My Paris Dreams

Sometimes I think I have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or maybe I'm just really good at multi-tasking. I sometimes lose focus of what I am doing, and the next thing you know, my attention is elsewhere. Most of the time, I get more things done that way.

When I was looking for apartments to rent in Paris, I fell in love with the idea of living in a boat house. My search criteria was to live close to the river in the Marais area and nothing seemed more perfect that to live right in the Seine.

Photo Credit: VRBO Listing 405118

It looked surprisingly posh (and much much nicer) than hotels in the price range I wanted to pay for the area I wanted to stay in. It sleeps 4-5, has two bedrooms, and a deck where I was already visualizing us enjoying spring, while chatting and having wine and cheese. Unfortunately, when I finally convinced my friend that we wanted to stay here, the owner declined because he had visitors arriving the day after we were scheduled to leave and he wanted more time in between visitors to prepare the place. (note to self: must plan to go back to Paris so I can stay in a Boat House)

So I went back to my search for Apartments, and the next thing I stumbled on was A La Carte Paris, a site with luxurious apartments for rent in prime areas. The thing that caught my attention is they have an offshoot business wherein they offer wannabe investors a chance to buy their own apartment in Paris by helping them find it, renovate it, and finance it, and finally help them rent it out, so it becomes ideally a self-paying asset once you've shelled out the down payment. They will rent it out to short term guests (same as what I am looking for), so you can block of the dates when you'll be staying, so it's like having your cake and eating it too. 

Of course, I haven't checked it out well to ensure it's not a scam, but in theory, it makes sense.

You buy an apartment, assuming you can pay for it, then you rent it out so it pays for itself. Brilliant!!! I wanted to do that. I actually tried to convince Tim that it would be cheaper for us to buy a flat together in Paris (because according to my math, I could probably shell out half the down payment! hahaha) than to rent an apartment for this stay but he didn't really believe me.

Now, I think I need to find another International Assignment. I really need to figure out how to earn more so I can buy my flat in Paris because I want it more than my beach house. 

Oh, and I gave up on searching for our perfect apartments. I gave Tim a shortlist and let him decide, because the more I search, the more I find things that I want but can't have... for now. 

My new goal is to have a Pied-à-terre in Paris! just saying.

*A pied-à-terre (French pronunciation: ​[pje.ta'tɛʁ] ; French for "foot on the ground") is a small living unit usually located in a large city some distance away from an individual's primary residence.

The term pied-à-terre implies usage as a temporary second residence, either for part of the year or part of the work week, by a person of some means (source: wikipedia)