Thank you very much for your words of wisdom here. Most edifying!

This is not a "project." This is a private apt building. This was the only apt we could afford to buy in the greater Paris region in 1994 and we paid cash. I'm disabled and have no income -- the US admit it owes me back benefits and a stipend. I left the USA to get healthcare. This apt was abandoned, with no working toilet, and we completely rehabbed it. I am not on benefits and earn money sometimes as a consultant. It's "there," not "their." And there are laws here about noise.

My building is not an HLM, not projects. The Saint-Rémy are across the street, however. Being replaced, one by one. I'm near Romain-Roland, too. My building went up in '67 and is still private. The architect and his wife are elderly now but still live upstairs a few floors from me. This bldg has quite a few original tenants or immediate family of them, and this nabe continues to be quite a stable one. It's grungy but overall I like it. My spouse is utterly fed up, however.

Thank you!

You're welcome! I'm no expert but it has been quite a learning experience here!

I had a neighbor that was a problem. I played the same classical song on my exterior speakers for one month, seven days a week for 24 hours a day at 50 DBS which was the max alloud noice level in my city. IT worked. They moved. Yes I know I am a bit twisted.

True.

Europe is a continent in which until fairly recently, there was a lunch break during battles.

... they'd squatted a woman's apartment (big probably here in France -- you'll likely never get your home back) and were not only noisy, they were criminals. A teen victim's father "saw red" and shot one, fed up, did some jail time, & now is being threatened with death. It's really ugly ...

Dear LF.,

The only complaint I heard about life in Japan was a woman who worked in a big city & lived in a rural place. She took a bullet train & had to leave at 5 am. One morning at work police came to ticket her -- a neighbor in the country had seen her before sunrise cross against a traffic light. BUT NO ONE WAS THERE, of course she crossed & didn't wait for the light! She was horribly embarrassed at work & so creeped out, she moved. She said that was too Big Brother STASI for her.

Ha ha ha! They go back to Le Bled every Summer and it's so nice and quiet right now! Oh, well. They're definitely better than the previous tenants in that apartment, who were deadbeats, and when that happens, we all pay!

Very nice! "Loser," not "looser."