le Liliputian

Petite. That’s our apartment in Paris. That’s everyone’s apartment in Paris. Rather than complain, Jay and I have taken to cajoling and complimenting each other on our tiny Nid d’amour (that’s love nest). Take for example the bathroom, as Jay puts it, one can only wonder at the sheer genius of the French who figured out a way to fit a shower (albeit one resembling your high-school locker but with running water), into an airplane bathroom. This picture says it all really, except you can’t tell from this angle that the water heater is suspended directly overhead of the toilet. Yeah.

One of my pride and joys of our almost-adequate-abode is our very own beer and chevre fridge! While we may not have a freezer that can hold more than 1-2 ice cube bags(amazing blue sandwich-sized bags that you fill a one-way valve with water and freeze then smack on the counter and viola! A bag of little ice cubes!), it does hold 4 very large beers, a big piece of chevre rolled in herbs, and the leftovers from last night’s pico de galo that Jay made(we have really gotten into Mexican food living in Paris-no doubt a side effect from seeing more crepes, croissants and cassoulets then we ever thought possible). Our beer fridge is SUPPREMELY important since, with very few exceptions, you can’t buy refrigerated beer here. Instead it comes straight off the shelf in aisle 4 of the Franprix at room temp. You CAN however buy Mon Cheri candies by the dozen in a box at the 8-a’-Huit for 9 euros with enough boozy liqueur in them to (combined with the sugar), give you a mind bending buzz. These little chocolate gems are contraband in the states which is why before I come back for a visit I will be filling a suitcase with them and strapping as many boxes to my ribcage and thighs as my pencil skirts will allow!

Storage options are limited in our minute-maison as well. I have taken to stacking lamp shades where our TV used to be and the TV now lives behind the cupboard that has become my dresser. We never used the TV since the one time we tried we found French television to be primarily new music videos of artists we thought to be retired or dead, episodes of Friends with French dubbing (believe it or not it does NOT make Jennifer Aniston less annoying), and strange game shows with such loud volume that it makes it difficult for us to hear our neighbor playing the Doobie Bros, “Takin’ it to the Streets”.

All in all, I am enamored and inspired by how little we need to live a very full and beautiful life: episodes of Parks and Recreation downloaded on our computer, a shelf to hold our baguette and bottle of olive oil, a table to play Scrabble on while snacking on French chocolates, and a bed to collapse in after walking from the 9^th to the 1^st to enjoy a falafel and shop for the perfect pair of seersucker shorts.