Paroissien’s in Paris

Just returned from a few days in a very wet and cold Dublin , to find lots and lots of emails – thank you all very much, it was just terrific to hear all your news and we do miss our friends and family so much.

And then I discovered last night that the blog I wrote on 12^th March, did not ‘go through’ – is there a gremlin in my computer.   
And of course it isn’t saved anywhere, so I am now writing this on Word and will transfer later.

Some of my funny experiences:

            Going to catch the train whoops – wrong direction/ wrong platform – only problem – I had to use another ticket to get to the correct platform!!!

Found a fab little deli selling sun-dried tomatoes – the man in his enthusiasm sold me not only the tomatoes, but a large slice of lasagna and a large tub of caponetta –   without waving my arms and sounding rude I didn’t know how to stop him, so just smiled, said merci and paid about E15 ($23) for the tomatoes I actually wanted!!!

            Wandering around Habitat in Dublin we saw some  great cushions to liven up our apartment which has a very plain dark maroon settee and chair.      Wasn’t willing to take a chance that Habitat in Paris would have the same, so lugged home  4 large cushions, two rainbow striped and the other 2 in a gorgeous lime green. Bit of a challenge in the plane!!!   And then found yesterday that yes, Habitat in Paris did actually have them!!  Ian only smiled as we bought another couple.   Run out of space - continued…..

            TV is a challenge – we have about 600 channels – half of which are news and sport and in French, ( except for BBC, CCN  CNBC ) – and the other half movies – also in French.   The challenge is to find a TV Guide in the newsagent, and then translate it!!    Of well, lots of reading time instead.

Our apartment: is in a small street off the rue de Passy  in the 16^th arr. – just across the river from the Eiffel Tower – and we can see the tip of the tower from one window.  And the whole tower lights up on the hour every hour – quite spectacular.

We have a small kitchen, 2 bedrooms, a very tiny loo (if you’re over 5’6” you have to leave the door open!!), a lovely bathroom lined with green and white mosaic tiles, and a great lounge/dining room with French doors (of course) leading onto the little balconies – I spied a table at Habitat yesterday which will fit perfectly there for the summer.

We are on the 5^th floor accessed by a tiny but adequate lift, and the ‘guardian’ of our apartments actually delivers our mail under our door – what service.    

All in all, a perfect place for us to live in Paris .

We have a supermarket about 100 metres up the road, and have just succumbed and  purchased a shopping trolley – it’s that beer and wine which weighs so heavily!!!

Haven’t started much exploring yet – just organizing the bank cards, a printer and various admin stuff takes much longer than planned.

And the printer is another story – we went to Montparness yesterday which is a metro (underground) ride about 8 stops away.    Found the store, purchased the printer, lugged it home on the metro, then Ian found that the black ink cartridge would not fit in properly!!!     Much stamping of feet and other venting of frustrations, he has packed it up and will have to take it back tomorrow – and explain the problem with charades!!!

Buying a cup of coffee -  now that’s another challenge – Americano is usually a long black and I ask for au lait separately – or ‘detached’ as my French dictionary suggests!!!    But yesterday we got a short black, a jug of hot water and a jug of hot milk – that was terrific but how to ask for that again!!

But despite the little frustrations of everyday life, we are loving being here – the Eiffel Tower never fails to astound and amaze.

Hooroo for now – I