car, finally

Yes, we finally got a car. Indecision on our part led to 2 weeks of riding public transportation. Two weeks was enough. We needed to make a decision.

Here were some of our choices

1. Rent from the big car rental companies, like Avis. Too expensive for 10 months.

2. Buy a used car from a dealer here. We decided this might be troublesome. What if the car broke down? What if we had trouble selling it at the end of the year.

3. Rent a car from the grocery store. There are 2 big grocery stores in town, Hyper U and Leclerc. They both rent cars on a monthly basis. They are cheaper than the big car rental companies.

So that is what we did. We went to the grocery store and rented a car. That sentence probably sounds funny to us Americans!

We chose Hyper U because we were told by the British expats in the area that Hyper U has an English person who works at the service counter. These British expats have quite a little network here.

Managing a car contract with someone who speaks the same language is quite handy. So we met Rachel at the Hyper U and she was very helpful. Now we have a car for the rest of our time here.

The car says RENT-ME on the back. I don't even care.

Riding the bus was a lesson I won't soon forget. Lugging groceries home on the bus - no thank you! And it never even rained. I was dealing with the bus in nice sunny weather.

I think I sound like a spoiled American.

So the pictures on this post are pictures of the car. The kids barely fit in the back but I am enjoying have a little stick shift car to drive.

Clothesline

Joey after he helped trim the bushes and blackberries from around the clothesline.

I knew that this house didn't have a dryer. Most people around here don't seem to have dryers. I see lots of clothelines. Even outside the apartments.

When we first got here and the weather was beautiful I thought it was nice to hang our clothes outside on a nice sunny afternoon.

I am over that.

Last week I did a load of laundry in the afternoon. I think it takes the washing machine about 2 hours to do one load. The clothes do seem more dry than our clothes . . but still, 2 hours?? By the time the clothes got on the clothesline it was was late afternoon. By sunset, the clothes were not dry. Not big deal, I thought. The sun will dry them in the morning.

Umm, no.

It rained overnight and the wet clothes were so heavy that they snapped one part of the clothesline. My clean clothes were laying on the ground. Whites. On the ground. Great.

I had to get the kids off to school. Ellie's teacher wanted to talk to me. By the time I got back home it was 9:30.

I did not feel like putting the clothes back in the washing machine. I just sort of shook them off. They were really heavy and wet, but I just hung them back up. I somehow managed to fix the clothesline.

And I had more laundry to do. One load takes up almost the whole clothesline.

I heard a rumor that the grocery store has dryers in the laundromat. 10 minutes is 2 Euros. I am going to have to look into that.

Chateau Terre Neuve

On Wednesday, Sept. 22 we went to the Chateau Terre Neuve in the afternoon. Katie is the only one who goes to school on Wednedays but she gets home about 12:30.

Chateau Terre Neuve is our local chateau. It is not a major chateau by French standards. It was built in 1580 and it is privately owned.

Zoo

On Tuesday, Sept. 21, I went to the zoo with Ellie's class.

First of all, let me explain that they didn't ask parents to go. Ellie was crying about school and said she wanted me to go to the zoo with her, so I asked the teacher if I could go. The teacher told me I could go and then told me some other stuff I couldn't understand. Rapid fire French coming straight at me.

I really didn't want to get it wrong. I looked for the principal (who speaks English) at pickup time and made sure I could go. The principal just looked at me funny and says "of course you can go if you want, why wouldn't you be able to go?"

Ok. Good. I even understood the sheet telling parents to send a pique-nique with the kids. Yeah, I get it, that one isn't too difficult to figure out.

So off to the zoo we go.

We spend the whole morning walking around zoo. There is no snack time. Ever. You wait until lunch to eat. Ellie and I both had trouble making to lunch.

After lunch the kids played on a playground. After about a half hour, the teacher told me that children were going to nap. I assumed that we were going back to the school. No, she just told the kids to find a patch of grass in the shade and lay down.

Another class had arrived at the playgound. They were playing. Ellie pointed to the kids playing and said I want to play too! Her teacher told her to lay down and take a nap. But she said it in French and Ellie didn't understand a word of it. I told Ellie that all the kids in her class were taking a nap and she needed to lay down. But I was really thinking, yeah right, these kids are NOT going to lay down.

Of course they did. A nice little half hour resting in the shade.

Then we all got back up and carried on with our zoo visit.

strike

The teachers have sent notes home with the kids informing the parents that the teachers are participitating in the strike on Thursday, Sept. 23.

Strike? Advance notice of a strike? Hmmm.

I was wondering if that meant that school was open.

On the way home from school Joey was all excited to tell me that there would be a strike on Thursday and he could go to school only if he wanted. Yeah, just tell a kid that school is optional.

Gabi had some questions. If she went to school, did that mean she wasn't supporting the strike? But then the people who were supporting the strike wouldn't be there, so they wouldn't know. She had a lot of things to think about.

I found out from Ellie's teacher that the school is open but it isn't a normal school day. It is just open for parents who work and need their kids watched. (At least I think that is what she told me!)

Anyone think that I can convince the kids to go to school on Thursday?
Nah, me either.

The elementary school kids already have Wednesday off. Every single Wednesday.

Ellie

I got back from Paris on Tuesday in time to pick the kids up from school. Unfortunately, Ellie was crying when I picked her up. All the other kids were fine. Just Ellie had decided she didn't like school. At all. She would like to be done. NOW. And to top it all off, she doesn't have a special stuffed animal for nap time. Her teacher is mean. And oh yeah, she doesn't speak French. (I loved how that little tidbit came last!)


The only part I could remedy right away was the stuffed animal. So on Wednesday (the kids don't have school) we made a special trip to the store so Ellie could get a new stuffed animal. Meet bear-y.

Thursday morning Ellie went back to school with Bear-y. Tears the whole walk to school. I might have caved and let Ellie stay home but I had a miserable cold. When I picked Ellie up Thursday afternoon, her teacher said she had a better day.

Friday morning, once again, more tears. When I picked up Ellie on Friday she was all smiles and told me she had a good day.

So for the moment we have tears in the morning and a smile in the afternoon. That is how it is working for now.

quick trip to Paris

On Monday, Sept. 13, Rod needed to return to Paris so he could catch his flight back home Tuesday morning and return the rental car. I went with him. (who says no when asked to go to Paris?)

We decided to leave early Monday so we would be able to spend time in Paris. We got the kids off to school Monday morning then we got in the minibus thing for the 5 hour drive up to Paris.

The plan was to park on the outskirts of Paris and take the Metro into the center of town.

We found a parking garage, pulled in and started going down a ramp. At the bottom of the ramp was a low ceiling. Too low for our minibus. Yikes! We did not need to take off the top of our rental car.

I hopped out in the hopes of trying to find a parking attendant and Rod had the pleasant job of backing the minibus up. To my relief, I found a person who worked there. Rod was able to maneuver the minibus in reverse back up the narrow ramp.

I had to explain the problem in French to the parking guy. He told me it was no big deal and I should just pull over wherever I found room. I didn't trust my interpretation of what he said so I dragged him over to the car. He shrugged his shoulders and pointed to a wall. He told us just to pull up next the wall and park. Okay. They are a little relaxed about parking here. They will just pull up on the sidewalk park wherever they find room.

Once we got over the parking problem we spent the afternoon in Paris. Rod had a conference call at 4 pm. Here is a picture of him on his conference call in a park in Paris.

While Rod was on his conference call I walked around the outside of the park. It wasn't a big park. I found the house and museum of Victor Hugo. Just a little museum tucked in a corner.

After his conference call we went and found an outdoor cafe. It was a beautiful afternoon and the people watching was great. Really great!

Our hotel was up near the airport and we didn't want to look for it in the dark so we headed up toward the airport. We took our rental car back to Avis. We were so relieved to return the car intact. It had been a pain for Rod to drive such a big car around. We were all smiles at the Avis counter. The Avis clerk said she was going to check out the car and be right back. She came back in and told us there a scratch on the back and we had to pay for it. The scratch that was on the car when we picked it up!!! Are you kidding me? We almost took the top off the car and you are worried about a little scratch? (No we didn't tell her that!)

After some arguing it all worked out. The scratch had been on the car when we picked it up. But she was a buzz kill after our lovely afternoon.

Tuesday morning Rod had to get on his flight and I had to catch a train. It was hard to say goodbye. Very hard.