Ejem.... well, not the actual Opéra de Paris. This little opéra café building
Everyday you pass hundrends of little buildings just like this one in the streets of Paris. To me, they are one of the things that make this city so amazing.
Most of the times, these little haussmanian buildings (often only containing 1 or 2 appartments per floor) are usually all old and worn out, yet you can still feel history oozing out of them.
When we were appartment haunting a few years ago we really wanted to find something in a haussmannian building. We'd been living in a somewhat modern yet impersonal appartment complex right on the Canal de St Martin, and although we were quite happy there, we secretly wished we could find something in one of those runned down buildings with the high windows, the wooden shutters and the creaky hardfloors.
And so we visited several places like this one. Unfortunetly, for various reasons we didn't find what we were looking for in any of them and ended up in our current place which we love even though it is in an ugly 50s built cement bunker. But I'm digressing....
The fact is that each time we walked into a haussmannian building we simply felt it in the air. The history. A mix between the times of yore and reality. The laughter, the tears of the past tenants. The gossipy stories haunting the halls and the staircases. The ghosts of previous inhabitants filling in the space in the minuscule elevators. When you walk into one of these buildings, often you can almost imagine living in these places during the good ol' 20's, the scary 30's, the sad 40's, the hard 50's, the hopeful 60's, the fast paced 70's, the changing 80's, the modern 90's........
I would have loved to live in a haussmannian building.... it was not meant to be...
... but perhaps one day.
Fned.
4 comments:
oh I love the way you describe this type of bldg... though I don't know much about architecture. Maybe you weren't able to find what you were looking for in a haussmanian apt. but with that kind of understanding of a bldg, it just might work out that one day you OWN such a place - not only an apt. but the entire bldg!! Now that, I can see!
Like André ,I love the apt. or houses with an own history ,but your apt .have already his own history write by yourself !
helene
I love all the optimism. Aren't dreams wonderful??!!
Minshap: Wow, really? I whole building? Cool, then you can all come over and live here, you'll each get a floor! I think 7 stories is the maximum allowed in Paris. ;)
André: ah... really? Now, that's my hubby! Well, in any case, I hope it happens in the first of cases, not sure about the second though.... :)
Hélène: Yes, it's true that our building does have a little history to it.... and I guess you can even say we're still writing it!
Aund S: I totally agree.
Fned.
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