44 Nights in Paris: Karim, Prune, Vilma

These three loves were the team that own and cared for my Paris apartment. This foto is the view from my living room window and my building looked like a twin of this one across the street. My apartment was on the 4th floor.

Karim was there when Lydie and I arrived my first day. He showed us around, and during his orientation, offered me the instruction manual/cookbook that went with the Ninja Foodie Oven. I immediately had doubts and fears about what I could and couldn’t bake; his kindness and humor made me hopeful. He also promised that he would respond right away if I needed anything at all. I was grateful for his hospitality and his English was both good and very kind!

Prune and I got acquainted probably within the first week when I couldn’t get the washing machine to work, and we spoke via a voice call on WhatsApp. In her very kind English, she helped me understand that to wash in cold water, I could choose laine which is the wool setting. She kept me on the line until I could finally get the machine to start. It turns out that my main problem was that I hadn’t closed the door securely. She laughed to say, I had a feeling that was the problem!

Vilma was my cleaning angel and was equally lovely and kind. She however, spoke no English. She is Colombian and does speak Spanish ... was my broken Spanish polished for this situation? It was not. Sometimes we even needed to get Prune on the phone to help with translation. In the end, we laughed a lot and I did speak a little Spanish, and understood as long as Vilma spoke slowly. I really appreciated how sweet she was and how well she cleaned for me.

Just before Christmas, I got to meet Karim’s children on a video call. His daughter Dana was excited when I said my little goddaughter would be visiting after Christmas, did she want to come play with us? She very much did, and we promised to speak again to possibly confirm a play date.

It turns out that we didn’t have a play date after all, to our mutual disappointment. However, Karim and I will still keep in touch and even if his family has to visit me in LA, Dana and I will bake cookies together per our original plan. How fabulous would that be??