European vs. American Homes

We’ve rented apartments in Paris three times. In addition, we’ve visited relatives and friends in the Netherlands and Switzerland over the years. There are features in some European homes that would be beneficial in North America:

• Heated towel racks that double as a radiant heat source for the bathroom.
• Separate the toilet from the rest of the bathroom. Most American homes have more than one bathroom these days, but this feature can be helpful in the morning rush.
• Electric shutters. Our rental apartment in Paris is just off a busy street. The shutters protect the people and property inside from prying eyes. They can also serve as good noise and light blocks for people who sleep at odd hours (night shift workers).

As always, there are two sides to this post.

• Most separate toilet rooms in France do not contain a sink. (Remember that I work in a hospital and my boss is an infectious disease doc; therefore, hand hygiene is automatic for me.)
• We hate European home washers and dryers. Their logic escapes us. The set in our current rental apartment is driving Julian nuts. We can do metric conversions for temperatures in our heads, but the time it takes to get one load of laundry washed and dried is almost enough to pay someone else do it for us.
• Most French kitchens don’t have an oven. If there is one, it’s small.
• The kitchens overall are small. You think everyone has a La Cornue range in their flat? Pas de chance. (Come to think of it, we’d be hard pressed to shoehorn one into Casa Sammamish unless we put it in the garage and left one of the cars in the driveway. In addition, a La Cornue costs about as much as a new car.) David Lebovitz tells many stories about trying to bake in a Paris kitchen in his book, The Sweet Life in Paris. He also has a new book about his exploits in Paris, L’Appart. Maybe I’ll pick it up when I get back home.

Much of the differences are what one is used to. Americans are used to huge houses and (at least recently) large kitchens with big ranges. Retrofitting an old building with modern fixtures in Europe is not an easy task. Many of these buildings predate electricity and indoor plumbing. Bottom line: Vive la différence.