"Residence Hilton" or the University housing called "la Maison des Arts et Metiers"

Past memories

Last Sunday, I was having a drink with my dear roommate Crki and her colleagues from her physics lab in a bar called Le Fleurus. The main reason of this funny meeting was for many participants the watching of the World Football Cup that was projected here. For me, it was the occasion to come back to the place where I lived last year – Le Fleurus is situated just next to the Parisian most popular student residence called Cite Universitaire – and I lived in one of its housings called La Maison des Arts et Metiers (which is actually one of Parisian well-reputed Engineer University). The year spent in this housing was one of the most difficult ones as this "Maison" had many problems. Even if it is not a pleasant reading, I think it is convenient to share this experience to inform others. So, where to begin?

   What is Cite Universitaire

    Before I start to “sing odes” to my lovely house that I named “The Hilton Residence” (you’ll soon find out why), I should say a few word about the Campus itself. In fact, Cite Universitaire is among Parisian students (foreign as well as domestic) an extremely popular place, mainly thanks to its beautiful look (red-brick buildings, green-grass spaces perfect for picnics and barbecue), its rich equipment (it has its own theatre, swimming pool, lots of gyms, a very good canteen) and lively, animated atmosphere (there are many funny events). It is definitely a world for itself and once you get in, you will never leave (and so the real Paris with all its stress, noise and dirt will stay for you unknown). Simply, everyone want to live there, which is actually a really difficult task – there are more demands that places and if you want to get one, you have to ask largely in advance – at about one year before you arrive!

This is the main “Cite U” building - seems wonderful, doesn’t it?

           If to get in is so complicated, you may ask me how I could have done it so simply. Actually, it was thanks to my Colombian friend Maria that found out from her friends that there is one house (the Arts et Metiers one) that is accepting almost all the applications, and this without any further procedures of the main direction of Cite Universitaire. Said in another way, La Maison des Arts et Metiers works a bit on its own. I should fell something alarming already in this simple way of entry. But as I felt really lonely in my tiny apartment in Saint Michel, I’ve decided to try it. I didn’t find than lately that it was a big mistake.

The oldschool building

           Already the building itself surely isn’t any architectural gem – a large, old grey concrete block of flats in a bad state that was built sometime during the 50’ and whose backside windows look to the main Parisian ring road called “le periferique” (le perif how French are saying) doesn’t seem confidential at a first glance. Well, me, enchanted by the idea of the real student residence life, as well as by the popular image of the campus, I was still quiet and happy to move in. But, my tranquillity and mental balance were soon to be troubled…

           My first shock was the common kitchen – there was one kitchen by floor, and it consisted of one electric cooker, one oven, one microwave, two sinks, and a few tables with chairs. There were logically no dishes (you have to have your own) and in addition, everything was in a desolate state. The oven as well as the cooker barely worked, the sink-hole was always clogged by food rests. The tables, the floor was so dirty that you can’t imagine (actually, even the cleaning lady was upset to residents to leave such a mess and once, she refused to clean it – and I am not surprised). For a person that loves cooking as me, it was really hard to accommodate myself to this new reality…

Our lovely kitchen,…

When the sink tube didn’t work,…

The bathrooms and the lelectricity

           Another “nice” discovery was the common bathroom consisting of two showers that were dirty as the kitchen. Their waste tubes were often full of hair and sometimes you could find tiny midges around it. If my dear friend Crki didn’t left me her flip-flops there, I don’t know what I would do…Luckily she knows how to safe me ;). In all the cases, once I begun with my preparatory dance training, I preferred to have a shower there, as the common bathroom in the school was really nicer and cleaner,…

Once I am talking about the bathroom, I can’t not to mention toilets – toilets were the peak of all the mess as they were often clogged. I think that maybe it wasn’t as much the fault of the residents as the reason could be rather a badly constructed canalization, In all the cases, if this happened during the Friday or the weekend, there was no one to fix it – the cleaning lady came up only during the week and the reception (that was situated in the second building of the residence situated on the opposite side of “perif”) was rather unconcerned,…So, a few times happened that we came face to face with the toilet content spread out in the corridors. At these moments, I was really sympathetic with those, who lived just next to toilet doors….

Another funny thing was the electricity – the electric distribution cabling was a bit weak so the usage of electronic devices in the rooms was strictly limited. You were allowed to have one small fridge (luckily at least one small fridge!!) but other devices, as kettle or toaster were banned. However, as the kitchen didn’t really work, almost everyone was bypassing those interdictions which caused the problems with the fuse blowing. I remember when it first happened – it was Saturday morning and I was preparing myself to leave for my Bharatanatyam course. Suddenly, I found that my electricity is off – so – no light, no notebook and fridge alimentation. I was worry mainly because of the fridge as I had food that needs to be in cold there. After a quick floor tour around my neighbours, I found that the problem concerns the whole floor. I couldn’t do anything else that call to the reception and explain them the problem. “No worry, we will send someone to fix it”, they told me. So I waited, an hour, two hours,…Nothing. I called them again – they’ve told me the same thing, but no one came. So, I’ve decided that to call them is not enough and I passed the perif to go to speak with them directly. There, they told me that there is no one that can fix it now and that we have to wait until 11 pm for the night guard. He can put on the fuse! I was depressed. I barely cried. I didn’t understand (and I still don’t) what is so difficult on this task. To get off the comfortable chair and to walk on the other side of the perif? Maybe, I would never know. In all the cases I learned progressively to get to use to this new situation. At the end of my stay, the fuse blowing left me completely cool. “No stress, the night guy will fix it at midnight”, that’s what I was telling myself.

My dear friend Crki “squatting” in my room during the period of flat searching - we passed like this 2 weeks - and we survived!

What more?

And there was a lots of more in this Hilton Residence – the fractured canalization that caused floods, overfilled bins on the corridors, bedbugs in the rooms just next to the mine, the mildew,…And also our great laundry room that was situated in the basement and that counted four washing machines for both large houses (among them two barely worked,..) With regard to all this, the Friday and Saturday night noise seem as nothing. And, be surprised, I survived there one year…Apparently the man is able to get use to anything…

A queue in the laudry “room”

Well, there was also one nice thing on this “cabinet of curiosity” – you could find there also nice people around, with whom you could talk, eat and drink in the kitchen. There were my dear Colombians (and one Ecuadorian) that introduced me their culture and their way of life, an extremely kind Venezuelan that played the guitar and learned me how to cook their special cornmeal pancake called “arepa”, as well as open-minded Algerians, Moroccans and Tunisians,…I think that it was also this common feeling of unification against the hostility of the place that helped us all to overcome it and sometimes, to forget it. My dear friends, I won’t forget our year in this “lovely” place!

My great fellows - it was fun with you anyway!