making moves

🤗 hi.

where did november go?
actually, hey, where did 2019 go? 

lots of things happened this month (letters not so much) but the biggest news was i moved, well technically, we moved!

we started apartment hunting earlier this summer, visited a few places and stumbled upon a listing for an old atelier. I messaged the owner, as it was listed on "particulier à particulier" which means "individual to individual" a site a bit like craigslist, no agency. i never got an answer, then weeks later, i saw the same apartment pop up again so i sent another message, but this time he replied and we saw the apartment.

it wasn't perfect but it had a lot of elements we wanted: it was quiet, with some outdoor space and in one of our favorite neighborhoods. but it came with a few non-starters, the first being no oven and the second was a fridge from 1970. we thanked the owner and told him our concerns—he mentioned that he'd be moving out of the other half of the atelier in september and it was a bit bigger. we asked if he'd let us take a quick peek and we hurriedly walked through his place but were pretty much instantly convinced of it. 


that was early august. we waited patiently (sort of) and followed up mid-september asking if he'd managed to move out just before we went into the desert in wadi rum for three days without service. we basically jumped for joy when we saw his email reply that we could take another tour of the atelier in october and if we wanted, it could be ours. then with weeks of back and forth and confusion based on my lack of a dossier (the all important paper trail) and american documents we ended up signing the lease in the middle of november. persistence (and patience) paid off.

we've been in our new place for two weeks and after some serious deep cleaning (the owner's idea of clean and mine differ drastically) it's starting to feel like it's coming together. a dreamy couch should be delivered next week, and in the "black friday" madness we have a tv arriving tomorrow (don't go three years without a tv because then you'll crack and overcompensate with a 65" screen)


moving kicked up a lot of old dust and it actually felt like i was moving across the world for the first time, my routine (crucial for a virgo) was completely upended. leaving that apartment, my first real apartment in paris, the beautiful one out of a fairytale, the one that welcomed countless guests and many memories was hard. for anyone that came to visit, thank you for making the journey, i'm so glad you were able enjoy the ancient parquet, make friends with flower man, question the meaning of the decorative door to *nowhere*, curse at the daily 7:00am trash pickup and sneak in the bathroom through the hidden door.

i won’t miss the smell of eggs cooking wafting up from the chouquette (cream puff) shop on the ground floor, but i'll miss just about everything else.

i own nothing in terms of furniture, so it's a clean slate, neither of us had much of substance. i have clothes and some books + a dutch oven and a soda stream #necessities. in moving across the world before i entrusted my beloved couch to a friend and left a cerulean blue velour chair and a vitamix to my gal who benefits from the now 10 year old rent controlled lease. i left my kitchen aid and many cookbooks in the hands of a most qualified baker. vases, votives, rugs and the rest were given to anyone who came over the month before my departure. i left with three suitcases and shipped a big box. this time around we moved with those three suitcases, a big box and lots of old shopping bags—i knew they'd come in handy one day.

i'm excited for this next step, even if it's sometimes overwhelming. it feels good (and terrifying!) to have a blank canvas and be able to build the life we want. now we just need to find a dining table :-)

to holding on, but sometimes letting go.

x