Seeing French apartments IN PERSON
The molding. Ooh la la.
Most French real estate listings on-line have a button to contact the listing agent. To request a floor plan or “more information” we had to provide an email address and phone number. French realtors would then reply by email, and instead of providing the requested information, they would send a phone number and ask us to call them. I never did. I could probably figure out how to say what we wanted in French, but I would never be able to understand the person on the other side of the phone. Facial cues and hand gestures do so much heavy lifting.
After two months of this, one agent wrote me an email in English! She intuited from the phone number that I was American. She introduced herself as Agnès Aubert, explained that she spoke "a little" English, and said she would be happy to help. She offered information on the listing and then said she could find other properties if we gave her more details of what we wanted. What a relief! We hadn’t thought this was possible and had been bracing ourselves to deal with a dozen different agents.
We began communicating back and forth in franglais, making liberal use of Google Translate. After several exchanges and a small flood of listings from us, Agnès asked us to sign a contrat de recherche (research contract), which would make her our exclusive agent. The contract made Roberto nervous at first. "Who is this Agnès person? What do we know about her?" Nothing, of course. I asked two friends in Europe to read the contract in case we were missing something unusual like "Americans pay an extra 2% fee for being annoying." My friends said it looked fine.
We signed the contract and made a date to look at apartments once we arrived. Very exciting. We landed in Montpellier on a Thursday morning and we had our big date with Agnès the following Sunday.
Our first viewing: Disappointment in the Suburbs
Picking us up in her mini SUV, Agnès looked every bit the French real estate agent—petite, cute, professional, and friendly as could be. I think she was actually wearing a beret. She told us she was an ex-chef who had only started working in real estate a year ago (was this a red flag?)
She drove us to the first apartment which was in the Port Marianne district, a suburban area right outside the old city, closer to the ocean. She explained it was a popular neighborhood because the apartments were modern but the city center was a short walk away. I was in good spirits when we got into the car, but as we left the beautiful winding streets of the old city, my disappointment grew. We were suddenly on a wide, divided street that felt very American, and then we entered a bland suburb full of large apartment blocks with zero street life or sense of place; it could have been Dallas or Phoenix. The short walk from the city center turned out to be around forty minutes.
The apartment was perfectly nice. It looked like Ikea had designed not only the furniture but the walls, ceiling, and layout as well. Agnes pointed out the positive features but I wasn’t even paying attention. This is not what I wanted. If I was going to live in France, I wanted it to feel like France.
In the less than ten minutes we were there, sheets of rain had begun pouring outside. Our umbrellas were in the car, a five minute walk away. From the brevity of our visit, the owner of the apartment (the owners were always present at our showings) knew we were not going to make an offer, but he still insisted on driving us to our car so we wouldn’t get soaked. This favor involved opening his locked basement car port and moving the baby seats out of his car. This was our introduction to how kind the people of Montpellier are, and we were relieved to learn that he already had a good offer from another buyer.
Roberto and I didn’t even need to speak to each other about what we had seen. As soon as we were back in the car with Agnès, nice and dry, we told her we didn’t want to live in the suburbs. We wanted to live in the old city center. She said pas de problème. No problem.
The bad news was that with our budget, refusal to renovate, and desire to live in the city center, we had narrowed down our options to less that ten apartments. The good news was that we had narrowed down our options to less than ten apartments!
Over the next few days, we saw three properties that we fell in love with. When we walked into each of them we thought, "This is the one."
Each of the apartments we loved are located in the L’Ecusson, the historic and pedestrian center of Montpellier. They are all roughly 90 square meters (1,000 square feet) and are listed at under €500,000 before taxes and fees (at the time of writing €1 euro = $1.09 dollars)
We Love it #1: Brownstone Feel on rue de l’Université
This apartment is on the second floor of a building on a busy street called rue de l’Université where there are dozens of restaurants, cafes, and shops. True to its name, the street is full of students. We walked up and down this street many times a day coming and going from our hotel, so the location was a big plus and it already felt familiar to us. The apartment has a gorgeous front room with tons of light, not unlike the parlor floor of a spacious Brooklyn brownstone.
It is a three bedroom, two full bath, with a renovated kitchen, another mini kitchen, a lofted sleeping area, two cellar rooms, one with storage space for a bike. The basement spaces are cool in a dungeon/wine cellar way—the ceilings are vaulted stone, the floors are dirt and large stone slabs “Nobody would ever hear me playing drums down here!” said Roberto
The quirks: You walk up through an old, stone spiral staircase to the apartment—moving in and out would be a nightmare and the stairs might be a problem when we get older. “I feel like Patti Smith in the early 70’s,” said Roberto, navigating the dark passage up the stairs. There is a dropped ceiling in the hall on the way to the master bedroom that is around 6’-1” high. Roberto is 6’-3” tall and had to do a silly hunch to walk from bathroom to bedroom. The current owner has been renting out half the apartment, so the unit has a split-in-half feel, but the overall space feels very roomy. No central AC, heat by radiators. (Roberto mentioned the Patti Smith book “Just Kids” to the Owner as we were looking around; he ordered the book and gave Agnès a short book report a few days later!)
We Love It #2: Sunny Flat off the Place de la Comédie
The second apartment is off the main square, the Place de la Comédie. The building is gorgeous and the corner living room has six enormous windows that bring in incredible natural light. The recent renovation feels high quality, the owner has a ton of books, interesting art, and tasteful furniture. The overall vibe is that of a refined, working professional’s home.
It is a 2 bedroom, 2 shower, 1 WC, with living room, and a dining room/library. This is the only apartment we see with central air and heat.
The quirks: to get to the second shower room you have to pass through the kitchen and then you will shower at the back of the narrow laundry room. It would be a little awkward for guests. The showers are nicely done with high quality tile, but feel small—like sarcophagi with plumbing. The kitchen is isolated from the living spaces, down the hall and behind a door, so Carolyn would not be able to sip her Old Fashioned and chat with Roberto while he cooks. Third floor walk-up, but the staircase is wide and easy to navigate.
We Love It #3: Ground Floor Entry and Stone Details on rue Bocaud
The third apartment is the only one we see with a ground floor entrance (every other apartment has been a walk-up, elevators are rare in the old city). The apartment feels private and quiet even though the street below is lined with restaurants, bars, and cafes.
This is a 3 bedroom with 2 showers and a WC. The aesthetic is modern, but there are gorgeous, carved stone arches in the shower room and dining area. The building dates to 1800, and the stone walls are exposed throughout. The owner has good taste, and the bedrooms and living areas are all spacious and comfortable with high ceilings.
The quirk: the shower and basin you see in the last picture are located in the largest bedroom. (The first time we saw this setup we found it shocking. By the time we saw it in this unit we just shrugged and moved on to the next room.) There is no hood over the cooktop (Roberto likes to cook and spends half the visit trying to figure out how he could run a vent to the exterior). No central AC, heat by radiator.
We want to know which apartment you would pick: Brownstone Feel, Sunny Flat, or Stone Details. Vote in the poll and tell us why in the comments!
Next week we’ll let you know which apartment we made an offer on!
Jusqu’à la prochaine fois (until next time)
Carolyn & Roberto
Je suis extrêmement jaloux pour vous! C'est notre rêve de vivre en France... (Philip & Stacy)
University students in Europe can be quite loud all hours of the night. Just saying that Brownstone Feel has that issue.