Hunting for the Paris Apartment VII - Hurt by the Spam Filter

Most Thursday afternoons, I get a little reminder on one of my Paris real estate websites that there are new listings “by owner” that fit my search criteria. I always feel pretty excited when this email pops up, because it’s a chance to jump on an opportunity before it is exposed to the masses. And I always feel ever so slightly smug that in this very competitive real estate jungle, I may be a half step ahead of my competitors who don’t speak French and don’t know about the “by owner” sites. I read these ads with relish and respond immediately if I see an ad that interests me.

One week, I didn’t get the ad on a Thursday, but instead it popped up on Friday evening, and was entitled, Week Ends’ Summary. I thought, “That’s odd – I don’t remember ever getting the ads yesterday,” and so I casually perused them, only to have my heart stop. There was an ad for an apartment on the Avenue de la Bourdonnais (already established earlier as one of my favorite avenues in Paris), fourth floor, elevator, with … you guessed it … a great view of the Grande Dame. As if that wasn’t enough, the four pictures in the ad confirmed my greatest suspicion: This was the perfect apartment in the perfect location. By now very familiar with this neighborhood, I could tell that exactly where it was situated, and figured out not only what it looked out over (Princess Caroline’s apartment across the street), but what building it was in.

Gorgeous view of the Eiffel Tower across Avenue de la Bourdonnais

The Building that houses royalty across the street, to the left

Typically Parisian Haussmann architecture

Photos that stopped my heart, on the By Owner site

There was one problem: It was 6 p.m. in Atlanta and midnight in Paris, and I didn’t think I’d make a great impression if I called the owner at that hour, no matter how excited I was. So I sent an email, spent the evening walking up and down the avenue (courtesy of Google maps!), and when I’d exhausted myself and calmed my nerves enough, went to bed and set my alarm for 4 a.m., so I could call bright and early Paris time.

Unfortunately, I was 24 hours too late, and the apartment was already sold. Bereft, and more disappointed than I’d been in years, I tried to figure out how I’d missed this one, since I was sure I’d been one of the first. And that’s when I found the original email, stuck in my spam filter, 24 hours earlier. I should have suspected that when I didn’t get it on Thursday, it might have gone in to spam. Had I seen it earlier, I would have jumped on it immediately and just maybe, I would have been the first offer.

When you have a disappointment like this, someone will inevitably pop up with, “It wasn’t meant to be.” It’s never much consolation at the time, but I have found it to be true – at least in this case. The new owners did a wonderful renovation job and it looks like a beautiful and very happy apartment. (Interestingly, since it’s available for rent, maybe I’ll even rent it some day.) Their renovation is so wonderful in fact that it has given me lots of ideas and inspiration for my own renovation, whenever that will be.

Before: Look carefully at the before and see what the new owners did with the after

After: They replaced the radiator with a beautiful mantel

And added sumptuous decor

This is just the kind of inspiration I need for my dream apartment!

Before: And if you look carefully at the back of the apartment

You’ll see that they closed off the door to the study,

which makes the dining room feel bigger

And added a beautiful bedroom behind those doors.

Tada! The piece de resistance.

Although I didn’t know it at the time, and it wouldn’t have stopped me from buying this apartment, I have learned that probably the most important thing for me, equal to or even greater than location and view, is light. By that I mean preferably southern exposure, or in Paris, because it stays light so late in the summer, west is good too. That’s because the weather in Paris can be disappointingly dreary, but when it’s nice and sunny, it’s just gorgeous. I find myself wandering around on sunny days and looking up and coveting those western or southern exposed apartments that are bathed in sun. So although this dreamy apartment does have one beautiful window facing west (from which there is the million dollar view), the others all face north. That wouldn’t bother most people, but it would bother me. At the time that I lost this apartment, I felt hurt and deceived by my overly protective spam filter. Now I’m thinking it just wasn’t meant to be. And so the hunt -- for the perfect southwest facing apartment with gorgeous floors and killer view of the Eiffel tower, in the 7th arrondissement -- continues. Stay tuned for “Herringbone Envy.”

Tata,

A.

PS: All photos of the after shots, courtesy of Paris Perfect.