The people whose business it is to make a living from the Côte d’Azur have a limited season, and their eagerness to take your money before autumn comes and the demand for inflatable rubber boats stops is palpable and unpleasant. Waiters are impatient for their tips, shopkeepers snap at your heels so that you won’t take too long to make up your mind

“So, you never married?” he asked me. No—I mean, I don’t know anything about prefab housing, I replied. Kojima laughed. We drained our cups of saké, petals and all. “Tsukiko, come here,” Sensei called. Ms. Ishino was beckoning me as well.

A library was a good place to be when you had nothing to drink or to eat, and the landlady was looking for you and for the back rent money. In the library at least you had the use of the toilet facilities.) I saw quite a number of other bums in there, most of them asleep on top of their books.

When I started looking at apartments, I’d also said to myself, I don’t want to buy an apartment that I have to do any work on. That was wishful thinking. There isn’t an apartment in Paris that isn’t in need of some sort of work. You don’t even need to look deeply to see what needs to be done. Minerals from the calcified water clogs pipes and leaves