Elena Saves The Day

We went out again. This time we went out with the intention of making progress to finding a place. Elena and I had many disagrements about the next place to go. I wanted to check the bookstore to see if they had a Lonely Planet that listed a place that has short term housing, then I wanted to go to the university area and see if they had either newspapers or bulletin boards or bulletin kiosks that had sublets, etc. I'm not sure what Elena wanted to do. We went to the bookstore. They had an English travel book section that Lonely Planet books but not the one with the name of the place that has short term rentals. They had the France Lonely Planet, but it's only in the Languedoc-Roussillon Lonely Planet. So we headed out to get to the university area. We went to the station and found the vending machine. I got out a 10 euro bill to pay for some tickets.

"You need coins. The machine doesn't take bills," said a very scruffy looking guy. He was like an articulate bilingiual bum--scruffy beard, smoking a cigarette, drinking a beer, managing his dog. But after Elena explained to him what we wanted (a room for about 3 months), he told us the only way we could do it was through a real-estate agency. After he told us that, he and his dog left. It was like a scene from The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo. It's like he was put there to put us on the right path and then disappear.

We went to a real-estate agency called Immobilis. That particular branch only does purchases, but they sent us to the rental branch of Imobilis. But they only do rentals for 6 months or longer. The woman there recommended a long term hotel and a place we can ask about near the university. Elena wanted to walk to the place near the university, so we started to walk. We made it to the front of what is apparently like the City Hall, only it's called Hotel de Ville. We were a tad lost and were looking at our map when a group of 3 people approached us. Two young women and a young man. Perhaps students. They were a great help. Elena spoke with them in French. I understood a fair amount, too, but didn't add anything except nods, etc. We went into the city hall, but weren't sure how to proceed. Then the guy from the group came in and guided us over to the receptionists. He helped us with her. She was surprised that we hadn't had much luck with the real estate people. We decided to try a couple more real estate agencies just to see if we could get better luck. After all, there has to be a way to rent a place for a short period of time. What do men do when they are kicked out by their wives, after all? That must happen in Mediterranian areas where the women are hot-tempered and the men are horny.

So we went to a real estate agency called Lemy. We walked in and got a very nice women who was willing to help us. She found a student apartment for us to look at. The problem right now is that there are almost no furnished apartments at all in the area. There are plenty of unfurnished places but almost no furnished. She got us an appointment with a guy who manages student housing with one of the only "furnished" places at a place called the Leonardo da Vinci. Elena and I went to take a look. We tried to buzz him, but no answer. Then a student, black as black, came and let us in and showed us the way to the manager. The manager looked and sounded just like the characters I read about in Peter Mayle's 'A Year in Provence". Elena could talk with him, but I didn't understand a word that came out of his mouth. I couldn't even tell if he was speaking French. We saw the place he had. It was on the very end of a hallway on the 3rd floor (4th floor by American standards). When we first entered the room, it was hot. Very hot. But open windows will take care of that because it's rather cool out right now. The kitchen wasn't big, but it would work. The rooms weren't big. It's not bad at all. On the way back we got a couple of newspapers.

We had tried to get a newspaper in the morning. I wanted one with classified ads but the free paper didn't have classified ads. So Elena asked a set of 3 police where we could buy a newspaper. The police told us that there were people handing out free newspapers and they thought we were goofy for wanting to pay for one. Anyway, we found a newstand that had the local paper for 0,85 euro ($1.30) and we got it. Then we found a free paper that is only classified ads in a rack outside some store.

After buying some pasta, chicken, sauce, oil, frozen veggies (but not paper towel) for 9,80 euros ($15), we came home and cooked--rather successfully given our small kitchenette. We had a nice meal, drank our wine we bought in the morning, and browsed the classifieds. Today was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster, but we are now confident that we can find something. We know more than yesterday about how to find a place. We know the French T# system (T1 is a room, T2 is a 2 room, etc.) We know there is a spot at the Leonardo da Vinci. We haven't even been to the University area, there may be places there. We are optimistic and excited!