Apartment Hunting Blog - rue Metz

This was the first apartment that we looked at in Toulouse and it actually gave us a "warm-fuzzy" as the very first apartment could actually work.  Not that it was ideal, but we could make it work for a couple years.

We'll start with the view, although Tom normally says "View Schmoo" ... the living room overlooks the Cathedral de Saint-Etienne.  Now ... there are pros and cons with that ... yes, you overlook a cathedral that has an amazing view ... yes, that means that you actually get more sun into those windows since there isn't another building directly in front of you ... but it DOES actually have bells that chime!

It was on the 3rd floor (3rd French floor, which for us American's is the 4th floor, since they consider the ground floor, well, just that .. the ground floor) with an elevator. As you come in, there is an entry foyer where you could put shelves or something to put your shoes in as you come into the apartment.

Then the living room, which was really huge. It ran all along the width of the apartment with 3 large windows/doors that can be opened, which look out on the church.  The floors here are original, and it has an original fireplace (not working, which is normal) and a set of built-in's both flanking the fireplace (behind doors) and over near the kitchen (with an open shelf).

Then there was the kitchen, which was very new and modern. They really did a great job when they renovated to try to get maximum space out of such a tiny little area.  Oven and microwave, surrounded by built-in cabinets and draws, including a huge pull-out pantry.  It had a dishwasher and 4-burner stovetop also, but the first challenge is the refrigerator, which you can see under the stovetop ... TINY!  Our thought here was that we would need to buy another 1/2-size frig and put it into the living room area.

Now the next "challenges" ... it is listed as a T3 but it really is a 1-bedroom with office.  This area, which is on the opposite side of the apartment as you come in the foyer from the living room, has nice original wood floors and some semi-built-in wardrobes. However, the 3rd "room" is really an office since there is no door.  While we could put a sofa-bed in there for guests, there is no door to close ... we would just have to hang a curtain or something (not ideal).

The bathroom was probably one of the better ones ... again, very modern and renovated with a stand-up shower.  3rd challenge here is where to put a washing machine ....hmmm... well, what the agent said is, you buy one of the tiny tiny tiny top-loading ones that are about 12 inches wide and you shove it in between the sink and the shower in the picture below.  Ugh!  He did say that we may be able to ask the landlord to take out the dishwasher in the kitchen and we could perhaps put it there.

So ... for the first apartment, this was actually pretty good. But not having a real 2nd bedroom with a door was going to be (in my opinion) problematic. Mind you, how many people will visit during the first 1-2 years vs visiting us after that, we don't know. The kitchen was done nicely and if we could replace the dishwasher with a combination washer/dryer, that would work. But we really would have had to purchase another fridge that we would put out in the living room since we know that the one that was there wouldn't work (the one in our Gite is larger than that and gets to be full on market-day). Could we MAKE it work? Oh sure. It didn't have parking included although it is right next to the public parking garage at St-Etienne. It also was at the top of our self-imposed budget. Tom really liked the original floors and the light in the living room was amazing.