Furnishing the ‘boy meets girl’ apartment 25/09/06


Our premiere week, alone, in our new apartment has been full of events worth sharing.
This time last week, we returned home from Italy, into an almost-empty apartment. But between the new furniture purchased at the flee markets and the wafting smell of our culinary delights, our house is full. And to quote the eternally wise film (The Castle): It’s (already) not a house, it’s a home”

So last Thursday, our first big test of living away from home. First things first, we had to get a whole lot of bureaucratic things done: EDF, CAF, UNI, and lots of other things that remain, to us as to you, only abbreviations for things we actually have no idea about. But we did what we could and signed papers.

By the time the weekend came round, I was itching to decorate. I made the bed five or six different ways, I changed the order of the books on the bookshelves many more times than that. But it just was not happening. What we owned now was just not enough, despite it feeling like a luxury only weeks ago (when we were sort of homeless).




















I admit, the aesthetics of the house were getting me down somewhat. And poor Sam, he had to live with me trying to ‘compromise’ what my idea of aesthetically pleasing was, compared to his. It was difficult for me to make the apartment look less like I owned it and he slept over, and more like what it really is. But, how do you make an apartment look like Sam and Mayan’s, boy meets girl???

So, the housemates were a bit fragile.

Luckily, on Sunday, Sam woke me up in the best way anyone could (its not what you think). He had two great things to share with me. First: food! Breakfast in bed. Bien sur, des croissants, chocolat chaud et café. Second: massive markets unseen before in Aix (as opposed to the millions of small markets that do exist on a regular basis here)! Being just around the corner from us, this was clearly an act of fate! Someone ‘up there’ heard our cries of interior- decoration- crisis and responded.

Once we got down to the markets, we realized another great, wonderful and amazing thing about them: they were CHEAP! And, needless to say, we found a whole HEAP! We got everything from rug to ladle. Of course, that was via four pairs of amazing shoes (and that’s just my count). It took so long to walk around the entire market that by the time we came back the vacuum cleaner we wanted had been sold. Pas grave!

The day was made all the better when we bumped into some of our Australian co-expats, in need of a serious tea/coffee break in a comfy zone….like our house! Our first visitors!!

When they arrived they started pointing out all this stuff about our house, that I hadn’t really ever though of. And voila- I realized that our house was great even without the additives. What it was lacking (according to my now expert opinion) were people. (Although I maintain that the little market spree has also helped the house along.)
Anyways, now the house is fully equipped. We even broke a glass (ok,I broke the glass) but it was ok cos we had lots more!














And my jewellery cabinet is a mix of elegant femininity mixed with masculine lines (haha)














And Sam and I have regular visitors. (yes, they’re coming back).
So house is now home.