Apartment Hunting on the Picardie Coast (Part II)

After lunch, we returned to Mers-les-Bains and our afternoon appointments at the real estate agency. As we drove to Mers, we passed Le Château des Cycles and I said "I really like this building", as I've always said to Jacky every time we pass it for some time now.

The real estate agent wanted to show us an apartment but she did not have the keys. She called her colleague but there was no answer. In the meantime, she said, she could show us a house for rent.

The rather small house, towards the center of town, was on three levels. A living-dining-kitchen area on the ground level with window onto the street and a small storage area behind. On the second floor, a bedroom and bathroom, rather light and on the third floor, under the eaves, a second small bedroom with skylight windows.

The house had recently been renovated. The windows were new, the walls painted white. But the living room was dark and too close to the street to comfortably have the window open and the tiny corner kitchen did not inspire me to be able to cook with confidence. We were not impressed.

The real estate agent suggested that we see the apartment and again tried calling her colleague. Again, there was no answer. She suggested we come back in an hour or so.

In the meantime, we went to the other real estate agency next door (literally next door) because I had spotted an interesting item in their window: it looked exactly like a house we had seen three years ago and I had really liked. When we went in to ask about it we were told that it was, in fact, the twin of the townhouse we had seen three years ago

But it was the smaller, uglier twin that we saw that Saturday. The ceramic tile of the kitchen floor was cracked and buckling, the rooms badly laid out and the price was much too high.

We returned to the agency and she still did not have the keys...so we went back to the other agency, to visit yet another house for sale at Le Tréport this time. This house, high above Le Tréport, was built out of local stone and had a view of the sea from its terrace, two bedrooms, a garage, and an attic for storage.

Had we been really looking for a house to buy rather than an apartment to rent, it would be a possibility as the parquet floors were decent. However, as is the case with too houses and apartments in France, the walls were covered with really ugly wallpaper. Ugly wallpaper is the bane of my existence in France.

We thanked the agent politely and returned to the first agency where she happily told us that she had managed to get hold of the owner of the apartment and that she had brought her the keys. We got into her car and drove towards the Mers-Le Tréport train station. She pulled up just beyond Le Château des Cycles and walked across the street to the Villa Parisienne.

She entered the building and greeted the gardien who was putting up wood panelling in the entry. We walked up the stairs to the second floor (aka first floor in France) and she opened the door...

Apartment Hunting on the Picardie Coast (part I)

Last July 11th, a windy Saturday, Jacky and I left our apartment on the avenue Simon Bolivar at at dawn to head out to Mers-les-Bains to visit apartments and houses. The first appointment was for 10:00 am so Jacky (who has a pathological dread of being late) insisted that we leave no later than 6:00 am, even though the drive normally takes no more than two and a half-hours. By 6:20 we were on the road and thanks to the autoroute arrived at Le Tréport about 9:00 am even though we got off the autoroute too soon and had to drive through Abbeville. We had practically an hour to kill before our first appointment. Jacky proposed that we walk along the beach but it was chilly, windy and not very pleasant. We managed to find an open café overlooking the port and the fishmarket and sat down to wait over a warm cup of coffee.

The first appointment was at a real estate agency just around the corner in Le Tréport. At 10:00 am we headed to the agency. The real estate agent's name is "Gallet" a name which Jacky always found rather appropriate considering Le Tréport's pebble ("galet") beaches. We waited a few minutes in the storefront agency, long enough to check out the "For Sale" offerings and decided that while we were there, if there was anything interesting for sale we would also take a look at it.

The first apartment we visited was less than a block from the agency, located in a complex built in the 1960's. As we walked in, I saw Jacky wince. It was sunny, bright, boxy and had no soul but very ugly wallpaper and carpeting. Scratch that one.

The second apartment we visited was towards the center of town, a 5th floor walkup, under the eaves and practically all of the walls sloped down, significantly reducing the livable space. Plus, the owner, a crotchety old woman, took one look at our dogs and expressed her distaste. That's ok, we don't want your stupid apartment anyway.

We then decided to visit a house for sale, or should I say, a ruin for sale (the price was right). A 19th century fisherman's house on three levels which had been owned for twenty years by a couple who tried to convert it into three vacation rental dumps. The location was good, the construction was sound but we would have had to spend practically as much as it cost to put in new wiring, plumbing, bathroom, kitchen, perhaps change the windows and take down all of the really, really ugly wallpaper, different in each of the eight rooms. We did consider it in a wild moment but then came to our senses over a lunch of mussels, petite friture, sole and entre-deux-mers at Mon P'tit Bar before heading out to Mers-les-Bains and the afternoon appointments.

Mers-les-Bains

My first visit to Mers-les-Bains was in the fall of 1986. At that time it was a town that had seen better times: the paint on the carved wood trim of the Belle Epoque shore front villas was pale and peeling. Nevertheless, I was strangely attracted by the faded colors and the past glory and we returned regularly to visit, if only for the supremely fresh and delicate Channel sole of Mon P'tit Bar at Le Tréport.

Mers is one of three "sister" towns on the border of Normandy and Picardie at the mouth of the River Bresle, the other two being Le Tréport and Eu.

Although Le Tréport and Eu can both claim origins in the Middle Ages, most of the buildings which make up the historic district date of Mers date from the last quarter of the 19th century and the early 20th century. Villa Parisienne and Villa Française are from this period.