Yvette to Henri.

Paris 23 September

Good morning darling, my beloved who I miss so much!

I haven’t written for two days, waiting until I had something definite to tell you. Here it is.

At first, Sciences Po matters. I attach the letter I received I called there yesterday to clear up the details and to deposit the copy of your equivalence. Your enrolment is now in order. Only thing now is to know which year you will be in. The two exams take place on the same day, 1^st and 2^nd year. I think they will authorize you to sit for the 2^nd year one. The level is about on a par with the Bac, but from a more general point of view. I think that you could make it. The subjects are the same: history, geography and French composition. I believe it would be worth the trouble of doing the two years, which would provide you with a serious diploma, surely of value.  But you will have to be in Paris for sure on the 2^nd October. Can you? Je m’assoie de tout coeur aux exigues de cet examen!    

Now about the apartment. You will perhaps be angry, but I will give you the reasons for my decision. I have been offered an apartment of 2 rooms, kitchen, large bathroom(where I want to put a shower) in a very nice building, part of a new block, situated unhappily in the quartier Buttes Chaumont. It has central heating, power, and telephone, lift (7^th floor) facing south with two balconies. It is quite clearly a darling.

This is the state of apartments:

You have to pay 100,000 a room to take over (schlusselgeld! Key money!)  in the lousy quartiers, 150 or 200 thousand a room in the more bourgeois quarters, And they are terribly difficult to come by. But a law raises the rents in the chic and middle quartiers by an enormous amount (4 times the amount of rent). And it is much easier to exchange apartments than to find them when you haven’t the money to offer. Finally, since Helene is leaving Belmont for Marcoussis at the beginning of October, I must take Zouzou quickly.  All these reasons added up decided me to take this apartment (for which the key money is 200,000 and the rent 5000 Fr a year.). If you don’t want it we could in 48 hours get back the 200,000f by passing it on to someone else. So there’s no drama and I am already looking for an exchange.

This apartment should be free at the end of the month. One of our friends (to whom I was introduced by Ouzoulias who I had seen to be purely journalistic) who is head of an office of solicitors who found me this apartment.  I have not paid yet and will send you a telegram when it is done. But I must tell you that I really believe it is reasonable. At least we will see what you say but I hope you realize the situation.  This friend told me that she has been looking for 6 months for an apartment for the French correspondent of the Italian party paper, with key money. But he wants 4 rooms. And she hasn’t found it. Another comrade, recently returned from Moscow where he was a journalist on one of the Party papers, is at a hotel with his three children for the past 6 months. She has found nothing. So I believe one mustn’t be too hard to please. And if, despite this you don’t want it, my darling, it will be very easy to get back the money and re-sell the apartment.

You must forgive this long “business” letter, my love. But know that I love you and that I discuss all this “business” while loving you and thinking only of our life, our happiness and your work which I want to be happy and facilitated by our love.

Zouzou is impatient to be with his wandering mother. I am thinking of collecting him soon. As for the baby, it’s going very well, darling and its mother too. But I pine terribly for you, my dearly beloved. Come quickly [….]