We have had the most awful job to find a place that would in the least
suit us, for Paris is perfectly full, and there is nothing to be got at
any sane price. However, we have found two apartments--an _entresol_ and
a first floor, with a kitchen and servants' room at the top of the
house, at No. 49, Avenue des Champs Elysees.
You must be prepared for a regular Continental abode. There is only one
window in each room, but the front apartments all look upon the main
street of the Champs Elysees, and the view is delightfully cheerful.
There are also plenty of rooms. They are not over and above well
furnished, but by changing furniture from rooms we don't care for to
rooms we _do_ care for, we shall be able to make them home-like and
presentable. I think the situation itself almost the finest in Paris;
and the children will have a window from which to look on the busy life
outside.
We could have got a beautiful apartment in the Rue Faubourg St. Honore
for a very little more, most elegantly furnished; but the greater part
of it was on a courtyard, and it would never have done for the children.
This, that I have taken for six months, is seven hundred francs per
month, and twenty more for the _concierge_. What you have to expect is a
regular French residence, which a little habitation will make pretty and
comfortable, with nothing showy in it, but with plenty of rooms, and
with that wonderful street in which the Barriere de l'Etoile stands
outside. The amount of rooms is the great thing, and I believe it to be
the place best suited for us, at a not unreasonable price in Paris.
Georgina and Lady Olliffe[22] send their loves. Georgina and I add ours
to Mamey, Katey, the Plorn, and Harry.
Ever affectionately.
[Sidenote: Mr. W. H. Wills.]
49, AVENUE DES CHAMPS ELYSEES, PARIS,
_Friday, Oct. 19th, 1855._