go as soon as possible.

After your baby is born you will receive 7 acte de naissance (birth certificates) from the person who comes to register your child's birth at the hospital. By the way if you don't have these you can order as many as you want from your Marie whenever you want. You have to send these certificates to your top 4 choices of creche's that you made when you signed up at the mairie while you were pregnant, as well as to the Mairie itself. You have to remember to send these as soon as your baby is born to complete your file and put you on the list awaiting a place in the creche. The city compiles the list for the kids accepted at the end of the school year for the coming September.

After your file is complete you basically just have to wait for the response from the Mairie. You also have some other choices however, just in case your child does not get accepted in a municipal creche. You can do garde partage with another family. The way this works is that you share the cost of a private nanny at either your or their houses. The nanny is your employee and you can discount the cost of her salary in your taxes if she is properly declared. Another option that I am exploring is the halte garderie. These places also run by the state accept kids only part time. So you can probably get your kid in for up to three days a week. The third option which I am in the process of finding out about is the creche parental. These are day cares run by the parents of the kids attending. I will post about this as soon as I attend the open house next weekend. There is also the option of taking your child to the house of a specially trained babysitter who can watch up to 4 kids. I am learning more about this and will let you know as soon as I find out more.

Just a quick note...the reason everyone wants a place in the creche municipale is because it is the cheapest option. Garde partage is super expensive (about 900 a month, 9:00 to 19:00). Halt garderie is somewhere in the middle, but the catch for this one is that it is not full time. You can only sign your child up for up to 3 days a week.