The Paris apartment where CHM lived

One of the late CHM's Paris apartment's most attractive features is that it has a back yard. It's a small back yard, but still,  a back yard in Paris! That's pretty much unheard of. The apartment also has very large windows from which you can see the yard, and the big grassy courtyard beyond it that is part of the property of the Lycée Buffon. The apartment's windows face south, so there's plenty of light.

The apartment itself features what CHM called  un rez-de-chaussée surélevé. The rez-de-chaussée is the street-level floor of a building. In this case, the "street level" is slightly above ground level. That means that there's what I've heard called an English basement in the U.S., which has windows at ceiling height that let in daylight. When Walt and I thought about buying the apartment from CHM, we thought the basement would be the perfect place to convert into a master bedroom and bathroom. CHM used it just as storage space.

 With the bedroom down in the basement and the main living level of the apartment directly overhead, you wouldn't have to worry about neighbor noise from above.  CHM was fairly deaf toward the end of his life, so he couldn't hear the people walking on the floor above his living/dining area. But I could when I was there. There were children upstairs who must have been riding tricycles around in their apartment. They made a lot of noise.

With the basement that is only partially underground, you walk up just six or seven steps to get to the apartment's front door. There is an elevator to take you up to the five or six floors above. In addition to the basement, CHM said, there are two caves where you can age wine or keep other things you might want to store.

The size of the living/dining area is about 25 feet by 12 feet, I think, or maybe a little bigger. The kitchen is tiny but could be turned into a WC (a half-bath with toilet and sink). The bathroom is small, but it could be converted into a small kitchen. The bedroom on the main level, where CHM slept, is small, but about the size of the bedrooms on the main level in our Saint-Aignan house; say 10 x 12. I never got a chance to measure or estimate the size of the basement, but it must have been about the same size as the main level. I also don't know about ceiling height. 

There are windows on the side of the apartment that faces the courtyard. CHM had them covered in white plastic (I think) sheeting that let in a lot of light but kept the bathroom and bedroom private. I have some pictures of the courtyard and more pictures of the interior of the apartment, but I'm having a hard time finding them in my photo database. More tomorrow...