Auction House

finished with apt hunting, sat in all day yesterday looking for cheap flights to greece and generally working on the computer. didn’t get out enough, so didn’t sleep well. becca (a dog mom who is here for a year from LA) invited me to go to the auction house called “DROULT” with her today. am thrilled that i made myself go. it was so interesting!

becca has had great success. she first went with walter who is a dog dad from the park. i don’t think i have met him yet. walter apparently makes his living as an art buyer.

becca saw a painting that was attributed to jean dufy. she went to the viewing session then went home and did some research online. she found that the better jean dufy’s were selling for 25-35K at sothebys/christies. this one was valued at approx 1000-2000. she discussed it with her husband who gave her the ok to go up to 2000. it was up for sale on the day of the royal wedding, and she knew that the sessions would be emptier because of it. she got the painting for 2000, promptly brought it over to the official jean dufy expert down the block, who gave it a seal of approval (for 700 euros). she figures she could get 10-20K for it. she went and got it re-framed for almost the same amount as she paid. it seems so ballsy! we are all a chatter in the dog park about it. on saturday at dinner she said she was coming up monday and i said i wanted to come too. i sort of forgot about it, but she sent me an email. so i came up today to take a look. it is a whole world.

Droult is the facility, the auction center. it is a building where different auction companies rent a room to hold their sale. there are maybe 8-12 rooms, each holding auctions of different types. there are rug auctions, furniture auctions, art auctions. in fact, it’s much more specialized than that. the auction we were going to was impressionist to 20th century art. there was even an auction of vintage hermes clothing. though some auctions are of someone’s estate – so a general collection of things. it could be a cheaper way of furnishing if you like antiques.

i looked on the website for the particular auction we would attend. i saw real impressionist paintings – not by the big names of course, but by respected googleable ( a new word!) names. some beautiful paintings valued at 200-300 euros! gosh, that’s cheaper than MY paintings. maybe i could go buy an impressionist painting. not today. today i am just going to look and see how things are done. there are people lining the reception counter and people looking at the stuff and looking up the price. there was a 19th century to contemporary painting sale that we are going to. but there was also a room for rugs, a room for silver pieces, a room for one modern artist, a room of fancy furniture and stuff. i got to get up close and look at the paintings. there were some very nice paintings. one called “the spaniard” was quite small but beautifully painted with amazing detail for such a small format. the light was good. i would buy that painting. i think it was valued at 2K.

at noon, they all closed their doors for lunch. everyone went outside. all along the neighboring streets are shops for appraising, buying, selling, stamp collecting, furniture, asian arts. it is a whole system and society. i guess, some local shops go in and buy stuff daily from the auctions and then offer it for sale. it’s a whole society and world in itself. there were numerous cafes and restaurants nearby, filled with people working around the auctions. they all knew each other. according to becca, they were all having affairs with each other too. i was looking forward to the actual auction.

i met my becca in the hall outside the room where our auction would be held. it was 1:30. other people were waiting. when it got close to 2:00, people got up and stood in front of the door. when the doors finally opened, people rushed in, scrambling for seats. then there was an arrangement reminiscent of a courtroom. there was a a high desk where the “judge” sat in the center of the front. he had 2 women sitting to his left and a lower desk to his right where a man and a young woman sat. on one side of the room there was a low desk where 4 people sat facing the center, and one man sat facing away from the front. the “judge” was the auctioneer, and the man to his right was the “expert”. the expert announced each painting, with the “lot” number, the title of the work, artist, either attributed to or definitively, the value range and the starting price which was around half of the lowest value. i was confused at first because sometimes he would say “we’ll start the bidding at” and then he’d rattle off a few numbers – as if he was changing his mind at what to start the bidding at. he’d say “we’ll start the bidding at 100, 150, 200.” plus, he would be bidding on things. in fact, he was bidding for the people who had submitted bids on paper ahead of time. he had a bit of a speech impediment too. the auctioneer would go very quickly taking bids. and there was none of this “going once, going twice and gone!” stuff. he would just hold his gavel up look around the room and then hammer it down if he didn’t see any interest. then on to the next item. but sometimes he would hold his gavel up and cajole the crowd . “it’s a gift [because it’s so cheap]”. one time he looked at one of the people who had been bidding but was giving up, and said “are you sure? are you really sure? c’mon how about 400?”

there would be people talking at the same time, because as soon as an item was sold, the next item was being described as the old one was getting the credit card of the buyer. there’s no registering beforehand. when you have successfully bought an item you hand over your credit card and get a paddle with your number as your id. the guy sitting on the side is writing down the item number and the id of the buyer. the others were taking telephone calls for people bidding on things remotely, many of them speaking other languages. it was amazing how cheap some of the paintings went for. in fact, some did not sell at all. if there were no bids, the auctioneer would drop the price a little. but if there were still no bids, he would move onto the next item.

becca specifically went to the auction on the day of the royal wedding. she was right in thinking there would be very few people there. she has a name for a good portion of the clientelle. she calls them “doctors wives”. that’s when she got her dufy. one of the paintings i liked was a little “modern” painting – flattened shapes of a vase on other shapes. it was actually nice. it sold for 80 euros. my usual line is that i could paint it myself. but these paintings were impressionist paintings and they were really very different feeling from anything i would do.

teaching dog to count

is maynard, the dog sick or just bored? he doesn’t want to eat his food. has he gotten picky or bored with the same food every day? brought some of the food to the park and gave it to other hungry dogs as “cookie” in front of him, and then he liked it better and ate it at home. but that only worked for a little while. i put rice in it. that worked for a while. i put chicken soup in, also worked for a while. then i gave him soup from boullion cubes, which he ate a few times but then was hesitant again. unfortunately, i didn’t taste the boullion cube stock before i fed it to him. he didn’t seem to like it. finally after days of him rejecting it i tasted the stock. it was REALLY SALTY. oops. just like a baby, you should taste test the food before you give it to them. then we figured out that he actually wanted to work for it. if we made him do his tricks to get a reward of one piece of food, he got warmed up and then was starving and gobbled it down. has he turned into a french dog, who needs to have an appetizer before his main course? we’re also afraid he might be sick. last year, we went one afternoon to lincoln, he got a tick and within 2 weeks he was sick. actually they said he had 3 tick borne illnesses. when he couldn’t come with us last summer, he went back to lincoln. we were so grateful to our friends who took him in, but he was exposed to lots of ticks. after a few days in france, we even found a lincoln tick on him! don’t know how they cope over there. anyway, i’ve had him tested again and all it says is that he has been exposed to lyme disease and his levels are exactly what they were 3 months ago. maybe he’s bored. he can’t see out the windows here, so we put ½ of his plastic crate, upside down as a bench under the window for him to look out. he does sit there sometimes watching the people and dogs on the street. no squirrels here in paris. poor thing must miss them. they were his favorite pastime in belmont. he’d sit there for hours looking out the door at them. so i think he needs intellectual stimulation. i decided i should teach him how to count. we’re starting with one and two. at first he seemed to get it quickly. but he went away to camp for a week and forgot everything. we’re back at it, but he doesn’t seem to catch on. we have these colored stone eggs that we bought in italy. i put one on one corner of the rug and two on the other. i say “go to ONE” and point to it (he knows the command “move”). he’ll go. i say “go to TWO” and point to the 2 eggs. suffice it to say, progress is slow.

current landlord; dinner at friends

our new apartment is not available until july 1 and we have to leave our apartment on june 15, so we’ll still have to figure something out for the 2 weeks in between. there are enough short term rentals available, but it will just be a pain to move our stuff around twice. 

the landlord came by the apartment yesterday to dig in his storage. he has returned from south america to paris early to attend a wedding, so he needed to find his suit in the closet. it was a slight pain because i felt the need to make the apartment look good for him, so i spent the whole morning cleaning up. he might not even notice. i put maynard in a room to be out of visibility and vacuumed all the dog hair off the rugs. i realized later that the storage closet had a space under the door and probably there was a mass of dog hair that had found its way under there. oh well. anyway, he called again today because the shoes he took were from 2 different pairs and he had to come back to get a matched pair. we were over at the new apartment signing papers when he called. it made me roll my eyes and laugh. it was so typical. when he came by he showed me the 2 mismatched shoes. they were actually very similar black dress shoes – with only an extra seam in one. it was actually understandable that he might have made the mistake. he could have worn them and nobody would’ve noticed. i asked him if it would be possible for us to stay in the apartment until the end of the month. i meant to say to him, “think about it”, but with my bad french i said “you are thinking about it.” anyway, he understood.

we had dinner at a friend’s house. bob is the dog-dad of maynard’s girlfriend, tock, the beagle. ann is his wife. she is a current editor at the international herald tribune and he is a former editor. they have a nice cozy apt on the 5th floor with a nice balcony looking over at the eiffel tower. their rooftop was lovely. tom and becca, a dog parents from LA, were there as well. they are all real parents as well.

we started with champagne on the balcony. we had delicious mushroom risotto for starters then a lovely nut encrusted salmon and asparagus on the side. then we had fresh fruits on panacotta. the white wine was delicious, also a rosé served – the french apparently are into rosé. we finished with the sweet white that we brought. it was a lot of alcohol and i slightly passed my limit but had a wonderful time. it’s very convenient that we don’t need to drive in paris. we can usually take public transport home after drinking. tonight we are within walking distance.

apartment hunt

we had been seriously looking for an apartment for a month. our current lease runs out june 15th and the owner will move back in. the search has been a real pain. it took all of my time. i sat for hours at the computer scanning the ads, then calling, then going to visit them. it has been much harder this time than last year for many reasons.

firstly, we’re all much more fussy. we wanted a bigger place in a charming old building. everyone had their own personal list of requirements. jj wanted a view of the eiffel tower (i can’t help rolling my eyes every time i tell people this). p wanted a balcony. i wanted it to be close to school so jj could pop back for lunch or hang out with her friends there. i also wanted to be close enough to the champs de mars for dog walks and to continue to see the doggy people. maynard, the dog, wanted a balcony or a yard, or some sort of outdoor space. after looking at some apartments, the wish list got bigger. it should have nice light and maybe a view. it shouldn't feel like a college kid's apartment. it should feel like a grown-up's apartment. we should be able to see the sky. 2 toilets are certainly preferable to one, but if it only had one, it should be in a separate “water closet”. though, certain requirements did get eased. we started looking at more modern buildings, not just “hausmann” or 1930’s era. we would give up charm for a balcony. the allowable distance from school increased. of course, rents are high. the prices have even gone up since last year. there were fewer reasonably priced places – and “reasonably priced” is relative. we increased our rent allocation.

we thought that we might try getting an unfurnished apartment. many of our friends are also expats living in furnished apartments and they all feel the same way. instead of someone else’s crappy furniture, we’d rather have our OWN crappy furniture. we’re willing to spend time and a few thousand at IKEA. plus, we’re tired of other peoples “junk” in the apartment.

in the empty apartments, the french have varying levels in kitchen furnishings. the previous tenant might take with them the things they installed, like the fridge, the stove, the oven, even the cabinets. i not only had lots of practice with my french in just setting up appointments with agents, i also learned the subtleties in the language describing the kitchen. a “cuisine vide” means it has nothing but the walls, a sink and some plugs. it would probably cost minimum 2000 euros to furnish an empty kitchen. a “cuisine amenagé” means there are cabinets but no appliances. a “cuisine equipée” means it may have a stove, an oven and a fridge too, though not necessarily all of them.

there are lots more unfurnished apartments, than furnished apartments, but what we learned was, there are a lot more people going for them too. only the foreigners would be going for a furnished place. any normal person would be looking for an unfurnished place. there is a shortage of apartments in paris. we suddenly found ourselves in competition with loads of french people, people with regular salaried jobs and a credit history. at some apartment viewings there would be 30 french people, all prepared with their “dossier” (bank statements, paychecks, etc) under their arms. in those cases, we figured out that we didn’t have a chance. p was an independent worker (no salary records), we had no tax document from the previous year, i wasn’t working and we were weird foreigners who could (in their eyes) disappear into the ether without paying the rent. plus we have a dog, which they are not allowed to refuse, but we figured wouldn’t be a plus either. we realized it wasn’t just a question of finding the apt we liked, it was also a matter of being accepted as tenants. we knew it would be hard, but we still believed we could do it.

in total, i considered almost 60 apartments over 5 weeks. at first we started out slow, but then i picked up the pace. we found several apartments that would be ok. some of the family liked them, but others didn’t at all. then we found an apartment we all approved. it was offered unfurnished but had some furniture that the landlord would be happy to leave there. it was a good size, on the 5th floor of a nice old building, with a pseudo balcony – big enough to put 2 skinny chairs on, along the wall, with a view of the eiffel tower. one toilet, furnished kitchen. 5-10 minute walk to school, closer to the dog park. we told the agent we wanted it and he asked for a dossier. i moved quickly to put together the papers and took it myself to his office that day, a friday afternoon. the office was dark and i had a feeling he was gone for the weekend. after the weekend and a few weekdays, he called to ask if we had sent the dossier. we told him i had left it at the office. oh, he would go look... we called after several more days and he said he hadn’t given it to the landlord yet. after many back and forths, we felt that either the agent was incompetent, the owner really WAS hard to find (out in the french countryside – not some exotic locale) or we were being jerked around. they were probably waiting for a better candidate. we continued our search. days would pass and we would assume we were out of the running then he’d call back with another document request. finally, they said we could have the apartment if we created a “blocked” bank account – an account with 12 months of rent set aside by the bank, payable to the owner if we stopped paying the rent. time was running out and we were not confident that we would actually get to signing a document with these people. we had a few more places to look at and so we told them we would discuss their request.

jj’s school has a parent website. there was a nice apartment that i had not considered because it was too expensive and a longer walk from school. however, after a month of looking, with our slight budget increases in reaction to the market and an expanding radius around the school, suddenly this apartment merited looking at. owned by the parents of a mom at the school. the apartment was beautiful, furnished tastefully, bright. even though it had no balcony, only one toilet, and was not bigger, it felt right. it was the same distance to the champs de mars in a more bourgeois building, in a more bourgeois neighborhood. we asked if the price was negotiable and she told us right away a price that was attainable – again a little more than we wanted to pay, but there were no agent fees, which made a difference. she had no problem with us having a dog. we asked then and there, “if we wanted it, could we have it?” she said, “yes, i trust you. i am an honest person and i assume you are honest people.” we went to lunch and decided to take it. we signed the next day. it’s amazing what a difference a personal contact makes. coming from the school we were in the same community. it was so easy. what a relief!

only a flesh wound

maynard, the dog, cut me off as i was running.  i went flying and landed on the dirt path in the champs de mars. got hands and knees and elbows scraped. in mid air, all i could think was, “oh no! it’s SOOO dirty here!” this being the only place for miles where dogs are allowed, there are lots of them, all doing their things. but it was fine, just a flesh wound, though it looks pretty bad. made a hole in my pants at the knee. the doggy people were so nice. they came running, helped me up and offered their nearby apartments if i needed it. i was also touched that the other people who came to help were the african eiffel tower souvenir vendors. i realized that they are probably very nice people just trying to make their meager living.
meanwhile, jj went to giverny and monet’s garden today on a school day trip. it was a lovely day for it. she was very lucky.

maynard attacked

i was on my normal morning run with maynard. we were running up to the doggy area in the champs de mars. there was a bunch of dogs playing in a group and as maynard ran by, this big black flat coated shepherd tried to attack him. it was the same dog i had seen grab onto the scruff of the neck of a yellow lab (owned by an asian american woman) a few weeks ago. it grabbed on and wouldn’t let go for a long time. the yellow lab was crying at that point. the master of the bad dog was saying “stop, stop!” but not doing anything to pull him off. other owners were yelling and a pack of littler dogs were barking and running around the 2 dogs. it was mayhem. it was a long time that the black dog’s jaws were locked on and i was sure there would be blood everywhere. finally, the owner really acted and was able to get him off. surprisingly, there was no blood or any visible sign of damage. the other doggy parents were talking and saying that the master never disciplines the dog, so of course, it didn’t listen.

anyway, today, the same dog went running up to maynard, growling and trying to grab his scruff in the same way. maynard had a terrified look in his eyes and was barely able to scramble away before it could lock onto his scruff. maynard’s neck was all wet from saliva. the master put the dog on a leash and went off riding his bike. i asked the doggy parents, “was that the same dog that...” they said “yes”, before i could even finish my sentence. luckily, maynard was unharmed. now i know why many dog owners are wary of unknown dogs. one just can’t tell how an unfamiliar dog might act. in fact, this was a regular dog around the park. i have seen other dogs who were fine, suddenly get ornery and start attacking.

stuck in elevator, 2

jj got stuck in the same elevator (at her friend's apartment) again today. luckily it was during the day on a weekday. she was supposed to be heading home to walk the dog. i was unhappy with the fact that she should've been home earlier, when she called to inform me she was stuck again. she said she had just readjusted her heavy bookbag on her shoulder, when it stopped.  she pushed the emergency button, which calls the elevator company.  she said she got to practice her french.  she just didn't know the word for "stuck" which the lady helped her out with.  after jj gave the address, the lady hung up.  jj didn't know if someone was sent or not.  after half an hour, she called back.  yes, someone was on the way.  it took an hour for the appropriate person to come.  so, she was sitting there, doing her homework (i was proud of her for being so efficient). her friends sat outside the door, drinking cokes.  they played music and danced.  ("what?" i said, " you danced in the elevator that couldn't even take a jiggle of the bookbag?"  "just a little shoulder moves", she said).  the friend's mom wasn't home, but she hurried back when she heard. she wasn't scared this time except when without warning, the elevator went up a little and then down a little, back and forth, then the alarm went off. she thought then that she might plummet and die.  the elevator repairman had't let them know that he was there. he just went straight to the basement to do his thing.  he then lowered it to the ground floor.

DSK talk

paris is buzzing about dominique straus kahn, who they refer to as DSK. in case you don’t know, the current head of the “international monetary fund” or “ IMF” and also the predicted french presidential frontrunner for the socialist party was arrested on sunday for attempted rape of a hotel cleaning lady.  imagine the headlines if one of the prime candidates for US president was arrested for the same thing... hard to understand why a guy in such a privileged position would risk so much in such a stupid way. i was in the park with the dogs and doggy parents and heard them talking. as always, some people blame the victim – saying sometimes certain women wear much to short skirts. i also hated hearing that some journalists said “and she wasn’t even pretty”. someone else suggested that the little maid outfit makes some guys go wild.

at first, everyone here thought it must be a conspiracy (new vocab word for me – “complot”. excellent word – looks like it’s made up of the words “committee” and “plot”), but after his history came out, many think he is probably guilty. i do hope that the woman’s life isn’t totally ruined. apparently, the current president, sarkozy warned DSK that he had to watch himself with the americans who really took this sort of thing seriously.

what i loved most was the explanation by one older woman who is a multi-dog mom and obvious doggy person. she said something like: “boy-dogs all want to mount the girl-dogs when they are in heat, but there are some dogs who want to mount ALL the dogs ALL the time. DSK was one of those dogs”.

boston trip

may 10-16, i went to boston to check up on the house. our old tenants are moving out and new ones moving in. i went to dig into our storage to take out our kitchen things, which i was supplying to the new tenants. the stuff was not in one place. the various boxes were scattered in various parts of our storage. it was a LOT of work. but it also allowed me to go through many of the other boxes and pull out things i wanted. it sort of seemed silly to go back, since it would’ve been cheaper to send someone to ikea and buy a set of kitchen things, but it was good to go back and check on the house. the garden looked gorgeous. i also got to go visit my mom and sister and family up in new hampshire. i brought 2 paintings back from paris to show friends who had expressed interest in them. one of them was purchased. then i packed some old paintings to bring to paris to try to sell.

scallops with pea pasta

beautiful day. went for my daily morning run with maynard, but stopped first at the marché. bought 3 kilos of scallops (including the shells – which will actually only serve 3 people) and a kilo of fresh peas. then i did what i see french people do all the time. i asked the vendor if i could leave my bag with him for half an hour. no problem! so i ran off with maynard without carrying around an extra 8 pounds of weight and came back to pick it up afterwards.

p and i went to breakfast in cafe. i had the “english breakfast” = fried eggs and canadian style bacon, croissant, buttered baguette, big coffee.

jj is at sleepover; went to see an apt in the same area. for dinner i fried the scallops and then made a new attempt to replicate the italian fresh peas and pasta. i cooked the peas slightly more, and then pureed some, adding a little pasta water to make it more saucy. of course, there was garlic and olive oil and parmesan. the family thought it was pretty good, but it still wasn’t as good as italy. i think it’s the peas. really.