It is a suburb of Paris (it claims to be the last city and the start of countryside)
Its located at the last train station and will take 30min train to central Paris
The downside is the 2 sides of the train station is like a total opposite
1 side is like for the average income (the centre)
While the other side like HDB area for the lower income (seems unsafe)
Appartment 1 (Centre)
Actually as advertised, the appartment is less then 10mins of walk to the train station
Except that is a huge slope that kinda feels longer to walk up
It is located in a small building along the central street
basically, the centre is just a long old street of shops
I dont understand why they have about 5 hairdressers / salon in this small street
It is a small duplex at 40m2 on the 2nd and 3rd storey of the building
On level 1, there is the living room, kitchen, bedroom and toilet
On level 2, there is a small office area and the shower room
Initially, we were worried that the toilet will be at level 2
but to our surprise, the owner converted the area under the stairs into a toilet!
We loved the appartment when we looked at the photos
and was shocked that the appartment looked exactly as the photos
The building only has 6 units and a shared courtyard for planting stuff
Normally, monthly charges (water, mise fees, building maintainence..) will be about 150-280+eur
but in this building, it was only 50eur!!
I guess partly because the neighbours take turns to take out the garbage bins or care for the building
and reduce the need to pay for additional costs
Although the owner accepted our offer, we still have some concerns:
- Sound proof
All the walls are solid, except for the one in the bedroom
So, we are really worried at the neighbours can hear us or vice versa
Hopefully, in the next visit, the neighbour will be home for us to test it out
- is it a scam?
I think we are being paranoid about finding a great appartment
But our only contact has been a friend of the owner
We have not speak or met the owner as she claims that the owner is a policeman and not in town
Apart from the unbelivable monthly charges, the taxes is half of what we pay for our 27m2 appartment,
and the appartment look so perfect that it seems to be a showroom
okay, i did see clothes and stuffs in the cupboards
But compared to others that we visited, the flowers and cleaniness, really feel unreal.
Well, hopefully we will feel better after looking through the housing documents to be provided
and speaking to the neighbours
- A boring town
Apart being known as the city of orchids in France (Husband claims its a sign that we must stay here),
There is really nothing much in this city
The central is just a street with not many shops (bakery, grocery, vet, pharmacy..)
There is a big shopping mall at the train station, with a big supermarket
Problem is the shopping mall is so rundown that we are afraid that it will close down
It doesnt help that the cinema, cultural centre and shopping mall
are located towards the other side of the train station that i dont think i will hang out there much
The only saving grace is that we have a forest less than 5mins walk away!
Although we googled about it and realised there are wild animals in the forest,
and a bit afraid that we will meet a wild boar or accidently get shot during hunting season,
It is still nice to have a forest near home to feel being away from the city.
In the forest there is a small chateau (castle) similar to our wedding venue,
and a horse riding area for me to finally try out horse riding.
In addition, there is a farm near, that have weekly market for fresh groceries.
- Aeroplanes
The town is located near the secondary airport of Paris
So, there have been some comments of the landing and departure of planes
When we visited, we heard about 3times while on the street
but heard nothing while in the appartment.
Although the airport has not flights from 2330 - 0600, things may change in the future
and affect the appartments prices in the area
Maybe, im so used to the noise while living in Singapore and Paris,
that i dont really notice the noise from the planes
But husband thinks that if the town is really quiet at night, we probably hear it clearly
I guess next visit we are going to hear the frequency of it and whether it affects us
- bad internet coverage
Husband: "No more running man when we live there"
Me: "What??? Okay we dont buy"
I guess internet coverage is definitely worse in small town
and we may have problem streaming movies or running man like how we do it now
I cant imagine a life with difficulties streaming stuff to watch
But the good side is, we will finally register for the france TV channels
i think im going to ask Suzi to help me get the china box (to watch all channels in the world for free)
- Husband
yes, the biggest concern for me is the husband
although im really happy to have convinced him to shift to suburbs
that we can have a home and not paying rent
Im really afraid that he will not be able to take the 1hr traveling to and fro work
I guess im more used to traveling for work in singapore
since it took me about 45min to my previous work place
not forgetting days that i need even 2hrs to go for meeting (in ulu places like prison)
But husband has never travelled more than 40min on a daily basis for his worklife
I just hope he will be able to survive it
Although there are still many concerns to be addressed,
i do hope that all will be fine and we will be happy with our choice
Thereafter will be the battle with banks for low interest rates,
how to convince the landlord to return us the rental deposits
and how to pack the amount of stuff for shifting..
Hope all is good...
Special report on appartment 2
I did not want to write about the 2nd appartment because we are really not interested
I think we stayed less than 15mins in the appartment
When i first saw the photos, i was not interested because it looked so old
but husband took the appointment since it was in the same area (the opposite side of train)
The good thing is 1.5x bigger at the same price
But with higher monthly charges and is located in the HDB areas.
The first appartment made us felt so zen with its design
and this appartment is a zen disaster with zen stuff all over the place that doesnt make sense
The appartment has a sad and old vibes (didnt smell good)
Although the owner said that his wife is working in another city
and he wants to sell the appartment to shift with her
I felt that the wife left the owner and the appartment belongs to his parents
maybe im wrong, but the sad vibes of the owner and appartment were really obvious
Husband was happy when the owner said that he knows nothing much of the centre
because it meant that people from this area dont really go to the centre
For me, i was just interested to leave the appartment asap
however, the owner was telling us about the cinema nearby
the funny thing is he said is not really a good cinema
and that we should take a train to Paris
and go cour saint emilion (which is 10min walk from our current place) to watch movie
Oh well, thanks for the advice...
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