Futon shopping is fun

In what we hope is the beginning of a fine family tradition the 3 of us went to an open air market this morning.  Many stolen items were on display(DVD's for 10 euros).  Was surprised that the textile kiosks outnumbered the food/produce.  However, it was reminiscent of going to findlay market in Cincinnati where you have friendly independent vendors with fresh, good quality meat and produce.  We also went to monoprix ( a supermarket/department store) where I attempted my first solo buy.  I was adventurous and purchased a 6 pack of coca-cola light(not diet, but light) and an anniversary card for Julia as our anniversary is the 6th. Sidenote-thanks again to my sister, Beth, who pointed out that my previous post was incorrect.  Our anniversary is not the 5th as previously reported(and confirmed by Julia.)  It is indeed the 6th. The only obstacle I encountered during my shopping spree was during check-out when I did not provide enough cash for the transaction.  I must be faster than the register as the amount, on the screen,  changed after I took out my wallet.  We then had hoped to go to Leonidas (a wonderful chocolatier), however, they had posted a sign since I reviewed their hours earlier in the week, stating that they are closed until August 26th.  C'est la vie en France.(No critique at this point in time please.  My french lessons begin on the 11th.)

After returning to the apartment for a lunch of meats and cheeses we headed to BHV to look at futons.   Which is important, as this futon will be the guest bed, wherever we end up living.  I can say that I have had enough of the French for one day.  The store was packed.  Apparently it was the last day of a sale.  It is alarming how many people will not get out of your way, or just blindly walk into you,  even when you are transporting a 3 month old baby.

Tomorrow should be an easy day of church and time in the park(weather permitting.)

Random thoughts

We have made our first european purchases: A brita filtered water pitcher and a drying rack. Yes, to the americans we have a drying rack. In our temp apartment we have a very small combination washer/dryer. The wash cyle takes anywhere from 30 -120 minutes. Drying seems as if it can take half a day. So all we are dying in the dryer is Samuels clothes. Everything else goes on the drying rack. The dryer also often sounds as if it an airplane preparing to take-off

I apologize now for any confusion when I use metaphors and analogies that do not span the Atlantic. A recent one used was an homage to Chicago. It was not meant to honor the city but the band Chicago, which was very popular in the US in the 70's and 80's. A rock band with a brass section. They had a hot song called Saturday in the park. The lyrics included lines such as, "People laughing, people talking, a man playing guitar". Which were scenes that we saw recreated during our days in the park.

Please use the comments section to ask any questions concerning confusing posts.

Progress & the dawn of cautious optimism

If all goes well, next Tuesday morning we will sign a lease for the apartment at 6, Avenue de Madrid in Neuilly! (Google map it - http://maps.google.com/maps?sourceid=navclient&aq=t&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS248US248&q=6+avenue+de+la+madrid%2c+92200%2c+paris). This was originally our #2 choice but really was the best in terms of location. From the apartment we have everything we need within a couple of blocks - boulangerie, shops, parks (including the Bois de Boulogne & jardin d'acclimatition), metro/RER, etc. The apartment itself is nice - large, plain classical style, has what we need (including a guest room!) - it just didn't have the character and style of the one that had been our first choice. But it will be available August 13th! P&G is now provisionally arranging rental furniture for us so that we can move in likely on the 14th. So please just keep your fingers crossed that come Tuesday we will be able to sign this lease!

Samuel is very pleased that we received our air shipment yesterday. Not only does he now have his bathtub again (no more baths in the sink), but he also has his activity mat, crib, mobile, etc. Even the cats are happy as they got their water fountain! As for us, life is definitely improving now that we have the Mac (we are back on Skype), our printer, music, and other bits and pieces that make this seem a little bit more like home and less like camping. With the transformers we shipped we also were able to use our steamer again last night. Thank goodness that P&G will also pay for the movers to help us move from here to our final apartment given all the stuff we now have!

We had lunch yesterday with a group of expats. It was interesting to meet other international people living in Paris - some who had been here a while, some almost as new to it as we are. The group seems to be quite large and diverse and has monthly gatherings (we found it online - it is a 'meetup' group). It was fun to hear other people's thoughts and reactions to Paris and compare them to our own. In a nutshell... did you know that French children start school at age 2? Paris public toilets are mostly closed due to vandalism... hence activities like what Dave mentioned in his last post; and yes, tourists are considered very badly dressed :-)

On Monday we will start to have new adventures - now with wheels! - as we will pick up my company car. For the automotively-inclined, it is a Peugeot 605. (What a surprise... live in France = get a French car!). I have no idea what this car will be like, so will give a review once we have tested it out. We will first head out to the nearest large hypermarket to explore that and see how prices and sizes compare to what we can buy at our local supermarket in town (has everything, but in mini-sizes - even for Europe). We can test out our new French bank cards! We are also planning to go to London for a quick trip (long weekend) later next week to see family/godparents. If we are lucky, we will find both the boulevard peripherique and also our way off it in the right direction. If not... we may drive in circles around Paris for a while...

- Julia

Learning new things everyday(some of which I hope to never see again)

Took Samuel out for an early morning(0930) stroll along the mostly empty streets. Lesson learned for the future, if I am to do any shopping it appears that early morning as the stores open is the best time to go with Samuel.

We picked up a herald tribune and I found a bench where I parked Samuel and I sat down to read. I must describe the street. It was a wide sidewalk with Paris style parking. There were cars parked on the sidewalk near the street, but something I had not seen before. There were also cars parked on the inside of the sidewalk, so as you walked down the sidewalk there were cars on both the left and right. So back to the bench. As I was reading the paper with my legs stretched out in front of me I heard a car horn. I looked up and there was a very small European brand car about 18 inches away from me. With my legs stretched out there was not enough room for the car to pass between the bench and the parked cars. I immediately moved my legs and the car passed. Very quiet car as I did not hear it approach until the horn was engaged.

My second encounter of the morning was not nearly so pleasant. After I picked up a baguette for lunch and began the return journey to the apartment, i rounded a corner and saw a 2-3 year old girl lying on the sidewalk, lightly crying. Her mother was running toward her. As she picked up her daughter she was speaking very loudly and quickly in french so I was unable to understand most of what she said. The only word I was able to pick up was peepee. As we walked closer to the woman and her child she picked her up and pulled down her underwear and held her over the curb of the street imploring her to go peepee. I am hoping that this is not a standard occurrence on the streets of Paris.

Still no word on a long term apartment. We are expecting to visit more apartments on Friday.

-Dave

Proud parent time

Okay, it has been a long 10 days in Paris so our standards are falling but Samuel has taken to laying on the floor on his tummy, rolling onto his back and then reaching above his head with his hands and grabbing the quilt/blanket that he is laying on and then using his legs and bottom to scoot in a circle. We think this is very cute, but we may be slightly biased. See photo to the right for evidence.

Another day in the park......waiting........and waiting......

Another day in the park. Samuel is at least getting quite a lot of fresh air. Bought a couple of panini's and drinks and spent a nice quiet lunch in the park with Samuel napping. He has developed quite the penchant for rolling from his tummy to his back. Not as adept at moving from his back to his tummy but that will develop with a little more time. We do want him to spend more time on his tummy(while we are with him) as he has developed(as most babies do) a flat spot on the back of his head from spending too much time on his back.

Heard from our agent around midday that the owner of 6 avenue de madrid was going to come to her agents office to review our file in person and definitely accept it. As of 6PM we have heard nothing. If we do not have a positive answer by Thursday AM we will be asking our agent to do more research and we will apartment hunt again on Friday. We have learned our lesson and will not sit around and wait for someone to deny our application or keep us swinging in the wind with no answer.

Will let you know when we have a signed lease.

Still no news...

We still don't have a permanent home in Paris. Of our 3 choices, the #1 choice (Pauline Borghese) is now back on the maket with the rent increased by 300 Euros/month; we are still waiting to hear whether the owner of our #2 choice (Ave de Madrid) will compromise on price; and we have decided against our #3 choice after a lot of reflection as while the apartment was very nice, it wasn't the best area for us (no easy access to parks). We hope to hear back on the Ave de Madrid apartment tomorrow... but since it seemed like the agent was dodging our consultant's calls today, it may not be good news. In that case, we will grit our teeth, put in a new bid at the higher price for Pauline Borghese, and also ask the relocation agents to show us any new properties that may now be on the market (since we now don't trust that the owner of Pauline Borghese will ever really sign a contract). Failing all of this, we may yet just move to the burbs.

All very frustrating.

On the plus side, we have moved into a different temporary apartment in the same building we were in before. This one is much better - still very small, but at least it has a real kitchen (so we can cook), a bed that doesn't kill our backs and enough space in the living room that when we put Samuel down to play on his mat, it doesn't take up the whole floor. We can now even receive our air shipment (I am not kidding when I say that there would not have been room for us + the boxes in the last apartment), so at least we can get some more of Samuel's things as well as the Mac and some things for us. Means we will no longer need to give Samuel baths in the sink!! The cats managed the move without missing a beat - they also seem happier to have a bit more space, even if they still have to see more of each other than they might like!

More news to come when we have some...

Pictures

Please note that in order to encourage visitors to our blog we will frequently post pictures of Samuel. The best place to track his growth and development will be the blog.

We may, on occassion, posts picture of ourselves but we know that Samuel is much more in demand. :)

Instant communication-Samuel just rolled over. Today he has also startd to grasp certain toys in his hands and hold them up. Our boy is growing and changing every day.

If you do not visit soon he will be all grown up.

Saturday in the park.......an homage to Chicago

We took Samuel to the jardin du Luxembourg on saturday(twice actually). Julia took him in the morning in the hope that I could sleep. It is nice to hope but I was unable to sleep. The three of us went in the afternoon and found a jardin d'enfants(garden for enfants) which was very nice indeed. It contained 4 sandboxes and 2 small wading pools. The wading pools were more like light mud baths as they were located between the sandboxes and thus the little ones were constantly dumping sand in the water.

After seeing this park I am hopeful that we will get our 2nd choice in apartment as we would be only 2 blocks from the bois bologne, a much larger park, that offers the same accommodations and that are free to children 3 and under.

We also forgot to mention that our 2nd choice is also only 2 blocks from the Seine. Another opportunity for walks with Samuel and runs for me.

The fact that we were able to visit the Italian gelato shop on the way back to the apartment in no way influenced our decision to visit the park.

We stopped at Picard, a shop that only sells frozen prepared food, and picked up some chicken mikka and legumes for dinner. Not bad. Good to know that we will have such options if Samuel and I have a bad(or good) day and I am unable to prepare dinner whlie Julia is working.

-Dave