An Apartment in Paris

The secret dream of every writer, or artist, is to live and work in Paris, although it rarely comes true. In An Apartment in Paris, writer David Benjamin not only chronicles the arduous process of planting a foothold—pied-à-terre—in the City of Light, he regales the reader with the adventures, observations, shocks and pleasures experienced by himself and his wife, artist Junko Yoshida, along the way. To acquire their sunny garret in the Latin Quarter—overlooking Notre Dame—the doughty explorers enlist the aid of Roberta, an American widow in Paris who runs them through the weird gamut of French real estate, a whirlwind tour of vacant, and often appalling, apartment. They end up dealing with realtors, bankers and lawyers in three countries and they fall under the spell of a wise and lovely Parisian notaire.This is a story as much about Paris—its byways and alleys, its people and mores, its moods and its spirit, its spectacle and grandeur—as it is about mere real estate. Benjamin and Jun