In September, I rented a room (or a place to sleep in the living room, to be exact, costing 600 euros per month) that was available for two months only. So, now I've had to look for the next place to stay. And as this is Paris, a city with an acute housing shortage, and a city where the rents are sky-high, it hasn't been too easy. It is not uncommon to share a studio - I've met three Erasmus students from Germany who live in the same studio flat. Many people live in the suburbs surrounding Paris, but I preferred to stay in Paris and to be able to use the metro and Velib' bikes. I didn't want to go to any international student residence because I wanted to improve my French, preferably with French flat mates, and live in a nicer apartment.
I've heard that when you look for an apartment here, you often need to prepare a folder of documents to show to your prospective landlord. It contains a proof of income and a guarantor document, usually provided by a parent. Hmmm... it would be interesting to see my Dad write a certification, in French, to me, her 30+ daughter!
So, it's time to leave Montmartre...
...and find something new, but what?
Earlier this autumn, I heard about intergenerational house-sharing: a student can live in low-cost accommodation in an older person's home and at the same time save this person from isolation. It sounded like a great idea, so I decided to try it. I sent my application and met the director of an association called Logement Intergénération. She told me about a very kind old woman who would give me a room for free if I vacuumed the flat once a week. In my mind, I visualized the perfect grandma and imagined us watching the evening news together, talking about our families, having dinners... So I was extremely disappointed when I later heard that she had already found someone. And I panicked. And started replying to ads on the website www.leboncoin.fr and in the CouchSurfing house-sharing & accommodation group for Paris. There are several other websites, but I mainly used those two. Some of the people I wrote to never replied to me. I guess they got submerged by messages as there are so many people wanting to live in Paris.
Next I went to see a rental room that I found through one of the websites. It was in the flat of a 60-year-old black woman. The building was somewhat rundown and I had an oppressive feeling about it. I wasn't sure if I would find anything else, but I really didn't want to take that room. Even though I consider myself flexible and adaptable, by the month of May, living in that room, I would have gotten severely depressed, more depressed than ever would be possible back home during the long, dark, and cold winter.
Then I went to see a room that a CouchSurfer was offering in his flat, for 550 € per month. It was in a nice area, close to a big park, and not too far from my university. And it was quite cozy, with a Parisian feel to it. But these beautiful flats in Paris always have some impracticality. With this apartment it was that in order to get to the bathroom, you had to walk through the bedroom. So the guy, who would have slept on the couch in the living room and rented out the bedroom, would have crossed my room every time he needed to use the bathroom. I would have taken the room anyhow, but he decided to rent it to an Australian guy.
I also left my own ad on a notice board at my university, and a Polish/French girl living in a studio called me. I wasn't too eager to share a room with somebody but decided to go and see it anyways. It was in an institution run by a Polish Catholic charity (http://saintcasimir.net/). It wasn't very appealing, but I thought I could live there. And eventually, since I got tired of waiting and of the stress, I ended up choosing this shared studio of 30 square meters for 450 euros per month. It is relatively cheap and close to my university.
But look at these colors, and the interior decoration of the kitchen corner:
