October 2018

Such foolish optimism. Or as B. Davis said in All About Eve; “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

This month only underlined the advice that you must be flexible and maintain a sense of humor to tackle this kind of journey. We needed to go to Lille to meet with the painters of the apartment on the 1st. The night before, we packed as much as we could carry to take on the one-hour train trip. We knew we’d be making the round-trip journey two or three more times and if we carried as much as possible on each trip, we might not have to rent a vehicle to get all of our luggage there.

We arrived at the apartment, planted our first stack of luggage (including our inflatable bed) and met with Bruno and Karen. Going over the paint swatches, they planned to start on Wednesday, the 3rd, and hoped to be done in two weeks. Fabrice, the owner, came to give us a tour of the mechanics and answer any questions we might have. It was interesting to learn that Fabrice was born in this building, that his grandparents owned it and it had been passed on to his parents before he inherited it. He recalled looking out our living room window at the street below, detailing what had been there when he was a child. A fabulous thread and pleasurable gentleman.

When everyone left, we walked to the the Darty store where we revisited a great salesman named Laurent who walked us through their washer/ dryer appliances. We bought a W/D unit, a small counter oven since a built in was not an option and a microwave, all to be delivered the Friday after the painting was expected to be completed. Darty, like many other stores, were celebrating “French Day’s”, a discounted national sales event. We picked up a blender, iron, a set of kitchen knives and extension cords, all of which we parked at the apartment. We were not able to meet the utility company until Friday, another trip, so after lunch and some window shopping, we took the 6 pm train back to Paris. We were making our purchases on a credit card to keep from tangling up our daily budget and accounts.

Once back in Paris, we got our prescription invoices signed by our doctor, as well as invoices for our flu shots. It’s interesting that pharmacies here cannot give the flu shots. The doctor’s office cannot carry the medicine. This means that you must first get the flu shot prescription from your doctor, next go to the pharmacy to have it filled, then take the flu medication and put it in your refrigerator until lastly returning to your doctor to receive the shot itself. This is where one doesn’t mind a CVS or RiteAid pharmacy, where you walk in without an appointment and get a flu shot in one trip.

During the week we also decided to finally take the BIG BUS tour ride, which was very interesting. On one hand you get to know the highlights of what the buildings were originally erected for, before becoming what they were used for currently (museums, state offices, etc), where massacres, protests, famous marches and guillotines took place

– even where Princess Diana had her last meal. And on the other hand, you get to see areas you may not have walked through (at least we hadn’t), which was equally enjoyable.

We got off, about a 30 minute walk from our unit, after seeing two of the routes and enjoyed a tasty lunch at a really fun seafood bar, Le Brebant – salmon ravioli and a half blue lobster, grilled.

We worked on finances, paperwork and web surfing for couches and furnishings. We got ready for the Friday trip the night before, as we had on the previous trip, packing as much as we could carry.

We arrived in Lille on the 5th, early in the morning by 8 am. Parked our bags, grabbed some coffee and waited for the utility company. After the electrician came – a four minute process, we visited with Flo and caught up on our news. We visited an internet store to arrange WiFi service and mobile phones, giving all of our pertinent information. Stopped at a hardware store for a few items (we would revisit it with revised lists many times in the future) and had lunch at an outdoor cafe. The weather was perfect. In fact it was in the mid 70’s for the better part of the month. We met Bruno back at the apartment and after discussing some small issues, we boarded the train back to Paris. Dinner at a place on our street before going home.

I managed to nick two more street posters as well. I’ll be sorry not to have that little hobby available.

G caught a cold, which kept him on the couch for the next four days and that was followed soon after with a few days of a stomach reaction to an anti inflammatory medication. We also started watching horror films in the evenings, which we do every October.  Fall and particularly Halloween, are our favorite times of the year.

We love the weather turning, the kids costumes and spooky decorations. Here the mood is more sombre as the Day of all Souls and the Day of all Saints are observed. There is no commercial barrage of decor, candy and costumes filling the store shelves. Costumes are sold in party stores, following the practice of selling items in stores by genre. The costumes in the windows of those stores are generally ghoulish and it is refreshing not to be overrun with those stupid scanty nurse, maid, nun or waitress costumes.  Watching Halloween movies every night helped us satisfy our seasonal fun even if buildings weren’t decorated on the street.

We did visit the outdoor puppet show at the Champs-Elysees garden and saw the stamp collection vendors along the avenue, aka the movie “Charade”. On the particular show which we saw, there were few in attendance but there were more in attendance at the following one. We were having lunch across the street at an outdoor table and could hear the children laughing and shouting. The short skits involved three characters; a policeman, a father and a son.  The first one, it’s night and the father is trying to get to sleep but the son keeps waking him up, which eventually requires the father to chase the son. The father is asking the children in the audience where the son is hiding. The kids in the audience are more than happy to help, yelling, “He’s over there! NO, over THERE!, NO, behind you!” and so forth. The second one, the son is trying to catch a rat (the kids are yelling; “No, you don’t have him! Over there! NO, he’s NOT in the box!”), then he accidentally hits the father with a skillet, knocking him out. The son is sure he has killed him, running around crying with remorse, as the kids are yelling, “He’s NOT dead! NO, LOOK, he’s not dead!!” Then the third is a continuation with the policeman arriving and checking the body, then chasing the son – more chaos and more helpful guidance, yelled by the kids. It’s the audience participation which makes the whole show. The puppets stopping what they’re doing and asking for help from the children, who are eager to do so. It was great fun and no surprise it’s gone on since the late 1880’s.

We had other small things which we wanted to accomplish as well for this month besides the regular laundry, groceries and bills. G wanted to try the pastrami sandwiches at a place called Schwartz’s Jewish deli. They were very tasty – mine was veal – but definitely not like the US versions. It also had a sweet sauerkraut on the Reuben.

Stopping here for some Factoids;

*We’ve observed that people don’t pick up their sandwiches, pizza’s or hamburgers. They eat them with a knife and fork, which we have adapted to be polite.

*Women don’t wear hats here. All summer I never used my sun hat because I NEVER saw a woman wearing a hat. Scarves yes, hats no. The only hats I ever saw in Paris or Lille were clearly on visitor or tourists heads. AND NO ONE – I DO MEAN NO ONE – wears a beret. Those are ONLY on tourists heads. Except old men. We saw that old men wear them and good quality ones too. The only others were on police and security officers.

*The French don’t use credit cards and don’t believe in them. They use debit cards or cash. That is all. Credit is a concept they find a little crazy.

*Children don’t go trick or treating on Halloween. We saw some in costumes – a few princess’, ghouls, banchées or superheros on the streets but they were dressed for the day, doing errands with their parents, sans any candy sacks or expectation of treats. This Halloween landed on Thursday. Many people took off Friday (here they call that a ‘bridge’ holiday) and the four days felt like Thanksgiving, with it’s four days of low key gatherings.

*Frequently, on the metros, people will vacate their seat when they see us – simply because we’re older. Young people, middle aged – they get up and gesture for us to sit down. It doesn’t happen all the time but it does happen enough to warrant mentioning. The much younger kid, glued to their mobile phone, is less likely to do so. Oblivion or perhaps the changing of etiquette.

*Europe has a different concept of public restroom ètiquette than in the US. Men and women oftentimes share the same restroom and Paris, as with other large European cities, are looking for answers to men urinating in public on the streets. Thus, the “uritrottoirs” which appeared this year, even on our Ile St. Louis. It was soon removed after vandalism and controversy.

G is still getting used to the restroom etiquette as he shares the urinals with women who enter the restroom and pass by him. He tells me that as he was standing at one, doing his thing, a woman came in, said “Bonjour,” went into the WC, and that was that. He’s adjusting.

Moving along, the next trip to Lille was on the 19th. There would be only one more trip after this one, so we absolutely had to load ourselves to the maximum. Since the couch was due to be delivered, we decided to stay overnight as well. Anxiety was at a top level for amount of luggage. We took an Uber to the station, since using the metro would be a nightmare. We’ve come to know Uber (Lyft isn’t available here) and Gare du Nord very well over these last few months.

At the station, getting through the turnstile was crazy making. Then of course, our tickets on the train were for the very last cab. Huffing and puffing as we waddled down the platform like a circus juggling act. G got on first, with the awkward packages, while I held on to the stacked, rolling pieces. Then he began to take more in batches. Some boarding college students stopped and asked if they could help, which was too wonderful. And it was a relief to be in our seats, the drama behind us. Or so we thought.

Getting from the train station to the apartment was another Cirque du Soleil event and up the elevator to the apartment was done in shifts.  Since Bruno and Karen were not due until 10 am, G decided to go to the internet store to follow up on our WiFi installation. No sooner did he get to the front door, than both Bruno and the couch delivery truck arrived. The guys started to unload the pieces, bringing them up the elevator, piecemeal. In the middle of the process, they discovered the couch pieces had two right arms and not a left one. So they started putting it back into the truck, as the washer/dryer delivery truck arrived. Now we had delivery guys crawling all over each other before the couch guys retrieved the last of the pieces they’d taken up the elevator. The couch guys stated that the replacement wouldn’t arrive for three weeks. That meant three more weeks on the inflatable for us.

Bruno (as translator) and G walked across to the store that the couch came from, to talk with the manager. The end result would be that we would have to call the company, as no one would accept responsibility for the couch problem. While there and inquiring about the couch, G picked up a temporary clothes rack we had also ordered which had come in before they both came back to the apartment.

As I worked with the appliance delivery guys (who had no problem getting the unit up the elevator) they discovered that they were missing an item. The washer/ dryer and the counter oven were in the truck but not the microwave. They installed the W/D unit and ran a cycle to make sure it worked but told us that we would have to go back to the appliance store to inquire about the missing microwave.

G opened up the clothes rack box and in putting it together found it had the wrong feet. He went back to the store to order the correct ones. Then it was on to the post office. We’d ordered sheets and towels in advance to ensure we had them for the overnight stay.  At the post office, half of the order had been delivered and the other half would arrive the next day, when we were due to return to Paris. We would have to check again before we boarded the train.

Stopped for lunch, an interesting aside – The restaurants serve lunch between noon and 2-3 pm in summer but noon to 2 on other seasons, when they close their kitchen. There are a few which have signs stating that they have ‘continuous serving’. Mostly that is to cater to visitors or a few that couldn’t make the two -three hour window and generally the food isn’t very good. It was after two, so we stopped at a place we’d not been before and while waiting for our food, G’s eyes opened wide and said, “Don’t move!”  I didn’t. He said, “You’ve got a bug on you.” I felt it travel across my neck, down across the front of my shirt, where he swept it off with his hand. Landing on the table, it was a midsized cockroach. The women next to us covered their mouths, the other nearby table looked horrified. The waitress arrived with our order, G swept it onto the floor and undeterred she took the time to step on it before serving our pizza. The women next to us abandoned their food. We shrugged and ate – there weren’t that many options and we were tired. Leaving, we passed the women, who were visiting from Antwerp. We all agreed that none of us would return to that particular restaurant.

We went on to the internet store to follow up on our WiFi installation only to discover that they had lost our paperwork and we had to start over. After reapplying, we trekked to the hardware store for a few items and the grocery store before returning in time to say goodbye to Bruno and Karen who were done for the day.

Before we turned in for the night, I took a shower. G decided to follow suit but discovered he didn’t have any hot water. This day would just not sail smoothly in any direction.

The next morning, we still had no hot water. I organized our clothes and suitcases, set up a charging station for our electronics, then cleaned up the place for Bruno and Karen’s return.
We went back to the post office for the second half of our delivery, dropping it off at the apartment before boarding the train to Paris for our last three days there.

Those three days were spent recovering more than anything else. No running around, no last minute sight seeing. The weather was noticeably cooling. We put the studio back into it’s original condition. All the decor items we stashed on the top shelves came back down and the cabinet contents were restored as to how they were first organized. We had a last meal at Michel and Milika’s to say farewell.

On the 24th, at 6:30 in the morning, we went to a corner outdoor cafe and had espresso and a croissant. I even had a hot cocoa that I’d seen others order regularly. In the cold morning air, it was delicious. Even G had some. We discussed how much we are going to miss Paris and how we wished we could have stayed. People have asked us why Paris is so special and it’s hard to pinpoint, much harder to convey to others. For some, it is all of the historic sites and museums, which are phenomenal. For us, it isn’t that so much. Their history is so palpable today, mixed with the current living vibe as you walk the narrow streets. Besides the art, the architecture – the little finds, the individual shops with their artisanal specialties,  their dedication to fresh, well prepared food are just few things we can solidly point to.

But it’s a complex mix of all of that which creates the magic of Paris. There are places in the US, particularly on the eastern side, where you can see and feel the history that built the country. With modernization and mass production, it is more preserved in a museum state rather than incorporated with current life. There are great advantages to the modernization, certainly necessary given the size of our country and population but there are things lost, which are evident in what the two of us see as we enjoy this adventure.  While we are admittedly frustrated in not finding all items we are use to in our ‘one stop shopping’ ways, we are more enchanted with the uniqueness here.

Meanwhile, back to the day at hand, at the studio, we met fabulous Frederick at 9:30, who was no doubt relieved to find we didn’t have the same insane amount of luggage coming out that we had going in. Turned over our keys to him and got to the train station, arriving in Lille after noon.

We spent the first full day in Lille visiting every furniture store. I really wish they had some used furniture stores, although we’d have an issue getting things delivered. We’re guessing that it’s tied up with the restrictions on yard sales somehow. We ordered a desk, a small dining table and four chairs to be delivered from different furniture shops. Over the next few days we had multiple trips to both the grocery and hardware store.

Picked up a folding, rolling cart because we had so many trips and so much stuff to schlep. Started filling in our kitchen with the minimum needed. Worked on organizing the place, staying out of the way of the painting and finally got the internet up. The temperatures took a nose dive during the day, hanging around the high 40’s to the low 50’s, hinting at the edge of winter.

The next day it was raining heavily and we visited Flo who had returned from a business trip out of the country. We talked about the pieces of furniture he would be delivering and agreed that another day would be better fit to try because of the rain. We then left his place, in separate directions; G to fax some paperwork overseas, me to go grocery shopping at a large store next to the train station, equipped with the rolling cart and a large list of items we’d put off getting. He would join me at the store, once he was done.

As I stepped into the building, I shed my coat and gloves, started putting the gloves into the rolling cart’s front pocket and spied the paperwork G was to fax. I texted him immediately that I had it and was returning, suggesting we meet at the apartment. G had already discovered that he didn’t have the paperwork and had texted me to return to the apartment where he was waiting.

Two things were not working in our favor. First, unbeknownst to us, the transition from our old mobile phone carrier to the new one had begun. They had assigned us temporary numbers, which no one we were dealing with had, until the transition was complete and we’d retain our original phone numbers. Secondly, I didn’t have my set of keys since we’d planned to meet at the grocery store.

In this window of time, neither of our texts went through and it didn’t indicate there was an issue in delivering them. I got to the apartment but couldn’t get into the building without my keys. We hadn’t figured out the buzzer system and many slots were not filled with occupants names. I tried calling him but the call kept telling me it could not be complete. I tried calling Bruno who was in the apartment painting but got the same message. I texted Bruno without answer. Then I tried the one buzzer slot I thought belonged to us, without an answer as well. It was raining heavily and a very unpleasant 39 degrees. After 40 minutes, I went to a next door restaurant and ordered a coffee to warm up, trying to come up with another plan. The very helpful waitress spoke a good amount of English but did not know the word “tape” when I asked if she had any. So on my receipt I drew a picture of a tape dispenser and she understood, immediately producing one for me. I wrote on the same receipt to G where I was and to come get me. Went back around the corner and taped it to the front door. Back to my coffee at the restaurant and waited.

G, waiting at the apartment, discovered the switch had taken place. Having surmised that I didn’t get his text, he left to find me at the grocery store. We evidently passed each other without actually crossing paths; me returning, he coming to get me. Failing to find me in the grocery store (it took a bit of time since it is quite large), he then thought I might have finished and was window shopping in the mall. He continued to search the mall. When he gave up and returned to the apartment, he saw my note on the door and came to join me. It ate a big part of the day and I now travel with my keys whether we are together or not. We have also gone to the trouble of identifying all of the buzzers and labeled ours.

We also managed in the move to get our voting done online and faxed the followup required. We discovered that only the military can vote online overseas without faxing a back up with their signature.

On the 31st, about a week over the estimated date, Bruno and Karen were working on the last area – the front hall.

And of course, things went as smoothly as always. First a cabinet arrived unexpectedly. The two came down from the ladders, moved out of the hallway as the piece was carried down the long, narrow space. Then the couch replacement arrived. Back down the ladders, they moved out of the hall again. It came in pieces and the delivery men would not assemble it. They were clear – they were delivery men, they did not assemble. Bruno began to argue with them in French and they were unmoved. G finally asked if they knew how to assemble the couch, since they delivered so many. “Of course,” they replied. G offered 25 euros each to assemble it. They had no tools. Bruno lent them his tools. They didn’t really know how to assemble it; that was a bit of a misstatement. So with Bruno supervising and ordering them to tighten bolts they weren’t tightening, it got assembled. But it had arrived with a damaged front panel, so then Bruno helped G write in French on the delivery slip, “Accepted under protest. Front panel damaged.” Honestly – what on earth would we do without Bruno?

We aren’t yet sure if we want to go through the trouble of returning this couch too and getting it replaced. The couch guys left, back up went the ladders and then, the coffee table arrived.  Back down off the ladders, as it was hauled in. Then the floor lamps – of course, one at a time. We promised Bruno and Karen that it was the last. They were running late to leave and had company coming for this ‘bridge’ holiday. Bruno was kind enough to leave one ladder and a tool so we could hang our curtains, which we’d run out of time to do. He was coming back to Lille on Monday he said and could pick it up then.  I’m surprised they didn’t just throw us off the balcony. I sure would have.

And the month was over.  I don’t know about you, but damn, we’re tired.

Before and after in the living room. The other rooms have different colors.