The joys of living in Paris

I love my flat and I love the area of Paris I live in, but for years our building has been neglected, as the people that owned the apartments let them out rather than live there. We've had three water leaks already (two from upstairs, 1one from the façade that created a waterfall through our bathroom ceiling), for a long time we had cockroaches (all gone now), but regularly there's some new problem, something not terribly lovely.

Last week we came back from dinner, and walking up our stairs came face to face with... a rat! Now I've seen a few rats around Paris, mainly squashed in the street, but I never thought I'd see one in my building. He didn't seem particularly bothered by us, didn't run, and actually looked rather cute.

Photo by Amy's Babies

But when he did finally move, rather than go into the street (I'd opened the doors) he scuttled into the interior courtyard. It would seem that he managed to get up through an old water fontain there.

I 'phoned the people who look after our building, and they sent someone round to put poison down there, saying that if a rat came back a few months later we would have to cement the thing up, putting broken glass in the mix to stop the buggers scratching away at it. I thought it could probably wait, but three days later there were rat droppings outside our door, so I think we'll be doing that sooner rather than later.