A couple of weird things....

I'm totally in love with my heating system in my studio.  In the main room there are two almost floor to ceiling panels, made of coated metal which radiate heat.  I love it because I can just walk right up to it and lean against it and warm my backside.  It looks kind of like the monolith from the movie 2001, A Space Odyssey, except white and against the wall.   There is another, smaller one in the bathroom which has spaces where you can hang your towels and wash clothes and whatever else to dry.  I want one of these in my house.  Here are some pix...kind of boring, but.....well, I like them.

Here are some more pictures of the building.  Looking up the stairs and down the stairs into the entry.  As you can see it's kind of shabby, but it's fine...I don't live in the foyer.

The landlord said that they are slowly doing some renovations on the common areas.  I think the key word here is slowly since he told me that months ago when I first inquired about the place.  The steps, however, are really fabulous.  The wood is so old and has so much traffic over more than a hundred years that they are worn away and uneven.  I love it.  I hope they don't renovate the charm out of the place.

Another fabulously quirky thing is the cellar.  The landlord sort of pointed to the door and said....this is all closed up and unusable.  Then one night I heard a lot of voices and a rock band that sounded for sure like it was in the building.  So I wandered downstairs and the door to the cellar was open and the music was coming from there.  The smell of cigarette smoke was pouring up the stairs, so I knew there were a bunch of people down there.  There was a light coming from down there which illuminated the walls and stairs......it was like a Bela Lugosi movie.  The stone stairs kind of go in a spiral down, and the walls were also stone.  The stairway and stairs themselves were quite narrow, so I didn't venture down (besides...who knew what I would find...) .  But I swear, it looked like a scarey movie from bygone days.  What was fascinating was the thought that maybe it was an access into the famous tunnels that are underneath all of Paris. I read a great article in a National Geographic recently about that very thing.  Apparently the Mountmartre area was once shot through with gypsum mines, so it's very likely there are tunnels nearby.  Here's a picture of the door to the cellar in it's closed position.  I tried to open it yesterday and take a picture, but it was locked.

My last entry for today is kind of X rated, so....beware.  .....  I saw a little sign in a doorway in the building next door that said "Cris et Chuchotements" Private Club.  I have not seen anyone go in or out since I've been here, so I assume it's shut down.  I wondered what those words meant so I entered into my browser and it came up with Crys and Whispers.  Nice name.  However, on closer scrutiny, it was revealed that it is (or was) a very discreet S&M club.  I found reference to it on a bulletin board with posts which said it was quite refined and discreet.  You know how bulletin board posts often have, along with the poster's name, a small picture.  Well the first few posts had perfectly normal pictures of people....but then scrolling down to the next one revealed a man in a less than discreet pose.  I immediately closed my browser and prayed no electronic snooper that figured out I was at that site.  No weird unsolicited e-mails so far!  Here's a picture of the refined and discreet sign.