Settling in

Friday, July 02, 2010 Day 2

We slept lat again this morning – Roger got up around 9:30 and I around 10:00. When we left the apartment, I thought the goal was to find breakfast. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the first goal was to find an HSBC ATM and try out my card! But that was not far away, and I withdrew 100€ with success, then we moved on to a boulangerie for breakfast, and water from a sandwich shop. We returned to George Bressens park, which is where we ate in our first morning in France. We headed then for the grocery store for some comestibles. We bought cereal, milk, canned tuna, ham slices, hummus, two flavors of tea and some paper towels – all this for just under 20€. Looks like milk may be cheaper than in the U.S., but meat is considerably more. And the real shocker is that four very small rolls of paper towels cost $2.49, plus a tax of 19.6% (apparently on paper goods)! So the paper towels cost $2.85 total. And it would be much more if the Euro weren’t so low! We got a mild shock when we checked out: the total appeared to be more than 100€! Then we saw that the total is reported in both francs and euros, and it was the franc amount that was over 100f. I am not sure whether this is for purposes of informing (mostly older) patrons how much their purchase would have been in francs or whether the store still accepts francs. Some banks will continue to accept them until 2012, so maybe the store does as well.

Upon return to the apartment, I made tea. Iced tea. Tea, glorious tea! It is pretty good. I used two sachets of peach/mango flavor tea and two of black tea and got a really nice mix. The funny thing is that there are no large glasses in the apartment, only tiny 4-oz or 6-oz ones. But I found a couple of coffee cups which are huge – latte cups, really, and we are drinking our iced tea out of them.

We spent the morning unpacking and getting settled in. Yesterday we hung most of our hangable clothes, as there is very little clothing storage space and a good deal of hanging space, along with some 30 hangers. We saved the storage space for underwear, socks, a few shirts, and shorts. This afternoon we put away the rest of our clothes, and Roger discovered that he left a jacket behind in Atlanta. We still have to put away the toiletries, medicines, and other miscellany we brought with us. Maybe later when it is not so hot. The high today is predicted to be 92°, but the rest of the week looks much better, with rain predicted – highs in the 70s to low 80s. I’m trying to learn to think in Celsius rather than Fahrenheit, as that is what is used here. 26° looks really good – 33° not so much.

We bought crustless bread! LOL!! I focused on getting a loaf of whole wheat bread, and did not notice the words “sans croûte” on the loaf. Further, I probably do not think I would have paid any attention to them if I had – croûte is not a word I learned in my French class, although it’s not difficult to translate, particularly in retrospect. When we got it home for lunch, we discovered that the crusts have been trimmed from the loaf. We probably paid a premium for that! Hmmm . . . 2.19€, or about $2.70 for the loaf. But no crusts, no heels! It made my tuna sandwich with hummus pretty special!!

Showering last night was quite a challenge. We are going to have to learn the vagaries of the French water heater. It seems to be some sort of flash unit, but apparently the tank is quite small. Hot water for the shower lasted less than 3 minutes. I guess I won’t be shaving my legs much in the shower, huh? I generally brush my teeth in the shower at night, but clearly that won’t be happening here. I barely had time to soap and wash my face. Part of the surprise is that, when the hot water runs out, it happens quickly, so we went from warm water to suddenly rather cold water. I think that if we experiment a bit with it, we may be able to get longer usage out of it. If not, well, that’s part of the experience.

Je me suis promis que je ferais partie de ce blog en français, donc voilà. Il pleut! C’est gentile. Nous avons pris la sieste cet après-midi. Quand on s’est levé, il pleuvait. La pluie a refroidi tout. On a pensé que la pluie ne serait pas arrivée jusqu'à demain. Quel plaisir de se tort!

It is raining. It started while we napped this afternoon. It is nice to have cooler temperatures in the apartment and out. We didn’t think the rain was due until tomorrow, but we are not complaining!

I have not had much chance to use more than just a bit of casual French so far. Mostly I plan out what I am going to say, then I am thrown off by an unexpected response. I am hoping that by writing a bit in French I can exercise my brain a bit more and be prepared for a different response than I expect. It has been more than 2 weeks since my last French lesson. The last couple of lessons I didn’t do enough to prepare for, as we were busy moving, so my French is already rusty. The conditional tense is really killing me!

A lazy afternoon, and we went out about 8:30 for dinner. I had a Pacifica salad – marinated salmon and four shrimp – and Roger had a chicken quarter with fried potatoes, and we shared 25 cl. of white wine. We ended the meal with wonderful ice cream. I had mango, Roger had extra dark chocolate. These are artisan ice creams which put to shame anything we ever had in the U.S. I could learn to like ice cream!! While at the restaurant, we sort of watched the World Cup. It was on in the restaurant, and I could see it, whereas Roger had to turn to look at the screen. This was Uruguay v. Ghana. When we got home, Roger turned on the TV so that he could see the end of the game. We got to watch the penalty kicks. I don’t understand much about soccer – what happens if there is a tie after the first five penalty kicks? And what is the consequence of a yellow card?