Some very exciting news (!) and a Paris-based designer's beautiful Italian-inspired home

A project that we've been working on since January has finally come to fruition and my latest finds for your home & wardrobe

Aug 17, 2023

Today’s the day that I can finally share with you all the big secret that I’ve been keeping for months….! Which, believe me, hasn’t been easy. So drum roll please… We have bought an apartment in Rouen, Normandy!! (Scroll down for a sneak peek). And the best part is that when we’ve finished renovating, you will be able to stay in it too!

So how did we get here and why Rouen? Well, last year we started talking about buying an apartment together. It has been a dream of mine since I can remember to own property, but being freelance and a foreigner in France, it’s not something I can do on my own, so I’m incredibly grateful to have the opportunity to be able to buy an apartment with Victor and embark on an exciting project together.

Of course we began by considering Paris and buying an apartment we could live in, but our rent is very reasonable and to get what we have (two bedrooms, car parking and a terrace) would mean trippling our outgoings and probably moving further away from the city center. No bueno… Next we thought about an investment property in the capital, but after doing the calculations we realized that we wouldn’t get a good enough return on our money. So we started looking further afield. I love the south of France of course (who doesn’t), but it’s just a bit too far away to manage a full renovation (the type that I want to do anyway), so we started looking at cities within a 2 hour drive of Paris. With Victor’s dad being from Normandy (his last name is Norman), our first thought was its capital. So we settled on Rouen (only 1h15 minutes on the train from Paris’ Saint Lazare) and in January we drove for the first time to visit to see if it was somewhere we could imagine living (our criteria for investing). The city needed to have history (it has plenty, plus a cathedral and the buildings are typically Norman, with exposed wooden beams and in beautiful pastel hues); be thriving (it’s a university town and attracts plenty of visitors all year round) and have a good culinary scene; we have never had a bad meal (I discovered another great address just yesterday).

Over a timeframe of four months we woke up early almost every Saturday and made the pilgrimage to Rouen, to apartment hunt (we were determined) and saw nearly 20 apartments before finding the ‘one’. We made a previous offer on a place that I still mourn sometimes (sniff), but it wasn’t accepted, and it was just a bit too far from the train station and overpriced. Finally we got word from an agent that an apartment meeting our criteria (close to the center and station, under 40m2, with period features and work needed), had just gone back on the market after the buyers didn’t get their loan, so I dropped what I was doing and took the train to go look at it on my own. I knew instantly that we needed to make an offer (check out those beams), which if you’ve ever experienced, you know just how nerve-wracking it is. Thankfully ours was accepted! In May we signed for our bank loan and this morning we finally signed the rest of the papers and were given the keys!

We’re hoping to start renovations at the end of September and I’ll be sharing the process. I’m incredibly excited, but also very nervous as we have big plans for the space and I just hope that our contractor can accomplish them. I’d like to create a beautiful and unique interior that’s in keeping with the style and age of the building (around 150 years). Anyway that’s it for now, but I will be sharing more soon, so watch this space.

We’ll be changing the floors, sanding the beams, moving a wall to completely transform the space!

Watched, read, listened, enjoyed…

This week we watched Oppenheimer and I loved it. Dare I say I think I enjoyed it even more than Barbie. I adore biographical films, and this was brilliantly excuted and acted (the cast is stellar too), and had my full attention for the entire three hours. I listened to Tim Ferris in conversation with Moskovitz chatting about energy management, AI and coaching, and I enjoyed two newish Paris spots in the 11ème, first Aube, where I ate the most delicious pancakes (with a twist - jam & crème fraîche) and Café Caractère.

Marissa xx

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

At home in Paris with Vanessa Cocchiaro