The Hunt is On for an Apartment with Heart!

I have often joked that I am the property poster child for our company since no one seems to get into more property haps and mishaps than me. It all started in 1997 when I haphazardly found a rental apartment for my daughter and myself when I decided to stay in France against all odds. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it, after entering a gorgeous cobblestoned courtyard, counting the stairs as we climbed them and saw the beautiful sun pouring in thanks to four south-facing windows. I signed the lease the next day!
Two years later, the apartment was offered for purchase by the landlords, and after nine months of desperately seeking a way to borrow money to buy it, we succeeded. In June 2000, it became ours and we have lived in it every since.
You’ve heard much about it over the years because if it weren’t for that apartment, located in the heart of the 3rd arrondissement, I wouldn’t be here today telling these tales. In many ways, that three-room apartment in a 17th-century building, up three flights of beautiful oak stairs, facilitated every wonderful thing that has ever happened to me in France.
My heart and soul poured into that home. Little-by-little it underwent a series of renovations and augmentations. We pulled up four layers of old carpets and discovered magnificent wood parquet floors, once they were sanded down and refinished. A lot of built-in cabinetry was already there when we moved in, but we added to it over the years providing an enormous amount of storage. Furniture stored from our U.S. home was shipped in, and other specialty pieces were added along the way. My art collection adorned the walls. We loved every inch. It was Home with a capital H.
Then, in April of 2021, the cracks I never thought much about turned into fissures that couldn’t be ignored. That was the beginning of my nightmare and the upheaval of my cherished home. After much investigation by the building’s architects, it was determined that the building structure had been compromised by years of deterioration, likely caused by water damage, and the structure would have to be rebuilt. This was the only apartment in the building to be affected.
For a few years, we lived with metal supports holding up the ceiling so it wouldn’t fall on our heads. Meanwhile, we fought with the Syndic and “copropriété” (homeowner association) to be compensated for what was about to happen to us and our home. The bottom line is that we had no choice but to move out and allow the building’s authorities to rebuild the structure and secure the property to a better-than-new condition, with very little compensation for our efforts.
Last July, we did just that—found a furnished rental apartment in the neighborhood and shifted our lives into a new space. That, in itself, was no easy task, but we managed it and settled in. In September, the work in the apartment began. What we thought was going to happen there in our minds is not at all what did happen. In order for them to perform the necessary structural work, according to what they incessantly told me (after our negotiations), they had to remove every inch of the custom built-ins, including my wall-to-wall desk, our grand “bibliothèque,” the floor-to ceiling bedroom closets, every inch of bathroom fixture and tile and strip the kitchen down to just a floor and four walls. They threw it all away. Nothing was salvaged and nothing was to be rebuilt or compensated for.
That home of 27 years that had facilitated our glorious years in France had been destroyed right before our very eyes. Every time I climbed those steps to see their progress, I cried like a child. I felt I had never gotten a chance to say goodbye to our home. I was helpless.
The condition in which they left the apartment was abominable and they didn’t care. They only cared that the work they had done on the structure was perfect, and I’m sure it is. I saw it with my own eyes. They reinforced the structure with metal beams and secured the building so the cracks would never come back. That 17th century building is now stronger than any building constructed today. Meanwhile, I have been left with a shell of its former self.
I could have battled with the Syndic about it, but that just meant more legal costs and years of legal proceedings, which could turn into nothing. I decided to cut my losses and sell the apartment.
Thank goodness, I am blessed with the best resources in France. Interior Designer Martine di Mattéo, with whom I have worked for more than 20 years, and her expert team of contractors, have stepped in to take over the work from the Syndic’s architects to refinish the apartment to a perfect state—with all new double-paned windows, freshly plastered walls, crown molding and refinished flooring. It will be a perfectly clean slate for a new owner to outfit it with the bathroom and kitchen of their dreams, and add built-ins that fit their needs. Fireplace? It’s not there now, but no problem. Martine can add it. Everything is possible! Some new lucky owner will have the home of their dreams, too. Martine is prepared to work with a new owner to make it sing like it did for us all those years.
The apartment will go up for sale in a couple of months, once the work is complete and it’s ready to show off. Meanwhile, I’m on the hunt for a new home, not just for me, but for daughter and her son to live next to me. It’s time for me at this age to add an elevator to the equation, and she wants to move back to France so she can raise her son here. We want to be close. We want to stay in our neighborhood; the home we’ve known since 1997.
Those 70 steps to the apartment on rue de Saintonge had always been my friends. The stairwell is beautiful, wide and circling up like a typical Hôtel Particulier fit for aristocrats. It was a constant reminder of the centuries of lives that had come before us. They kept me healthy. I could climb them easily without missing a beat or breathing heavily because of their low risers. I learned how to manage rolling my suitcases up and down and I never once thought of them as a chore…not once. But, at the age of 72, it just seems intelligent to consider an alternative…an elevator, should my health wane.
The landlord of our rental apartment now requires we to move out by the end of August for his own purposes. Here we go again, packing and moving. I don’t want to move twice, so, I’m on a rampage to find a new apartment and find it fast—ideally a large apartment that can be divided into two, one for my daughter and her son, and one for me. Or two apartments in very close proximity. We want to stay in the immediate neighborhood. We must have an elevator. I am certainly not afraid of renovation and welcome it—I have Martine! And Martine will make it perfect!
If anyone can find an apartment, it should be me…or at least my team! They are all on it in a big way. Being home recuperating from the flu is complicating matters. I can’t just run out and visit anything, at least not for the moment. And there is very little on the market. On top of that, prices in this district have gone up, particularly since it’s been declared pedestrian (arrondissement 1-4), as I have predicted for a long time. Our criteria is tougher than most — since we want to create two livable spaces from one, or find two apartments already adjacent to one another.
We scrutinized more than five properties just last week and we’re still on the hunt. There are always compromises to make, and we’re willing to do that, but most have been knocked out of the game from the outset.
I fell in love with a beautiful apartment in a perfect location, but it was too small and no matter how we tried to make it work, it just wouldn’t.
Then I fell in love with another apartment, again in a perfect location, but the floor plan made it impossible to divide with an entry on one end.
Another property had major potential because it was already two apartments that could have an interior connection, but its Haussmannian structure with many supporting walls made a really livable floor plan impossible. (I have a particular theory of having a “heart” to an apartment where everyone will logically be and congregate.)
Another property we visited was a clean slate, ready to go, but was in a 1970s building that had a beautiful old facade, but was ugly as sin on the inside. No! Never!
Let me explain about the “heart” of an apartment. Our rue de Saintonge apartment floor plan is brilliant. You enter a nice sized foyer and immediately through double French doors to the left is a large (28m2) living room/dining room with two windows south-facing. One bedroom with a window (also south-facing) and an independent bathroom is on the left side just past the living room. That was my daughter’s bedroom. The second bedroom with a window (also south facing) is straight ahead from the foyer, but also has immediate access to the living room with double French doors. A separate kitchen and toilet are off to the right of the foyer. The kitchen has a window on a “courette.” So, it revolves. It’s open and airy and very sunny. And the heart of the apartment is the living room/dining room. That’s where everyone meets and lives. That’s what I mean about having a “heart.” I want my new apartment to have a heart, too.
Saintonge is going to be very tough to replace. There aren’t too many in Paris like it. The more I see, the more I realize how special that apartment really was. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist—it just means it won’t be easy to find. But, I am determined! So, stay tuned for the ongoing saga. I’ll keep you posted along the way.
And if you are interested in purchasing my cherished home on rue de Saintonge, email us to be put on a special mailing list. You’ll be the first to know when it’s ready for sale and at what price.
A la prochaine…
Adrian Leeds
The Adrian Leeds Group®
P.S. Brian Dunhill, of Dunhill Financial, led the talk at Après-Midi in Nice January 23rd. I wasn’t there…since I was in Paris recovering from La Grippe, but Patty Sadauskas hosted the event. Here’s the report and the video of his talk. Don’t miss it!
P.P.S. Join Susan Herrmann Loomis in her brand-new cooking studio in Paris, for cooking classes that feature what the French love best: simple, authentic dishes based on tradition, using the finest local ingredients available. While you cook, Susan will share tips and tricks of the French chef and cook, stories from her travels and books, techniques that will make your life in the kitchen richer and easier. As you enjoy the sumptuous meal that you have prepared, with wines and cheeses, you’ll be transported into the heart of France. There is no way to get a better, deeper French experience than through cooking with Susan.
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