Kay moved to Bois-le-Roi, a small town close to INSEAD’s Fontainebleau, in mid December. Already in that first week during the pre-course, he realized he didn’t like being so far away from the school and having to drive everywhere… something I told him would not be fun for partying and socializing, but I left it up for him to find out on his own.
Before our trip to Brazil to spend Christmas with family, I left Zurich for a weekend in “Paris” aka this podunk town to check out Kay’s digs. This studio was only €600 a month with parking and house insurance included, so compared to a lot of student housing for INSEAD, it was pretty cheap! 
His little studio did have everything he needed. Furnished flat with bed, dressers, desk, kitchen area, and a decent sized bathroom.
I was impressed that there was a bathtub, even though I knew Kay would never use it.
The flat came with pots and pans and towels and linens, and it had enough storage for everything he needed. 
It was missing an oven and a freezer though. How do the French make caipirinhas without ice? And frozen pizza for the student life??
It even had a balcony to store his mountain bike.
The grounds of the property were quite “cute” and French too. I mean, below is where he took his trash out. Only in Europe, right?
Just across the street from the property, the Seine runs along the road.
How quaint is that? Where do you go running in the morning? Oh, along the Seine, of course.
After school officially started in January though, Kay quickly became jealous of those living in town in Fontainebleau who could walk to school or parties. My cute, very Swiss husband, realized that driving a car every morning to school and having to be a designated driver at every chateau party is NOT fun. Haha.
Any American could tell you this, but he wanted the commuting experience, and for about a month, he got it. 🙂 By mid January, he gave notice on his place and moved to a fancy French house in town with 13 rooms at the end of the month, paying then €950 a month for a single room, but gaining roommates and the ability to enjoy drinking at parties again!
Everyone was very friendly and engaging and Kay is really looking forward to what the next twelve months will bring. Only two more weeks until he leaves!
We were a little tired, maybe Kay more so, but it was a lot of fun to meet and get some local tips on what to eat. We also enjoyed our first pisco sours of the trip.
The guy traveling around Peru was too tired to stay up and meet us when we arrived in Lima, but we managed to catch him in Cusco the day we got back from our five-day trek to Machu Picchu. We were also pretty tired then after having trekked for so many days, but we were starting to get used to go-go-going with little energy and a lot of things to see and do.
