Scandales

Parisian Scandals

September 29

Now that we are safely back in England, we can post about our Parisian scandals.

We arrived on Saturday at our rental and were very surprised at how small it was.  The apartment was as described in the website, but I was shocked when we saw how small it really was. The owner wasn't able to meet us and there was a Vietnamese housekeeper who let us in.  Her English wasn't very good, but we were able to communicate.  When I asked where the kitchen was, she did surprise us when she opened a closet door. It was about a metre wide and 1.5 metres deep. It included cupboards, sink, 2 burner stove, microwave, kettle, espresso maker, dishes etc.

Things settled down for a while, until later in the evening when we were pulling out the sofa bed.  Like most adventures in Europe, it didn't work quite like we expected and there was a lot of tugging and pulling involved.  Anyway, when we got it pulled out, I saw “something” out of the corner of my eye under the mattress.  It looked like a folded up 20 euro bill.  When I looked closer, I could see that it wasn't money and there were several small packages.  Looking closer, I could see pictures of dead mice on the packages and the phrase “raticide”.

To say that I was upset, would put it mildly.  Here it was Saturday night. We couldn't contact the rental agency until Monday.  I couldn't stay there.  I emailed the flat’s owner and I emailed the agency. The situation was totally unacceptable and we needed alternate arrangements immediately.

I looked on-line through all the hotel booking sites, desperately looking for a hotel.  Now nervous, I only wanted chain hotels I knew of.

Well, it didn't matter, as there were no hotels available for Saturday night.  The cheapest places would be at least 2,300 euros (over $3,000) for the rest of the week.  Hotels like Best Western, even if there were rooms, would be over 3,000 euros ($4,000).

I didn't know what to do, but I didn't want to stay there. I texted Katherine and she suggested AirBandB.  She spent hours looking at sites for me and sending along the links. She even contacted one owner, pleading our case.  We spent the night with the lights on and me, at least, “resting” with one eye open.

Sunday morning was spent emailing AirBandB owners, hoping for a response. The first AirBandB owner answered back that her flat wouldn't be available until Wednesday. No one else even replied.

The owner of the flat we were renting called and explained to us that this was a preventative action and that there were no mice or rats. She told me everyone puts it out in Paris and they pay a fumigator to come and put it out 3 times a year. 

I was still a little leery, but what could I do? We had paid for the flat and there weren't any hotels anyway.

Monday we went to the Louvre and when we returned after supper, there was an email from the rental agency saying they were very sorry but it is a very busy time for Paris and they had no other options for me. 

Around 8 PM, the owner’s son-on-law phoned. He was supposed to come over to pick up the rest of the rent.  He was obviously American and again confirmed that this use of poison as a preventative is very common and nothing to worry about.

He came over around 9:30 that night and was a lovely man. He has his Ph. D and teaches Business Ethics at the American University in Paris. He helped us with a number of things.  The toilet seat was broken when we got there. He thought it was a loose nut, but the hinge was broken on one side and he would have to buy a new one.

We hadn't had hot water since we were there and he had us check the breaker and it was off. I turned the breaker back on and the water heater started up.

When he was checking the toilet seat, I noticed water dripping beside the toilet.  There had not been water dripping before.  He looked at it and said it looked like they had installed a new meter and hadn't installed it properly. I was wondering if turning the breaker on had caused the issue as we hadn't seen any water before. He said he didn’t think that would have anything to do with it.

He immediately called for a plumber and said one would come the next day. We put a pot under the drip and had to empty it every 2-3 hours.

The next morning I received a called from the owner. She was furious. We had caused a scandale about the raticide and ruined her reputation with Paris Attitude. As well, we now had broken the plumbing and there was a flood on the floors beneath us, causing another scandale.  I kept telling her that I told Paris Attitude that she and her son-in-law had explained the raticide was a preventative measure and that we were satisfied with the situation.  I told her that we had not seen a drop of water until last night and had wiped it up and put a pot under the drip. 

She could not be calmed down.  Over and over, a scandale. Eight years of renting and she’s never had any drama with tenants except once before with some Chinese, and now two scandales with us!  Oh dear, we were being lumped in with the Chinese!  When her son-in-in-law came over to get the keys so he could empty the pail, I asked him to please explain to Madame that we were two timid Canadians who would never cause any sort of scandal; he said “Don’t worry about it.  She’s French and so she’s always suspicious.  You just can’t internalize it. Just don’t internalize it.”

As mentioned in other entries, the plumber came on Tuesday but couldn't fix the leak as he needed special parts.  We ended up spending all of Tuesday in the apartment and then bought a large plastic garbage pail to use to catch the water. On Wednesday we went to Versailles and the owner’s son-in-law was to empty the pail in the afternoon. He did, but didn't put the pail under the drip, so it must have leaked downstairs all afternoon.  On Thursday the plumbers came and replaced the toilet reservoir. I noticed that they also changed the orientation of the meter, so I'm not sure what was leaking. As of today(touch wood) nothing  else broke.  We didn't dare use the washing machine though as it would have been just our luck to press the wrong buttons and break it.  French-Canadian diplomatic relations couldn't handle another scandale.

We ended up having a wonderful time, but we did notice that the following was spray painted at the doorway of our building.  Is does look like a mouse, doesn't it?

Well, we wanted adventures!