Cell phone issues

Monday, July 05, 2010 Day 5

We finally have our Paris legs, having taken five days to recover from our flight and our move into the apartment and get over our jet lag, etc. We now have food in the apartment so we don’t have to go out for every meal, and we are well oriented to where most everything is. We live on a charming little street about three minutes from a bakery, a pastry shop, a greengrocer, and a park. Who could ask for more? Five minutes away are two grocery stores, several restaurants, a tailor, a shoe repair shop, optician, photocopy/fax vendor, Office Depot and sundry other little shops. We want to try to shop as much as possible at the individual shops and save the grocery store for things like cereal and milk and other items not sold at specialty shops.

I had planned to buy an iPhone – probably a 3Gs, but when we went to the Orange store this morning, we were told that they have no 3G, 3Gs nor 4G. They do not expect to have any more in until the third week in July. Ouch! Now I have to research and consider my options. It would be a pain in the U.S., but it is going to be a headache here, as I try to figure out the options to phones in French and determine what I need.

Yesterday our travels took us about 18,300 steps. I would love to achieve 20,000 daily. In this manner, I can eat whatever I want and not gain weight. If I am careful, I might even drop a pound here and there. I will have to learn to limit my wine, desserts and ice cream.

After we bombed out at the Orange, we stopped by the grocery store then came home to put wash our towels and hang our denims out to dry. That’s going to take a long time! We ate lunch, computered a bit, the struck out for our daily walk, this time to the Gare (station) Montparnasse, which was our first port of call after we left the airport upon arrival in Paris. Although Roger had a path planned out, we went as whim dictated. We would see something interesting here or there, so we would pause or even detour to check it out (there’s that damned conditional tense again – a reminder that I need to blog in French). We arrived at the gare without incident then checked out the Galleries Lafayette, a modest-sized shopping center. This is Monday, and many of the shops are closed. I think that almost all of Paris is closed on Sunday, and much of it on Monday as well. The kids do not go to school on Wednesday, but they do have school for half a day on Saturday.

After leaving Galleries Lafayette, we strolled down Rue de Maine, then took a long way to get back to the park, which was our goal. We bought ice cream and enjoyed it in the park, then bought some bread and fruit and headed back home. Not a lot of excitement, but over 15,600 steps. And the evening stretches before us.

I almost forgot that I washed our towels today, and I had to rush to get them out to dry so that we can use them again tonight. There are only two bath towels in the apartment, but eating utensil service for eight and wineglasses for four. The refrigerator is of a decent size, and I am not sure the oven had ever been used before we cooked salmon in it yesterday evening. And, of course, there are no iced tea glasses or pitchers. We improvise.

Roger and I spent almost two hours this afternoon studying cell phones and provider options with Orange Mobile. Two hours, and we still have more questions than answers. But with the help of our cell-phone savvy friends and family in the U.S., we did learn a great deal. Thanks, guys and gals, with a particular shout-out to Brant, who can make everything seem much easier with his clear-cut explanations that get right to the heart of an issue. And Aaron, whose explanations are really clear as well. I think we are ready to go back to Orange Mobile and purchase a Windows HTC Touch HD 2. Or at least have a really good chat with Orange personnel. (Doesn’t this just bring to your mind an image of a guy in orange skin similar to the blue on the Blue Group guys? LOL!) I think I have enough information to have an intelligent discussion as long as the language barrier isn’t too great.